This week in birds - #675

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

This is the well-named Three-wattled Bellbird, a bird of the middle and upper canopies of humid forests in Central America. Their numbers are decreasing and their conservation status is considered vulnerable. It is the American Bird Conservancy's featured Bird of the Week.

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The mystery of the "Golden Blob" that was retrieved from the ocean near Alaska in 2023 has at last been solved. It seems it was part of an anemone.

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The air strikes against Iran have created oil spills that can be seen from space.

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Speaker Mike Johnson was all set to call for a vote on legislation to gut the Endangered Species Act but bipartisan opposition forced him stop.  At least for now.

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Butterflies are in decline all across the continent. A study of the Western Monarch shows why.

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In the past, wildfires tended to die down at night, but no more. Climate change has apparently been the cause of their continuing to burn through the night.

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Scientists found that cocaine pollution seemed to cause salmon to swim farther. 

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Research indicates that Neanderthal kids grew faster than their human peers. But scientists now believe that a lack of genetic diversity may have contributed to the species' ultimate demise.

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Environmental groups are suing to block British oil giant BP from drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

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We lost a giant this week. Desmond Morris, the zoologist who wrote "The Naked Ape" which outlined our genetic connection with apes, has died. He was 98 years old.

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Here are some of the major discoveries found in North America's legendary boneyard, the Hell Creek Formation.

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A vast number of ground-nesting bees were found in a cemetery in Ithaca, New York, in 2023.

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Evidence suggests that our species is still evolving.

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Monarch butterflies have reached as far north as Iowa, New Jersey, and Indiana in their spring migration from Mexico and Central America.

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New discoveries in Guatemala offer evidence that the Maya rejected divine kingship in their time of trouble and transition. 

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A papyrus excerpt from "The Iliad" has been found inside the wrappings of a 1,600-year-old Egyptian mummy. 

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Bruce, a Kea parrot without a beak, has still managed to stay atop the pecking order in his group.