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Practice Makes Perfect for Nest-Building Weavers

Editor — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:45:37 +0000

It has long been assumed that the nest building skills of birds are instinctive, but new research has revealed that building a nest could very well be a learned skill. Following and filming the activities of male Southern Masked Weavers in Botswana over a period of three months, researchers noted that not all nests are created equal. As the name of the bird suggests, Southern Masked Weavers use a weaving technique when constructing their nests from local grasses. However, the method of nest building varied between birds with some weaving from left to right and others weaving from right to left. It was also noted that they appeared to learn from their mistakes, and while a bird may regularly drop blades of grass when it first starts its nest building process, it soon learns to adjust its technique to prevent this.

The brightly colored African bird was chosen as the test subject for the study for a number of reasons. Their complex nests which hang from trees either as single units or multiple intertwined condominiums are seen as evidence of above average intelligence. Also, a single bird will build several nests in a season, allowing the research team to note the differences in nests built by the same bird.

Working with scientists from Botswana, researchers from the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow noted that the fact that the Southern Masked Weaver birds displayed marked variations in their approach to nest building reveals that they may learn from experience. At this point, however, it is not clear whether they have the mental capacity to learn, or their improvement in skills can be attributed to repetition of a task. Researchers also pointed out that observing this behavior in one bird species does not imply that it would apply to all birds. One of the scientists taking part in the study, Dr. Patrick Walsh of Edinburgh University’s School of Biological Sciences, noted that if birds built their nests instinctively according to a genetic template, it would follow that all birds would build all their nests in the same way every time, but this has not been the case. Summing it up nicely, Dr. Walsh was reported as saying: “Even for birds, practice makes perfect.”

Exotic Bird Fair Show Expo 2010

Editor — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:21:57 +0000

Medina is getting ready to host one of the biggest exotic bird fairs in the state, which will be held on the 23rd of May 2010, at the Medina Fairgrounds. Visitors to the fair can look forward to browsing through a variety of vendor stores selling products such as nesting boxes, perches, bird cages, food cups and bird cages. Breeders will also be attending, with numerous exotic hand raised birds being available for visitors to marvel at and buy. There will also be food stalls, lucky draws and raffles.

For more information in regard to the show and its vendors, visit the official expo website at http://www.exoticbirdfairexpo.com/.

Date: 23 May 2010
Venue: Medina Fairgrounds
City: Medina, Ohio
Country: United States of America

Osprey History in the Making

Editor — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:15:39 +0000

The Kielder Water and Forest Park is located in England. It is not only home to the country’s biggest forest areas, but the largest man-made lake to be found in northern Europe. Its remote location and breathtaking natural landscapes make the park a favorite amongst artists, hiking enthusiasts and cyclists. The park is also the perfect family escape. Animals and bird life play a vital role in the park, and recently the Kielder Water and Forest Park has taken on a conservation challenge that might just make history.

The arrival of a breeding pair of ospreys last year was an exciting event for the staff and rangers at the Kielder Water and Forest Park. It might not sound like a major event, but their sighting in the park marked the return of these magnificent birds to the Northumberland area in more than two hundred years. Ospreys are large raptors that feed on fish and are able to adapt to a variety of habitats, as long as there is water and enough food supply. Even though last year’s visitors did not nest in the park, it is hoped that they will return to the park this year, where a nesting platform will be waiting for them.

Ospreys are known to be very loyal to their partners, and more than often return to a nesting site. Rangers believe that by enticing a breeding pair to nest within the park, they will ensure the return of the birds and their young, and in future lure more breeding pairs to the park. The Kielder Water and Forest Reserve is the ideal location for ospreys, as the lake is able to provide them with both water and ample food supply. The park has now set up a nesting platform in a secret location that is situated deep within the isolation of the forest, and stands at a height of 18.2 meters. To capture the event, and allow visitors to be a part of the excitement, the park has installed CCTV cameras on the platform. This will allow the public to be a part of the excitement without any direct human interference. With all the preparations made, the Forestry Department and the Kielder Water and Forest Park will be waiting patiently to see the first signs of hope; namely the return of the male to scout for nesting sites.

American Coot (Fulica americana)

Editor — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:50:35 +0000

The Fulica Americana or otherwise known as the American coot is a common water bird, family of the Rallidae, and is about 12 inches in length with a wingspan of 25 inches. It is quite a large bird with relatively short wings and tail, and can often be seen swimming and diving in ponds or dams of water. When the American coot goes walking about it often flicks and cocks its short tail, revealing a white under tail. The bill is short and thick and the legs are yellow in color with toes that have lobed webbing. When you look at both the male and female you won’t notice much difference in appearance between the sexes.

