birds
grrlscientist | September 28, 2008tags: Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, 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 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Bring that recent ruffian of a Caspian Tern back up on your screen, and turn everything we said about that bird into its opposite. Here's a slender, graceful-footed, pale-…
laelaps | September 28, 2008
Sandpipers, photographed at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.
grrlscientist | September 27, 2008tags: Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia, 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 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Scared yet? This is about the meanest-looking bird I've ever seen, which identifies it immediately as a Caspian Tern.
But what are the features that make this animal look so intimidating…
grrlscientist | September 26, 2008tags: Black Tern, Chlidonias niger surinamensis, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Black Tern, Chlidonias niger surinamensis, photographed at Smith Point Hawk Watch, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 15 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
After all of those big, mean-looking terns, it's nice to see one as sweet and gentle as this little bird. How do we know it's little? The pebbles and…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, Seychelles magpie-robin, Copsychus sechellarum, behavioral ecology, conservation biology, endangered species, population dynamics, ornithology, birds
Seychelles magpie-robin, Copsychus sechellarum.
Image: Tony Randell (Wikipedia) [larger view].
Every once in awhile, I read a paper that surprises me. Today, I read one of those papers, and it surprised me because it analyzes a phenomenon that is so obvious that I wonder why no one ever thought of studying it in a systematic and rigorous way before. I am referring to a paper that was just published by a team of…
sheril | September 25, 2008It should be no surprise to readers that birds are among my very favorite critters. Aside from occasional blogger Sparticus Maximus The Great, I also reside with a pair of recessive pied budgies named Nemo and Che (who are real proud to be descendants of dinos). So naturally, I said I'd be delighted to review the new Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd, the editor of Birding Magazine. While I've long been fascinated with Aves, I became far more interested in birding while in Africa last summer with the Pimm group, which happens to be full of expert birders…
grrlscientist | September 25, 2008tags: Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, photographed flying over Bolivar Flats, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 6 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Read a detailed analysis for identifying this species below the fold ...
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Compare this bird's shape and structure to the Sandwich Tern in a recent quiz. You'll notice…
grrlscientist | September 24, 2008tags: Sandwich Tern, Sterna sandvichensis, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Sandwich Tern, Sterna sandvichensis, photographed flying over Quintana and Bryan Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 26 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Below the fold is a detailed analysis for how to identify this species ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
Does anybody else remember The Book of Terns? My favorite was the sketch of…
grrlscientist | September 23, 2008tags: Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Royal Tern, Sterna maxima, photographed flying over Frenchtown Road, Bolivar Peninsula, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 August 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Below the fold is a detailed analysis for how to ID this species ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
The taxonomically savvy will have noticed that these quizzes are proceeding in roughly…
grrlscientist | September 22, 2008tags: Mediterranean Gull, Ichthyaetus melanocephalus, Larus melanocephalus, birds, nature, Image of the Day
[Mystery bird] Mediterranean Gull, Ichthyaetus [Larus] melanocephalus, stretching her wings. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Rick Wright [larger view].
Two hints: (1) this is not a North American species, and (2) it's not a sandpiper.
Read Rick's analysis for identifying this species below ..
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
There's little doubt that we're on the coast again, but this bird of the shore is not -- to our…
grrlscientist | September 22, 2008tags: ornithology, birds, avian, National Geographic
A dragonfly has no stinger, but a European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, will beat it senseless anyway, the same way it handles its namesake prey. If the fly's wings break off, they are discarded, not eaten. The insect is then devoured as a single morsel, not as a mini-buffet of bite-size bits.
Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic online. [larger view].
I mentioned this last week, but I think it deserves a second mention: My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that…
grrlscientist | September 22, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
The cassowary, Casuarius casuarius,
is a large, flightless bird that is native to Australia and New Guinea.
Image: Orphaned [larger view].
Canaries in Our Coal Mine
Common birds are in decline across the world, providing evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth -- including human life. All the world's governments have committed themselves to slowing or halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010. But reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of…
laelaps | September 21, 2008
A sandpiper, photographed at the Prime Hook Natural Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.
grrlscientist | September 21, 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 19, 2008tags: Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, Central Park, Image of the Day
Give that bird a comb!!
Male Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, in moult.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger].
The photographer writes;
As a writer I am loathe to use an exclamation point so my carefully considered use of two should give you an indication of the strength of my reaction when Papa Museum came out of the shrubbery on a last August afternoon. Wooo. Give that bird a comb!! He has since improved in appearance and is enthusiastically tending to his three fledglings. It is…
grrlscientist | September 18, 2008tags: ratite, tinamous, evolution, biogeography, phylogenomics, convergence, flightlessness, Paleognath, homoplasy, vicariance
White-throated Tinamou, Tinamus guttatus.
Image: Wikipedia.
New research suggests the ostriches, emus, rheas and other flightless birds known as ratites have lost the ability to fly many times, rather than just once, as long thought. Further, the ratites appear to form a group with the tinamous, a group of birds that can fly, while the ostriches are set apart as the "sister group" -- the closest relatives.
Birds are divided into two groups based on jawbone…
grrlscientist | September 16, 2008tags: ornithology, birds, avian, National Geographic
Painting the Sky
A brilliant blur as it plucks a butterfly from the air, the European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, leads a colorful life on three continents.
Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic [larger view].
My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that details the courtship and breeding of European Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster. The story is fascinating and well-worth reading and the photographs, as always for National Geographic, brings tears of wonder to one's eyes.
grrlscientist | September 16, 2008tags: Northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, birds, Central Park, Image of the Day
Mama Shakespeare's Guacamole?
Female Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George [larger].
The photographer writes;
Mama Shakespeare interrupted her meal to pay me a visit in, where else, Central Park's Shakespeare Garden. Look at her closely. No, that isn't guacamole squirting out of her beak. It is of insect origin but I do not know precisely what creature it formerly was. I do know that I have seen this same light shade of green protruding from Northern Cardinal…
grrlscientist | September 15, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
ABSTRACT: Rainbow Lory, Trichoglossus haematodus.
Image: John Del Rio. [larger view].
Birds in Science
UK Scientists have found bird fossils dating back around 55 million years that could help shed light on a period of time before humans and most mammals had evolved. The fossils, including two complete bird skulls, a pelvis and several bones, appear to be the remains of parrot-like birds and were found by a local archaeologist on marshland Seasalter Levels near Whitstable, Kent. "Birds' skeletons are so fragile, the…
grrlscientist | September 14, 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…