Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractals, has died at the age of 85. (see an amazing Science paper by Mandelbrot here)
(see a modest application of fractal geometry to ornithology here)

Thieving parrots hatch a plan to unlock food

NewScientist

Pigeons usually let best navigator take the lead


ScienceNews

For Britain's bird watchers, the final hours of the Lady of the Loch have become a real life drama which has eclipsed the most highly charged episode of EastEnders.
[...]
Tens of thousands of people have followed the trust's blog as she started to show clear signs of dehydration and advanced age. She has seemed confused, listless and in discomfort; appearing unsure how to feed her latest two chicks, both still entirely dependent on Lady and her current, 10-year-old mate.
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A new kind of field guide

QUEST on KQED Public Media.

Grant's lecture about the evolution of Galapago's finches

Tim Birkhead talking about his book "The Wisdom of Birds"

Seabird evolved head feathers as sensory device

(The hummingbird did survive)

See other digiscoping tips at Swarovski Optik Birding Youtube Channel

The Scientist magazine’s annual video contest has been decided, and the Audience Choice award goes to Cornell graduate student Marita Davison and her colleagues Jamie Herring and Jennifer Moslemi!

The team won for a seven-minute episode about Davison’s work on flamingoes high in the Bolivian Andes. Davison is trying to understand the role flamingoes play in regulating the food web in the shallow Andean lakes they live on. Watch and learn about what flamingoes eat, how they eat it—and some of the difficulties inherent in studying them.

The video transports you into Bolivia’s magnificent high-altitude scenery (click on the “full-screen” button on the lower right of the video player for best viewing). I almost felt the thin air in my own lungs as I watched Marita struggle across an expanse of thick lake mud (praying she doesn’t fall) on her way to her study plots. If you’re not actually doing a Ph.D. in Bolivian lake ecology, this is the next best thing. Congratulations Marita, Jamie, and Jennifer!

(Video by Marita Davison, Jamie Herring, and Jennifer Moslemi, Cornell University.)