This week in birds - #699

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

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is Colombia's enigmatic Blue-billed Curassow, locally known as Paujiļ. This bird is a member of the family Cracidae, which includes a number of large, ground-dwelling tropical birds such as the guans and the chachalacas, as well as the other curassows. The turkey-sized Blue-billed Curassow is one of the most endangered birds in the Americas, a victim of overhunting and habitat loss in northern Colombia.

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This is truly alarming: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has accumulated so many microplastics that they might be changing the color of the ocean.

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Invading sea creatures may be imperiling the unique ecosystem of the Panama Canal.

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Measles had been eliminated from the U.S. and then the vaccine skeptics gained prominence. Now outbreaks of the disease are occurring again.  

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Voyager 1 is the farthest from Earth human-made object in the universe and it is about to reach one light-day from the planet.

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In the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas a hunter has found a mammoth tusk.

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Coral reefs are dying worldwide. Can they be saved?

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Removing dams from rivers supports rewilding.

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Where did Stonehenge's six-ton altar stone really come from? The mystery remains.

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Earth is getting dimmer and the northern hemisphere is dimming faster than the southern.

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Neolithic cannibalism was apparently a common practice.

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The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the construction of the border wall between Texas and Mexico to resume in the Big Bend area, the ecosystem be damned. 

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Recent research gives evidence that cannabis has been used by humans for at least 2,800 years.

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A patch of wintergreens, one of the U.K.'s rarest flowers, has been saved from falling into the sea. 

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Newly discovered Ice Age rock art in Catalonian caves is rewriting that region's prehistory.

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The mercury-rich red paint that the Maya used to decorate their pottery, temple walls, and other things may have accidentally poisoned them.

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Scientists are learning how octopuses manage to squeeze themselves through tiny holes.

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Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands have been saved but now conservationists are faced with the task of maintaining it. 

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Giant tortoises have been gone from the Galpagos Floreana Island for more than 150 years but now conservationists are returning them to the island. 

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Sealed for nearly 2,000 years, a wooden wardrobe from Pompeii has recently been opened.

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A maintenance worker found a four-foot long python in a trash can in Glendale, California. An animal control officer transported it to Pasadena Humane.

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Here's some good news: The critically endangered Devils Hole pupfish population is on the rebound.

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A baby walrus, rescued from a remote beach in northwestern Alaska is now enjoying life in Florida at SeaWorld Orlando.