News
Extreme weather is hitting baby birds hard in a 60-year study
2026-05-11 17:10:22
Date:
March 12, 2026
Source:
University of Oxford
Summary:
Decades of data from over 80,000 great tits reveal that extreme weather can shape the fate of baby birds. Cold snaps soon after hatching and heavy rain later in development shrink nestling body mass and reduce survival odds. But moderate warm spells can actually help chicks grow by boosting insect activity and feeding opportunities. Birds that breed earlier in the season seem better protected from these weather shocks.
Fowl play: The criminals stealing elite racing pigeons
2026-04-26 18:38:51
60 Minutes
By Sharyn Alfonsi, Aliza Chasan, Guy Campanile
April 26, 2026 / 7:00 PM EDT / CBS News
Tom Van Gaver awoke to find that someone had broken in and swiped his most prized possession, a 1-pound pigeon named Finn.
The untrained eye wouldn't detect anything special in the 11-inch-tall pigeon, but Finn was incredibly quick and strong. By the time he was 1, he had won multiple championships in Belgium. He was a flying Secretariat — and a priceless stud. Van Gaver sold Finn's offspring for up to $100,000 each.
"It's like the Mona Lisa from the pigeon sport they stole," Van Gaver said.
The black-and-white surveillance video from November 2024 shows a masked thief carefully inspecting and stuffing seven of Van Gaver's pigeons into a bag. Van Gaver said in court filings that, in all, the value of the stolen birds was more than $1.6 million.
Finn's abduction was among 35 pigeon robberies across Belgium over the last three years, part of an avian crime wave that has spread to Great Britain, South Africa and the United States, perpetrated by what insiders call the "pigeon mafia."
Pigeon racing
There's more to pigeons than their reputation as the "rats of the sky." Pigeons have an extraordinary ability to find their nests despite traveling vast distances, a homing instinct so reliable it was first used in ancient Egypt and was still being relied upon by militaries as recently as World War II. The quickest pigeons average about 60 miles per hour, hitting 100 mph with strong tail winds.
Pigeon racing began in Belgium in the 1800s. Local breeders, known as fanciers, would release their birds far from home and measure the time and distance covered to return.
A modern variation, called one loft racing, is where the big money is, with prizes topping $1 million at races in South Africa, Thailand and the United States. Fanciers ship their most promising young birds, just 45 to 60 days old, to a single host loft months before race day, so the pigeons can learn to recognize it as home. Each entry costs hundreds of dollars. The more pigeons in the race, the larger the pot becomes.
The pigeons spend months becoming acclimated. Trainers release them at incrementally greater distances — 5 miles, then 10, 20, 50, and 75. Each time, the pigeons have to find their way back. Some don't make it, lost to weather or predators.
60 Minutes got a firsthand look at the sport in October at the Algarve Golden Race in Portugal, where 7,400 pigeons from more than 30 countries competed, with 3,334 birds in the final. Each was scanned into a database by leg band, driven 300 miles from the loft and released. Six hours later, a spotter blew a whistle: the leaders were circling. The first pigeon into the loft won its owner the biggest cut of the $1.2 million purse.
The day after the race, the top finishers are auctioned to fanciers hoping to breed the next generation of champions. But those prices are chicken feed compared to what elite pigeons fetch on the largest auction platform in the sport.
Pigeon Paradise
In 1998, at 18, Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, launched a news website for breeders called Pigeon Paradise, PIPA for short, and started auctioning birds online. Today, PIPA is the Sotheby's of the sport, doing about $46 million in pigeon sales a year.
About half of those sales go to Chinese buyers. The record was set in 2020, when a Belgian hen named New Kim sold for $1.8 million. China has more than 400,000 registered pigeon fanciers and races with purses that can exceed $16 million.
"If we don't have China, it would be very hard to run the business," Gyselbrecht said. "Because they make the price."
As the fastest pigeons became a global status symbol and prize money soared, the bad guys moved in.
The "pigeon mafia"
Fanciers and investigators said they believe international gangs are behind smuggling networks that breed stolen pigeons and sell their offspring on the black market to buyers anxious to supercharge their bloodlines. In a brazen attempt in December, a briefcase filled with pigeons stuffed in socks was intercepted at Latvia's border with Russia.
Back in Belgium, the search for Tom Van Gaver's stolen birds was gaining ground. Sources close to the investigation told 60 Minutes police combed through security footage and cellphone data from near Van Gaver's property and from a dozen other robberies.
The trail led to a Brussels suburb and the home of a Romanian pigeon fancier. Romanian police 1,200 miles away searched the homes of the fancier's relatives. In all, 165 pigeons were recovered; 87 appeared to be birds stolen from Belgium. The recovered birds were taken to a secure loft near Brussels, overseen by Belgium's national pigeon federation, and police arranged for DNA testing to match each bird to its rightful owner since the identification rings on all the pigeon's legs had been snipped off.
The race to protect pigeons
With the "pigeon mafia" on the loose, panicked fanciers across Belgium installed motion detectors, laser sensors and surveillance cameras around their lofts. Some, worried about letting thieves know they were away from home, stopped attending races.
DNA testing has proven to be a weapon against the "pigeon mafia". Veterinarian Ruben Lanckriet, a pioneer in genetic testing on pigeons, maintains a database of more than 70,000 birds stretching back over 10 generations.
"It has been very important in proving parentage, father and mother, for the sale of pigeons," Lanckriet said.
