birds
grrlscientist | September 13, 2009tags: Superb Blue Wren, Blue Fairywren, Malurus cyaneus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Non-breeding male Superb Blue Wren, also known as the Blue Fairywren, Malurus cyaneus, photographed at Grafton, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 14 August 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
edyong | September 13, 2009The British Wildlife Centre is one of my favourite places in the country. It's like a small zoo focusing solely on British wildlife and everything in it lives in lovely open enclosures with naturalistic environments (the otters have about three lakes to play around in). It's a fantastic place to visit, especially for people who've most likely only ever seen a badger or a fox as a roadside carcass. Here are some photos from yesterday's trip:
Badger
Buzzard
Eagle owl
Frog (pool frog?)
Harvest mouse (note size of blackberry for comparison)
Otter
Wotta lotta otter
Pine marten (Britain rocks for…
grrlscientist | September 12, 2009tags: African Green-pigeon, Treron calvus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Green-pigeon, Treron calvus, photographed drinking on the Masai Mara, Kenya, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 31 August 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, Nikon 200-400 mm lens, ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/45 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | September 11, 2009tags: Crested Tern, Great Crested-tern, Swift Tern, Thalasseus bergii, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Crested Tern, also known as the Swift Tern or Great Crested-tern, Thalasseus (Sterna) bergii, photographed at Michealmas Cay, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 24 August 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | September 10, 2009tags: Burrowing Owl, Speotyto cunicularia, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Burrowing Owl, Speotyto cunicularia, photographed on Antelope Island, a wonderful birding location north of Salt Lake City, Utah. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 27 July 2009 [larger view]
Canon 50D, 400 5.6L lens.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | September 10, 2009tags: travel, nature, Antarctica, macaroni penguins, Eudyptes chrysolophus, David Attenborough, streaming video
This video presents a Nature program that briefly documents the natural history of Antarctica's Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus. Narrated by the incomparable David Attenborough while standing in the middle of a colony of 80,000 shrieking macaroni penguins.
edyong | September 9, 2009When food is precious, animals can resort to strange behaviours in order to satisfy their hunger. Take the great tit. Its usual diet of insects and creepy-crawlies is harder to come by in winter. But in one Hungarian cave, great tits, ever the opportunists, have learned to exploit a rich and unusual source of food. They kill sleeping bats.
Great tits are only about 5 inches long, but their prey - the pipistrelle bat - is smaller still, just an inch or two in size. The bats spend the winter months hibernating in rock crevices. They're well hidden, but when they wake up, they start making…
grrlscientist | September 9, 2009tags: Eastern Meadowlark, Sturnella magna, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Eastern Meadowlark, Sturnella magna, photographed at Brazoria Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 31 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
laelaps | September 9, 2009
An American avocet (Recurvirostra americana), photographed at Antelope Island, Utah.
grrlscientist | September 8, 2009tags: Speckled Pigeon, Columba guinea, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Speckled Pigeon, Columba guinea, photographed drinking at the Lake Manyara Serena Lodge swimming pool, in Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 8 August 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, Nikon 200-400 VR lens at 400. ISO 800. F/4.5 1/160.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | September 8, 2009tags: nature, birds, gannet, Morus serrator, technology, BBC, streaming video
Steve Leonard and a group of conservationists attach tiny gadgets to the feathers of a Gannet, Morus serrator, to learn how they eat and fly out in the deep oceans. Great short video from BBC wildlife show Animal Camera.
grrlscientist | September 7, 2009tags: Wilson's Plover, Charadrius wilsonia, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Wilson's Plover, Charadrius wilsonia, photographed at Brazoria Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 31 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/200s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | September 6, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2009tags: Double-barred Finch, Owl Finch, Bicheno, Taeniopygia bichenovii, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Double-barred (Owl) Finch, Taeniopygia bichenovii, also known as the Bicheno, photographed at Grafton, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 15 August 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 1/2000 sec, f/4, iso 200.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
The photographer writes;
Double-barred Finches, aka Owl Finches or Bichenos, are frequently observed in small…
grrlscientist | September 5, 2009tags: Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, photographed at Anahuac Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 14 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
grrlscientist | September 4, 2009tags: Great-tailed Grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Great-tailed Grackle, Quiscalus mexicanus, photographed at Bolivar Flats, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 14 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | September 4, 2009tags: egg inside an egg, chicken, offbeat, birds, streaming video
This video documents opening an extraordinarily large chicken egg and shows what was inside: another, normal sized egg!
What's disgusting about a chicken egg shell? All you have to do is wash it off, let it dry, and you have a really interesting set of eggshells!
grrlscientist | September 3, 2009tags: Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus, with baby aboard, photographed on Lake Constance, Kontanz, Germany. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joe Byrnes, 14 June 2009 [larger view].
Several people have sent me photographs of birds recently, including one person who sent a penguin mystery bird! The penguin image has mysteriously disappeared, so please do re-send that image. This mystery bird (which is on my life list, thanks to the many pairs I saw in Finland) is the…
grrlscientist | September 3, 2009tags: travel, nature, Antarctica, king penguins, Aptenodytes patagonicus, David Attenborough, streaming video
This video presents a Nature program that documents the huge colonies of Antarctica's King Penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus. It's amazing to see a giant creche comprised of 50,000 King Penguin chicks, and to watch the courtship behaviors among these birds. Narrated by the incomparable David Attenborough.
edyong | September 2, 2009Birds have a variety of alarm calls that warn other members of the flock about impending danger. But for some birds, the very act of taking off is enough to sound the alarm. Mae Hingee and Robert Magrath from the Australian National University have found that crested pigeons have modified wing feathers that produce distinct whistles when the birds take off quickly and steeply. That's exactly the sort of flight that they undertake when they're alarmed, and other pigeons treat the resulting whistles as cues to take to the skies themselves.
Crested pigeons are comical-looking birds that are…