ornithology

 

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

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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

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The economics of tree swallow brood sex ratios

Posted 1 December 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Tree swallows reveal that brood sex ratios are an economic balancing act with far-reaching evolutionary consequences Adult tree swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, flying in central New York, USA. Image: Bear Golden Retriever, 3 April 2010 (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.) Skewed sex ratios have been widely discussed in the news. But a demographic imbalance in the sexes is not purely a human phenomenon: it can occur throughout the animal kingdom. ... Read more

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The seventh starling (Murmuration)

Posted 8 November 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: What do particle physics, statistics and poetry have in common? (includes videos) A flock of Eurasian starlings, Sturnus vulgaris. Image: Andrea Cavagna/STARFLAG project, INFM-CNR (with permission) [velociraptorise]. Anyone who has looked at the late afternoon sky has seen it: a single, giant shape-shifting creature of the air made up of hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of birds wheeling and swirling overhead as they settle in to their communal evening roosts. During migration, birders often gather along coastlines... Read more

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Evolution of Hawai’ian honeycreepers

Posted 2 November 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Using a large DNA data set, researchers have identified the progenitor of Hawaiian honeycreepers and have linked their rapid evolution to the geological formation of the four main Hawaiian Islands Hawai’ian honeycreepers. A juvenile Laysan finch (center), and clockwise from the top: Hawai’i ‘akepa, Maui parrotbill, po’ouli, i’iwi, Maui ’alauahio and ʻakiapōlāʻau. [Cover, Current Biology, volume 21, issue 22 (8 November 2011)]. Image: H. Douglas Pratt [velociraptorise]. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometres away from... Read more

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The birds and the trees

Posted 14 October 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: Gray jays hoping to survive and reproduce during Canada’s harsh winters must store food in the right kinds of trees A pair of gray jays, Perisoreus canadensis, sits in one of their conifer trees in Algonquin Park, Canada. Image: Ryan Norris (with permission) Olympus C750UZ [Velociraptorise]. If you’ve ever met a gray jay, Perisoreus canadensis, then I think you’ll agree with me that this audacious and personable bird is one of the cutest corvids in the world. Like many... Read more

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Why are there so many bird species in the tropics?

Posted 18 August 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: What can we learn about evolution, geography and biodiversity by studying continental patterns of speciation? Red knot, Calidris canutus rufa, at Mispillion Harbor, Delaware (USA). This species winters in Argentina and makes an epic migration through North America to its Palearctic breeding grounds. NOTE: This image has been cropped from the original. Image: Greg Breese/USFWS, 2 June 2008 (Public Domain) [velociraptorise]. Since before the time of dinosaurs, species diversity is related to latitude. Basically, species richness increases as distance... Read more

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The decline and fall of showy bustards

Posted 5 August 2011 by GrrlScientist

SUMMARY: intense early reproductive effort takes a toll on long-term survival of individual male houbara bustards by leading to early declines in fertility and early ageing Displaying male Houbara bustard, Chlamydotis undulata. Image: Yves Hingrat (with permission). DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01668.x [<a href= “http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6134/6008343342_0ab26b4e03_b.jpg” width=“1024” height="879">velociraptorise] Why do we get old and die? Why hasn’t natural selection “weeded out” those genes responsible for age-related declines? Several hypotheses have been proposed, with the most important pointing at the inherent “riskiness” of life. Since... Read more

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American crows: the ultimate angry birds?

Posted 6 July 2011 by GrrlScientist

ABSTRACT: Crows remember the faces of humans who have threatened or harmed them, and these memories last for the bird’s lifetime (probably). Crows scold dangerous people and bring in family members and even strangers into the mob. Naïve crows exposed to mobs learn to identify the dangerous person, and they associate that individual’s face with danger and react accordingly. An American or northwestern crow (either Corvus brachyrhynchos or C. caurinus) near the end of Ravenna Creek slough adjacent to the... Read more

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