Ornithology and Birding

Blogging has been a very different writing experience in different ways. I think the purpose of the activity was to expose us to a new form of writing. The chief differences I noticed were how easy it is to read others work and learn from it and write about what you want. It is amazing how much more open people are to writing when the topic interests them. In other words, the blogging environment is wonderful for developing writing skills because it makes changes easier. The other advantage a blog has is the sharing feature. You can receive feedback from a variety of people. I think Ms. Rumford wanted to work on blogs because they made it easier to bring out our writing style, express our writing skills, and learn from others’ writing.

I remember many a writing assignment that I looked at and thought, “This isn’t me.” I didn’t like being checked off for writing I considered foreign. With blogs, it was different. I could always – not sometimes, always – present something that was my voice in text. It has helped me find my true voice, something I hope to be able to use in other assignments. Another thing I accomplished through the blogs was experiencing the Web 2.0 phenomenon – the ability to share and create information that is visible worldwide. It was always enjoyable seeing dots on my ClustrMap, but I didn’t always understand how important the concept was. People from around the world were learning from my work. As I type, more and more people are getting involved in this phenomenon. I think it is important that I became a part of it. This is a big, inevitable change, and you don’t want to get left behind.

I don’t think I learned very many new concepts through blogging. I had already participated in Web 2.0 in Computer Exploration. I had used a personal blog of sorts. So the biggest lessons I had were in writing. I think the most important of these was smooth transitions. I never really noticed my writing didn’t flow very well, but when I was advised to work on my transitions, it improved my writing exponentially. Another important lesson I learned was about word choice. I had to work a little harder to include good words! I now know that I have to analyze every aspect of my writing if possible before turning it in.

The weekly requirements definitely helped me learn. When I think about it, this class has been more of analyzing reading than writing. This is not to say that we didn’t write; it’s just that we did more reading. In blogs, we got to focus on important skills. It was nice to be able to analyze each part of good writing, one step at a time. Each requirement left a sort of imprint on me, encouraging me to work on that aspect in each blog. When a birder makes an amazing spot of a camouflaged bird or an on-the-dot identification, a common question is, “How did you do that?” The common answer is, “I know what to look for.” Now I know what to look for in good writing, and can use that in my own.

When I first thought about how this experience would help me in the future, I could not think of more than writing classes. I am sure my writing will improve thanks to the emphasis on individual writing traits. However, I think this activity will help me in all classes and in a job. I will pay you a million dollars if you can find a job that does not require pencil and paper. No more “See Spot run” quality writing for me. With the writing skills I learned, my writing will be more impressive and I have a better chance of being successful in life.

If you are reading this article, you probably have some kind of interest in birds, and that interest has triggered some action on your part. Maybe you are an avid birder, traveling far and wide to add birds to your life list. But more likely, you are a person who enjoys watching the sparrows feed their chicks outside, tries to identify the birds you see out the kitchen window, or simply on occasion stops a few seconds to listen to the gurgling call of a White-eared Bulbul. The question I am trying to answer here, through a personal, non-scientific viewpoint, is why we do so.
As humans, we have an unconscious desire to connect with nature in some way. This does not mean reading the science section in the newspaper or owning a pet cat or dog. I am talking about the wild, something that is very foreign to we who live in civilization. Birds are the most obvious wild animals; they often react to their surroundings and behave in wild ways. Because they are so readily seen and heard compared to most other animals, that wild part of us causes us to react when a bird is detected, often with no more than a thought but sometimes triggering an hour of observation. You may not notice it, but that wild part of you is quite dominant; you are just as or even more likely to talk about the mynah that called loudly from your windowsill this morning than the porcelain dish you dropped and broke, even though the dish caused a larger reaction than the bird.
Another reason we watch birds is because they command our eyes and ears. It is hard to tear your eyes off the striking green plumage of the local Ring-necked Parakeets if not rushing for the digital camera that you may even keep nearby for such occasions. The brash call of the Common Mynah is hard to ignore as the bird advertises its presence to nearby individuals. If you have ever seen or heard a woodpecker drumming, you were probably fascinated the first time you heard the machine-gun speed rapping. Birds are there, and quite simply, we notice them, much in the way some of us are inclined to turn on the computer for no other reason than its presence.
I have noticed a third reason that is prevalent once we have established a relationship with birds. As we see birds over and over again, we begin to connect them to our lives as indicators. Most often, we can connect birds to the time of day. When I lived in Virginia, each day as the sun went down, Mourning Doves would fly in, one by one, to perch together on the power lines. Why they did this I do not know; but I began connecting this behavior with the late afternoon. If you wake up early, the real early risers, the birds, might be your alarm clock. Birders can connect birds to other birds. In North America, a group of agitated songbirds often indicates a roosting owl or hawk. Even explorers of centuries past used birds as guides; their presence meant land was nearby. It’s hard to imagine life without birds. Think about what you wouldn’t notice.
Although these are what I believe to be the three main reasons birds rarely avoid our eyes and ears, there is a fourth that I don’t think I can leave out. That fourth reason is that they fly. The whole concept of flight is still so foreign to us, living on the air rather than on the ground. We express this all the time. One good example is how young humans often enjoy climbing trees. The sense of being higher and seeing more than others that this makes us feel is no match for the birds, the pioneers of the air, free travelers on the wind.

