birds
grrlscientist | January 28, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
The Little Bustard, Tetrax tetrax, is one of the birds that occurs in the new Special Protection Areas (SPAs) approved by the Portuguese government.
Image: Gabriel Sierra. [larger view].
Birds in Science
Scientists believe they could be a step closer to solving the mystery of how the first birds took to the air. A study published in the journal Nature suggests that the key to understanding the evolution of bird flight is the angle at which a bird flaps its wings. Scientists investigating this area tend to fall into…
laelaps | January 25, 2008
As visually striking as the may be, peacocks (males of Pavo cristatus) have become the equivalent of pigeons at many zoological parks. Surely they seem out of place when compared to the more usual avian fauna of New Jersey the chickadee or Canada goose, but they have become so familiar that they've nearly ceased to be exotic. Still, it's not every day that I see a bird so garishly adorned, and I'll be curious to see how a number of peacocks placed in the renovated Astor Court at the Bronx zoo get along when mating season comes along.
grrlscientist | January 24, 2008tags: Carnival of Feminists, blog carnivals
The 67th edition of the blog carnival, I and the Bird, is now available for your reading pleasure. They included a late submission from me, too.
grrlscientist | January 24, 2008tags: American robin, Turdus migratorius, birds, NYC, Central Park, Image of the Day
American robin, Turdus migratorius, among berries.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [larger size].
The photographer writes: A surprising number of people assume that all American Robins migrate south for the winter. We've all heard the expression suggesting that winter is over when we see the "first robin of Spring" when in fact a portion of the species remains with us all winter long. In Central Park, for example, every winter I find about two dozen robins foraging along the southern and western…
retrospectacle | January 24, 2008
Exotic bird smuggling is a pet issue of mine, not only since it decimates wild populations of parrots, but because it creates a demand for cheaper black market birds without a proper 'history of origins.' While it is up to the consumer (potential bird companion) to be diligent in determining where their future friend came from, bird smugglers should be busted and prosecuted. So, I'm happy to report that an attempted mass-parrot-smuggling (277 birds on a bike!) was foiled at the Belarus border.
Spokesman Alexander Tishchenko said the smuggler abandoned his bicycle and cargo -- contained in…
grrlscientist | January 23, 2008tags: Orpheus, hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus accipitrinus, photography, parrots, pets
Orpheus, a six-month-old red-fan (hawk-headed) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus, who lives with me. (flash, ISO, no zoom).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008.
I managed to capture a few pictures of Orpheus last night which I would have shared with you then, except that my wifi connection disappeared (boo!), so I had to wait until tonight. This picture, like all of the pics I captured last night, are not very good because my parrots have gotten wise to the ways of photography and have…
grrlscientist | January 23, 2008tags: Eastern Screech-Owl, Megascops asio, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Eastern Screech-Owl, Megascops asio, in flight,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
grrlscientist | January 23, 2008tags: Speciation in Birds, Trevor Price, book review, evolution, birds
The question of what is a species and how they arise has generated numerous discussions and tremendous controversy throughout the decades. This interest is more than academic, as any bird watcher will tell you since the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) routinely splits one species into two or lumps two species into one, thereby wreaking havoc with many birders' "life lists"; that master list of species seen that is kept by each birder. More than once, I have heard birders question the validity of one or another of the…
grrlscientist | January 23, 2008tags: Laysan Duck, Anas laysanensis, endangered species, birds, conservation, Image of the Day
The critically endangered Laysan Duck, Anas laysanensis, has had a very successful 2007 breeding season, say US Wildlife Biologists. Population numbers have quadrupled since 42 individuals were moved across the Pacific and released at the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the US in 2004.
Image: JH Breedan, Rare Birds Yearbook [larger size].
grrlscientist | January 22, 2008tags: Pale Male, red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, birds, NYC, Central Park, Image of the Day
Pale Male, a pale-morph red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, a few seasons ago as he appeared in the book, Club George.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [larger size].
