This is a bad photo of a Ridgway Rail. It is, however, perhaps the best photo I’ll ever get as their population declined by 51% between 2007 and 2008.

The question I ask myself a lot though, is “does it really matter?” I mean, there are lots of rails. I’ll be posting about a Guam rail in a few weeks or so. The Guam rail is interesting because it’s story is similar to the Wake Island rail. This was a bird that died out sometime between 1942 and 1945. Why? Well, there was a war on, there was an island and some abandoned soldiers. Basically, it was eaten to extinction … by humans … in living memory.

This is the pattern we’re seeing. On islands, in estuaries, and on mountaintops (or hilltops), animals are restricted in terms of both movement and resources. If something happens to the environment, then they run out escape room and, eventually, die out. When soldiers were stations on Wake Island, they liked the little birds, until they ran out of things to eat. This Ridgeway Rail lives in a very small area that is being developed and, where buildings are built, nests can’t be.

Today, we are seeing a massive extinction rate on these sorts of islands. It makes sense. Not only are humans building into the places that these animals live, but the creatures we bring with us, like rats, cats, and dogs, move into the remaining area and start eating eggs and whatever else they can get ahold of.

The problem is that we are also making new islands. As cities expand, and roads are constructed, we are basically carving up the remaining surface of the planet into a whole lot of little islands. Some animals don’t care. Birds can fly over highways. Deer can cross them. But some can’t. Jaguars won’t cross large roads because it means leaving their woodland, where they are safe. Small butterflies won’t fly across roads because they can eaten by birds if they’re in the open that much. Larger mostly-flightless birds won’t leave their little area because there’s guarantee of what they’ll find.

So as their living space shrinks, the genetics of each population start to homogenize. Thus, in addition to indirect threats like habitat loss/degradation and direct threats like invasive species, there is an internal threat from the species itself. If you cut any species into enough pockets (or islands) it’s not going to survive. We’re seeing this today with the rails. They live on islands and along coasts, so they’re bound to the land. They don’t really fly, so the populations stay static and vulnerable.

So really, we run the risk of losing the Ridgway’s rail just like we lost the Wake Island rail (1940’s), the Chatham rail (1900), the Hawkin’s rail (1900), both species of red rail (mid 18th century), the ascension crake (late 17th century), the Saint Helena swamphen (16th century), the Antillean cave rail, Haitian cave rail, and Cuban cave rail (all in human pre-history).

Will the world survive the loss of the Ridgeway rail or the Guam rail? Yes. They are a niche species and something will come along to fill that niche. However, I think the real question is, how many more species do we have to lose before we hit that one that can’t be replaced, and what do we do then?

This bird lives only in small regions in Columbia and at the bird breeding center. As with many species, it’s greatest threat is habitat destruction. Unlike most species, it’s habitat is under threat due to marijuana plantations.

So, if you care about endangered species, you should also be in favor of decriminalizing pot and buying local, I guess.

Pondering the fact that it would be much more realistic for young Bruce Wayne to fall down a hole and discover a small family of raccoons.

All the roses in the garden, they bow and ask for pardon, for while all could match the beauty of the Viscountess of Ardnamurchan, she was dangerous when angered.

“Give us the Shard and you can go free.”

He’s trying to shout “#AllLiveMatter”, but the hash symbol got stuck in his throat.

One problem with taking photos in a darkened area open to the outside is that the inside is a LOT darker than the outside. So when you want to see the whole bird, you have to overexpose like this.

Then it looks like the photo could have been taken anywhere.

One thing about going behind the scenes to the bird breeding area … not everyone is nicely labeled.

I have no idea who this is. All I know is that it was an extremely difficult shot as it was very far away and behind at least two layers of fencing.

Doesn’t think it fair that, despite all she’s learned and all she’s done, no matter how many she’s rescued, how many evil villains she’s captured, or the number of times she’s saved the planet itself … she’ll always be a lesser flamingo.

Again, from Wikipedia:

Vocalizations
The Southern Bald Ibis is known to be a relatively quiet bird. This species in particular has been noted to make a weak gobbling sound. This is refers back to their old Afrikaans name of “Wilde-Kalkoen”, otherwise translated as “wild turkey”. This bird is most boisterous in the nesting areas and in flight. It projects a high-pitched keeaaw-klaup-klaup call, resembling that of a turkey’s.

OK. It gobbles, so it’s like a turkey. Except, it’s like a turkey that makes a high-pitched “keeaaw-klaup-klaup”, which I’ve never heard a turkey do. That aside though, think about this …

The bird’s name in Afrikaans translates as “wild turkey”. This means that the following must have happened.