Image: http://knol.google.com/k/uses-for-binoculars-and-telescopes

If you see a starling-sized, seemingly neckless bird cryptically perched on a tree branch, old wall, or even apartment gutter staring curiously at you with big yellow eyes, you might be staring at a Little Owl. This adorable bird’s plumages are just as varied as the environments it lives in! There are thirteen recognized subspecies of this owl, and the one photographed above is of the light desert variation, lilith. One thing all the subspecies share is a taste for insects and small mammals. All Little Owls share a general plumage form, brown and covered in spots. They also have ‘eyebrows’ that give them an exaggerated stern facial expression. Another similarity is the call. The Little Owl may be the Eastern Hemisphere’s ‘hoot owl,’ whose everyday dialogue is a repeated loud ‘hoo.’ However, it is a different story if the male owl is trying to call in a potential mate; the bird sounds off a mellow ‘gooek’ that gradually rises in pitch. You are lucky if you manage to experience this spectacle; like most owl displays, they occur at night and rarely as well. Even though you might not see the display during daytime, you are likely to see the Little Owl itself; it defies stereotypes by being partially diurnal, or active during the daytime. Maybe it likes the warmth the sun provides, unlike most of its cousins who don’t seem to enjoy the light the sun provides.

The Little Owl also finds its place in human culture. It is one of a few owls that may be found in a human city. The Little Owl has been introduced to Great Britain and more recently, New Zealand. In Great Britain it is almost considered a native bird. It is also notable for its place in Greek mythology. The owl is a bird sacred to the Greek god Athena as a symbol of wisdom, and the bird that appears on coins and sculptures of Athena’s owl is the Little Owl. This also explains the name of the genus that the Little Owl belongs to, Athene. Unfortunately, the owl may look wise but it is in reality among the least intelligent of birds. Like most birds, its two instincts are finding food and finding a mate. If the owl succeeds in mating, it will make a nest in a tree hole or a rock crevice. There, the female will incubate three to five eggs for about a month, and the young will fledge in another month. Of course, there aren’t many trees in the big city, so city owls will readily take special nest boxes. Young Little Owls don’t look so different from adults, except for the paler plumage and brownish rather than white spotting. Everything else about the juvenile and adults is the same. The age of the yellow eyes staring back at you doesn’t matter that much. It’s an owl, more secretive than almost any other group of birds. It’s a Little Owl, a bird that has graced you with a daytime appearance. Quiet. Watch.

Hi y’all,

Time for another BotW! I know what you are all thinking. . . (“Yay!” “What’s with this guy, not putting one up for weeks?” “More like Bird of the Month!”) I love to think about all the NICE thoughts you readers are giving me.

