:: Unofficially for now, Neil Hayward has broken the standing ABA Big Year record of 745 species set by Sandy Komito in 1998. On December 28th, a sighting of a Great Skua put Hayward’s total at 746 (+ 3 provisionals).
:: A mystery illness has killed at least 16 Bald Eagles in Utah
:: A Chickadee’s brain expands in volume by 30 percent each fall to help it remember where it’s cached food for the coming winter
:: An article from Salon on the overuse of Red-tailed Hawk calls in movies, especially when the bird portrayed isn’t a Red-tailed Hawk.
:: Some researchers in Wisconsin are conducting a project for tracking Snowy Owls called Project SNOWstorm
Great posts in birding blogs this week:
:: From Greg at the ABA Blog: Hayward vs Komito: A Look at the Playing Field
:: From Alex at Flight of the Scrub-Jay: 12/21 – Fairfield to Madison
:: From Eileen at Birding is Fun: Birding Curacao
:: From Andy at Limeybirder: Ookpiks in Brooklyn
:: From Clare at 10,000 Birds: Christmas Day Birding Around Broome
:: From Josh at Ontario Birds and Herps: 2013 Year in Review – part 1
:: From Grant at The Birder’s Library: 2013 Bird Books of the Year
