This week in birds - #685

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Andean Cock-of-the-rock, a non- migratory bird of South American forests. The main threat to the species is habitat loss. The population is thought to be decreasing but is of least concern to this point. 

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A meteorite that crashed into a New Jersey home in 2024 contains some of the building blocks of life according to scientists who have studied it.

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I've always been fascinated by the Mayan civilization and here is a particularly interesting character from that civilization - a math whiz who lived more than 1,000 years ago. 

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The Trump Administration has stripped the Endangered Species Act's ability to protect habitats.

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The Rusty Lark, a bird that had been lost for nearly a century, has been rediscovered by birders in Chad.

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New York state has banned the building of large data centers for a year while it studies energy and climate risks which they present.

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A worm-like creature that lived about 550 million years ago is the earliest known "right-handed" being. 

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Harvestmen, aka Daddy Longlegs (or Granddaddy Longlegs, as I knew them when I was growing up) are a particularly interesting and often misunderstood group of arachnids.

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Trump has reduced Bear Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments by three million acres with a single stroke of his pen. 

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"Space balls" have been washing up on Australian beaches presenting a mystery for authorities.

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Shrimp may be thought of as "bugs of the sea" but then bugs could be considered the "shrimp of the land."

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Sperm whales living in the eastern Mediterranean Sea seem to have developed a dialect of their own that is different from those in the west.

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We know that giraffes are clever animals but they may be even smarter than previously thought.

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Small-town communities are becoming alarmed about carbon storage projects planned for their area.

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Here are nine interesting facts about Bald Eagles.

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And here are some images from this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest.

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Climate change is affecting how and where people take vacations.

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The Andean leaf-eared mouse has adapted to live at extremely high elevations where no other mammal is known to reside.