Pretty bird! Pretty bird! This BotW will showcase one of nature’s true beauties. But which will it be? That’s your job:

European Bee-eater

Painted Bunting

Eurasian Hoopoe

I better see your votes by this weekend! (Whoever’s reading this. . .)

Owler

A curious face,

a gleam in its eye,

So covered in colors

like a jewel in the sky

Some birds may be colorful

Like a bird of paradise

But no bird can hope to compete

with that jewel in the sky.

Some birds might be acrobats

Catching insects on the fly

But no bird can twist and turn

like that jewel in the sky.

Some birds might have feelings

joyfully soaring high

But no bird can match the stare

of that jewel in the sky.

You might be wondering what it is

The bird of which I write

But if you had seen what I had seen

it would be obvious the answer

is the European Bee-eater

because there’s no bird in this world

like that jewel in the sky.

Cactus Finch.

The concept of flight has always caused wonderment in the human race, as philosophers devised odd flapping contraptions modeled after birds. But how and why did birds develop flight? Many of us know that birds evolved from reptiles, but for many of us that is the extent of our knowledge. The first bird, Archaeopteryx, was quite reminiscent of dinosaurs, with a toothed beak and clawed, fingered wings. It is believed it evolved feathers to create lift when jumping to catch insects. However, Archaeopteryx was more of a glider; why did flight itself develop? Nobody knows for sure! But what we do know is how birds got there. One part of a birds’ anatomy is the alula, a small patch of feathers on the wing that is often considered unimportant. It is often thought of as being the birds’ thumb, and acts much like the adjustable slats on the leading edge of an airplane’s wings. It allows a bird to control takeoff and landing more easily and also increase lift if necessary. Birds are truly the champions of the air, but evolution has not only granted them flight; it has made birds true celebrities rather than ‘that thing in the yard with a beak and wings.’ You may have heard of Darwin’s finches, a group of birds almost exclusively endemic to the Galapagos Islands. Darwin used these birds to propose the theory of evolution by studying the varied beak forms. Depending on the food available on an island, the finches developed beaks to best suit their diet. For example, finches eating buds developed large, hard beaks, while finches who preferred grubs had a probing beak like those of woodpeckers. Probably the most amazing thing we have learned about evolution through birds was how fast it can occur. In 2006, a study discovered that when the large ground finch began appearing on the Galapagos island, Daphne, the medium ground finch population on the island, which has lived there for thousands of years, evolved a smaller beak to avoid competition – within just two decades! Even more shocking is that the majority of the change occurred within a single generation. The third thing we learn about with this article is that we are learning so much so often. There is still a treasure trove of information about bird evolution just waiting to be dug up, and it is exciting just to think about what it may be.

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Sources:

Evolution: Bird Evolution

Biology Online: Darwin’s Finches and Natural Selection

National Geographic online article

Image link

Hi everyone, time for a belated BotW:

Little Owl

European Kingfisher

Common Snipe

I took a week off BotW, this week my article might be something different depending on the number of votes I get.

-Owler

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are walking through a mature forest and a male Pileated Woodpecker lands on a dead snag not five meters away. It is truly a glorious bird, over a foot-and-a-half long with a flaming red crest. It gives you a cautious glance, but being the size of a crow and sporting a beak that hammers out wood at 25 pecks a second, it doesn’t have much to fear. As it goes about its feeding business, you begin to note some of its features. The body is almost completely black and the neck is striped black and white, and the contrast between the crest and the rest of the bird is almost unreal. You wonder if there is a female nearby, and your question is instantly answered as a piercing ‘kuk-kuk-kuk’ call rings through the forest. Looking back at the male, you can see the mandibles of the beak are opened slightly by something between them. Before you can get a look at what it is, the bird flies off to a cavity you hadn’t noticed before. A fluffy, crested head peeks out of the nest hole, and the food is transfered to the hungry youngster. As the male flies to another favored feeding area, you have a chance to inspect the snag it left. The holes bored by the powerful beak are noticeably rectangular, and inside those holes you can occasionally see an ant or grub barely missed by the woodpecker. All of a sudden you hear another bird behind you; it is a Red-bellied Woodpecker, another resident of these woods. As you walk away, trying not to disturb it, it flies to the dead tree and begins feeding through the excavations created by the larger woodpecker. You smile as you see another species benefitting from the borings. It is starting to get dark. As you begin to walk back, you hear for one last time the resonant call of the Pileated Woodpecker, as it raises the next generation of a bird that many will enjoy for the years to come.