* Sometime in ancient history: Europeans go to Turkey and see a guinea fowl, which was actually imported from Africa.
* Sometime in the 1500’s: Europeans go to North America and see a bird that they believe to be related to the guinea fowl (it’s not) and name it after Turkey, the country.
* Sometime in the 1600’s: Europeans go to Southern Africa and, frankly, don’t treat the natives very well.
* Sometime in the 1700’s: Europeans in Southern Africa start making people speak Dutch, but it doesn’t take, and Afrikaans starts to form.
* Sometime in the 1800’s: Afrikaans replaces Malay as a primary language (due to forced schooling) and the old words get lost.
* Sometime after that: Someone points to a bird and says “What’s that?” in Afrikaans. Since it doesn’t have a name in Afrikaans yet, someone who knows what an American Turkey is hears its noise and names it after a North American bird, which is named after a Turkish bird, which is actually an African bird that is entirely different from this particular African bird.
* Sometime after that: It gets written down that way and we’re stuck with it forever.

The Europeans have some things to answer for, is what I’m trying to say here.

This wrinkled hornbill wants to make sure that you download the ACLU app ( https://www.aclu.org/feature/aclu-apps-record-police-conduct ) and put it on both your lock screen and your home screen.

Because you’ll never until it until suddenly you need it and at that point, seconds matter.

I was confused for a while because these plovers looked a lot like the lapwings I’d seen … so I looked it up.

You’ve got your Charadriiformes, which are a bunch of birds that are mostly watery. The sub-order Charadrii are entirely watery, being wading birds. All plovers, lapwings and dotterels are in the family Charadriidae. Lapwings, in particular, are in the sub-family Vanellinae, which are distinguished from the others in Charadriidae as having crests. While all the lapwings are Vanellinae, not all Vanellinae are lapwings because in addition to lapwings, the group Vanellinae includes the red-kneed dotterel.

So it basically works like this:

Kingdom: Animalia (We’ve got cells and can move and eat things.)
Phylum: Chordata (… and a spine)
Class: Aves (… and feathers)
Subclass: Neornithes (… and we’re currently alive)
Infraclass: Neognathae (… and modern jaws.)
Superorder: Neoaves (But we’re not ducks or chickens.)
Order: Charadriiformes (We like water.)
Suborder: Charadrii (We *really* like water.)
Family: Charadriidae (We have short, thick necks. Our wings are usually pointed but sometimes not. Our bills are usually straight, but sometimes not. We usually have short tails, but sometimes not. Our hind toe may or may not exist. OK, it’s a bit of a mess.)
Subfamily: Vanellinae (We have crests.)
Common Name: Lapwing (We fly funny.)

Come and see the confusion inherent in the system.

They claim this is an openbill stork, but the bill sure looks closed to me.

In honor of Independence Day, here is an all American bird.

The San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike lives on an island used by the US Navy for target practice. Due to the importation of goats (and, presumably, bombs), their population dropped down to 14 birds. Today, there are nearly 200. This is due to a combination of the Navy improving the use of their land, such as removing goats (but not, presumably, bombs) and captive breeding.

The graph below is particularly interesting because it shows the value of captive breeding and reintroduction programs. These programs, of course, take a while to take effect as animals must reach sexual maturity, but when they get there, wow.

(Facebook people should click here to see the graph: http://www.iws.org/species_loggerhead_shrike.html )

From Wikipedia: “The Congo peafowl is monogamous, though detailed mating information from the wild is still needed.”

Yeah, sure … “needed”.

Birds evolve different shaped bills for specific purposes.

The ibis has evolved a long, thin, curved, bill to more easily retrieve that cellphone that dropped between the driver’s seat and the center console.

Vultures are known as scavengers or opportunistic feeders. This one just caught a bug*.

Speaking of opportunistic vultures and bugs, you should really update (or stop using) Symantec/Norton Antivirus immediately. Not tonight, not tomorrow, but right now. Technical details here: http://googleprojectzero.blogspot.fr/2016/06/how-to-compromise-enterprise-endpoint.html .

* OK, a mealworm is not technically a bug, but I’d like to see you find a more apt photo on short notice.

Having spent several days reviewing the post-Brexit and pre-election news articles, this stork has determined that, contrary to reporting, neither the US nor UK is “a country divided”.

Both countries do, however, have an unchecked vocal asshole problem.

This stork will not be migrating northward anytime soon.