birds
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: Peach-faced Lovebird, Agapornis roseicollis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Feral Peach-faced Lovebird, Agapornis roseicollis, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 2008 [larger view].
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
It was a cold, windy day at New Jersey's Sandy Hook, and our teeth chattered and our eyes teared as we stood knee-high in snow, taking turns at the scope that held the image of a juvenile Gyrfalcon. Suddenly there came a jeering scream from the sky above us,…
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: birds, blue crane, Anthropoides paradisea, streaming video
Here's a nice video of two courting blue cranes, Anthropoides paradisea. The beautiful Blue Crane is the national bird of South Africa. It experienced a sudden population decline beginning around 1980 and is now classified as vulnerable. The footage in this video was shot by Christian Letruria in South Africa (2008) and the music by the Icelandic band, Sigur rós.
Learn To Fly.
grrlscientist | October 7, 2008tags: Snow Goose, Chen caerulescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Juvenile Snow Goose, Chen caerulescens, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 February 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Another white waterfowl. This is a biggish bird, heavy-headed and heavy-billed, and we should probably rule out Graylag before deciding that it is a North…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Red-crowned Amazon parrot, Amazona viridigenalis, at Elizabeth Street Parrotry, Brownsville, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 April 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Birds in Science
Scientists have found a new huge and well-preserved fossil of a goose and duck relative that swam around what is now England 50 million years ago flashing sharp, toothy smiles. The skull, discovered on the Isle of Sheppey off the southeast coast of England in the…
clock | October 6, 2008According to this article: Fascinating birds migration at EuroBirdwatch 2008:
Over the past weekend, 50.000 adults and children from over 30 European countries took up EuroBirdwatch 2008, BirdLife's invitation to observe the fascinating migration, as birds move south across Europe for the winter.
BirdLife Partners across Europe were involved - from Portugal to Turkey; Malta to Norway - between them putting together 2.700 different events.
And once again birds didn't disappoint: attendees counted 2.3 million of them passing overhead.
hat-tip
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: Ross's X Snow Goose, Chen hybrid, birds, nature, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Ross's X Snow Goose, Chen hybrid, photographed at Coronado Lakes, Santa Fe, New Mexico. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 20 March 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
White waterfowl are an open trap for the unwary -- in many parts of the US, at many times of the year, the most abundant such bird is Mallard, many of…
grrlscientist | October 5, 2008tags: Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes, Wildlife of Scotland, Image of the Day
Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes, near Bridge of Orchy, Scotland.
Known in Europe as "the" wren, and in North America as the Winter Wren.
Image: Dave Rintoul, Summer 2008 [larger view].
grrlscientist | October 5, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle bird pals, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will…
grrlscientist | October 5, 2008tags: Redhead, Aytha americana, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Male Redhead, Aytha americana, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 January 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Read an analysis for how to identify this species below the fold;
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Here's a puffy-headed Aythya with a uniformly reddish head -- a prominent feature that leads us directly to the…
grrlscientist | October 4, 2008tags: Canvasback, Aythya valisineria, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Canvasback, Aythya valisineria, photographed in southeastern Arizona in February [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright [larger view].
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Steaming straight at us, this mystery bird is going to make it hard to apply our foolproof start-at-the-rear method. The head-on pose also puts paid to any attempt to identify it by picture-matching. This is one of those cases where a bird that is easy as can be in full field-…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, photographed at Quintana and Bryan Beaches, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 September 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Another immature gull: abandon hope, abandon this quiz, and let's go do something useful! Persist, though, and we'll find some odd things about this bird that make it…
laelaps | October 3, 2008
A great blue heron (Ardea herodias), photographed at Cape May Point, New Jersey.
grrlscientist | October 2, 2008tags: Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Yacht Basin Road, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 May 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This stunning portrait is readily identified as [that] of a Gull-billed Tern. All the usual field guide characters are on display, but all we really need to…
grrlscientist | October 1, 2008tags: Least Tern, Sterna antillarum, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Least Tern, Sterna antillarum, photographed at Bolivar Flats, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Another teeny tern. If that wasn't your first thought, you might want to run back through the other tern images in this series and try to get a sense of what a big tern looks like, a…
grrlscientist | September 30, 2008tags: Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri, photographed at Robbins Park, Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Read how to identify this species below ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
A pretty picture, and well composed; with the bird's head turned haughtily towards the observer, we can't see the exact…
revere | September 30, 2008A fascinating paper in CDC's journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases has more details on a problem we first mentioned, on the basis of news reports, back in June. It's about a possible relationship between West Nile Virus infection and the mortgage crisis, but the paper also gives a dramatic example of how the physical, biological and social environment can affect disease patterns and risks in populations.
Infection with West Nile Virus is primarily a disease of birds. It is transmitted from bird to bird by mosquito bites and the disease is maintained by the cycling between birds and mosquitoes…
laelaps | September 29, 2008During the 19th century most discussions of the earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx, focused on its relationship to other fossil reptiles, whether or not it could fly, and what it indicated about the origins of flight. A bird would not be a bird without song, though, and at least two authors attempted to imagine what sounds the early bird might have made had it tried to sing. The first was Eden Phillpotts in the fictional book Fancy Free. In one particular chapter an Archdeacon describes a fantastic Mesozoic safari (with a tomcat named Peter by his side), describing that and as he relaxed by…
grrlscientist | September 29, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that are or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle bird pals, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is published here for your enjoyment. Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by which lists ecology, environment, natural history and bird books that are (or will…
grrlscientist | September 29, 2008tags: Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, photographed at the Texas City Dike, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 September 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
This is the image that springs to mind when a birder hears the word "tern": a graceful rear end, the wingtips tapering into infinity above a long pointed tail; a slender, flat-…