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Source:

All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Hi everyone,

It’s been long past the time to close BotW, so I think I’ll just get it over with now. Here’s the turnout:

Downy Woodpecker – 1

Red-headed Woodpecker – 2

Pileated Woodpecker – 3

Best photo – 1

Well, my best pic would be of a Red-headed Woodpecker, but it’s not that impressive anyway. So I’m going to rule in favor of the Pileated Woodpecker. I will have the article up in a couple days, don’t worry. In the meantime, check out my other posts.

Over and out,

Owler

Hi everyone and welcome to Bird of the Week. This is the first Bird of the Week chosen by readers, and managed to beat out two other competitors with 4 votes. You might be familiar with this bird; it is a common backyard resident with a well-known peter-peter-peter call. You got it, this Bird of the Week is the Tufted Titmouse!

Let’s start with some basic classification. The Tufted Titmouse is a parid, a colorful family of birds with strong bills, legs and feet. Another parid you may know is the chickadee. The aforementioned strong legs make parids one of few birds that are able to hang upside down on branches.

The Tufted Titmouse also has a very distinctive appearance. It is one of the smallest crested birds, only a few inches in size. It is a beautiful silvery-gray above and has a reddish wash on its sides, or flanks. It also has black above the beak, the only area of black on the whole bird.

Moving on now, let’s look at some traits that set the Tufted Titmouse apart from other birds. It is an arboreal bird commonly found in densely packed deciduous forest, preferably at lower elevations. They have a varied diet, mostly insects such as caterpillars, beetles and ants during the summer, and also seeds and berries, which are more important during the winter when insects are scarce. A study of Tufted Titmice showed that the birds go for the largest seed possible when foraging.

The Tufted Titmouse also has a distinct feeding behavior. It is a common member of mixed feeding flocks made up of several species including woodpeckers, nuthatches and other parids. It looks almost curious when foraging, acrobatically inspecting pine cones and the underside of branches. Another interesting behavior it exhibits is mobbing, which is when several songbirds scold a predator in the nearby vicinity with distinctive callnotes.

When a titmouse visits a feeder, it will first pick out the largest seed available. It will usually fly to a nearby perch and use its strong bill to break open the seed while gripping it in its feet. During the winter, this bird will cache hulled seeds near a food source, like a bird feeder.

If they aren’t feeding, the birds are probably busy  nesting. Titmice build cup-shaped nests in abandoned tree cavities created by woodpeckers. Some titmice might choose to build their nests in nest boxes or metal pipe. They line the nest with soft material such as hair. Hair from squirrels, woodchucks, cats, cows and even humans have been found it titmouse nests. The eggs are white but speckled in brown, red and purple.

The Tufted Titmouse is still probably best known for its fearlessness. It is so curious it will come closer to human noise just to find out what is making it. It will also eat out of a human’s hand after a few days of gaining trust. This probably coincides with its bossy feeder attitude, chasing away other birds in an attempt to hoard the birdseed for itself.

The Tufted Titmouse is by far one of the most entertaining birds. It is curious and easy to see. Often the first sign of a Tufted Titmouse is the peter-peter-peter call it is so well known for. This birds’ curiosity is often why it is one of the most common feeder birds. We birders are a little like titmice, too – if we hear a birdcall we don’t know, we will strain out eyes and necks in an attempt to get a better view.

Have you ever seen one of these birds? This was actually my first parid. I was so excited when I saw and heard this bird high up in the leafless winter canopy a few days after I started birding. Since then, I have seen it in any woodland in my area, and it was curious enough to give me the photo above in January of this year.

Sources:

All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology – Tufted Titmouse

birdhouses101 – Tufted Titmouse

Google Books – Tufted Titmouse

And once again. . . personal experience!