One of the as-yet nameless birds, completely new to science (Photo copyright Vítor Q Piacentini)

Popular opinion holds that the Amazon is practically bursting at the seams with undiscovered mammals, birds, and plants. But rarely do researchers actually uncover a number of species all in one go. Sometimes they do strike it lucky, though. Recently, researchers listed 15 new bird species—the largest number discovered in the Americas since 40 were described 140 years ago, back in 1871. The culmination of their work will be the inclusion of the 15 species in a book, called Handbook of Birds of the World, to be released later this year.

The gray wolf, at the center of a debate about its status (Photo by USFWSmidwest / CC BY 2.0)

The gray wolf was nearly wiped out 40 years ago, when it was listed as an endangered species. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed delisting the predator, an action that would lift federal protections on gray wolves across the country, leaving the states to manage them. 

A rare photograph of the Hula painted frog (Photo by Mickey Samuni-Black via Wikimedia Commons)

“Amphibian declines are seen as an indicator of the onset of a sixth mass extinction of life on earth,” reads the first line in a paper recently released in Nature Communications—lucky then, that this same paper goes onto describe the rediscovery of a frog that was presumed extinct. 

Puffins landing. (Photo by the US Fish and Wildlife Service / CC BY 2.0)

For Atlantic puffins—whose mournful expressions make them look as though they’ve already got enough to worry about—this spring’s puffin census on the Isle of May, off Scotland’s east coast, thankfully brought some good news. 

 When it comes to mating, this frog is hardly coy (Photo by Geoff Gallice / CC BY 2.0)

Amid stories of the US’s declining amphibian populations last week, the female strawberry poison frog has brought us some light relief. It appears that for her, rather comically, when it comes to choosing a mate there isn’t any complicated analysis going on. In fact, female strawberry poison frogs just tend to grab the nearest guy.

What lies beneath? (Photo by johnwilliamsphd / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Melting glaciers in Canada have unearthed some rare emerald treasures: moss-like plants known as bryophytes, captured and frozen in time. When the plummeting temperatures of the Little Ice Age that began in AD 1550 and tapered off in 1850 sent glaciers surging across the Canadian landscape, these plants were held captive, along with many others, beneath the ice. By any logic the bryophytes should have withered there, since tests showed the plant samples had been frozen for over 400 years. But when researchers noticed patches of green in spots where recent glacial melt had occurred, they had a hunch that these plants were in fact powerful fighters. 

The winning artwork for the 2011 duck stamp (Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters / CC BY 2.0)

For any migratory bird, there are few gifts better than a bunch of new habitat acres and some heightened protection that keeps your precious wetland ecosystem safe. That’s what the US Fish and Wildlife Service has helped to secure by approving a chunk of funding last week that came from the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission and the North American Wetlands Act, and which is intended to preserve wetland habitat that over 700 bird species need to thrive. 

 Photo by Katey Nicosia / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

For the days when hauling around a tome for identifying birds just won’t do, Audubon comes to the rescue with its new online guide to North American birds, available for $3.99 on the iPhone, Android, iPad, NOOK or Kindle through the Audubon Birds app. One screen pretty much holds it all, displaying information about birding, conservation, even avian anatomy. The guide categorizes more than 800 species by family, common name, or general shape, allowing users to pick the most appropriate identification route.

The Amazon's dense thickets hold untold - and undiscovered - secrets. (Photo by Dams999 / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

A discovery in the Peruvian Amazon of a plant decked in plump, lime-green pods rich in omega-3s could offer some respite to trees that live under the threat of deforestation. Found in a Peruvian farmer’s garden, the new plant, christened Plukenetia carolis-vegae, is offering researchers a creative option as a ‘conservation crop’, Nature News reports.

 A juvenile marbled murrelet out on the water (Photo by USFWS / CC BY 2.0)

Californian State Park officials are proposing recreational developments in Big Basin Redwoods State Park that threaten the marbled murrelet, a federally endangered seabird. Murrelets are among the only seabirds that nest in trees, seeking refuge in the dense, moss-cloaked branches of old-growth redwoods. Big Basin’s redwoods harbor the largest population of the central coast marbled murrelet, which is genetically distinct from its cousins up north—and therefore vital to protect.