Critically Endangered Crows and Reasons to Love Maple Syrup
National Audubon Society
Audubon protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow.
Welcome to Audubon’s Wings & Wins Newsletter, here to share with you the very best of Audubon’s work protecting birds and the places they need.
by Darien Fiorino, Senior Social Media Coordinator?
In this newsletter:
How Do We Love Sugarmakers? Let Us Count the Ways
Having spent a lot of time in the forests of the Northeast, I know how special maple syrup is. It’s the first local agricultural product to come into season each year, it’s a cultural and economic staple of syrup-producing communities, it tastes heavenly, and perhaps most pertinent to Audubon, the forests that maple syrup comes from—large maple stands called sugarbushes—create habitat utilized by many birds. Scarlet Tanagers flit among the leaves of the canopy, tree trunks make for excellent foraging grounds for Brown Creepers and White-breasted Nuthatches, and smaller plants in the understory often sport a Black-throated Blue Warbler searching for insects.
With everything they provide for people and birds, there’s a lot to love about sugarbushes and the people who manage them. So, when I read Audubon Vermont’s bird-friendly maple intern Ashley McGrann’s love letter to sugarmakers, I felt a deep sense of relief knowing that these sugarmakers-slash-conservationists working with Audubon’s Bird-Friendly Maple Program are getting the appreciation they deserve. Do you want to dive further into the many reasons to appreciate maple syrup and the people who make it?
The World’s Rarest Crow Will Soon Fly Free on Maui
High-stakes, teamwork, and corvids: this conservation story has it all. With only about 120 individuals remaining on the planet, all in captivity, the 'Alalā—or the Hawaiian Crow—is the rarest crow species on Earth. Now, conservationists are working to determine whether a reintroduction (or possibly just an introduction) to the island of Maui would offer this species a stronger shot at survival in the wild, after two reintroduction attempts on the big island of Hawai’i failed. 'Alalās, like most native Hawaiian birds, face many threats in their native ranges, from habitat loss, to increased competition with nonnative species, to introduced diseases. Luckily, this species has people like Hanna Mounce of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project who work tirelessly for this species’ survival.
Earlier this month, we held an informal survey on Threads asking our followers to share their favorite birds. The comments section was an absolute avian love fest, but one group of birds rose to the top of people’s lists more than any other: corvids—crows, ravens, jays, and relatives. That’s not to say that this conservation story would be any less exciting if it involved a different species, but it doesn’t hurt that we collectively already have such a soft spot for these undeniably smart, charismatic birds.
Fall Migration is Here—Help Make the Skies Safer for Birds?
Living in a city during migrations, it’s not uncommon for me to see stunned, injured, and deceased birds on the pavement—victims of building collisions. With the fall migration season underway, the windows and glass facades that we find so aesthetically pleasing can prove fatal for migrating birds. We’ve known for many years that collisions with buildings are a major problem for birds, but new research has upped our bird casualty estimates in the most sobering way. Over one billion birds die each year from colliding with buildings. This is not just a problem in major cities. Bird collisions occur everywhere flighted birds and windows overlap—aka most places. It’s such a tangible, visible issue. It’s sad to see. What gets me most is that these deaths are needless and largely preventable.?
This is where you can help. There are simple solutions to preventing bird collisions, and making changes on an individual level—like making your home bird-friendly—is a great way to start. One key way Audubon is addressing this issue on a larger scale is by supporting the Bird-Safe Buildings Act, an evidence-based bill that would make new federal buildings safer for birds and more energy efficient, all at no extra cost to taxpayers.
This is only a sampling of everything that Audubon has been up to in August. To read more, check out Audubon’s website. If you’re even half as interested in birds and their environment as we are, you may be there for a while. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Have any ideas for what you’d like to see in a future edition of Wings & Wins? Let us know in the comments! Lastly, if you’d like more bird-centric science, climate, policy, and culture hand-picked for you every month, subscribe. See you in September!
Award-Winning International Young Adult and Children's Author
2 个月Great article!