"From chainsaws to flute solos, the lyrebird can mimic almost any sound it hears. But eavesdrop on this magical bird, and what it is singing can sometimes be troubling."
"Some of Britain's most cherished spring visitors are disappearing in their thousands. Ornithologists say species such as the cuckoo, nightingale and turtle dove are undergoing catastrophic drops in numbers, although experts are puzzled about the exact reasons for these declines."
"Two of the most well-known penguin species in Antarctica -- chinstraps and Adelies -- are under pressure because a warmer climate has cut deeply into their main food source, shrimp-like creatures called krill."
The media frenzy started by the mass death of some red-winged blackbirds in Arkansas was based on ignorance. Such mass kills of wildlife occur all the time in nature and have natural causes, biologists say.
"It wasn't a secret government spraying program, Martians or gas seeping out of the New Madrid fault that killed the 5,000 or so blackbirds that died New Year's Eve in Beebe, Ark. It was someone shooting off professional grade fireworks in a residential district, scaring the night-blind birds out of their roost into a 25-mph flight that ran them into houses, signs and even the ground, says Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist."
"Formerly rare beak deformities are spreading rapidly among crows in southwestern B.C. and Puget Sound, according to researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey."
The aging oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico -- pipelines, wells, platforms, and other rigs -- could well prove another disaster waiting to happen.
"Exposure to mercury pollution could be hitting some wild birds' reproductive prospects hard by causing males to pair with other males."
In a new book, a Dutch researcher says a new class of insecticides, the neonicotinoids, may be causing as much damage to bird populations as the DDT Rachel Carson wrote about in Silent Spring. Some bird populations in Europe are crashing dramatically.
Florida is considering new water quality standards that would force industries and utilities to reduce the amount of pollution they dump into the state's waterways. Industry lobbyists argue against them, claiming they would cost too much. But Department of Environmental Protection officials have questioned industry-written cost estimates.
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