Return of Bird of the Week: Masked Crimson Tanager
This species is another of nine members of the genus Ramphocelus, a cousin of last week’s Crimson-backed Tanager. This species is endemic to upper Amazonia and is rarely found far from water, for example. in várzea forest or oxbow lakes. It is usually found in groups, which generally keep reasonably low in the vegetation, and the species as a whole ranges from southeast Colombia south to northernmost Bolivia, and east into central Amazonian Brazil. The dramatic black mask and wing against the bright red body makes this an easy species to identify in the field. It’s usually found alone, but sometimes forages in…
Alaska Mining Project Threatens Salmon, Water, and Native Communities
Trump Administration officials have fast-tracked permits for the largest open-pit mine in North America. The proposed Pebble Mine had previously seemed paralyzed, after more than a decade of relentless opposition by Alaska Native elders and youth. Now, plans for the mine are being rushed forward. The final public comment period for the proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) permits ends on June 29, 2019. Under the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote that it would result in a “complete loss of fish habitat” (PDF) in a proposed determination to block Pebble Mine. The mine is planned to…
Return of Bird of the Week: Crimson-backed Tanager
Not all of the tanagers are yellow and blue. This is the Crimson-backed Tanager, a species native to northwestern South America and Panama. It’s sexually dichromatic; the males have a slightly swollen, white lower mandible, shown here. While the species is not well studied, it appears to adapt reasonably well to human alteration of the tropical landscape. It’s common in cities and disturbed areas. It was the first bird WC and Mrs. WC saw from their hotel window a quarter mile from the Panama City airport. Based on Breeding Bird Survey, the population is stable, even if the population size…
Gov. holds education funding hostage
TALL TALES from Juneau Eyes on the Dunleavy/Babcock administration The Final Battle CONVENIENTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL This week the discussion in the Capitol focused a lot on education and its funding. The first thing to know is that the Alaska Constitution requires adequate funding for education. It’s pretty cut and dried. That’s the backdrop. The conflict comes because – remember how the governor and his people were all fired up about slashing public education funding this year? His first budget called for hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts. But what they hadn’t counted on is that education had already been forward-funded…
Return of Bird of the Week: Silvery-backed Tanager
Another spectacular tanager, the Silver-backed Tanager, feeding on a berry on the grounds of the hotel where were staying. It’s also called a Silvery Tanager, but that seems less descriptive to WC. Officially it’s Tangara viridicollis, the same genus as last week’s Saffron-crowned Tanager. But that’s no particular distinction, there are fifty-some species in the genus Tangara, most of them ridiculously spectacularly colorful. But unlike most Tangara species, the Silver-backed Tanager is strongly dichromatic. The female is very different. (No, it’s not a very good photo; an extremely uncooperative subject. But good enough to illustrate the point.) Silvery-backed Tanagers are omnivorous, eating fruits, nuts…
The call is coming from inside the House!
The End is Just the Beginning… DAY 122 IS DAY 1 The regular legislative session is over. The constitution says that the 121st day shall be the last! Unless of course they extend it for 10 days. Or unless someone calls a special session to deal with particular legislation, which is exactly what happened last night. Before legislators gaveled out, or had the chance to call themselves back to special session, Gov. Mike Dunleavy summoned the press to tell them that he’d be calling a special session on the crime bill, the PFD, and the budget. No…
Return of Bird of the Week: Saffron-crowned Tanager
We’re looking at Tanagers for the next few weeks. Today, please meet the Saffron-crowned Tanager. It’s pure flash. This species occurs through the Andes from Venezuela south to Bolivia, and occupies humid montane forests and secondary woodlands. Due to human destruction of habitat, ornithologists are concerned that the population numbers may be decreasing; however an accurate estimate of the population size is unavailable. If you’ve been to Machu Pichu, you know just how rugged and difficult this species’ native terrain is, and why so little is know about it. Saffron-crowned Tanagerhas a bluish green body with black chin and eye…
Return of Bird of the Week: Golden-hooded Tanager
It’s been more than a year since WC blogged about Tanagers, the most colorful bird family in the Neotropics. WC will attempt to make up for the lapse by focusing on Thraupidae, the tanager family, for the next few weeks on the birds of the week. There are an astonishing 380 or so species in the family Thraupidae. WC has photos of about 100 of them, although not all are even close to presentation quality. So we could have nothing but tanagers for quite a while. We’ll see. We’ll start with one of the colorful species, the Golden-hooded Tanager. In…
Where’s the $3000, and Who’s Vetting These People?
TALL TALES from Juneau Eyes on the Dunleavy/Babcock Administration The big news today is that the Senate passed their version of the budget, and everyone’s talking about how it contains a $3000 PFD, which is true. But lots of other things happened, and we’ll get to that in a moment. But before we do, there are a couple other happenings worth noting. “WHO’S VETTING THESE PEOPLE?” Stephen Moore Alaskans have been saying that since the very beginning of the Dunleavy appointment process. Remember Quick & Chance? No, not a quaint Dickensian law firm – the first two casualties of…
Return of Bird of the Week: Black-capped Donacobius
The last few weeks we’ve been looking at Oropendolas, members of the Icterid family of birds, a family with dozens of members. Today we visit a monotypic family of birds, whose single member is the Black-capped Donacobius. In WC’s lifetime, this species has been considered a Mimid, like a thrasher or a mocking birds, a wren, and now a monotypic. And there are suggestions it may be a member of an Old Word family of warblers. So much for certainty. It’s a handsome bird, mates for life and is almost always seen in pairs. It’s a cooperative breeder; the kids…