This week in birds - #698

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

This is the Ruffed Grouse, the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. This bantam-sized member of the grouse/pheasant family is one of North America's twelve native grouse species. It is non-migratory and prefers forest habitats. The Ruffed Grouse's numbers are increasing and its greatest threats are human hunters and the disappearance of forests. Its conservation status at present is of least concern.

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In Washington last weekend a memorial was dedicated to the veterans of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, military operations of 1990 and 1991. The memorial draws its inspiration from a desert oasis with walls reminiscent of sand dunes and a shaded grove with trees and bubbling water.

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A dinosaur fossil that has been sitting in a London museum since 1924 has finally been given a name - Invictibellatrix amberina which translates as "unconquered female warrior."

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A well-preserved Zapotec tomb has been discovered in Mexico and is the most important archaeological find in that country in a decade.

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A new genetic study suggests that native Hawaiians descend from a group of "ultravoyagers" who sailed about 4,400 miles from Easter Island.

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Another set of voyagers, monarch butterflies, is beginning to arrive at their overwintering region in Mexico.

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A 4,000-year-old mud brick found in the rubble of a Bronze Age house in western Turkey contains the imprint of a dog's paw, testifying to the long relationship between our two species.

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Research on the once-great Mayan metropolis of Caracol in the forest of Belize is debunking much of what had been believed about that Mesoamerican civilization. 

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The Bangka slow loris, a venomous primate of Southeast Asia, had been thought to be extinct but it turns out it was hiding in plain sight. 

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This is an illustration of the so-called "hell chicken," an ancient dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period that ate mostly fruit.

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Crows can make decisions based on visual information twice as fast as humans can. Here are six proven ways to attract these very smart covids to your yard. 

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A stone found in the Sahara turned out to be a 4.1-billion-year-old meteorite from Mars, the oldest ever found.

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An Italian farmer found some unknown seeds in his attic and planted them. They came up and turned out to be from an ancient grain.

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An analysis of Inca mummies of sacrificed children showed that they were given coca leaves, corn beer, and an ayahuasca compound before death. In other words, they were drugged.

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The giant bats of Madagascar are shrinking in size and human hunting may be to blame.

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Here are pictures of the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, Arizona.