BIRDS — KIWIKIU — Hundreds of bird species are on a track toward extinction. If these species blink out, we’ll have just one species to blame: ours. — PLANET EARTH URBAN LANDSCAPES group

All PLANET EARTH groups supports:

Sierra Club* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) * American Bird Conservancy

PLANET EARTH URBAN LANDSCAPES has over 1,000 members and over 49,000 photos and videos.

KIWIKIU

The Kiwikiu lives as long as 16 years, choosing a single mate and remaining loyal throughout its life. Reproducing slowly, usually producing only a single chick every year or two, the young birds mature slowly, too. Immature birds remain with their parents from five months to over a year.

The Kiwikiu uses its heavy, specialized bill to split branches and extract insect larvae, the bird’s primary prey.

Top Contributors

tango-Boris (architectural photography)Helmut ReicheltRafael Gomez – http://micamara.esRNRobert

SIERRA CLUB — BUMBLEBEES NEED A DIVERSE DIET TOO — SEPIA PHOTOGRAPHY — PLANET EARTH LANDSCAPES group

All PLANET EARTH groups supports:

Sierra Club* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) * American Bird Conservancy

PLANET EARTH LANDSCAPES has over 7,000 members and over 347,000 photos and videos. 

Queen honeybees have a pretty cushy life. Living inside the hive, worker bees take care of most tasks like collecting pollen and nectar, producing honey, and fixing up the hive. But that’s not the case for queen bumblebees. For most of their life, the fuzzy, fat, black-and-yellow bees in the genus Bombus fly solo and have to fatten up after hibernation, found a colony, and raise a batch of baby workers before they get a day off. Those weeks as a single mother are perilous for bumblebees, which rely on early-blooming flowers to survive the spring. A new study shows that the more diverse the flowers the queen bees can access, the better off the bees are in the long run.

Unlike queen honeybees, Apis mellifera, which can live for years and overwinter in their hives, the bumblebee life cycle is annual. In the fall, after mating with a male drone, new queen bumblebees dig a cavity in the ground to overwinter. When they emerge in the spring, it’s their job to find a new nest site, which can be a cavity in a tree, a hole in the ground, or even a nice tussock of grass. But searching for real estate is hard work, and the bees need to eat flower pollen for protein and sip nectar for sugar as they go about their business. 

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tango-stumbleonl4tsRNRobertMicheline Canal

BIRDS — FEEDER WATCH CAM — PLANET EARTH IN BLACK AND WHITE group

All PLANET EARTH groups supports:

Sierra Club* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) * American Bird Conservancy

PLANET EARTH IN BLACK AND WHITE has over 3,800 members and over 173,000 photos and videos. 

Cornell FeederWatch Cam

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alexinatempaJohn KocijanskiSARK S-Wl4tsValt3r Rav3ra – DEVOted!

UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR) — PLANET EARTH OUR HOME group

All PLANET EARTH groups supports:

Sierra Club* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) * American Bird Conservancy

PLANET EARTH OUR HOME is our flagship group with over 12,000 members and over 875,000 photos and videos.

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Contests Every Month

Yemen’s ‘marginalized ones’ endure hunger, displacement

Conflict and displacement have compounded centuries of discrimination against Yemen’s Muhamasheen minority, denying access to jobs, documentation and humanitarian aid.

AMRAN, Yemen – It was past noon, the time when Mariam would normally start preparing lunch for her children. But today, she and her extended family of 14 have not yet had their breakfast; the cold firepit in the corner of their tent an unwelcome reminder that they last ate more than a day ago.

Top Contributors

John Horstman (itchydogimages, SINOBUG)alpenglowtravelersDiegojack–MARCO POLO–tucker.tterence

BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM — STAIRS — PLANET EARTH ARCHITECTURE group

All PLANET EARTH groups supports:

Sierra Club* United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) * American Bird Conservancy

PLANET EARTH ARCHITECTURE has over 6,000 members and over 297,000 photos and videos.

Biodiversity loss: urgent need for forest, ocean protection and dietary change:

Paris, France – The UN’s biodiversity report warning of mass species loss due to human impacts must spark urgent action to protect the world’s forests and oceans and lead to sweeping change in agriculture and food production and consumption.

The global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services from the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warned that 1 million species are at risk of extinction, more than at any time in human history.

Top Contributors

Josef Lex (El buen soldado Švejk)Michael Lockeroba66Ximo MichavilaRafael Gomez –

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