Other Animals

Hundreds of thousands of birds with migratory habits fill the airways, all moving to warmer and more suitable climates and habitats to breed. When migration is complete, they will take to the skies and migrate back to their summer homes. It’s quite a sight to look overhead as many birds fly toward their intended destinations.

‘Tis the season of thoughtful giving, when we seek out the perfect gifts to light up the faces of our loved ones. But what if your gift could create ripples of joy far beyond the moment of unwrapping? That’s exactly what we’re offering in this year’s carefully curated gift guide. At Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN),

Image by Indonesian Parrot Project Founded in 2001 by Dr. Stewart Metz and Barbara Bailey, the Indonesian Parrot Project (IPP) has spent 23 years working in Indonesia to combat the illegal trade of endangered cockatoos, Eclectus parrots, lories, and other parrots. IPP has created successful programs for the rehabilitation, release, and final return of these

Webinar: : Avian Vet Insider: Chickens & Parrots – Can I Have Both? Date: Friday, December 6, 2024 Time: 12:00 pm PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter)   Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash Color plays a vital role in birds’ lives, from backyard visitors to vibrant parrots. A recent study led by evolutionary biologist Roberto Arbore, PhD, has uncovered the genetic mechanism that produces parrots’ brilliant colors. Scientists discovered that a unique enzyme, ALDH3A2, influences parrots’ iconic red, yellow, and green hues

It might be surprising to learn that, as of 2024, the Bald Eagle isn’t officially America’s national bird. A proposed congressional act being considered would finally give it that formal recognition. The world over, we have become obsessed with visual representation, an image of something that says who we are. We designate specially designed flags

Chris Davis Virtual Celebration of Life-Memorial Date: Sunday, November 17, 2024 Time: 10 a.m. PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Register Now   Let’s celebrate a life truly dedicated to birds and the people who love them. We look forward to coming together in Chris’s memory. You are warmly invited to

Psittrichas fulgidus – Pesquet’s Parrot At Loro Park, TenerifePhotograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Meet the Dracula parrot, New Guinea’s most goth-inspired bird, with striking black and red feathers and a bald, vulture-like head that gives it an eerie, vampire vibe. Despite its dark nickname, this parrot doesn’t hide from

Hundreds of bird eggs and bird specimens on display at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in Camarillo, CA. Image by Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology For many animals, the life cycle begins with an egg. For birds, the egg is expelled and nurtured in nests until the life within it hatches and becomes world-aware.

October 28, 2024 By Wildlife Conservation Network WCN’s California Wildlife Program (CWP) is endorsing California’s Proposition 4 (aka the “Climate Bond”). Prop 4 would enable implementation of a wide variety of climate-related projects, including allocated funds for land and water conservation and “nature-based solutions” such as wildlife crossing infrastructure. While the measure would include substantial

A yellow-naped Amazon parrot perches in a tree. Image courtesy of One Earth Conservation. The Republic of Nicaragua is the third most populated and the geographically largest country in Central America. The largest freshwater lake in Central America is Lake Nicaragua, and in its center is Ometepe Island. This island is formed by two volcanoes

October 22, 2024 By Dr. Jim Sanderson, Director of Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation Imagine yourself in the year 1870 somewhere in Michigan. You read in a local newspaper that five years ago, an Italian museum collector discovered a new rare cat in the high Andes of Bolivia. The collector claimed the total population was

Webinar: Hurricane Helene – Before, During & After With Pet Birds to Protect Date: Friday, November 15, 2024 Time: 12:00 pm PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special

Webinar: Translating Parrot: Behavior Misconceptions – Do I Have a Problem Parrot? Part 2 Date: Friday, November 8, 2024 Time: 12:00 pm PST (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our

Don’t let the cuteness fool you. The Hooded Pitohui’s skin and feathers have batrachotoxins, which can inflict numbness and cause burning sensations if they come into contact with skin wounds or if ingested. Benjamin Freeman, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Let’s have a Spooktacular October by uncovering some of the world’s spookiest birds. First

Webinar: Species Spotlight: California Condor Care in the Wake of Avian Flu Date: Friday, November 1, 2024 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest,

On October 5, WCN held our fall Wildlife Conservation Expo, an annual October gathering of conservationists from around the world and our incredible community of supporters who help them make a lasting difference for endangered wildlife. We always look forward to these reunions, not just to hear about the latest updates from the field, but

Dr. Pepperberg had the opportunity to collaborate with her Austrian colleagues, who have a large aviary of Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana), to test each bird on a series of tasks that varied in postural, spatial, and cognitive demands. Lateralization has to do with using one side of the body (and/or brain) preferentially to do various

As the sinking sun pulled shadows over Kenya’s vast Tsavo landscape, Joseph Kyalo Kimaile watched four painted dogs drinking from a drying water hole. Last year, this pack had 18 individuals, and now only four remained. He didn’t know what happened to the others, so as Tsavo Trust’s Chief Conservation Officer, he was determined to

Raising his oar, Herdhanu Jayanto cleared a fallen branch from the narrow bend, the early morning peace periodically jolted by the calls of hornbills and macaques. With the route clear, his teammate tugged the engine’s cord and it roared back to life. Their journey began before the sun first raised an eyelid, and as the

The cow’s ear swatted away a fly above its bright orange GPS collar, sunlight glinting across the screen of the credit card-sized device attached to it. Throughout Africa, conservationists working near pastoral communities fit carnivores like cheetahs and lions with GPS collars, as tracking their movements helps prevent livestock predation. In New Xade, Cheetah Conservation

image courtesy Instituto Araras Azul I recently returned from Brazil, an incredible country, and the largest and most populous in South America. It is widely diverse and multicultural, and home to an enormous number of parrot species. Unfortunately, much of South America is experiencing high fire rates, especially Brazil. I personally saw fires along the

Amy Tan is an American writer who began her writing journey in 1986 when her first story was published. By 1989, she published a world-famous novel known to millions as “The Joy Luck Club.” The story entails three connected stories that spent a solid 40 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. By 1993,

From September 23-27, Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) staff, Partners, and grantees gathered with governments, practitioners, and funders in New York City for the annual United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week NYC 2024 to seek out solutions that can help people and our planet. While reaching new audiences through inspiring experiences like The ClimateMusic Project,

Image credit: Steve Murphy Exciting news in the bird world! One of the world’s most elusive and rare parrots—the night parrot, which is found only in Australia—just got a big boost in estimated population size. That’s because a colony of 50 night parrots was recently discovered in a remote area of Western Australia. How rare are

Dr. Pepperberg’s African greys were compared to kea parrots and cockatoos to see which were most inclined to contrafreeload. An ongoing topic of study in our lab has been contrafreeloading—working for food (or, in the case of humans, some other reward) that could simultaneously be obtained for free. Contrafreeloading is pretty much unexpected and any

Webinar: Atherosclerosis in Pet Birds Date: Friday, October 18, 2024 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Natalie Antinoff, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), will

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider: A Look Back at the AFA Conference Date: Friday, October 4, 2024 Time: 12 p.m. PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Stephanie

Conure image by Photo by Nina Zaychenko on Unsplash Like us, parrots experience pain; however, how they express discomfort can differ from how we might show pain. September is Animal Pain Awareness Month, which makes this the perfect time to reflect on how we can keep our feathered companions healthy and happy by being aware

Webinar: Translating Parrot: Behavior Misconceptions – Do I Have a Problem Parrot? Part 1 Date: Friday, October 11, 2024 Time: 12 p.m. PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our