The eighth in a series of occassional rundowns of what’s happening in the world of birds, birding and bird blogging. This is the final installment for 2008.

Hawk flying over marsh

The CatBib Will Stop Your Cat From Catching Birds! | The CatBib was invented by a bird-feeding, cat-loving gardener in Springfield, Oregon, USA. This unique, patented product protects wild birds whenever your cat is outdoors. Here is a link to the video showing how the bib works.

An Eagle Christmas Story | This could have been a story of terrible cruelty with a sad ending. Fortunately, there are some very good people in this world and one young eagle will have a good Christmas.  From The City Birder

Turn your Christmas tree into a bird sanctuary | Your glorious Christmas tree dazzled through the holiday season with sparkling and treasured ornaments. Give that lovely Christmas tree another life by creating a winter bird sanctuary. Bird families can enjoy your tree as a backyard habitat. Decorate your tree as a feeding station during the winter when food is scarce for birds. The tree’s branches also furnish protection from wind and shelter from predators. From St. Louis Today

Female Red-breasted Merganser

The Spotted Owl’s New Nemesis | An epic battle between environmentalists and loggers left much of the spotted owl’s habitat protected. Now the celebrity species faces a new threat—a tougher owl. From Smithsonian.com

Avian airlines: Alaska to New Zealand nonstop | Tracked bar-tailed godwits set new nonstop flight record for birds: In an avian flight of epic proportions, a female bar-tailed godwit lifted off from her Alaskan breeding ground and flew south 11,680 kilometers, nonstop, until she reached her winter home in New Zealand. From sciencenews.org

Hawaii’s honeyeater birds tricked taxonomists | DNA from old museum specimens reveals evolutionary look-alikes: Five species of Hawaiian birds have made fools of taxonomists for more than 200 years, thanks to a fine bit of evolutionary illusion-making. From Science News

Snowy owl — a marine species? | Wildlife satellite studies could lead to a radical re-thinking about how the snowy owl fits into the Northern ecosystem. “Six of the adult females that we followed in a satellite study spent most of last winter far out on the Arctic sea ice.” From Biology New Net

What trouble can I get into?

 Happy birding!

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