/macdonald/taxonomy/term/1459/all en /macdonald/channels/news/climate-change-challenges-nunavuts-thick-billed-murres-researcher-322746 <p>There’s less ice, more capelin and lots of hungry polar bears</p> <p>Climate change in the eastern Arctic has already altered the travel, diet and safety of some of the most numerous birds in the circumpolar world: thick-billed murres, known as akpait in Inuktitut.</p> <p>These and other changes are likely to continue, says <strong>Allison Patterson</strong>, a ���ϲ����� University graduate student [with <strong>Professor Kyle Elliott</strong>] who has tracked the habits of these black-and-white birds on Hudson Bay’s Coats Island, known as Akpatordjuark in Inuktitut.</p> Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:16:19 +0000 hcrphoto.macdonald@mcgill.ca 224247 at /macdonald /macdonald/channels/news/american-kestrel-free-fall-and-no-one-knows-why-304003 <p>Once prevalent in Montreal, the littlest falcon's downfall is a bellwether for hard times. “The story of the kestrel is happening to other bird species.”</p> <p>Throughout the 1900s, North America’s littlest falcon was also described as the continent’s most common and widespread. Small but fierce and marked with bright plumage rare in the raptor world, the American kestrel could be seen throughout the continent, diving and swooping in fallow fields or under the stadium lights at baseball games, hunting for plump moths or small mice.</p> Fri, 10 Jan 2020 14:18:02 +0000 hcrphoto.macdonald@mcgill.ca 157192 at /macdonald /macdonald/channels/news/loss-three-billion-birds-north-america-canary-coal-mine-301288 <p>OpEd by <strong>Emeritus Professor David Bird</strong>:</p> <p><em>David M. Bird is an emeritus professor of wildlife biology at ���ϲ����� University who has studied birds for five decades. </em></p> <p>When I read the recent headlines that North America has lost nearly three billion birds over just the past five decades, I was not surprised. But I must admit it did depress me to a degree. That’s a lot of birds!</p> Thu, 03 Oct 2019 20:16:23 +0000 hcrphoto.macdonald@mcgill.ca 112450 at /macdonald /macdonald/channels/news/why-drones-are-counting-thousands-decoy-ducks-285249 <p>Conducting a bird census by foot can also be disruptive, <strong>David Bird</strong>, an emeritus professor of wildlife biology at ���ϲ����� University, told <em>Popular Science</em>. “While you’re doing that, you’re disturbing the hell out of the birds,” Bird said.</p> <p><a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/drones-counting-birds" target="_blank">Atlas Obscura</a></p> <p> </p> Wed, 21 Feb 2018 14:53:21 +0000 hcrphoto.macdonald@mcgill.ca 53211 at /macdonald /macdonald/channels/news/world-outdoors-researchers-flock-drones-265372 <p>Drone technology has been applied in support of bird science for more than a decade now. With the cost of this technology continuing to drop, the use of it is broadening across North America.</p> <p>In the same way that retail, military, and hobby sectors have embraced drones, bird scientists have realized drones can be deployed to do some bird census work and gather data in remote or otherwise inaccessible locations.</p> Thu, 26 Jan 2017 14:32:13 +0000 hcrphoto.macdonald@mcgill.ca 52625 at /macdonald /macdonald/channels/news/bacteria-control-levels-dangerous-pollutant-seabirds-264866 <p>Despite ongoing global pollution, researchers <strong>Kyle Elliott (Natural Resource Sciences)</strong> and John Elliott (Environment Canada) have discovered that levels of mercury in seabirds off the coast of B.C. have remained relatively stable over the past 50 years. Surprisingly, mercury in seabirds is now actually slightly lower.</p> Wed, 21 Dec 2016 15:14:04 +0000 katherine.maclean@mcgill.ca 52593 at /macdonald