This week in birds - #696

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Yellow-crowned Night Heron. A bird of aquatic habitats, both oceans and fresh water, the bird is found throughout North and South America and the Caribbean Islands. Its population size is unknown but appears to be stable and its conservation status is presently of least concern. Its two major threats are loss of habitat and the use of pesticides, both of which are attributable to humans.

*~*~*~*

Dams around the world hold so much water that they have actually shifted Earth's poles. 

*~*~*~*

October's Big Day of birding on October 10 turned out to be a REALLY big day.

*~*~*~*

Project FeederWatch starts on November 1. If you haven't already signed up, there is still time. 

*~*~*~*

A Miami airport police operation found two smugglers with a total of 21 birds in their pants.

*~*~*~*

What is perhaps the world's oldest shipwreck - some 4,700 years old - has been discovered off the coast of Turkey. Much of the residue of its cargo still remained.

*~*~*~*

Researchers in Turkey have also unearthed a fragment of the world's oldest known peace treaty.  

*~*~*~*

Scientists have discovered two new species of sea spider in the ocean around the Pacific Northwest.

*~*~*~*

A couple of retirees in Virginia have turned their neighboring farms into a wildlife corridor.

*~*~*~*

Bird taxonomy is about to be updated. As usual there will probably be changes as some species are either split or lumped together.

*~*~*~*

Wildlife biologists in Australia are vaccinating Albatrosses by hand in an attempt to control the spread of avian flu in Tasmania. 

*~*~*~*

A 50-million-year-old slab of rock found in Wyoming preserved hundreds of  freshwater herring.

*~*~*~*

Here's the story of the "vine that ate the South" - kudzu.

*~*~*~*

Researchers have found that Tree Swallows in the northern U.S. and Canada face a greater risk from climate change than do their fellows in more southerly climes.

*~*~*~*

A family of Barn Owls that has moved into New York City's Upper West Side may be the first to nest in Manhattan in modern history.

*~*~*~*

Here are some amazing pictures from winners in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.

*~*~*~*

Who doesn't love pictures of pandas?

*~*~*~*

And here are some quite hilarious pictures from the 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.

*~*~*~*

What are the happiest states in the country? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hawaii is number one.