birds
grrlscientist | March 18, 2010tags: Life, Discovery Channel, Challenges of Life, Cheetas Hunting Ostrich, animals, mammals, birds, television, BBC, streaming video
Gail Weiswasser at the Discovery Channel emailed a few days ago to tell me about the upcoming March 21 premiere of BBC's LIFE, the 11-part follow up to PLANET EARTH (the most successful natural history documentary of all time). While PLANET EARTH told the story of the natural world through the framework of our planet's ecosystems and regions, LIFE takes us on a more intimate journey, introducing different animal and plant groups, using the latest in HD filming…
grrlscientist | March 17, 2010tags: Mediterranean Gull, Larus melanocephalus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Mediterranean Gull, Larus melanocephalus, photographed flying over Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Adrian White [larger view].
Nikon D40x with 70-300AF.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | March 16, 2010tags: Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Atlantic Puffin, Fratercula arctica, photographed at the Machias Seal Island, Maine. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Paul Sweet, 26 May 2008 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | March 16, 2010tags: Bill and Coo, Tour of Chirpendale, film, movies, silly, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, animal training, birds, parrots, streaming video
I have never seen nor heard of Bill and Coo (1948), but it's a real treat. It features an all-bird cast (trained by George Burton) acting out a story involving Taxi Driver Bill Singer wooing his beloved Coo whilst fighting off a parakeet-devouring crow! This clip features a tour of the town of Chirpendale and its inhabitants. Oddly enough, the film won a special Academy award "In which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of…
grrlscientist | March 15, 2010tags: Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes, Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes (L), and Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla (R), photographed at the Lake Thompson in Kingsbury County, South Dakota. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 2 September 2007 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you.
Canon 20D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification…
grrlscientist | March 14, 2010tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
grrlscientist | March 14, 2010tags: Chestnut-bellied Kingfisher, Grey-headed Kingfisher, Halcyon leucocephala, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Grey-headed Kingfisher, also known as the Chestnut-bellied Kingfisher, Halcyon leucocephala, photographed near the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 13 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm VR lens, ISO 800, 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, Exposure compensation -.7.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | March 13, 2010tags: Pygmy Batis, Batis perkeo, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pygmy Batis, Batis perkeo, photographed near the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. The photographer writes: "I was incredibl[y] lucky to get such a good view of this little fast-moving guy. He actually responded to pishing, and sat there exposed for 10 seconds or so, allowing photographs in the late afternoon sun!" [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 13 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm VR lens, ISO 400, 1/250, f/6.3, Exposure Compensation 0.
Please name at…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2010tags: evolution, evolutionary biology, gynandromorph, bilateral gynandromorph bird, half-sider, mixed-sex chimaera, sex determination, molecular biology, genetics, developmental biology, endocrinology, birds, chicken, Gallus gallus, ornithology, researchblogging.org,peer-reviewed research, peer-reviewed paper, journal club
Half-sider.
Almost exactly one year ago, hundreds of American birders
were thrilled by sightings and photographs of this remarkable
Northern Cardinal, or Redbird, Cardinalis cardinalis,
photographed in Warrenton, VA.
Image: DW Maiden, 2 March 2009.
I'll never forget the…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2010tags: African Grey Hornbill, Tockus nasutus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Grey Hornbill, Tockus nasutus, photographed catching a dragonfly at the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300s, 600 mm lens, ISO 640, 1/2500 sec, f/5 0 exposure compensation.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
The photographer writes:
There seemed to be quite a lot of interest in the African Grey Hornbill's bill. Since it was partially obscured…
grrlscientist | March 11, 2010tags: Vermilion Flycatcher, Galapagos Flycatcher, Darwin's Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Vermilion Flycatcher, also known as the Galapagos Flycatcher or as Darwin's Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus, photographed on the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 11 November 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.…
edyong | March 10, 2010The animal on the right is no ordinary chicken. Its right half looks like a hen but its left half (with a larger wattle, bigger breast, whiter colour and leg spur) is that of a cockerel. The bird is a 'gynandromorph', a rare sexual chimera. Thanks to three of these oddities, Debiao Zhao and Derek McBride from the University of Edinburgh have discovered a truly amazing secret about these most familiar of birds - every single cell in a chicken's body is either male or female. Each one has its own sexual identity. It seems that becoming male or female is a very different process for birds than…
grrlscientist | March 10, 2010tags: Black-necked Stilt, Himantopus himantopus mexicanus, Himantopus mexicanus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-necked Stilt chick, Himantopus (himantopus) mexicanus, photographed on Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 27 May 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/1.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
edyong | March 9, 2010Even extinction and the passing of millennia are no barriers to clever geneticists. In the past few years, scientists have managed to sequence the complete genome of a prehistoric human and produced "first drafts" of the mammoth and Neanderthal genomes. More controversially, some groups have even recovered DNA from dinosaurs. Now, a variety of extinct birds join the ancient DNA club including the largest that ever lived - Aepyornis, the elephant bird.
In a first for palaeontology, Charlotte Oskam from Murdoch University, Perth, extracted DNA from 18 fossil eggshells, either directly…
grrlscientist | March 9, 2010tags: Grey Plover, Gray Plover, Silver Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Pluvialis squatarola, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-bellied Plover, also known as the Grey (Gray) Plover and the Silver Plover, Pluvialis squatarola, photographed at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Rodanthe, North Carolina. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Paul Sweet, 3 August 2007 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | March 8, 2010tags: education, public outreach, BirdNote Radio Program, Bird Note, birding, Bird Watching, birds, nature, environment, conservation, NPR, National Public Radio, Seattle Audubon Society, mp3
Are you trapped on a crowded subway or in a traffic jam of honking, stinking cars? If so, you might be interested to know that you can transport yourself to a different world, a cool green space where you can feel the earth breathe in time to the music of birds. Your personal vehicle is BirdNote, a 2-minute radio program about birds and nature.
"We want to help people connect to the natural world and…
grrlscientist | March 8, 2010tags: Egyptian Goose, Alopochen aegyptiacus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Egyptian Goose, Alopochen aegyptiacus, photographed at PalmenGarten, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: GrrlScientist, 24 February 2010 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | March 7, 2010tags: Praying Mantis, Preying Mantis, mantid, insects, birds, hummingbirds, offbeat, predation, predatory behavior, nature, streaming video
Sandy Lizotte, the Ventura Hummingbird Lady, captures a rare and remarkable moment where a praying mantis was waiting patiently at a hummingbird feeder to ambush a hummingbird. As you'll see in this video, the mantid succeeds.
The hummingbird did survive.
grrlscientist | March 7, 2010tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
grrlscientist | March 7, 2010tags: Eastern Black-headed Batis, Black-headed Batis, Batis minor, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Eastern Black-headed Batis, also known as the Black-headed Batis, Batis minor, photographed at the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300s, 600 mm lens, ISO 1000, 1/160 sec, f/5.6 -0.3 exposure compensation.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.