United States migratory bird protection

This video from the USA is called Newark Museum official – Skies Alive: Bird Migration in the Garden State.

From Audubon Magazine Blog in the USA:

Species Protected Under Migratory Bird Treaty Act Tops 1,000

By Michele Wilson

03/04/2010

With the addition of 186 species, the number of species the Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects topped 1,000, according to an announcement this past Monday from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Eleven birds were removed from the list, meaning a net gain (so to speak) of 175 birds. This update, the first to this list in 25 years, takes effect March 31. …

Ninety-four of the species—including little bunting, Eurasian curlew, black-winged petrel, tufted flycatcher, mottled owl, and little egret—were added due to new or re-reviewed documentation proving their occurrence in the U.S., Puerto Rico, or U.S. Virgin Islands.

The 11 were removed because new evidence showed that these species’ ranges fell entirely outside the U.S. and its territories. (Those removed from the list include rosy finch, green-backed heron, black-shouldered kite, black-billed magpie, lesser noddy, dark-rumped petrel, water pipit, black-backed wagtail, yellow wagtail, Strickland’s woodpecker, and three-toed woodpecker.)

Penalty for breaking the Migratory Bird Treaty Act can be stiff. This past February, a man from Washington State earned 45 days of jail time and a fine of $1,000 for driving his Jeep on a beach through flocks of Heermann’s gulls and Caspian terns, both protected species, reported the Seattle Times.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Announces $4.9 Million for Neotropical Migratory Birds and Habitat Conservation: here.

Making sense of coffee labels: Does your coffee support wintering warblers? Here.

The Piitaistakis (South Livingstone Ridge) and Mt. Lorette Raptor Counts for the spring migration of 2010 are underway. Follow the daily movement of raptors in these field notes by Research Director Peter Sherrington and his citizen scientist colleagues: here.

Red kite recovery in north Scotland put in jeopardy by illegal killing: here.

Only recently confirmed as a distinct species, the white-collared kite has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the most endangered birds of prey in the world: here.