Birds

They killed Squirrel Nutkin. Now he's only in a few isolated pockets.

My birds are still happy, the squirrels haven't been caught behaving badly, and the hummingbirds are little darlings.

Once in a while, a hummingbird will glide over the the big window and hover, looking in at us. This is about as much excitement as I get these days. Lovely glittery bold colors.

Other treats feature bold little finch-types hopping and bobbing along the windowsill - I think eating the insects that accrue against the pane. They look in quizzically.

And I never tire of those majestic cardinals. Love when they chase each other around the yard.

Ah. Utopia...

One year I was wearing a red and white ball cap, without realizing how it mimicked some hummingbird feeders. Suddenly, a hummingbird got right in my face and hovered, looking confused. I had a vision of it diving at my eyes, but flew off. It's an odd feeling to be eyeball to eyeball with a bird like that.

I laughed out loud! What a great image.

every time I wear a Phillies cap , I get buzzed by a hummingbird oor two. Being territorial little guys, they will fight each other over the hat , (but they never figure out where the honey pot is)

little Doofii

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0202/Can-ravens-read-each-other-s-minds

Can ravens read each other's minds?

A new study of ravens' behavior when they think they're being 'spied on' suggests they possess building blocks of humans' own ability to interpret others' thoughts, hopes, and fears.

Eagle being trained to take down drones

http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/animals/2016/02/02/watch-eagle-takes-down-drone/79717918/

I know crows are smart. Didn't think they were smarter than me. Now I've got my doubts. I'm not sure I'd be able to solve that puzzle.

Maybe calling someone a birdbrain is not really insulting.

I spent most of my life not realizing how smart most animals and birds are. The only unique thing about being human, we drive cars and we use napkins when we eat.

Frans de Waal - Public Page


VOGELKOP BIRD

Male Vogelkop gardener bowerbirds from New Guinea go to extraordinary lengths to build a love nest from interwoven sticks and decorative objects to appear more attractive to a female. The bird is surprisingly small for setting up such a huge exhibit of collected colorful items. Vogelkop refers to a peninsula by the same name, the word is Dutch for bird-head. - Via ScienceAlert photograph by Ingo Arndt.

EB, do you have an opinion on Bird Clocks?

Apparently many people hate them. I've had mine for about forty years (geez) and the owl still hoots at noon, given I replace batteries once in a moon's age.
I got mine near where I worked for a year at a local lab, at a nature store, forget the name. Yes, I've had it here with dogs in the house..

Here's a big negative review -
http://members.toast.net/joerger/birdsong.html?menu

Me, I like that clock.

http://www.theclockgallery.com/item119.htm

Sure, I like them. I prefer a noisy home to quiet. And I love bird songs. What's not to like? This reminds me of a guy I worked with years back. He took offense at a mockingbird singing outside of his apartment. I would have felt honored, to have the privilege. He took a pellet gun and killed it. I just don't understand those kinds of feelings.

Me either.

Birds did not evolve from Dinosaurs because birds are ARE dinosaurs. Few ever get to see this but my laying hens are aggressive meat eating predators. All you need to do is watch them when the locust return.
The southern turkey vulture you may see gliding about look exactly the same now as they did 200 million years ago. Science is still baffled as to how these gliding birds can sense something is dead 1000 feet in the air. They have good eyesight like most birds but not good enough to see a dead mouse in a 10 acre field. Another thing about these vultures is how lightweight they are. A 10 foot wing span yet they weigh only about a fourth of a Coopers Hawk that is half their size. I have always been interested in them and if you can hold one that is domesticated they all have a 4-6 inch 'sack' attached to the underside of the neck. No one has the slightest idea what the purpose of this attachment except that it resembles a marsupial sack. Could that be part of their long past?

The age we think of as the Dinosaur Age should more accurately be perceived as the Bird Age. The Theropods were probably fully feathered with bright colors and very bird-like behaviors. They ranged in size from sparrows to trucks and because they are so common in the fossil record, they were probably everywhere in that time. The Age of Feathers.

Very funny!

There are 5 classes of vertebrates, Reptiles and Birds are two separate classes. the common ancestor of the dinosaur- to- bird class was probably a Maniraptoran , which was actually a member of the "lizard hipped" theropod dinosaurs (Saurichians), and NOT , as many first thought, from the "bird hipped" dinosaurs (The ornithischians).
Birds arose as one of the 5 classes of vertebrates. Dinosaurs are still in the reptile clade . The classes are the fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, an mammals.
SO, indeed, the bird arose from dinosaurs but, by virtue of about 40 to 50 significant differences (like some dinosaurs had beaks but NO birds had teeth). Archeopteryx was, indeed, a transitional fossil. It retained 20 or more "Lizard like features" while introducingabout 15 "birdy features"
I herd that line in the first Jurassic Park but theres about 5000 academic paleontologists who would differ with "Dr Sam".

Theres some new dinospeak about the original reptile/bird transitional fossil(Longisquama) from the Triassic , not the Jurassic. Im sure more will be published, kids gotta eat.