Birds

An endangered whooping crane set for release into the wild in Wisconsin died this month after contracting highly pathogenic avian influenza. It’s the first confirmed whooping crane death caused by HPAI, according to the International Crane Foundation.

New album ‘Lifer’ features 10 original songs written from a bird’s-eye view, with bird calls weaved into the instrumentals.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is accepting submissions for Game Bird Observation through the end of August and Operation Deer Watch until Sept. 30. 

Madison resident and wildlife photographer Alan Ginsberg has been chronicling a sandhill crane family that’s adopted a goose as one of its own to the delight of neighbors and a growing fan base.

A bald eagle that nearly died from a leg injury took flight this summer in northwestern Wisconsin, after it was rehabilitated for nearly a year using a first-of-its-kind cod fish skin graft treatment primarily used in humans. 

Instead of hiking through the woods to find and identify birds, the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin set up lawn chairs and blankets and waited for the birds to come to them.

The prairie chicken of central Wisconsin is an elusive grouse that is rarely seen, and its conservation efforts are connected to Aldo Leopold. But over the past 70 years, the prairie chicken population has steeply declined.

The Verona Public Library has debuted floor-to-ceiling translucent dot stickers on its 35-foot tall glass windows. The treatment comes after volunteer citizen scientists documented 88 bird deaths while periodically surveying the windows since 2021.

With drone surveys already being adopted in parts of the U.S. and internationally to track species ranging from elephants to marine mammals, Amanda Griswold’s findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge about how aerial monitoring can support wildlife management on a broader scale.

More than 2,000 volunteers are set to participate in this year’s Annual Midwest Crane Count, a long-running citizen science program.