alternative birding and conservation news

See the latest BirdLife International news at their news page.

************************
Find news on many current birding topics at the ABA blog, authored by a number of experts fro m the American Birding Association. See especially the latest post on a number of new taxonomic proposals from the American Ornithologists' Union.

************************

For some solid background on global issues in bird conservation, see this paper on Habitat conversion and global avian biodiversity loss, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, by K. J. Gaston, T. M. Blackburn and K. K. Goldewijk.

News from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

News from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center can be found here. See their updated pages on education, research, and other topics.

two great sources of information

Learn about conservation of native plants at the Plant Conservation Alliance website -
and if you've never investigated the Xerces Society (the nonprofit organization "that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat"), check that out as well, at their website.

World Bird Info site

John Penhallurick has been hard at work on filling in the blanks on his World Bird Info site - see it here - lots of information; good reading if you're interested in birds around the world.

news from the American Bird Conservancy

Recent news from ABC can be found at the following links:

Endangered Bird Hatches on U.S. Soil for First Time in Recorded History

Expansion of Colombian Bird Reserve Aids Eight Globally Threatened Species Plus Hundreds More Birds

Massive Six-State Habitat Restoration Project Sees Progress on 130,000 Acres in Year One

planet under pressure - conference

A conference is being planned for 2012 to address the many challenges of global change.

It will be a major international science conference focusing on solutions to the global sustainability challenge.

The 2012 international Planet Under Pressure conference will provide a comprehensive update of the pressure planet Earth is now under. The conference will discuss solutions at all scales to move societies on to a sustainable pathway. It will provide scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio+20.

• 2500 participants combining global-change science and policy, business and development communities
• Scientific leadership towards the 2012 UN Rio +20 conference
• Building trans-disciplinary research communities
• Identifying opportunities for enhanced partnerships between global change science and policy, industry and the public
• A new vision for international research

Find out more at this link.

Rusty Blackbird news

A recent rule change that affects Rusty Blackbirds, and the "backstory" is here.