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  1. R

    Birds You Have Seen Thanks to Other Birds

    I was birding was along the Irtysh River in eastern Kazakstan, near the border with China one evening in 1997. I was standing under a poplar tree and I was getting hit on the head with bits of bark. I looked up and saw a black woodpecker ripping the poor tree to bits. It then started alarm...
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    Bird with smallest range

    Grenada dove has a range of about 70 km2 and most of that is pretty fragmented - http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/grenada-dove-leptotila-wellsi
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    Google Street View birding

    I've been having a look around in south-west Nigeria, but I've not found much other than black/yellow-billed kite and cattle egret. However, a couple appear to be new to this list: Village Weaver https://goo.gl/maps/AidDd2BPrmLBeLen6 West African Pied Hornbill (Lophoceros semifasciatus)...
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    Programmable Recorders?

    What's your budget? A common device used for this type of work in acoustic research is the SM4 (Song Meter 4): https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/products/song-meter-sm4 But they are not cheap at £900: https://www.nhbs.com/song-meter-sm4-acoustic-recorder
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    Fair Isle Bird Obs Plans

    The light is indeed greenish, rather than the bright green of navigation lighting (https://www.conservationmagazine.org/2009/04/red-light-green-light/ ). My understanding is that it's not that the light is intended to be green, but that the red end of the spectrum is removed making it look more...
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    World birds restricted to an island

    You might find this useful, though it's rather old now: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1990.tb01036.x They define islands as being smaller than 20,000km2 (or New Caledonia and smaller).
  7. R

    Question about moult score

    If you are trying to measure the mean population moult start and end date, then just scoring birds as "old" (moult not started), "in moult" and "new" (moult completed) and then applying the method in Rothery, P., & Newton, I. (2002). A simple method for estimating timing and duration of avian...
  8. R

    Aberrant Magpie, Hong Kong

    There is a paper here that might be useful http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1976.tb03514.x/full Which states, "The patterns of the relative seasonal timing of the start and finish of moult in each tract were most similar in the three Corvus species, in which moult in the...
  9. R

    Aberrant Magpie, Hong Kong

    IMO, this bird is in moult. All the greater coverts look new, but there a few old and new primary coverts visible. It probably still hasn't replaced it's inner primary feathers. I think this bird has moulted most of its old body feathers, but has not yet moulted the old feathers on it's head...
  10. R

    Best/Favourite "Self-found" bird.

    For me it has to be house sparrow...the first record for Nigeria, which a colleague and I found near Lake Chad: http://malimbus.free.fr/articles/V24/24040041.pdf Though I also enjoyed finding lesser goldfinch in my back yard in North Carolina...
  11. R

    'Half a million birds threatened by Bulgarian Wind Farm'

    This case has been before the European Court of Justice, who ruled against the State of Bulgaria for not designating this area as a Special Protection Area: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=173520&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=898545 The...
  12. R

    BirdLife Marine IBA Inventory

    Try here: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/site I can get IBA maps (all of them, not just marine) there.
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    Why ring a Jackdaw?

    The 2014 Ringing report was published last month in Ringing and Migration: Walker et al. (2015) Bird ringing and nest recording in Britain and Ireland in 2014, Ringing & Migration, 30:2, 84-147, DOI:10.1080/03078698.2015.1151647 The report states that there are 3 current RAS (Ringing Adults for...
  14. R

    What makes THE BEST picture?

    I think it may be too personal to characterise the "perfect" picture. This is one of my favourites: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_wildlife_photography_2005/html/1.stm It's black and white and blurry with no detail at all. But for me it captures the moment perfectly...
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    Are taxonomists sexist?

    Even the phalaropes?
  16. R

    Are taxonomists sexist?

    The Jos Plateau Indigobird (Vidua maryae) was named by John Payne for Mary Dyer (Gartshore). It is a brood parasite of the Rock Firefinch and endemic to Nigeria (though it may also occur in Cameroon, since the firefinch does). Mary Dyer is an ornithologist who has worked extensively in Nigeria...
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    Birds and tall glass buildings

    There is a lot of very useful information here: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/BirdFriendlyBuildingDesign.pdf Ross
  18. R

    Ringed Brambling

    The method ringers use to avoid making mistakes is to read the ring number to someone forwards as they write it down and then repeat it backwards to make sure that it's correct. It's a remarkably effective technique.
  19. R

    Good or bad PR?

    What is your reasoning that a 1% change in wader predation rate is "significant"? What do you mean by "significant"?
  20. R

    Good or bad PR?

    Your assumption about the effects of colour rings on predation risk is also not supported by scientific studies: e.g. Cresswell, W., Lind, J., L Quinn, J., Minderman, J., & Philip Whitfield, D. (2007). Ringing or colour‐banding does not increase predation mortality in redshanks Tringa totanus...
  21. R

    conservation of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

    Though the major difference is the ability of RCW's to reflect light on to the focal plane of a camera ;)
  22. R

    conservation of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

    It's red-cockaded woodpeckers that occur at Boiling Springs in NC, not ivory-billed: http://www.fws.gov/raleigh/bsl.html
  23. R

    Bent primaries in captured birds

    Perhaps adding one of these to your banding/ringing kit would be a good idea? http://www.jetboil.com/ They also happen to be good for making coffee and tea!
  24. R

    Member Poll with Prize: Which Smartphone Do You Use?

    sony xperia z1
  25. R

    Bars with the most unusual bird names

    There is a "Ruddy Duck" in Morehead City, North Carolina. Decent beer and great food. You can sit out on the deck on the warf and watch brown pelicans, laughing gulls and royal terns flying past. You can even arrive by boat and tie up to the dock. I've never seen a ruddy duck from there though.
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