There are quite a few differences between the adult and the juvenile. The adult bird has a beautiful white bill with a dark, reddish oval near the base of the bill than not lacks the ring near the tip. The adult’s head, neck, breast, back, and upper wings is a dark gray, brown color with the feathers on the under-belly being slightly lighter. The juvenile on the other hand, is a paler gray-brown color on the breast and back, upper wings and on the under parts of the bird. It has a bright red head and beak with orange colored plumes that come off the neck.

Another bird that is a similar species is the common Moorhen. It is similar in size and shape to the American coot but its bill is reddish in colour with a yellowish tip. It also has a white stripe on its flank and a brown back. The American coot is often mistaken for a duck, although its black body and white triangular beak, which looks similar to a chicken, makes it more easily distinguishable from a real duck. The bird sound of the American coot is a scratchy clucking noise followed by a row of “kuk-kuk-kuk” notes.

Their breeding grounds are in marshes from the southern part of Quebec to the Pacific coast of North America, and then as far south as the north part of South America. They choose a nesting area in between tall reeds in a well-concealed area. If water is available to the birds throughout winter then they will not migrate, but if this is not the case they will migrate to northern areas or to southern British Columbia and United States.

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Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)

Editor — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:50:35 +0000

The Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a small sea bird which spends most of its life living on the open ocean. It is also known as the Common Puffin and it is the only puffin species which occurs in the Atlantic Ocean. All three other puffin species are found in the Pacific. When they are not mating and nesting, Puffins spend their time flying, swimming or riding the vast watery ocean, regardless of the weather. They feed primarily on fish, although they have also been known to eat crustaceans and molluscs. When diving for fish, they make use of their specially adapted wings as a means of propulsion while their webbed feet steer them. They are able to catch several small fish in their bills during the course of one dive, making use of their tongue to trap the fish while their mouths are open. Amazingly, these small pigeon-sized birds can dive to depths between 50 and 200 feet.

The species is primarily characterised by their brightly-coloured orange bills which only gain colour before the mating season. The male is slightly larger than the female and their bodies are mainly black on the top with a white underbelly. Their faces are grey and they have short, red-orange legs. Their bodies average between 28-34 cm in length and they have a wingspan of between 50 and 60 cm. During the winter months, these puffins may travel as far south as the Mediterranean and North Carolina. When it is mating season, the Atlantic Puffin can be found off the coasts of northern Europe, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the eastern parts of North America. They also occur in the Arctic Circle and in northern France and Maine.

Every year near April, puffins start to grow brightly coloured bill plates as they move north towards their breeding grounds. These bills are used in courtship rituals and a pair will usually tap their bills together. After the mating season these brightly coloured bill plates are shed. The male puffin will clear out the nest area for the female he has found before she arrives at the nesting ground, lining it with suitable materials. The female then lays a single egg and the pair share incubation responsibilities. After between 39-45 days, the chick will hatch and then after a further 49 days, will be ready to fledge. When it is old enough it will venture out to sea alone and begin life as a young puffin adult. At about 5-6 years of age, the young puffin will become sexually mature and be ready to mate and produce offspring.

Green Heron (Butorides virescens)

Editor — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:50:35 +0000

The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) is a wading bird that can be seen near water across North America and breeds throughout the eastern United Sates, Western Texas and New Mexico. It is 14 inches in length, with short yellow legs and a wingspan of 25 inches. This wading bird has a black head that runs into a blue-gray back and wings. The neck is chestnut in color with a white chin, and a white stripe that can be seen on its neck. Females are a little smaller in size with duller and lighter coloring. The Green Heron is almost invisible as it stands completely still, waiting for a fish to be lured into striking distance.

The Green Heron lurks near the edge of the water and feeds on fish most of the time. It is not unusual, however, for them to include spiders, leeches, reptiles, insects, mollusks and crustaceans in their diet. What makes the Green Heron unique is his tool-using fishing method. The heron will use bait to lure the fish close enough for him to strike. Bait such as twigs, insects, feathers and earthworms are dropped into the water, where the Green Heron waits patiently and motionless for his catch. Due to its diet, the heron will often wander to different locations, but will always choose a freshwater site or water marshes. They usually do not travel vast distances, but on occasion, they have been found in France and England.

