This week in birds - #594

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

Baby Burrowing Owls trying to make sense of the world. I know just how they feel.

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Canada is burning. Hundreds of people have been evacuated in the westernmost province of British Columbia where many blazes are out of control.

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And firefighters must attempt to do their jobs on some of the hottest days on record. The planet broke its all-time heat record two days in a row.

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In red-hot Texas, a number of people have died after Hurricane Beryl left them without power for an extended period. (Which calls to mind the question of how humans lived here before air conditioning was available.) 

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It should not be a surprise that humans and chimpanzees share fundamental features of communication that date back as far as their ancient common ancestor. 

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Scientists studying Jurassic Age small mammals have found that those critters lived slow and died old unlike many of their descendants today. 

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The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will provide funding for twenty-five new projects proposed by states, tribes, local governments, and territories to fight climate change.

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Wolverines are having a moment and Colorado will now participate in that moment by reintroducing the endangered species to the state.

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Brazil will be the host country for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2025, but to do so they will be carving up an Amazonian reserve.

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The International Botanical Congress has voted to change the names of more than two hundred plants, algae, and fungi species, removing a racial slur that was a part of the names.

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The black market trade in wildlife is threatening bats. Add this to the threats of climate change and habitat loss.

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It's not just Canada that is burning; California, too, is fighting some of the biggest wildfires of the year.  

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The ethereal and graceful Red-tailed Tropicbird, a bird native to Hawaii and other oceanic islands and coral atolls throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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The Audubon Society has suggestions for the best plants to grow to attract and shelter birds.

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A new study by Brazilian scientists has determined that wild sharks in the seas off the coast of the country have tested positive for cocaine, astonishing proof of how illegal drug consumption by humans is harming wildlife. How the cocaine actually made its way into the sharks' system is unknown.

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It seems that humans share some cognitive abilities with fruit bats.

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Life on Mars? Maybe.

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Komodo dragons are astonishing creatures and one of their amazing features is that their teeth are iron-coated which helps to keep them sharp and resistant to wear.

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Here's a look at another extraordinary creature - an arthropod that lived half a billion years ago.

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Giraffes as peace ambassadors? Well, stranger things have happened.

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My favorite picture from this week - July's full moon, variously known as the Buck Moon or Thunder Moon. It calls to mind the poem I loved as a child, The Wind and the Moon by George Macdonald.