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BIRDING ADVENTURES TV NEWS Greetings!
The BATV crew have just returned from a wonderful trip to Portugal where we stayed at the beautiful property of Paradise in Portugal, a really bird friendly establishment complete with a full-time dedicated bird guide! We visited several notable birding spots in South Portugal on this trip and managed to find some wonderful species like Blue Rock Thrush, Rock Buntings, European Roller, European Bee-eater, Great Spotted Cuckoo and the magnificent Great Bustards, our Golden Bird.  A male Great Bustard displayimg Be sure to catch the Ridgway's Hawk show when it airs for the first time this week on Fox Sports Net. Join our Facebook page where you will get sneak previews of shows, updates on our travels and much more!
Congratulations to the winner of our last quizz, Sherrie Roden of Texas! And be sure to enter this week's quizz. Stay tuned for another Birding Adventure! 
THE TV SHOW WHERE BIRDS OF A FEATHER ADVENTURE TOGETHER
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ALAOTRA GREBE DECLARED EXTINCT BY BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL! BirdLife International has announced, in the 2010 IUCN Red List update for birds, the extinction of Alaotra Grebe Tachybaptus rufolavatus. Restricted to a tiny area of east Madagascar, this species declined rapidly after carnivorous fish were introduced to the lakes in which it lived. This, along with the use of nylon gill-nets by fisherman which caught and drowned birds, has driven this species into the abyss.
Alaotra Grebe by Chris Rose "No hope now remains for this species. It is another example of how human actions can have unforeseen consequences", said Dr Leon Bennun, BirdLife International's Director of Science, Policy and Information. "Invasive alien species have caused extinctions around the globe and remain one of the major threats to birds and other biodiversity."
Another wetland species suffering from the impacts of introduced aliens is Zapata Rail Cyanolimnas cerverai from Cuba. It has been uplisted to Critically Endangered and is under threat from introduced mongooses and exotic catfish. An extremely secretive marsh-dwelling species, the only nest ever found of this species was described by James Bond, a Caribbean ornithologist and the source for Ian Fleming's famous spy's name.
And it's not just aliens. Wetlands the world over, and the species found in them, are under increasing pressures.
In Asia and Australia, numbers of once common wader species such as Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris and Far Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis are dropping rapidly as a result of drainage and pollution of coastal wetlands. The destruction of inter-tidal mudflats at Saemangeum in South Korea, an important migratory stop-over site, correlated to a 20% decline in the world population of Great Knot. Huge flocks of these birds once visited northern Australia, but annual monitoring by scientists have found corresponding declines in numbers.
"Wetlands are fragile environments, easily disturbed or polluted, but essential not only for birds and other biodiversity but also for millions of people around the world as a source of water and food", said Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's Global Research and Indicators Coordinator.
BirdLife International has announced, in the 2010 IUCN Red List update for birds, the extinction of Alaotra Grebe Tachybaptus rufolavatus. Restricted to a tiny area of east Madagascar, this species declined rapidly after carnivorous fish were introduced to the lakes in which it lived. This, along with the use of nylon gill-nets by fisherman which caught and drowned birds, has driven this species into the abyss.
Alaotra Grebe by Chris Rose "No hope now remains for this species. It is another example of how human actions can have unforeseen consequences", said Dr Leon Bennun, BirdLife International's Director of Science, Policy and Information. "Invasive alien species have caused extinctions around the globe and remain one of the major threats to birds and other biodiversity."
Another wetland species suffering from the impacts of introduced aliens is Zapata Rail Cyanolimnas cerverai from Cuba. It has been uplisted to Critically Endangered and is under threat from introduced mongooses and exotic catfish. An extremely secretive marsh-dwelling species, the only nest ever found of this species was described by James Bond, a Caribbean ornithologist and the source for Ian Fleming's famous spy's name.
And it's not just aliens. Wetlands the world over, and the species found in them, are under increasing pressures.
In Asia and Australia, numbers of once common wader species such as Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris and Far Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis are dropping rapidly as a result of drainage and pollution of coastal wetlands. The destruction of inter-tidal mudflats at Saemangeum in South Korea, an important migratory stop-over site, correlated to a 20% decline in the world population of Great Knot. Huge flocks of these birds once visited northern Australia, but annual monitoring by scientists have found corresponding declines in numbers.
"Wetlands are fragile environments, easily disturbed or polluted, but essential not only for birds and other biodiversity but also for millions of people around the world as a source of water and food", said Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's Global Research and Indicators Coordinator.
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| RIDGWAY'S HAWK! Ridgway's Hawk (Buteo ridgwayi) is a raptor in the family Accipitridae. Despite the name, this bird is a buteo buzzard and not a true Accipiter hawk. The Ridgway's Hawk's original breeding range included Haiti and the Domican Republic (which make up the island of Hispaniola) and some of the adjacent isles and keys. As of 2006, its only known population resides within Los Haitises National Park in the northeastern Dominican Republic, which is mostly covered by wet limestone forest.
This is a medium-sized, compact hawk, 36-41 cm long. The adult has brown-grey upperparts, greyish barred underparts with a reddish-brown wash, rufous-tinged thighs and a black-and-white barred tail. The male is greyer than the female. The legs and base of bill are yellow. Immature birds have buffy white underparts with grey and brown streaks.
This bird feeds on small mammals, birds, lizards and snakes. It nests in the crowns of tall trees, with nest-building in February and March and egg-laying in March and April.
This bird is critically endangered due to clearance of its forest habitat and persecution by local farmers, who erroneously believe the species preys on domestic fowl, even though reptiles comprise up to 90% of its diet. It has an estimated population of 80-120 pairs,making it, along with the Bay-breasted Cuckoo (Coccyzus rufigularis), the most threatened bird of Hispaniola.
Catch the quest for this beautiful bird this week on BATV!  The critically endangered Ridgway's Hawk |
BATV WEEKLY QUIZZ
Clue: A chat of sorts Mate! The winner (first correct entry drawn) will be announced in next week's newsletter. Congratulations to our last winner, Sherrie Roden of Texas, who correctly identified our last mystery bird as an Olive-sided Flycatcher! Sherrie won an attachable Nikon lens cleaning cloth and a $10 voucher for www.nikonprogear.com. |
TV SCHEDULE We will be airing the following new shows and re-runs this week on Fox Sports Net. Our upcoming immediate schedule is as follows: Week of May 27 Ridgway's Hawk - Dominican Republic Week of June 3 Rainbow Pitta - Northern Territory Australia RE-RUN Week of June 10 Great Bustards - Portugal 
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Happy Birding,
The Birding Adventures Team PS - Check out the awesome deal Nikon is offering. Click on the "Take it to the Edg" banner below. 
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