This week in birds - #581

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

A convention of doves of the White-winged variety, meeting on my bird feeder posts.

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If you hurry outside, you can still see the Snow Moon tonight.

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It looks likely that February will break an unprecedented number of heat records.

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More evidence that trees are our friends: Reforestation of the eastern United States is helping to stall the effects of global heating. 

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Recurring atmospheric rivers are bringing lots of rain and resultant flooding to California.

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It took a massive effort but a 65-foot-long whale that washed up on a beach in China was rescued and towed back to sea. 

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Did ADHD survive in the human race because it gave an evolutionary advantage to those who possessed it?

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Monarch butterfly - a representative of a genome that may look fragile but is actually very resilient.

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Corals are bleaching and dying along more than 1,000 kilometers of the Great Barrier Reef.

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The Pyrrhuloxia, also called the Desert Cardinal, was the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week for last week.

And the Bird of the Week for this week is...

...the Red Crossbill.

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Why do poison dart frogs tap their toes?

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Louisiana's coastal wetlands are being slowly inundated by rising seas.

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It turns out "natural gas" is not so natural.

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Lobbyists who are supposedly representing the interests of the victims of the climate crisis are also often representing the perpetrators of the crisis.

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How exactly do we define what a species is?

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The El Niño weather system is causing major problems in South America.

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How do baleen whales communicate by vocalizing?

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Is the killing of Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest justified in order to help the endangered Northern Spotted Owl?

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Another amazing Maya tomb has been discovered in Guatemala and it is filled with "extraordinary" funerary offerings.

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California's redwoods are once again proving their resilience by recovering from the wildfires of 2020.

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Here is a week's worth of amazing wildlife pictures.

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Though some find them a nuisance, I thoroughly enjoy watching the antics of the gray squirrels that call my yard their home.