Adopt a Loon

By lisala on 12/29/09 1:01am
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The Common Loon is quite lovely to look at; one of the most geographically dispersed water birds. The loon's black and white markings, especially the black head and checker-board back, makes it easy to spot on lakes or coastal estuaries from the width of Canada to the northern United States. But, lovely as they are to watch, loons are best known for the eerie cry of the male. Loons are, however, declining rapidly. They have ceased to appear at all at lakes where they have been breeding for hundreds of years; we are not sure, exactly what has caused this decline.

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The Coolest Bird on the Planet

By lisala on 12/16/09 7:33am
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The Superb Bird of Paradise, Lophorina superba, is a small bird native to the rainforests of New Guinea. Because the males far outnumber the females, competition for a mate is fierce, and has, over time, resulted in elaborate competitive courtship displays. Apparently, the average female rejects fifteen to twenty of her performing suitors, before finding The One.

This competitive pressure is understandably stressful for the males. Apparently, they've resorted to music videos, in attempt to be perceived as The Coolest Bird on the Planet.

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The Noble Turkey

By lisala on 11/26/09 4:29am
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It's the time of year that in America, we're all thinking about turkey, even those of us who lack any desire to actually ingest the bird. I suspect that most you you were told, much as I was, that we celebrate Thanksgiving and dine on turkey as a tradition that honors the Pilgrims and the first Credit: Pennsylvania Game CommissionCredit: Pennsylvania Game CommissionThanksgiving. The birds we dine on, or that most of us dine on, are carefully bred and exceedingly stupid hybrids. They're typically white or buff, and some are dark gray-brown. They don't look much like the native wild American turkey; Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. The picture above is an Eastern Wild Turkey, and and example of the sub-species that the Pilgrims would have seen.

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Chicken Fear

By erika on 11/24/09 9:54pm
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Bok!Bok!Someone sent me a link to this hilarious blog post today.  To sum up: Audrey's chickens spent the entire day being terrorized by a dried sunflower seed head.  Which her gardening friend had kindly saved and dried for her, and which she had set out in their run thinking that they would have fun picking at it all day.  Oh my no!  They flew into a complete panic upon seeing it, then spent the rest of the day in their coop without food (just water).

Dried sunflower heads = SHEER TERROR.

This isn't terribly unusual.  After all, we call cowards "chicken" for a reason.  


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Would You, Could You, Own a Bird?

By sarajean on 10/30/09 11:03am
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My daughter loves to visit various pet shops. We go in and she marvels at not just the different animals but also all of their gear. Sometimes she even wants to take a puppy toy home much more than a puppy itself—but usually it’s the canine that she’s crying for when we finally leave.

I’m not much of a fan of pet shops. They always have a sad vibe to them for me. But I figure it’s cheaper and closer than the zoo, she gets to see a few critters, and I can keep a wary eye open for anything worth reporting.

But it’s when we go back to where the birds are kept that I start to really get sick to my stomach. It’s gotten to the point to where my husband will walk around the birds with my daughter, and she always asks, “Is mommy coming too?”

“No, sweetie, mommy’s not coming,” he always tells her. “Mommy doesn’t like to see birds in cages.”

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Tell IHOP to Be Nice to Chickens

By sarajean on 10/15/09 11:52pm
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If I were a chicken, I know I wouldn’t want to be a nugget (or a patty, or a buffalo ranch sandwich, or whatever; you get the idea). I also wouldn’t want my embryos eaten, either. I’m sure I’d be a pro-choice chicken, but I’d much rather have my yolk and whatnot go to embryonic chicken stem cell research rather than an omelet. That would just be too weird.

But if I had to be somebody’s food, I would want to at least be happy food. I wouldn’t want to live what little life I had in a tiny cramped cage, being pecked or peed on by my neighbor. I would want to be able to turn around, take a dump in different place than the one I’m sitting in, that kind of thing.

That actually sort of sounds like my first apartment, only worse.

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Beleaguered Hawk Attacked by Tiny Kingbird

By lisala on 9/30/09 9:46pm
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Pauline Gaines captured this amazing shot of a tiny and furious kingbird aggressively attacking a red tail hawk at Bonny Lake park in Colorado.. The hawk got close enough to the smaller bird's nest that it became territorially outraged to the point of essentially piggybacking on the much larger predator.

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“Vegetarian Fed” Chickens? But Chickens Aren’t Vegetarians!

By erika on 9/22/09 6:21pm
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This conversation crops up a lot on the various forums for chicken owners on the internet.  Several lines of chicken feed (such as Purina's Layena Sun Fresh) are labeled "No Animal Protein" or "Protein From Vegetarian Sources."  Then again, most consumers have also seen eggs and chickens labeled "Vegetarian Fed."

The odd thing is, chickens are not vegetarians.  Chickens are omnivorous, and when left to their own devices will eat a diet of about 80% plants and 20% insects and small animals.  (Yes, chickens will eat mice, lizards, small snakes - basically anything that they can catch.  You did know that chickens evolved from tyrannosaurus rex, didn't you?  Now you can see the resemblance!)


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Heroic Duck Rescue

By lisala on 9/14/09 6:26pm
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So, baby ducks with mombaby ducks with momOK; maybe it's not all that heroic, but it is way too cute, and it's a lovely demonstration of the phenomona Konrad Lorenz call imprinting.

 

(Thanks, Juniperus!)

The Falcon v. the Starlings in the Vineyards of California

By becksta on 9/12/09 11:48pm
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StarlingStarlingWhat would you guess would be the arch-nemesis of the California wine-growers and their grapes? Would you guess droughts, floods, fires, or the innocent little starling birds?  If you chose the starling as your final answer, you are absolutely correct. The starlings are known as gluttonous fans of the grapes and can reportedly eat their way through the fields in record time.


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