News: The week in bird news

• A Florida man was arrested in Miami trying to smuggle sixteen Cuban Grassquits in his pants.

• Another case of smuggling.  A Czech man was arrested trying to smuggle bird eggs into Australia.

• An amazing video showing Barn Swallows apparently using the automatic doors on a parking garage so they can return to the previous years nesting site.

• Scientists believe a crash in the Pacific Sardine population is causing a catastrophic failure of Brown Pelican nest through California.

• Some good news:  Golden Eagles in California might be adapting to wind turbines and learning to avoid them.

• "Moonbird" has returned to Delaware Bay.

News: JFK Airport Contractors kill over 26,000 birds, including over 1,600 that are protected.

According to a report from the Huffington Post:

Wildlife control contractors have shot almost 26,000 birds at John F. Kennedy International Airport over the past five years to stop them interfering with passenger flights — including more than 1,600 protected birds the airport did not have express permission to kill, internal records show....

News: Saudi Royal Prince kills 2k+ endangered birds in Pakistan

Story in the Huffington Post today about a royal prince from Saudi Arabia who was allowed to hunt endangered Houbara Bustards in Pakistan and ended his "hunt" by killing around 2,100 of them.

A Saudi prince reportedly hunted and killed about 2,000 houbara bustards -- birds that are considered to be on the brink of extinction -- during a safari in Pakistan earlier this year.

Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud hunted a total of 1,977 birds, which are globally protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Dawn News reports. An additional 123 bustards were killed by local representatives, bringing the hunt’s death total to 2,100.....

Read the rest at the Huffington Post