BIRDS -- even more bird mafia discussion

[Elder Sister]

Mr. Elder Sister got me some new, powerful binoculars for my birthday, and they're so much better than what I had...I'm having a blast with them.  

I'm watching the fox squirrels more than birds right now, just because they're so stinking cute.  We have three that live in the trees in by our house, and they've gotten used to me talking to them and are actually very good listeners! 

Oh, and I've had to stick pine cones in all of my geraniums because of the damn house wrens who will not stop building in them.  

 

[TheLastWolf]

16 hours ago, Elder Sister said:

Mr. Elder Sister got me some new, powerful binoculars for my birthday, and they're so much better than what I had...I'm having a blast with them.  

Nikon Prostaff 3S 8X42

 

Spoiler

On my wish list lol

 

16 hours ago, Elder Sister said:

I'm watching the fox squirrels more than birds right now, just because they're so stinking cute.  We have three that live in the trees in by our house, and they've gotten used to me talking to them and are actually very good listeners! 

I once submitted their chattering as unknown audio lol

[Hereward]

So, I needn’t have worried, circa 20,000 puffins on the sea trip, plus lots of Manxies, Razorbills and Guillemots, and even a couple of Storm Petrels. Sadly, despite being in prime habitat, no Pied Flycatchers or Choughs today, and bizarrely no Fulmars. Off to Strumble Head tomorrow though, with a chance of some rarities and to Fishguard for Dippers.

[Fragile Bird]

13 minutes ago, Hereward said:

So, I needn’t have worried, circa 20,000 puffins on the sea trip, plus lots of Manxies, Razorbills and Guillemots, and even a couple of Storm Petrels. Sadly, despite being in prime habitat, no Pied Flycatchers or Choughs today, and bizarrely no Fulmars. Off to Strumble Head tomorrow though, with a chance of some rarities and to Fishguard for Dippers.

That sounds like a fantastic birding holiday!

[Larry of the Lawn]

I've been watching and listening to a family of screech owls all morning at work.  At first I thought I was hearing red squirrels until one of them flew a bit and caught my eye.  Looks like the three young ones just fledged.  They've been getting mildly harassment from a catbird and a pair of orioles.  

[Xray the Enforcer]

On 6/29/2021 at 2:57 PM, Hereward said:

So, I needn’t have worried, circa 20,000 puffins on the sea trip, plus lots of Manxies, Razorbills and Guillemots, and even a couple of Storm Petrels. Sadly, despite being in prime habitat, no Pied Flycatchers or Choughs today, and bizarrely no Fulmars. Off to Strumble Head tomorrow though, with a chance of some rarities and to Fishguard for Dippers.

you're living the dream, my man

[Hereward]

Choughs, Dippers, Fulmars and Pied Flycatchers successfully tracked down. I think that’s everything I d hoped to see, plus a Rosy Starling as a bonus. Back home tomorrow, though I think I’ll stop off at Slimbridge sort of on the way home for a few waders, with a bit of luck.

[Zorral]

Be afraid ... very afraid ... (if climate catastrophe doesn't kill them all in the next few years) ... recall birds are really dinosaurs.

Beyond that, this article on observed avian cultural and individual learning is fascinating.  Cuckatoos in Australia, adapting to urban life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/science/trash-parrots-australia.html?  Paywall; thus extensive pull quote --

Quote

 

. . . . Not only do the birds acquire the skill by imitating others, which is social learning. But the details of technique evolve to differ in different groups as the innovation spreads, a mark of animal culture.

Barbara C. Klump, a behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, and the first author of a report on the cockatoo research in the journal Science, said, “It’s actually quite a complex behavior because it has multiple steps.”

Dr. Klump and her colleagues broke the behavior down into five moves. First a bird uses its bill to pry the lid from the container. Then, she said, “they open it and then they hold it and then they walk along one side and then they flip it over. And at each of these stages, there is variation.”

Some birds walk left, some right, they step differently or hold their heads differently. The process is similar to the spread and evolution of human cultural innovations like language, or a classic example of animal culture, bird song, which can vary from region to region in the same species.

Dr. Klump and her colleagues in Germany and Australia plotted the spread of the behavior in greater Sydney over the course of two years. The behavior became more common, but it didn’t pop up in random locations as it might if different birds were figuring out the trash bin technique on their own. It spread outward from its origin, indicating that the cockatoos were learning how to do it from each other.

The cockatoos’ new skill opens up a whole new resource for the birds. This is adaptive cultural evolution, spreading at lightning speed compared to biological evolution. Dr. Klump noted that culture has been called a second inheritance system and that applies to both humans and animals, allowing us and them to quickly adapt and change our behavior. . . .

The researchers not only observed the different techniques in different areas. They also marked and observed about 100 of the cockatoos to better understand individual behavior.

They found that about 30 percent of the birds tried to open the bins and about 10 percent succeeded. Most of the successful birds were males. Dr. Klump said that males may have succeeded because they tend to be bigger and perhaps were better able to cope with the physical demands. Or it might be that they were higher rank, and would normally have first access to food.

