This week in birds - #697

(I apologize for the lateness of this post.) 

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Common Raven, an acrobatic flyer known for doing rolls and somersaults in the air. The raven can be found throughout much of the northern hemisphere around the world, including the northern regions of North America. They are very smart birds which can make them dangerous predators of vulnerable animals. Native people of the Pacific Northwest regard the raven as an incurable trickster. We know that Edgar Allan Poe must have found them a bit creepy based on his famous poem. Ravens in the wild can live very long lives. The oldest recorded one lived for 22 years, seven months. Their populations have increased over the last fifty years and the bird's conservation status is presently of least concern.

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A necropsy has revealed that Jackie, the wild Bald Eagle in California whose life I had followed on camera for eight years, died of bird flu. This was a surprise since her symptoms did not indicate bird flu and there was no outbreak of the disease in the area.

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The United States now has its 64th national park. It is the Chiricahua National Park, previously the Chiricahua National Monument, in southeast Arizona.

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Fall migration is underway in the Mississippi Flyway that runs through the middle of the continent, and over last weekend more than 1,000 of the birds taking that route died or were injured in collisions with windows in Chicago according to monitors there.

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A family of Barn Owls is now living in Manhattan, the first of their kind known to have nested there in modern history. 

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The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico took place sixteen years ago but deep-sea species have shown little evidence of recovery there.

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Climate change is making the jobs of animal control officers even harder as wild animals move into populated areas. 

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African elephants shape the savanna ecosystem in which they live. They continue shaping it even after death.

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In other elephant news, scientists are using A.I. to help decode their vocalizations.

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Dam removals in the Northeastern United States are encouraging fish to return to those streams. 

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Humpback whales have benefitted from forty years of conservation efforts on their behalf.

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Critically endangered vaquitas in Mexico's Gulf of California will now be in greater danger as Mexico is reducing the area that is protected for them.

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An animal that looked like a hybrid of a platypus and an otter lived alongside dinosaurs some 165 million years ago.

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The winner of Brazil's presidential election could determine the fate of the country's rainforest.

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                                   A nesting green sea turtle.

Here's some good news: Green sea turtle populations are making a remarkable comeback around the world. 

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Colorado's wildlife mitigation efforts are making things safer for everyone.

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Rhode Island may be the smallest state but its residents grow the biggest pumpkins. There is one that weighed in at 3156 pounds at the Southern New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-Off. 

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Finally, here are more pictures for you:

- Fifteen photos of coral reefs.  

- Sixteen pictures from the world's best wildlife photographers.