BirdLife News-Bytes

Tracking reveals songbirds' route - The migration routes of two species of songbirds have been tracked for the first time, say scientists. They fitted tags to Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina and Purple Martin Progne subisin the north-east of the US before the birds began their journey to central and South America. Data recovered from the devices showed that the birds took much longer to complete the autumnal migration than the return journey north in the spring. For more informaiton, click here.

BirdLife Europe e-news - In the latest issue of the BirdLife European Newsletter you will read about a project to save Dalmatian Pelican Pelecanus crispus in the Romanian Danube delta, the designation of Polish IBAs into SPAs, the launch of the Portuguese Atlas of breeding birds and much more! You can download the newsletter here.

Luzon Buttonquail - Hunters recently caught a Luzon Buttonquail Turnix worcesteri in the Caraballo mountain range, Luzon, Philippines. The buttonquail's breeding area remains unknown though ornithologists suspect it resides in the high mountain grasslands of the Cordillera mountain range to the west of the Caraballos on the main island of Luzon. Named after Dean Conant Worcester, an American zoologist who worked in the Philippines in the early 20th century, the Luzon Buttonquail is currently classified as Data Deficient. It appears to be rare, however buttonquails are a notoriously cryptic and unobtrusive family of birds, and the species could conceivably occur in reasonable numbers somewhere.

Fish-eye view of bird attack - The video below shows what it looks like to be a fish attacked by a kingfisher - from the fish's point of view! Don't forget to keep updated of BirdLife videos by subscribing to our YouTube account - www.youtube.com/user/BirdLifeVideo