But what about the birds who were not trying to open the bins? Were they simply not smart or big enough? Not necessarily, Dr. Klump said, because once the bins were open any cockatoo could join in and forage without having done any work. Maybe, she said, they have a strategy: “This bird can do it — I’ll just wait until they open it.” Whether that’s true is a subject for future research.

Mark O’Hara of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, who studies wild Goffin’s cockatoos in Indonesia, said the study “beautifully combines citizen science with rigorous direct observations.”

He said he was particularly interested in the larger, higher ranking parrots doing the work of exploiting the new resource. “In primates,” he said, “the lower-ranking individuals would need to find novel ways to access food, whereas the stronger dominant individuals could simply displace and exploit these ‘discoveries.’” . . . .

 

 

[TheLastWolf]

There's a pair of house sparrows building a nest in the window crevice of my flat's bathroom. Nobody uses that one much, so it's very convenient. The nest is nearly done. Looking forward to the egg laying, hatching and whatnot. 

Spoiler

Seeking redemption for unintentionally accidentally disrupting feral pigeon/rock dove nest. Two eggs abandoned. Well they're invasive here anyway 

Glee

[Hereward]

I just got back from a week in Dorset. A bit disappointing from a year list point of view, but I did finally manage to see a Nightjar, which was very exciting, with the added bonus that my eldest son has taken to coming with me, so a first for him too. 
 

I’m up to 168 for the year, but 200 is looking a long way off with no more trips expected to the coast to catch skuas, obscure gulls and winter waders.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Saw a pair of wood storks in today, right next to where I'm working.  Home owner tipped me off that a bunch of birders have been hanging out by his neighbors farm pond to see some bird not native to this area.  Any Hudson River Valley /Capitol Area birders that want to see some wood storks, they're here!  

I saw a bunch in Florida years ago, was pretty cool and bizarre to see them up here.

[Xray the Enforcer]

4 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Saw a pair of wood storks in Ghent, NY today, right next to where I'm working.  Home owner tipped me off that a bunch of birders have been hanging out by his neighbors farm pond to see some bird not native to this area.  Any Hudson River Valley /Capitol Area birders that want to see some wood storks, they're here!  

I saw a bunch in Florida years ago, was pretty cool and bizarre to see them up here.

yeah there's been an influx of juvenile Wood Stork and Roseate Spoonbills to NY this year. Multiple of each species across the whole state. You can tell that these are brand-new (that is, they hatched this year) birds because they still have feathers on their heads. Adult birds of both species have bald heads, like vultures. 

and there's a reason for why! When you have really good breeding years, things get crowded in the normal breeding range (i.e. Florida), and so lots of teenage birds decide to travel elsewhere so they have less competition for resources. This kind of dispersal is one of the mechanisms for species to expand or shift their ranges, and it's pretty interesting to watch that happen in real-time. 

Here's an article on the phenomenon: https://www.audubon.org/news/the-real-reason-behind-years-bizarre-spoonbill-sightings

[Xray the Enforcer]

anyway, I'm stoked you got to see the birds @larrytheimp! I have opted to not chase any of them because chasing stresses me right TF out. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

4 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

anyway, I'm stoked you got to see the birds @larrytheimp! I have opted to not chase any of them because chasing stresses me right TF out. 

I probably shouldn't have posted the location, that was pretty careless.  And that article is awesome!

eta: the two I saw definitely still had feathers on their heads

[Wilbur]

At least two male Western Tanagers have taken up residence in our neighborhood, and they regularly hang out in the big stand of Eldarica Pines in front of our place.

But they are so spooky that I cannot get close enough to photograph them.  Instead, I see them oh so briefly when I walk out there, and that is it.  And they don't seem to use the water source where my trail cam is located.

They are spectacularly colorful this year, too.

[Xray the Enforcer]

5 hours ago, Wilbur said:

At least two male Western Tanagers have taken up residence in our neighborhood, and they regularly hang out in the big stand of Eldarica Pines in front of our place.

But they are so spooky that I cannot get close enough to photograph them.  Instead, I see them oh so briefly when I walk out there, and that is it.  And they don't seem to use the water source where my trail cam is located.

They are spectacularly colorful this year, too.

For as riotously colorful as Western Tanagers are, they can be REALLY hard to see. It's like they have a cloaking device.

[Zorral]

I posted this on the Small Things thread, then remembered we had a Bird thread, so here it it too:

https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/wingspan-board-game-elizabeth-hargrave-review-profile.html

But maybe you all already know about this game?  It's brand new news to me though.

[HoodedCrow]

American Kestral

https//Twitter.com/youglepost/status/1437075797118906376.s=21

Ethical?

[HoodedCrow]

Sorry tried to post a link about an American Kestral that is odd:)

[Xray the Enforcer]

I'm not sure I understand the question?