ornithology

What is this bizarre fuzzy little creature? It's a Black coucal Centropus grillii chick, and what makes it particularly interesting is that it's covered with simple, tubular, unbranched feathers (termed trichoptiles). If you know the literature on the evolutionary development of feathers you will have noticed that trichoptiles look suspiciously similar to the 'stage 1 feathers' hypothesised by Prum and Brush, and yet here they are in a neornithine. They rarely get a mention, despite being described by Shelford (1900), and despite being present elsewhere in cuculiforms and not restricted to…
tags: Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, photographed in Hermann Park Lagoon, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 December 2005 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/160s f/8.0 at 500.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: This is a fine image of the bill color and pattern of Lesser Scaup: note how the jet black of the bill tip is strictly limited to the nail, with no "bleed" to the sides. The…
tags: Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, photographed in Oakland, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 December 2007 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Push me into a corner and I guess I'd call this a Greater Scaup. The bill is very broad, and the black, though it doesn't reach the edge of the bill, does "bleed" outwards from the…
tags: Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Greater Scaup, Aythya marila, photographed at Oakland, California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 December 2007 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Another scaup to light my way to the fall! This bird's full nape continues without a break or notch to the high point of the crown, which is above or perhaps even slightly ahead of the…
tags: Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Lesser Scaup, Aythya affinis, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 14 March 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: I wish that I could see the tail of this bird. But even without that, we can tell that we're looking at a diving duck: the head and body are clad in great monotone swaths rather…
tags: Pine Siskin, Carduelis pinus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Pine Siskin, Carduelis pinus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 2008 [larger view]. Date Time Original: 2008:04:16 08:46:29 Exposure Time: 1/319 F-Number: 5.60 ISO: 320 Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Start at the back, start at the back! We see a short-tailed bird with a long wingtip, and both wing and tail show yellow: simple feather edgings in the wing, but a significant basal patch in the tail. Off the…
tags: Inca Dove, Columbina inca, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Inca Dove, Columbina inca, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 2005 [larger view]. Date Time Original: 2005:03:26 18:18:03 Exposure Time: 1/25 F-Number: 8.00 ISO: 800 Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Aww! This bird just looks small and harmless, like a baby bird that's lost its momma (more about that below). That said, I'm at a momentary loss as to how I'd go about identifying it if I didn't know the species well…
It is unfortunate that I just do not have the time to do any 'proper' blog writing at the moment. Winge winge winge. So I'm going to do a bad thing, but something that I've been advised to do, and something that lots of other people do anyway: I'm going to start re-publishing old Tet Zoo articles from ver 1. We'll call this 'From the archives'. If you're a long-time reader then, sorry, you're going to be seeing old stuff that you've seen before. But if you're a new "I've only known about Tet Zoo since it's been on ScienceBlogs" reader, well - ta da! The article here is the very first full-…
tags: Peach-faced Lovebird, Agapornis roseicollis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Feral Peach-faced Lovebird, Agapornis roseicollis, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 2008 [larger view]. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: It was a cold, windy day at New Jersey's Sandy Hook, and our teeth chattered and our eyes teared as we stood knee-high in snow, taking turns at the scope that held the image of a juvenile Gyrfalcon. Suddenly there came a jeering scream from the sky above us,…
tags: dopamine, behavior, evolution, rewarding affiliative behaviors, brain reward pathways, songbirds, birdsong, zebra finch, Poephila guttata, neurobiology A pair of wild Zebra (Chestnut-eared) Finches, Poephila guttata. Image: Adelaide Zebra Finch Society [larger view]. People have been known to "sing for joy" and we often experience happiness when others sing for us. Additionally, birdsong has often brought joy to those who have listened, but what about the birds themselves? Do birds experience "happiness" when they hear birdsong, or when they sing for others? According to newly…
tags: Snow Goose, Chen caerulescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Juvenile Snow Goose, Chen caerulescens, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 February 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Another white waterfowl. This is a biggish bird, heavy-headed and heavy-billed, and we should probably rule out Graylag before deciding that it is a North…
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter Red-crowned Amazon parrot, Amazona viridigenalis, at Elizabeth Street Parrotry, Brownsville, Texas. Image: Joseph Kennedy, 7 April 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Birds in Science Scientists have found a new huge and well-preserved fossil of a goose and duck relative that swam around what is now England 50 million years ago flashing sharp, toothy smiles. The skull, discovered on the Isle of Sheppey off the southeast coast of England in the…
tags: Ross's X Snow Goose, Chen hybrid, birds, nature, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Ross's X Snow Goose, Chen hybrid, photographed at Coronado Lakes, Santa Fe, New Mexico. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 20 March 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: White waterfowl are an open trap for the unwary -- in many parts of the US, at many times of the year, the most abundant such bird is Mallard, many of…
tags: Redhead, Aytha americana, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Male Redhead, Aytha americana, photographed at Hermann Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 January 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Read an analysis for how to identify this species below the fold; Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Here's a puffy-headed Aythya with a uniformly reddish head -- a prominent feature that leads us directly to the…
tags: Canvasback, Aythya valisineria, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Canvasback, Aythya valisineria, photographed in southeastern Arizona in February [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Rick Wright [larger view]. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Steaming straight at us, this mystery bird is going to make it hard to apply our foolproof start-at-the-rear method. The head-on pose also puts paid to any attempt to identify it by picture-matching. This is one of those cases where a bird that is easy as can be in full field-…
tags: Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Black Skimmer, Rynchops niger, photographed at Quintana and Bryan Beaches, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 September 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Another immature gull: abandon hope, abandon this quiz, and let's go do something useful! Persist, though, and we'll find some odd things about this bird that make it…
tags: Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Gull-billed Tern, Sterna nilotica, photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Yacht Basin Road, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 May 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: This stunning portrait is readily identified as [that] of a Gull-billed Tern. All the usual field guide characters are on display, but all we really need to…
tags: Least Tern, Sterna antillarum, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Least Tern, Sterna antillarum, photographed at Bolivar Flats, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 16 August 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: Another teeny tern. If that wasn't your first thought, you might want to run back through the other tern images in this series and try to get a sense of what a big tern looks like, a…
tags: Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri, photographed at Robbins Park, Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 June 2008 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Read how to identify this species below .. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: A pretty picture, and well composed; with the bird's head turned haughtily towards the observer, we can't see the exact…
tags: Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, birds, nature, Image of the Day [Mystery bird] Common Tern, Sterna hirundo, photographed at the Texas City Dike, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 September 2007 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: This is the image that springs to mind when a birder hears the word "tern": a graceful rear end, the wingtips tapering into infinity above a long pointed tail; a slender, flat-…