This week in birds - #642
A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the beautiful James's Flamingo , one of the three flamingo species that make their home high in the Andes Mountains of South America. The others are the Andean and the Chilean . The James's is the smallest and rarest of the three. It frequents shallow saline lakes and wetlands in all seasons and its population - thankfully - is stable for the time being. *~*~*~* Earth reached its aphelion for the year - its greatest distance from the sun - this week on Thursday. Now we'll be moving ever closer. *~*~*~* In honor of Independence Day, how about some fun facts about our "National Bird," the Bald Eagle ? Here are eighteen such facts. *~*~*~* The shuttering of the U. S. Agency for International Development by the current administration in Washington is probably illegal and could result in fourteen million human deaths over the next five years....