I don't have a photo to show the actual event but I had a startling sighting in the park yesterday. Long story short: I whistled to attract one of "my" Northern Cardinal regulars but a group of eight White-throated Sparrows raced toward me instead. I thought it was neat that they had learned to recognize my sound the way…
grrlscientist | January 21, 2008tags: bird tornado, flock of birds, birds, Image of the Day
Bird Tornado.
Image: Nuray Gonulalan.
This image has been receiving a fair amount of attention and discussion this past week (most people think it is photoshopped, for example), so I thought I'd post it here and share it with you. What do you think; is this the result of photoshop?
grrlscientist | January 21, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Sleeping Flamingoes.
Image: orphaned image [larger size].
People Hurting Birds
A new study, based on the use of "climate envelope modelling", predicts that without vigorous and immediate action against climate change, the potential future distribution of the average European bird species will shift by nearly 550 km to the northeast by the end of this century, will reduce their range size by a fifth and overlap their current range by only 40 per cent. Alarmingly, the atlas shows that three quarters of all Europe's…
laelaps | January 21, 2008
Most of the animals I post pictures of here are rare, endangered, or otherwise impressive, but I shouldn't be too quick to shun local, common wildlife. This photograph is of a laughing gull (Larus atricilla) taken at Cape May, NJ, although you can find them just about anywhere that there's a free meal. These birds are generally a little more skittish than herring gulls, though; the larger herring gulls are not shy about trying to steal chicken strips or other morsels out of your hand if you're not guarded about your fast food in their presence.
grrlscientist | January 18, 2008tags: red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, birds, Image of the Day
Female red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus.
Lady Hernshead stands on the rim of her nest but seemed at that moment to be more interested in what I was doing than in tending to Little Hernshead.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [wallpaper size].
bleimanb | January 18, 2008Just when Andrew and I decided once and for all that ants couldn't get any more delicious looking, along comes a new parasitic roundworm that turns our whole world on its head! The newly discovered nematode enters the ants when they eat bird droppings and causes their abdomens to resemble ripe, tasty berries. This in turn draws the attention of birds who love both berries and ants. The birds eat the ants, crap out the parasites, and the whole thing starts over again. Now we know what Elton John was talking about in that song in the Lion King!
Seriously though take a look at the picture below…
grrlscientist | January 17, 2008tags: Harris's Sparrow, Zonotrichia querula, birds, Image of the Day
Harris's Sparrow, Zonotrichia querula, in winter.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [wallpaper size].
grrlscientist | January 16, 2008tags: black-bellied plover, grey plover, Pluvialis squatarola, birds, Image of the Day
Black-bellied (grey) plover, Pluvialis squatarola.
The photographer, a friend of mine, sent this image to me. This image was taken on a Florida trip a couple years ago when a Black-bellied Plover walked up to him while he was sitting on a beach. Luckily, he had his 180 lens on and was able to get this shot.
Image: Jim Rosso [larger view].
grrlscientist | January 14, 2008tags: Northern bald ibis, Geronticus eremita, birds, Image of the Day
Northern bald ibises, Geronticus eremita,
the Middle East's rarest bird, were seen last month in the Jordan Valley
for the first time in 13 years, and in Djibouti, east Africa, for the first
time ever. Scientists are hopeful that numbers are not as low as
originally feared.
Image: MAAR [larger view].
grrlscientist | January 14, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Song sparrow, Melospiza melodia.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU. [larger size].
Birds in Science
I wrote about grandparenting behavior in the Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis, on my blog several months ago, so it is satisfying to see that the mainstream science media wrote about the same study last week.
People Hurting Birds
Analyses of satellite images have revealed for the first time the extent of deforestation occurring on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, indicating that many more bird species…
retrospectacle | January 13, 2008
I just couldn't resist posting this, silly as it is.
Intruders smashed the front window of Pet Palace in Leominster, about 45 miles west of Boston, and as they entered the store the bird began to shout, said store manager Lori Oltman on Thursday.
"When he hears someone come into the building, or the puppies get riled up or whatever, he'll start calling for Rhonda, who is the woman who used to own him," Oltman said. "He was screaming for Rhonda and they weren't aware that it was a bird and not a person. And so they took flight rather quickly."
Oltman said police figured out what happened when…