During the breeding season the male heron will first find an adequate nesting location before finding a partner. This nesting location will be fiercely protected, as the nesting location and a visual display forms part of the male’s bait to lure a mate. He will only mate with one female in a breeding season. Both the male and female heron will contribute in the building of the nest, with the male finding the material and the female taking care of the construction. She will then lay between three to six eggs, after which both birds will assist in the three weeks incubation period. At two weeks, the chicks are able to snap up insects and fledge the nest at three weeks old.

Herald Petrel (Pterodroma arminjoniana)

Editor — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:50:35 +0000

The Herald Petrel (Pterodroma arminjoniana) is a medium-sized bird belonging to the Procellariidae family. It is a sea bird and spends much of its life on or above the ocean, only really visiting nesting grounds during breeding season. It is generally found below the Equator but you may find these birds as far north as North Carolina on occasion. One of their more notable breeding grounds is that of Raine Island and other small cays in the Coral Sea where it can forage comfortably in the surrounding ocean. When looking for breeding grounds, the Herald Petrel favors warm islands with soils that are well suited for nesting burrows. It feeds on squid and crustaceans which it skims from just below the surface of the water with its bill only to be ingested later whilst the bird is in flight.

When you look at the Herald Petrel, you will find that its body measures roughly 36-41 cm in length with a wingspan of 97-102 cm. Generally speaking, the whole bird is gray with some green showing on the nape and upper tail. The body has no patterning whatsoever. The Herald Petrel also has a hooked, seabird-shaped bill and a pointed tail. The wings are also quite pointed in shape while the legs are pink in color. Birdwatchers should note that there are three different color morphs of the Herald Petrel: light, intermediate and dark. The light morph has a white chest and belly, while its upper parts are a dark gray. The dark morph has a dark grey body overall with a silver-grey or white base on its under-wing flight feathers. The intermediate morph is mixture of the light and dark morph.

When the time comes for the Herald Petrel to breed, both sexes will work together to excavate or clean out a burrow. Once this is done, the female lays only one egg in a sparse, un-lined burrow and both the male and female share incubation duties. After 49-54 days, the eggs hatch and a new Herald Petrel is born. Herald Petrels have only one brood a year.

Remarkable Re-discovery of Beck’s Petrel

Clutch Size Research Reveals Interesting New Insight

Editor — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:56:08 +0000

Anyone with an interest in birds may have spent at least a little time wondering why it is that some bird species lay only one egg while others lay up to ten eggs. The question certainly seems to have been plaguing biologists who have gone out of their way to come up with an answer.

The number of eggs laid by a bird is called the ‘clutch size‘. In a bid to understand why the clutch size of certain birds differ so much from other birds, biologists combined data on the clutch sizes of a whopping 5 290 species of birds from around the globe. The information covered not only the bird species and clutch size, but the biology of the bird and the environment specific to each of the species. The results of their findings were recently published in the journal PLos Biology.

The clutch sizes of both birds and reptiles has long been a subject of interest for biologists. Generally speaking, it seems that species which are short-lived or which have a low survival rate tend to lay more eggs, while those that live longer or have a higher survival rate will lay fewer eggs and spend more time nurturing their offspring. However what happens when one bird lays just one egg and another bird of a similar species lays ten? Why are there such huge discrepancies? It seems that some of the answers lie in the variations in a particular species’ environment, nutrition, health and risk of predation. The study was also able to make use of manuscripts dating back hundreds of years so as to gain insight into how environmental changes may have affected species over the years. The results show that increased environmental variation has caused birds to lay larger and larger clutches. Nest shape is another factor. Birds nesting in more open nests are more at risk from predators and so less eggs so that less eggs are at risk. In contrast, a cavity nester, such as a woodpecker, will have larger clutches since they are better protected. Season and location are another two factors that play a role. It seems that the research has helped the team to accomplish one of their main goals – that of accurately predicting the average clutch size for types of birds living and breeding in certain environments. This information could greatly aid conservation efforts and will no doubt prove to be most helpful in the future.

Father & Son Assess Strange Nesting Habits

Editor — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:26:05 +0000

The Wilson Journal of Ornithology recently published an article documenting the unusual nesting habits of the White-winged Diuca Finch. This was the first research ever published which detailed the diminutive bird’s breeding habits.

