birds
grrlscientist | February 23, 2008tags: Evolution: What The Fossils Say And Why it Matters, fossils, dinosaurs, creationism, Donald Prothero, book review
I was in love with dinosaurs when I was a kid, and I still am. It was my love for dinosaurs and fossils and especially my time spent learning the minutea of the evolutionary history of horses that quickly brought me into direct conflict with the church that I was being inculcated into when I was very young and innocent. Subsequently, I had to learn about evolution in small niblets on the sly. But I wish I had been able to read paleontologist Don Prothero's beautifully…
grrlscientist | February 22, 2008tags: mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, birds, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Male mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, coming in for a landing.
Orphaned image. [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008
The Oblivious Birder.
Jeff created this photo for use in a recent keynote address given at the Spacecoast Bird & Wildlife Fest. Clearly this was tongue in cheek as the birder is completely unaware of the oncoming traffic. However, when he gave the example all admitted that they had seen someone on past field trips where folks had to be asked to get out of the road to allow traffic to pass! He also used this photo as a segue into his look at "birder fashion"!
Image: Jeff Bouton [larger size].
Below the fold is the latest installment of the blog carnival, I and the Bird. I have arranged…
grrlscientist | February 21, 2008tags: birds, ornithology, flamingos, courtship dance, streaming video
This video documents the highly synchronized mating dance of wild flamingos, just one of many surprising animals hidden among the Andes in South America. This footage is from the NATURE premiere of "Andes: The Dragon's Back." It is narrated by F. Murray Abraham. [1:42]
grrlscientist | February 20, 2008tags: birds, Mergus merganser, common merganser, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Common merganser, Mergus merganser, and chicks.
Orphaned image [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 18, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
New wintering sites for critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers, Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, have been discovered in Myanmar.
Image: Peter Ericsson.
Birds in Science
There is a lot of controversy among scientists regarding when modern birds first appeared. The current fossil record suggests that modern birds appeared approximately 60-65 million years ago when the other lineages of dinosaurs (along with at least half of all terrestrial animals) were extinguished by a bolide impact. However, it is possible that…
grrlscientist | February 17, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
A friend of mine, Ian Paulsen, loves books as much as I do, and possibly (gasp!) moreso! I know this is difficult to believe, but he has collected books about birds and natural history themes for as long as I've known him, which has been a fairly long period of my life. As far as I know, Ian reads all of his collected books, too, unlike most book collectors. Further, Ian knows just about every publisher out there who has ever published a…
grrlscientist | February 17, 2008tags: birds, kea, Nestor notabilis, ornithology, Image of the Day
I have been digging through my image archives in my gmail account and found some real treasures that my readers sent to me. Unfortunately, I overlooked quite a few images that were sent when I was in the hospital and had poor computer access. So let me fix this oversight during the next few weeks;
Kea, Nestor notabilis.
Image: Daniel Collins [larger view].
The photographer writes; This particular shot was taken around Arthurs Pass, in the middle of the South Island, NZ. This is standard Kea habitat, but I suspect you'd…
laelaps | February 16, 2008
I don't have a powerful enough lens to take close-up photographs of birds (yet), but I think you can still see how robust this particular red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is. I photographed him in July of last year, singing to stake his claim to his territory, and I don't think I've seen a male with brighter shoulder-patches before or since.
grrlscientist | February 15, 2008As some of you know, I am hosting the next edition of I and the Bird blog carnival on 21 February, and I need BIRD SUBMISSIONS FROM YOU!!! I am interested in anything about ornithology, birds, and bird watching (unfortunately, I am not allowed to accept submissions that deal with captive birds). So send me your birding reports, stories, images, video and song files as soon as you can so I can promote them widely throughout the intertubes!
grrlscientist | February 15, 2008tags: birds, sacred ibis, Threskiornis aethiopicus, ornithology, Image of the Day
This thermal image of sacred ibis, Threskiornis aethiopicus.
shows that these birds are well insulated, with only their eyes and one leg losing heat.
Staff at London Zoo say this unique insight shows how animals regulate their body temperatures, and could be used to diagnose illness.
Image: Steve Lowe [larger view].
grrlscientist | February 15, 2008tags: endangered species, red knot, Caladris canutus rufus, Delaware Bay, horseshoe crab, streaming video
This a streaming video about the shorebirds, the Red Knot, that migrate through Delaware Bay from South America. Red Knots stay in the bay for 10 days or so and feed on horseshoe crab eggs to fatten up for their long journey to their Arctic nesting grounds. In this streaming video, scientist trap and tag migratory shore birds to gather information about them. [7:04]
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, bird-dinosaur split, dinosaurs, birds, rocks-versus-clocks, fossil record, molecular clocks
The first feathered dinosaur fossil found in China -- Sinosauropteryx.
The feathers can be seen in the dark line running along the specimen's back.
Image: Mick Ellison, AMNH [larger view]
There is a lot of controversy among scientists regarding when modern birds first appeared. The current fossil record suggests that modern birds appeared approximately 60-65 million years ago when the other lineages of dinosaurs (along with at least half of all terrestrial…
grrlscientist | February 13, 2008tags: ducks, birds, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Black-Bellied Whistling-Ducks, Dendrocygna autumnalis,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008. [wallpaper size].
There's another image below that shows the background for these ducks.
Black-Bellied Whistling-Ducks, Dendrocygna autumnalis,
with a manatee behind them,
Great horned owl (left) and kinkajou (right)
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park…
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Living Bird magazine
The quarterly magazine, Living Bird, that is published by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, is now available online for free. It includes stories (some are "web only"), streaming video and lots of wonderful images for you to enjoy.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2008tags: birds, Greater Sage-Grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the seventh and last (for a little while) image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. Dave and…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: birds, Canvasback, Aythya valisineria, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the sixth image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. The elegant Canvasback are one of my most favorite ducks…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
The White-crested Elaenia, Elaenia albiceps, on Texas' South Padre Island.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Erik Breden, who retains the copyright to the image [larger view and More pictures of this bird]. [call notes of this bird, linked from Martin Reid, who recorded it onsite (mp3)].
The really hot bird news in the United States is the presence of a White-crested Elaenia on Texas' South Padre Island. This is the first time this species has been seen in North America, so there are…
grrlscientist | February 10, 2008tags: birds, yellow-headed blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the fifth image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. Like with all my "life list birds…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2008tags: birds, Long-earned Owl, Asio otus, ornithology, Image of the Day
Okay, I have to brag a little bit. I have been invited to Manhattan, Kansas, to go birding with Dave Rintoul and his ornithology students for one week at the end of March. I am almost beside myself with excitement right now as I look through Dave's many bird images -- which remind me of my own years of springtime birding on the west coast of this country. How I miss those days, and those birds!
This is the fourth image in this series of Dave's beautiful pictures. The strange long-eared owls are one of my most favorite owl…