During our visit to Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo earlier this month, we had a look at the bird enclosures. After viewing the penguins and seabirds, we headed to the McCormick Bird House, which is home to at least 28 species in several different exhibits.

A shorebird habitat housed a sunning American Avocet, a shy Red Knot and Piping Plover, and an extremely active Black-necked Stilt.

Separate enclosures housed more birds, including two endangered species which are part of breeding programs. The Guam Micronesia Kingfisher is extinct in the wild, with just 100 birds in zoos. The Lincoln Park zoo participates in a species survival plan in cooperation with other zoos.

The zoo also participates in a species survival plan for the critically endangered Bali Mynah, in cooperation with other zoos.

Many of the birds are housed in an open aviary, and visitors walk between the habitat with birds flying overhead or scurrying across paths.

Inca Tern

Red-capped Cardinal

We had fun watching an active Hamerkop gathering mud and debris for a humongous nest.

Before leaving the building, we stopped to peek inside the kitchen. What a complicated menu!

BirdLife International recently launched a new area on their website called BirdLife Community. The site, currently formatted as a blog, encourages discussion on “the latest news from the frontline in biodiversity protection.” In a recent post, readers are asked Alaotra Grebe extinction – Do you care? BirdLife International does a great job of reporting bird conservation news and I think sharing the latest developments in a blog format is a great idea. The Alaotra Grebe post has garnered 90+ comments already. BirdLife International further embraces social media with their newly created Flickr group.

Thirty years ago, the Crested Lark (kuifleeuwerik in Dutch) was an abundant species in the Netherlands. Today they are much harder to find in the rapidly developing Western European country.

from Aat Bender’s photostream

Thirty years ago there were from three to five thousand breeding pairs of Crested Lark in the Netherlands. Today there are no breeding pairs left, according to Dutch bird research group SOVON. The preferred breeding grounds of the birds – flat, sandy patches – has been rapidly wiped out by industrial and new residential construction.

Source: Kuifleeuwerik verdwijnt uit Nederland

The Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board will have a public hearing in Springfield on January 23rd at 12:00pm. The purpose of the meeting is to take public comments on proposed changes to the Illinois List of Threatened and Endangered Species.

Several changes are proposed, including removing three bird species from threatened status: Bald Eagle; Henslow’s Sparrow and Sandhill Crane.

2 Bald Eagles from frnch’s photostream

Participants must register if they would like to make a statement. More information, including registration instructions and a full list of proposed changes, can be found here.

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker Research Project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology will focus this year’s search in southwestern Florida. The search starts in January and goes through March and covers areas of Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and others.

Other groups will lead searches in the Florida panhandle, as well as Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and southern Illinois. Read more about the project here.

Yesterday a team of paleontologists from the Netherlands’ natural history museum Naturalis traveled to Mauritius on a new expedition. During previous expeditions the Dutch team discovered a mass grave of Dodo bones and they are returning to the site to do more intensive research. Within the bones that were previously discovered, two distinct different sizes of birds can be identified. This indicates more than one species of Dodo.

In October 2005 Dutch researchers discovered a mass-grave of Dodo birds on the island of Mauritius. In June 2006 an international team of scientists returned to the location for further study. A new party from the Leiden museum Naturalis plans to return to Mauritius in August 2007 for more research.

Conservation plans are urgently needed for at least 1,221 bird species identified as threatened with extinction. BirdLife International’s Red List update also indicated that over 800 additional species are considered Near Threatened.

An automated birdwatching machine has been set up at a wildlife reserve in Arkansas to search for the rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The bird was presumed extinct for decades but unconfirmed sightings beginning in 2004 have sparked great interest in the bird.

The last Madagascar Pochard, a diving duck, was seen in 1991. This month a group of conservationists discovered a group of at least 25 pochards while searching for a rare hawk on the island.