Up until now everyone thought that only Emperor Penguins nest directly on ice. Now it seems that they’re not the only ones. A surprising father and son team have unraveled the mystery after deciding to study the habits of the small bird more intently. Why is the team so surprising? The son in the team is only now just fourteen years of age!

Spencer P. Hardy teamed up with his father Douglas R. Hardy to make the discovery before he had even made it to sixth grade. The unusual father-son project came about as a result of Douglas Hardy’s regular scientific expeditions to the wind-blasted Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru. Quite often while doing his research at the torturously high elevation of 18,600 feet, Douglas found that he kept stumbling across strange grass and twig structures – nests. But what were nests doing on the ice? According to Spencer Hardy, “there shouldn’t have been bird nests there. The elevation was too high, the environment too harsh, the habitat too extreme.” Yet directly on the ice is exactly where these nests were found.

Hardy is a glacier specialist working with the UMass Climatic System Research Center. His work in Peru has him studying the dramatic shrinkage of the Quelccaya ice. Despite having worked on glaciers around the globe, he’d never seen birds’ nests on any of them. Since frozen water is more in his line of work, he turned to his then 11-year-old son for help in solving the mystery. According to Douglas, “from the time Spencer was old enough to sit in a high chair, he’s been captivated by birds.” Douglas’ discovery really got his son’s interest and before long, Spencer’s passion for solving this birding mystery got Douglas motivated too. Before long the two forged an informal father-son team and started studying the birds to unlock the mystery.

Douglas’ job was to take digital photographs of whatever birds he encountered as he worked on the Quelccaya between June and August. He also took close-up photos of the nests. His son, who was staying in Vermont, received the images from his father and started researching them intently; using every library book about Andean birds he could get his hands on. From his studies, he narrowed the possible candidates down to the White-fronted Ground-tyrant and the White-winged Diuca Finch. Both birds were of an appropriate size, had the right habits and were seen quite often on the edges of the glaciers. Meanwhile Douglas was keeping a steady eye out for nests, feathers, egg shells and other clues. In 2008 he finally discovered an abandoned, intact nest that still had eggs in it. The question was put to Carla Dove, a scientist who specializes in identifying birds from their removed plumage. She tagged the Diuca Finch as the culprit, and the bird’s proximity to the nests also pointed to this conclusion. The research was printed, with Spencer’s academic affiliation listed as the Marion W. Cross Elementary School.

Tern Breeding Grounds Restoration Back On Track

Editor — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:25:33 +0000

Bird Island has long been noted as a very important Tern breeding ground but so far efforts to protect this small spot of land in the ocean have been moving slowly. Now it seems that after years of waiting, protection and restoration efforts will finally be gaining momentum.

The Bird Island Tern restoration program has taken almost ten years to get going. Efforts to help sustain the small 1.5-acre island at the entrance to the Sippican Harbor will take almost $4 million in both federal and state funding. The sea wall currently protecting this small bird safe-haven is regularly battered by storms and ocean currents. More and more water seems to be washing over the island each year, with the result being that more and more suitable Tern breeding ground is lost. When water washes over this small island, it creates low-lying ponds and marshes. This is not what the terns need when it comes to looking for a suitable spot to lay their eggs and raise their young. They need dry areas and these are fast disappearing.

The plan is to build a replacement sea wall which will help to dissipate waves and so protect the island and preserve suitable nesting grounds for these birds. The current erosion taking place on the island may see it disappear completely if no action is taken. According to Carolyn Mostello, the Tern project leader who works for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the replacement sea wall should be better sloped than the current wall in order to be effective. Once the wall is up and the land is protected, the marshes and pools formed by the encroaching waves up to this point will be filled in with a rocky layer which is to be topped with sand that is compatible with Bird Island sand. While these activities have been on the cards for years, action is only now being taken after the state sent a letter of support to the Army Corps of Engineers. The letter stated their support of the conservation project and requested that it move ahead.

The project will be expensive, but I’ll be worth it. Roughly 22 percent of North America’s entire Roseate Tern population can be found on this small scrap of land. Bird Island is one of only three islands in Massachusetts that house Roseate Terns. Approximately 750 nesting pairs of these endangered birds have made their home here. In addition to the Roseate Terns, there are about 1 900 nesting pairs of Common Terns that have made their way onto the state’s list warranting special concern. Bird Island is then undoubtedly a major Tern hotspot that needs to be protected. The project will likely take two years of careful planning before any building work takes place, but at least now things can start moving along. Hopefully these efforts will still be in time to prevent more members of an already endangered species from disappearing.