Author: Frances Monroe

It seems normal, even unremarkable, to see a duck paddling across a calm lake. Beneath its feathers, however, is a biological paradox that has long baffled wildlife researchers and epidemiologists. The bird shows no symptoms of illness and carries one of the most dangerous pathogens in the world, releasing virus particles into soil and water. The waterfowl mystery that underlies the current worldwide bird flu crisis is defined by this imperceptible harmony between host and pathogen. Avian influenza A viruses naturally reside in waterfowl, including ducks, geese, swans, and related species. Waterfowl frequently carry the virus with perfect indifference, in…

Just before high tide, a certain kind of silence descends upon a salt marsh. The cordgrass is nearly motionless. A Saltmarsh Sparrow threads its way through a habitat it has been dependent on for thousands of years, darting low between the stems. Then, as the water rises more quickly than before, that quiet moment begins to feel more like borrowed time than peace. Although most people drive by salt marshes without giving them much thought, they are among the planet’s most productive ecosystems. In addition to serving as nurseries for fish, crustaceans, and numerous bird species that nest virtually nowhere…

At dawn, a certain type of silence descends upon a coastal wetland, one that is noticeable when it abruptly breaks. In recent seasons, shorebirds have disturbed the tranquility along the tidal flats of Capiz in the western Visayas region of the Philippines, a surprise to ecologists. Many of them. More than normal. Furthermore, in science, it is rarely cause for celebration when nature does something unexpected in large quantities; instead, it is usually cause for concern. Ornithologists and wetland ecologists working throughout the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, one of the busiest and most ecologically stressed bird migration corridors on the planet,…

Seeing a robin land on a garden fence with the knowledge that the waterways it drinks from might contain bacteria that no antibiotic can eradicate is subtly unsettling. It’s getting harder to hold that image innocently, even though it seems ordinary and even charming on the surface. The implications of the discovery of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in UK passerines—the tiny songbirds that inhabit British gardens and hedgerows—go far beyond ornithology. There is no doubt about the link to tainted rivers. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were found in 97% of river samples tested earlier this year, including locations downstream of sewage treatment facilities. Following…

Scientists claim that there is a point at which data begins to resemble a verdict rather than a trend. For the Arctic, that moment may have already passed. The results of NOAA’s 2024 Arctic Report Card, which was created by 97 researchers from 11 different countries, were released late last year. These findings typically go unnoticed during year-end news cycles, but they most likely shouldn’t. The headline, stripped of all scientific hedging: the Arctic tundra is no longer pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon is now being pushed in. The tundra has reversed after trapping greenhouse gases in frozen…

A barn that once housed tens of thousands of birds but is now empty has a subtly heartbreaking quality. No workers on morning shifts, no noise, and no feed bills. Just the remnants of a company that had been in operation until the day the veterinary officials showed up and gave the order to evacuate. That time has already arrived—more than once—for numerous chicken farmers in Europe, the US, Asia, and other regions. It is truly difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the current avian influenza outbreak. Recent statistics show that the virus has killed or culled over 160 million…

A paradise flycatcher in flight has an almost theatrical quality. You are forced to stop whatever you are doing by that incredibly long tail, which streams behind it like a ribbon pulled through light and shadow. It is the kind of bird that causes novice observers to wonder what they have just witnessed. And it’s getting harder to find that moment of disbelief in the Philippines, where forests used to harbor these creatures in peaceful abundance. Birding communities were talking about the Japanese Paradise Flycatcher that was spotted in Parañaque, Metro Manila, in late 2025, and for good reason. It…

In late June, standing at the water’s edge of a marsh in Saskatchewan, the ground becomes shaky and the reeds thicken. A Western Grebe is perched on a nest somewhere in that tangle of emerging vegetation. You might pass it on foot without even realizing it was there. It glows slightly on a thermal screen when viewed from above with the appropriate camera and a steady drone; once you know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to spot as a warm signature against a cool background. Despite its simplicity, that picture conveys a genuinely helpful insight into the future of…

A sky that was once full but is now empty has a subtle unnerving quality. If you ask any birdwatcher who has spent winter mornings at a wetland reserve in northern England or along the coast of Scotland, they will probably tell you that something has changed, but without any drama, just with a kind of measured sadness. The figures are declining. The species has evolved. And the causes are directly related to events taking place in the Arctic thousands of miles away. The Arctic is warming about four times more quickly than the rest of the world. That number,…

A bird with an eight-foot wingspan soaring over the wetlands of the Norfolk Broads is truly stirring. The white-tailed eagle, which had been extinct in England for more than a century due to persecution by 1918, is making a comeback. And depending on who you speak with, that could be one of the best conservation tales of the decade or the beginning of a gradual catastrophe for the poorest farmers. Like many British rewilding tales, the story starts in Scotland. Young eagles were transported from Norway and released on the Inner Hebrides’ Isle of Rum in 1975. Before the first…