Column: Predator guards critical for bird nest boxes


Niles Daily Star, MI – Mar 22, 2014

Thursday, March 22, 2014 10:32 AM EDT

It happens to me every year. I have great intentions of getting my bird houses in tip top shape, however, as spring starts to creep in, there always seems to be more immediate projects.

I assure myself that the weather is still too nasty for birds to start housekeeping but then all of a sudden, it’s too late. They’ve either shunned my unkempt houses or, worse yet, moved in to ones that are so ill prepared that death to the babies is imminent. Birds are on a tight schedule and don’t wait for nice weather to do their thing.
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The Bird Lady: Swallows are not a like in home choices


kitsapsun.com
By Joan Carson
April 1, 2014

“That corner on the barn’s lean-to looks like a good place to put up a swallow house.” That observation was made as my spouse and I sat in the living room. For whatever reason, the view from one window made the barn and its attached structure stand out.

A birdhouse would face northwest, but it would receive sunshine most of the day. The area surrounding it was open, not closed in by trees or other buildings. This would allow the swallows to make their swift approach to the house without any interference.
There was a time when putting up a house for swallows was simple. That isn’t always the case anymore. Four swallow species will nest in man-made nest boxes or on structures built for human use. Barn swallows nest in barns, carports, garages, gazeboes and other outbuildings. Tree swallows and violet-greens nest in birdhouses. Purple martins use artificial gourds and nest boxes.

This column is primarily on the violet-green swallow because of two letters. One was from a reader who wanted to put up the correct house for violet-greens. The other was from a reader who had a helpful hint to pass on to anyone constructing that house.
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Riches of Gomantong Caves

wildasia.net/main/article contributed by Reza Azmi Gomantong Hill is the largest limestone outcrop in the Lower Kinabatangan area, and contains at least nine caves. For centuries, the Gomantong Caves have been renowned for the valuable edible birds’ nests made by two of the four species of swiftlets that roost in the caves. During the harvesting months, […]

Sarawak records sharp rise in wild swiftlet population

ecologyasia.com/news-archives KUCHING: Sarawak has recorded a sharp increase in the population of wild swiftlets following the implementation of a sustainable management plan by the Forest Department for the harvesting of bird’s nest.  Researcher Dr Lim Chan Koon said the number of white-nest swiftlets in a cave in middle Baram, northern Sarawak, had shot up to […]

Bird's nest gatherers arrested in raid in Palawan

bayanihan.org/html/article PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – Armed elements of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) and the Philippine Navy (PN), together with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), raided the Elephant Island here Saturday and arrested about 70 edible bird’s nest gatherers and watchers. The 70 gatherers and watchers were taken to […]

Scientists wait at rare bird’s nest for that condor moment


timesonline.co.uk
Chris Ayres in Los Angeles
A Californian condor has laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since the 1930s, with scientists watching like hawks in the hope that it will hatch any day.

The birth of a condor, one of the largest species of birds on Earth and featured on the coats of arms of several South American countries, would help to reintroduce the massive scavengers to the skies of Mexico several decades after being wiped out there.
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A Field Study on the Effects of Fort Morgan Virus, an Arbovirus Transmitted by Swallow Bugs, on the Reproductive Success of Cliff Swallows and Symbiotic House Sparrows in Morgan County, Colorado, 1976*


www.ajtmh.org/cgi
Thomas W. Scott, G. Stephen Bowen AND Thomas P. Monath
Division of Vector-Borne Viral Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Public Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services, P.O. Box 2087, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522
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