ornithology
grrlscientist | February 8, 2009tags: California Towhee, Pipilo crissalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] California Towhee, Pipilo crissalis, photographed in San Francisco, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 18 December 2008 [larger view].
Photo taken with Canon 50D, 400 5.6L lens.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 7, 2009tags: Nelson's Sharp-Tailed Sparrow, Ammodramus nelsoni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Nelson's Sharp-Tailed Sparrow, Ammodramus nelsoni, photographed while demonstrating its unusual perching technique at Crab Street, Surfside, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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grrlscientist | February 6, 2009I am so sad to inform you that the famous British ornithologist, David Snow, died Wednesday, 4 February 2009, at the age of 84.
David Snow was born in Windermere, Cumbria, located in northwestern England on 30 September 1924. He began his illustrious career as a demonstrator at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford University from 1949 to 1957. The Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology conducts ornithological research in evolutionary ecology and conservation biology with an emphasis on understanding birds in their natural environments. Then from 1957 to 1961, Snow…
grrlscientist | February 6, 2009tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Plain Chachalaca, Ortalis vetula, photographed in Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 4 April 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 5, 2009tags: Brewer's Sparrow, Spizella breweri, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Probable Brewer's Sparrow, Spizella breweri, photographed in the brush in Lake County, near Madison, South Dakota (this bird was severely out of its normal range). [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 30 September 2006 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 4, 2009tags: Varied Thrush, Ixoreus naevius, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Varied Thrush, Ixoreus naevius, photographed in central Ontario. The bird died after striking the window of lakeside cottage fringed with Eastern Hemlock, Red Oak, Winterberry and American Bittersweet. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Michael Butler, 16 November 2008. [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Original blog entry about this bird.
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grrlscientist | February 3, 2009tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
"What species of bird was in the shortest Superbowl commercial in history?"
[Mystery bird] Glaucous-winged Gull, Larus glaucescens, an image grab from the television in Seattle during the Superbowl 2009 .. this bird was featured in shortest Superbowl commercial ever shown (0.5 sec) -- can you identify this mystery bird?
Image: a Tweeters list subscriber, 1 February 2009. [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Here's another look [0:03]:
And here's the original image…
grrlscientist | February 2, 2009tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Nonggang Babbler, Stachyris nonggangensis, a newly discovered bird species, is found only in southwestern Guangxi province, part of the south-east Chinese Mountains Endemic Bird Area.
Image: James Eaton; Birdtour Asia.
Birds in Science
For many decades, the white-eyes (Family: Zosteropidae) were known as the "Great Speciators" in honor of their apparent ability to rapidly give rise to new species while other birds in the same areas showed little or no diversification. But the Great Speciator hypothesis could only…
grrlscientist | February 2, 2009tags: Chestnut-sided Warbler, Dendroica pensylvanica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Adult male Chestnut-sided Warbler, Dendroica pensylvanica, in breeding plumage, photographed on the grounds of the USGS EROS Data Center in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 22 May 2008 [larger view].
Photo taken with Canon 40D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 1, 2009tags: Surfbird, Aphriza virgata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Surfbird, Aphriza virgata, photographed at "Land's End", an area in San Francisco on the Pacific Coast. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 18 December 2008 [larger view].
Photo taken with Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | January 31, 2009tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] photographed on the island of Labrador. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Orphaned [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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tetrapodzoology | January 31, 2009
The White stork Ciconia ciconia is a well-known migrant, moving from Europe down to Africa (either via the Iberian Peninsula or via the Middle East) during the winter. Increasingly, however, birds are choosing to over-winter in Europe. The numbers are startling: in southern France, eight birds over-wintered in 1996-1997, but 172 did so in 2003-2004 (Archaux et al. 2004).
This winter, one individual over-wintered at Lake Mjøsa, near Hamar, Norway. Nicknamed 'Sture' [shown at top of article], it scavenged at a local rubbish dump and (as of early January) was surviving night temperatures of -…
grrlscientist | January 30, 2009tags: Rough-legged Hawk, Buteo lagopus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Rough-legged Hawk, Buteo lagopus, photographed on Fort Pierre National Grasslands in South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 4 January 2009 [larger view].
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
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grrlscientist | January 30, 2009tags: ornithology, claymation, film, black comedy, streaming video
People have always been conflicted about pursuing knowledge, and this short claymation film captures some of that emotion in this black comedy [4:41]
tetrapodzoology | January 30, 2009
'... [it] clambers up and down trees because it cannot fly ... it purrs like a cat and smell like a posy of fragrant flowers ... it allows itself to be picked up and handled without demur or apparent concern' (Vietmeyer 1992, p. 69).
Another Ten Bird Meme bird (use the search bar if you need more information on that concept). Sometimes called the Owl parrot, the Kakapo Strigops habroptilis was first described by John Gray in 1845 [adjacent image is John Keulemans's painting of 1873]. Everything about the Kakapo is extraordinary. It's a large, nocturnal, cryptically-coloured, terrestrial…
grrlscientist | January 29, 2009tags: Le Conte's Sparrow, Ammodramus leconteii, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Le Conte's Sparrow, Ammodramus leconteii, photographed in Attwater Prairie Chicken Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 6 December 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago delicata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago delicata, remains were found under a spruce stand adjacent to an open spring-fed pond in the mountains near Canmore, Alberta, Canada (about an hour west of Calgary). [short of microscopic examination of these feathers or DNA analysis, this bird will probably never be definitively identified, sorry]
Image: Marcel Gahbauer, 20 December 2008 [larger view].
Scanned, not photographed.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
The story behind […
grrlscientist | January 27, 2009tags: evolution, speciation, diversification rate, Zosterops, White-eyes, ornithology, birds, molecular phylogeny, South Pacific Islands
The Splendid (Ranongga) White-eye, Zosterops splendidus,
endemic to Ranongga Island in the Solomon Islands archipelago.
This species' home range is smaller than Manhattan Island.
Image: Chris Filardi [larger view].
For many decades, the white-eyes (Family: Zosteropidae) were known as the "Great Speciators" in honor of their apparent ability to rapidly give rise to new species while other birds in the same areas showed little or no diversification. But…
grrlscientist | January 27, 2009tags: Mexican Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis lucida, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida)
An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 remain.
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission of National…
grrlscientist | January 27, 2009tags: mystery bird, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia, photographed the Quintana Beach and Jetty area, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.