This week in birds - #582

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment: 

A male Belted Kingfisher enjoying a sunny day by the creek.

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Texas has been scorched by the largest recorded wildfire in its history. It almost certainly will not be the last. 

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Last month was the hottest February on record, thanks largely to global warming. Not only was the month record-setting but it was the ninth straight record-setting month.

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And there's more to come. El Niño is likely to supercharge global heating and deliver record-breaking temperatures from the Amazon to Alaska in 2024.

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The last living member of Edmund Hillary's Mount Everest team says the once pristine mountain is now too crowded and dirty.

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Gray whales became extinct in the Atlantic Ocean two centuries ago but now they are back, likely thanks to climate change.

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Was the mosasaur the world's nastiest prehistoric reptile?

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Sadly, Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo died after apparently striking a high-rise building. He had just a year of freedom and earned the love and admiration of New Yorkers.

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Is rewilding a possible answer to the challenges presented by climate change?

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Here are two Birds of the Week:

This is the Barred Fruiteater, aka Cryptic Cotinga, a resident of the tropical and subtropical mountain forests of South America from Venezuela down to Bolivia. This was the Bird of the Week for last week. 

And this...

...is the Northern Emerald-Toucanet, a resident of eastern Mexico and Central America, and he is the Bird of the Week for this week.

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Florida's manatees are staring extinction in the face but devoted and dedicated humans are doing their best to save them.

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It's official: We have it from the Pentagon that there has been no cover-up of evidence of an alien invasion, but many people will likely continue to believe otherwise.

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For the third year in a row, the sea ice of Antarctica is at an alarming low.

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Good news for England's Norfolk hawker dragonfly: Its population has recovered to the point that it is no longer considered endangered. 

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The Denisovans were a group of humans that split from the Neanderthals and survived for hundreds of years before going extinct. In that time they managed to thrive throughout much of the world.

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A man walking his dog in southern France found an almost complete skeleton of a titanosaur, a long-necked dinosaur.

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In Oregon, a lake that migrating birds depend on is dying.

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How can we combat the invasive lantern flies? Bring in the birds!

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Cinnamon frogs are one of the many frog species that are seriously threatened, but there is hope for them; they have been successfully bred at a wildlife park in the UK.

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In Las Vegas, a fountain display at a hotel was switched off recently when it received an unexpected guest - a rare Yellow-billed Loon, a bird more commonly found on the high Arctic tundra.

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Smuggling wild animals is, unfortunately, a big and thriving business. 

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In Death Valley, powerful winds have actually pushed a temporary lake two miles from its original location.

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Invasive Joro spiders appear to be thriving in the southeastern part of the U.S.

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Here's a phenomenon for you: a Honeycreeper that is half male and half female - male on one side and female on the other.

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Have you ever wondered about how bees see the world? This new book explains all that.

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The Guardian gives us the best of the week's wildlife pictures.

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A supposed 280 million-year-old fossilized reptile that was discovered in the Italian Alps in 1931 has now been proven to be an elaborate fake.

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Ants are amazing creatures and it turns out their talents include astounding medical abilities.

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The tumbling tumbleweeds have been tumbling their way through Western towns in the wake of severe weather.

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Harvestmen, or daddy longlegs, have been hiding something from us. 

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Should the age that we are living in be designated the Anthropocene? Scientists, as scientists are wont to do, have differing opinions about that.