This week in birds - #527

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Everybody's favorite backyard bird - the Northern Cardinal.

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Indonesia, one of the world's largest consumers of coal, a major pollutant, has agreed to sharply reduce its use of the fossil fuel in response to what is essentially a $20 billion bribe from developed nations.

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We may still have more than our share of deniers in this country but in other parts of the world, people are well aware of the changing climate and freely acknowledge it.

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Four dams on the Klamath River will be destroyed to improve the habitat for native salmon. It is the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

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How can we prevent the extinction of amphibian species in a changing climate? 

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A new study has found that weather disasters of one kind or another have occurred in at least 90% of the counties in this country within the last eleven years.

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The dainty little Piping Plover is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. The good news about the plover is that its numbers are increasing.

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It hardly seems possible that a great river like the Amazon could dry up, but in fact, the river is in trouble.

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The world's melting glaciers are releasing a vast mass of microbes some of which may be harmful to life on the planet.

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Another potential for harm to life is deforestation which pushes bats into closer proximity to humans and horses making a crossover of virus a more likely event.

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Boreal forests are the world's largest intact forest ecosystem and one of the biggest stores of carbon. Canada is seeking the help of Indigenous communities to aid in fighting climate change by managing the forest and keeping the carbon where it is.

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An examination of fish fossils has shown that humans were cooking their fish dinners at least 780,000 years ago. That's much earlier than had previously been believed.

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The National Park Service is studying the feasibility of reintroducing the grizzly bear to the Cascades in Washington state where they formerly roamed. 

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The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas has had to endure harassment from right-wing extremists in recent years, but it has persevered and is making a comeback.

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It seems that chimpanzees enjoy showing off their finds to other chimpanzees.

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There are about 2.5 million ants for every human on Earth. In a very real sense, one could say that ants rule the planet. 

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Extreme heat will change us and change the way will live. It is already having an effect.

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Coral reefs of the world have already suffered catastrophic losses because of the effects of climate change.

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A glorious palette of autumn leaf colors at the New York Botanical Garden. And what happens to all those leaves that fall?

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Fruit flies have a unique organ that helps them both eat and lay eggs. Scientists are studying just how that works.

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The treasured antiques of Egypt's ancient history are being damaged by climate change and human activities.

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The ruins of an ancient submerged city on the Tigris River in Iraq are being revealed as drought dries the river up.

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One way to help guard against future pandemics is to protect wildlife habitats and keep them intact.

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Island countries have been shown to become more vulnerable to government oppression following climate disasters. There is a concern that weather-related events resulting from climate change could create a rise in the number of autocracies around the world.