This week in birds - #550

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

A Herring Gull stands in the middle of a duck convention featuring several species.

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Does the Ivory Bill Woodpecker still exist? Though thought to be extinct, there is new evidence that its obituary might have been premature. 

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There's no doubt that bird flu still exists and is still killing animals. Moreover, it could become the next human pandemic.

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A heat dome weather system in western Canada threatens to push temperatures to new record highs and worsen the incidence of wildfires in the region.

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A new study assessed the economic burden imposed by fossil fuel companies and found that they owe reparations of $209 billion a year.

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Honeybees are essential to the production of healthy crops and to the protection of the environment.

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A proposed sanctuary on the California coast would be six times the size of Yosemite.

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Recent studies have reached a consensus that massive prehistoric stone structures, so-called desert kites found from Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan, were built by ancient hunters to trap and kill wild animal herds.

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A new analysis has concluded that heat is likely to soar to record highs within the next five years.

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The consensus is that humans evolved in Africa but there is new information about just how and where they emerged.

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A Florida university professor is living undersea and plans to continue to do so until he reaches one hundred days and completes a research mission.

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Large parts of the Pacific Northwest are in the grip of an early and rare heat wave.

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Meet the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It's the conifer-loving Hermit Warbler.

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For the first time since 2010, an endangered Mediterranean monk seal has landed on an Israeli shore causing a sensation among local residents.

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Wild boars have reappeared in Kashmir after being absent for decades and their presence is not being welcomed. 

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Research shows that birds and their songs are good for our mental health, to which my response is, "Well, duh!"

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Scientists have warned that a rise of 1.5 degrees Centigrade in Earth's temperature could have dire consequences and it is now predicted that we may pass that threshold as early as 2027. 

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The opportunity to watch tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes take off simultaneously draws tourists to Nebraska in March and April every year.

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Yakama Nation hunters hunt the bison of Yellowstone.

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California's "ghost lake," Tulare, has reappeared after a wet winter.

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A new species of shark, one having bright, white eyes, has been discovered in the deep waters off Australia.

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I need this! There is now a "smart bird feeder." It's a feeder that takes pictures of the birds that come to feed and sends them to your phone.