His genetic library offers some protection because a stolen pigeon, or its offspring, can be identified by DNA, making the birds riskier to sell or race.
"Now we can close the case," Lanckriet said.
Lanckriet's analysis helped identify 20 recovered pigeons, including two of Finn's grandchildren. Finn himself was not among them.
Eight co-conspirators were convicted after the investigation into Finn's theft, with the mastermind sentenced to 30 months in jail. But he won't reveal where all the stolen pigeons were taken.
The case hasn't quite been closed for Van Gaver, who is still looking skyward for Finn.
"Where are the pigeons? Give them back," he said. "I want my pigeon back."
Extreme weather is hitting baby birds hard in a 60-year study
2026-04-24 17:34:43
March 12, 2026
Source:
University of Oxford
Summary:
Decades of data from over 80,000 great tits reveal that extreme weather can shape the fate of baby birds. Cold snaps soon after hatching and heavy rain later in development shrink nestling body mass and reduce survival odds. But moderate warm spells can actually help chicks grow by boosting insect activity and feeding opportunities. Birds that breed earlier in the season seem better protected from these weather shocks.
Discover the Hidden World of Bird Nests and Eggs with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
2026-04-19 14:59:15
New self-paced, online course explores nests and eggs just in time for spring
April 6, 2026
ITHACA, N.Y.—In North America, spring has sprung—birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and soon birds will start building nests and raising their young. Spring is an exciting time to witness nature come back to life, but the captivating drama of nest construction and chick-rearing is often hidden from our view. Those intimate moments are often difficult to observe in the wild, but a new course released today from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology pulls back the curtain on this secretive world. This self-paced online course takes you behind the scenes to discover the fascinating biology of nests, eggs, and the complex behaviors that make successful breeding possible, allowing you to fully experience the wonder of spring’s most remarkable phenomenon.
Dead, dying seabirds continue to wash up along San Diego County coast
2026-04-19 14:54:00
Author: Brian White
Published: 5:51 PM PDT April 17, 2026
Updated: 5:51 PM PDT April 17, 2026
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Beachgoers across San Diego County are encountering a troubling and increasingly common sight with dead or struggling seabirds washing up along the coast from La Jolla to Carlsbad.
Some birds are so weak, they’re approaching people. It's behavior wildlife experts say is highly unusual.
“These cormorants are kind of wandering… they are starving to death,” said Jeni Smith, a rescue program curator at SeaWorld San Diego.
Smith says her team has been inundated with calls since mid-February.
“SeaWorld is receiving calls all day, every day during the night,” she said.
So far, rescue crews have taken in more than 115 birds, primarily Brandt’s cormorants, brown pelicans and common murres. The pace is picking up, with teams now responding to four to five rescues a day, many involving cormorants in critical condition.
Wildlife officials say starvation appears to be the primary cause, and it may be tied to what’s happening offshore.
Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography have recorded near-record ocean temperatures for months, creating what’s known as a marine heat wave. The warmer water is pushing fish into deeper, cooler areas, making it harder for diving birds to find food.
“It’s definitely hard to see that these animals aren’t able to find their food source,” Smith said. “They’re starving, they are very, very emaciated.”
Rescuers say many of the birds they receive are lethargic, underweight and, in some cases, showing neurological symptoms. Inside SeaWorld’s rescue center, care is intensive. Birds are first stabilized with fluids and a specialized feeding formula described as a “fish milkshake” before gradually transitioning back to solid food.
Despite the grim trend, there have been small signs of hope.
Earlier this week, SeaWorld teams released five rehabilitated birds, including a brown pelican, back into the ocean.
“When we have success and return the animals and they fly away or swim away, it’s a great feeling,” Smith said.
Still, the scale of the die-off is striking.
A New Atlas Maps the Invisible Journeys of Migratory Birds Across the Americas Andrea Ferreira | March 26, 2026 | News
2026-04-05 11:41:55
At any given moment, billions of birds are on the move across the Americas crossing forests, wetlands, grasslands, and coastlines in journeys that span entire continents. These migrations connect ecosystems thousands of kilometers apart. What happens in one place can shape outcomes in another.
Until now, understanding those connections on scale has been a major challenge.
Launched at the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) COP15 in Brazil, the Americas Flyways Atlas offers a new way forward, transforming decades of data into a tool that helps governments, conservation practitioners, and partners identify where action matters most.
Developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in collaboration with CMS and partners across the hemisphere, the Atlas maps critical breeding, migration, and non-breeding areas for migratory bird species. Drawing on millions of observations contributed through the eBird platform, it identifies “Bird Concentration Areas”—key sites where species gather in large numbers throughout their annual cycles.
At its core, the Atlas makes something abstract—connectivity—visible.
“We talk about connectivity all the time—how migratory species depend on networks of sites across countries,” said Rob Clay, CMS Appointed Scientific Councilor for Birds to CMS. “But while it’seasy to say, it’s much harder to make that concept tangible and actionable. This Atlas helps visualize what connectivity really means.”
CMS COP15 provides hope for declining shorebird species in the Americas
2026-04-05 11:36:29
At the recently concluded 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) held in Campo Grande, Brazil, governments took decisive steps to strengthen shorebird conservation in the Americas. The Hudsonian Whimbrel Numenius hudsonicus, Hudsonian Godwit Limosa haemastica, and Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes were added to Appendix I, while Parties also adopted a Concerted Action proposal from the governments of Chile and Argentina to support the recovery of the Magellanic Plover Pluvianellus socialis.