ornithology
grrlscientist | February 6, 2008tags: birds, American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
And yes, I would be thrilled to meet any of you who are in Manhattan Kansas -- "the little apple" as Dave calls it…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, birds, Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii nipalensis, ornithology, speciation, new species, Nepal
A new subspecies of the Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii,
has been found in Nepal. This new bird is now known as the
Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia, Prinia burnesii nipalensis.
[larger view].
A new subspecies of bird has been discovered on marshy grasslands located on small islands in Nepal's Koshi River. This new subspecies is similar to two other previously described subspecies of the Rufous-vented Prinia that are found along rivers in Pakistan and India…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2008tags: birds, House finch, Carpodacus mexicanus, ornithology, Image of the Day
Male house finch, Carpodacus mexicanus,
in a hawthorne tree in Central Park, near the Metropolitan Musum of Art.
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [larger size].
The photogrpaher writes: For a few weeks I have consistently found a small flock of House Finches near the playground adjacent to the southeastern edge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art between East 80th and 79th streets close to Fifth Avenue. The playground has a decorative entrance known as the Levy Gate upon which a prominent but tasteful…
grrlscientist | February 4, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Male Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, 2005.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view].
Birds in Science
A species of hummingbird makes a chirping noise with its tail feathers, not its throat, a study using high-speed video has suggested. The exact source of the noise from male Anna's hummingbirds has been the subject of debate among researchers. The loud chirp sound is produced by male Anna's hummingbirds, Calypte anna, as the birds dive towards the ground at speeds that exceed 50mph (80km/h) during their displays for nearby…
grrlscientist | February 2, 2008tags: birds, Bismarck Kingfisher, Alcedo websteri, ornithology, Image of the Day
Bismarck Kingfisher, Alcedo websteri,
a specialist of lowland forest streams has lost a fifth of its habitat during the previous ten years.
Image: Nik Borrow.
grrlscientist | February 1, 2008tags: birds, Northern Bald Ibis, Geronticus eremita, ornithology, Image of the Day
One of the tagged Northern Bald Ibis, Geronticus eremita,
helping to elucidate the migration routes of this species.
Image: Cagan Sekercioglu.
grrlscientist | January 31, 2008tags: birds, White-necked Picathartes, Picathartes gymnocephalus, ornithology, Image of the Day
White-necked Picathartes, Picathartes gymnocephalus:
one of the species to benefit from Gola Forest being declared a national park.
Image: Jason D Weckstein, Ben D Marks/NCRC.
grrlscientist | January 30, 2008tags: birds, Atlantic+Puffin, Fratercula arctica, ornithology, Image of the Day
Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica,
was one of the species badly hit by the Erika oil disaster,
which killed about 72,000 birds.
Image: RSPB.
grrlscientist | January 29, 2008tags: birds, Black Grouse, Tetrao tetrix, ornithology, Image of the Day
Data in the climatic atlas show that the distribution of the Black Grouse, Tetrao tetrix,
is likely to be affected by climate change
Image: Chris Gomersall/RSPB Images.
grrlscientist | January 29, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, avian flight, ornithology, birds, avian, researchblogging
Chukar, Alectoris chukar;
Capitol Reef National Park (Utah, USA) 2004.
Image: Wikipedia [larger view].
For more than 150 years, the evolution of flight in birds has one of the most controversial topics that one can discuss at a professional meeting because this topic splits evolutionary biologists into one of two camps; the "ground up" people who think that birds evolved from dinosaurs that ran along the ground and flapped their wings, either to collect food or to escape predators, and the "…
grrlscientist | January 29, 2008tags: hummingbird nest, birds, ornithology, streaming video
This video was sent to me by a friend who works at National Geographic (and later, by an aviculturist whom I know) and it seems appropriate for today, considering that winter has closed her icy hand around us all. This video is a small glimpse into the lives of two hummingbird chicks, from when they are mere eggs until the moment when they fledge. I am amazed to see how deeply the mother puts her long beak into the chicks' mouths when feeding them -- it seems almost as though she might pierce the bottom of their crops! The music is "…
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…
tetrapodzoology | January 27, 2008
Keeping promises isn't always easy, but - following what is hopefully a forgiveable hiatus - here we get back to that short series on obscure island-dwelling, recently extinct animals. It started with a map of the Caribbean. Then we got through (some of the) island otters and canids, and then more of the canids... the good news is that here we have that long-awaited, much-asked-for 'titan-hawks and monster pigeons' article. The bad news: I got carried away on the titan-hawks and other raptors, and the pigeons will have to wait, sorry...
It now seems that big raptors were important predators…
tetrapodzoology | January 26, 2008
2007 - Tet Zoo's second year of operation - has come and gone. The previous article was a brief personal review of the year, and here's more of the same (sort of) if you can handle it...
As if Tet Zoo wasn't enough to deal with, in September my partners-in-crime Mike P. Taylor and Matt Wedel [shown here; Mike is the less big one] decided, with me, to start up a new zoological blog, but this time devoted to something a little more specific: namely, sauropod vertebrae (and nothing else, pretty much). So on October 1st, Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week, or SV-POW!, was born. Despite…
tetrapodzoology | January 22, 2008
Time to resort to posting images, with minimal use of text, once more. Previously we had giraffes vs planes: these pictures - which are widely available on the web and unfortunately don't come with any details* - pretty much speak for themselves. In the image at top, an unfortunate seabird has clearly met its demise on the nose-cone of... some sort of plane (my powers of identification don't extend outside the subject of tetrapod zoology). I assume that the bird is an albatross, probably a Wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, or perhaps a Short-tailed albatross Phoebastria albatrus (though…
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…
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…
grrlscientist | January 8, 2008tags: Adélie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae , ornithology, birds, avian, leucism
A unique leucistic Adélie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae,
photographed by the Mawson Hut Foundation team in Antarctica.
Image: Brett Jarrett (Mawsons Hut Foundation) [larger]
An individual Adélie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, that lacks most of its normal pigment was recently photographed by Australian biologists near Granholm Hut in Antarctica. Penguins and other birds that lack pigmentation are referred to as "leucistic" by ornithologists. According to the Australian biologists, these abnormal white birds…
grrlscientist | January 7, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Clark's Grebe, Aechmorphus clarkii, in the foreground with a Western Grebe, Aechmorphus occidentalis, behind. Both were photographed on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (north end of the Great Salt Lake) in the spring of 2005. Similar birds, but the field marks are straw-yellow bill (Clark's) cf. greenish-yellow bill (Western); white feathering around the eye (Clark's) cf black (Western), and whiter flanks on the Clark's Grebe. This pair of birds was hanging out together, and that was not unusual, making one wonder…
grrlscientist | January 1, 2008tags: hunting owls, snowy owl, great gray owl, hawk owl, streaming video
This wonderful streaming video features snowy owls, great gray owls and hawk owls hunting rodents in winter. This video is really interesting because it makes it easy for you to directly compare each species' different hunting styles. Cinematography by Andrew Manske. [1:59]
Source: The Northern Owls