Birds

Journal Club: Polly gets his own cracker: clever cockatoo manufactures, uses tools

Posted 11 November 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Not known to manufacture or use tools in the wild, a captive cockatoo demonstrates that parrots can make tools to suit their needs Portrait of a Tanimbar corella, Cacatua goffiniana, also known as the Goffin's cockatoo. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.002] If you've ever lived with a parrot, then you are well aware that they come with a built-in multi-purpose tool attached to their faces. For this reason, most parrots do just fine without ever needing to create a separate tool to... Read more

Posted in Birds, Ethology (Behaviour), Journal club |

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Journal Club: One-eyed wooing: beauty is in the right eye of the beholder for finches

Posted 9 October 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: A newly published study shows that beauty is in the right eye of the beholder for birds, providing the first demonstration in any animal of visual lateralization of mate choice. A trio of Gouldian finches, Erythrura gouldiae. Black-headed male (L), red-headed male (R), black-headed female (lower). Image: Sarah Pryke (This image has been cropped). .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Conservation biologists are well aware that the most challenging part of their job is... Read more

Posted in Birds, Ecology, Ethology (Behaviour), Evolution, Journal club |

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Journal Club: New species of barbet discovered in Peru

Posted 21 August 2012 by GrrlScientist

Sira barbet, Capito fitzpatricki, Seeholzer, Winger, Harvey, Cáceres & Weckstein, 2012, photographed at the Río Shinipo locality in Cerros del Sira in the Ucayali Region, Peru (South America). Image: Michael G. Harvey/Cornell University, 4 November 2008 [velociraptorise]. Canon EOS 20D, 1/250 sec, f/8.0, 400 mm, iso:400 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. This is a Sira barbet, Capito fitzpatricki, a recently-discovered and newly-described member of the American barbet family, Capitonidae. Barbets, close relatives to the... Read more

Posted in Birds, Journal club |

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Sparrow [Book Review]

Posted 16 July 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: A lovely exploration of sparrows, the scientific insights they inspire and how they influence human culture Regardless of where you go, there they are. In bushes, in parking lots, on sidewalks, underfoot. They’re chirping, eating, hopping, quarreling, fornicating. “Little brown jobs,” bird watchers murmur dismissively. Sparrows. They’re seemingly everywhere. In the opening sentence in her new book, Sparrow [Reaktion Books; 2012: Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US], environment writer Kim Todd immediately captures her readers’ attention by stating; “The... Read more

Posted in Birds, Book review |

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Behind the scenes at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology hawk cam | video |

Posted 16 May 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: This video captures the time and effort it took to mount a birdcam on a light tower overlooking Cornell University’s athletic field Screengrab: Adult female red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, “Big Red” puts the finishes touches on her nest. One of the many things that I love about all this newly affordable miniaturised technology is the astonishing number of birdcams that are sprouting up all around the world. These birdcams are providing the general public with an unprecedented “bird’s eye... Read more

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a … Yep! [video]

Posted 16 April 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: This animal behaviour video features my favourite source of entertaining behaviour: birds! This week’s animal behaviour video comes from an eagle-eyed friend of mine, Friends Of Darwin. In this video, we watch an office worker in Mumbai throw a paper aeroplane out of his 18th story office window. The video follows this aeroplane’s progress as it flutters over the nearby hillside, only to be intercepted by a pair of black kites, Milvus migrans. One of the birds captures it,... Read more

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Twirl-a-squirrel champ [video]

Posted 27 February 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: This video captures one of many squirrel-discouragement devices in action An eastern gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis, in British Columbia, Canada. It is reaching out for a bird feeder, while clinging upside down to a rough surface. Image: WaferBoard (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.) Let’s face it: squirrels are evil. If you feed birds, then you know exactly what I am talking about. Because humans are altering and destroying natural bird habitat, it is only reasonable to expect that... Read more

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Behind the scenes of “Hummingbirds” [video]

Posted 20 February 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: This lovely video smile features a flower’s-eye view of hummingbirds A color plate illustration from Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1899), showing a variety of hummingbirds. [velociraptorise.](This image is in the public domain due to its age.) Hummingbirds are remarkable animals. For example, they are amongst the smallest vertebrates in the world and yet, they can be found living comfortably in the Andes mountains at elevations where it is difficult for humans to breathe. They manage this feat by... Read more

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Snowbirds

Posted 9 February 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: These videos discuss reasons for the huge numbers of snowy owls that have irrupted into the United States Snowy owl, Bubo scandiacus, photographed on the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas (USA).Image: Dave Rintoul, 4 January 2012 [velociraptorise]. As some of you may have heard, this year is an irruption year for snowy owls. From what I am hearing, they are showing up throughout the United States in unprecedented numbers, and the concentration of snowy... Read more

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Crow intelligence [video]

Posted 6 January 2012 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Researchers are finding that crows use complex reasoning — and tools — to obtain food A New Caledonian crow, Corvus moneduloides, fashions tools out of sticks and other materials in order to “fish” for food.Image: Gavin Hunt/University of Auckland Department of Psychology. I’ve got a lot of peeves. One of my peeves is the phrase, “bird brain”, which presumably means “stupid.” However, having spent most of my waking life in the company of birds and a suite of other... Read more

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