Pictojam
#bird
Scientists are Trying to Save the Endangered Plains-Wanderer Birds by Making Them Wear Tiny Solar-Powered Backpacks
Scientists are making plains-wanderer birds carry something in their back while wandering, but don't worry, it's for a good reason: to save them from extinction.The tiny ground-dwelling birds are critically endangered species of birds from Australia, or more specifically around Victoria and New South Wales. It is estimated that there are only around 500 to 1,000 plains-wanderers left in the wild. South Australian, Victorian, and New South Wales governments are forming an alliance to prevent the tiny birds from going extinct.The joint mission includes breeding the bird in controlled captivity before re-releasing them with a special solar powered ‘backpack’ on their back. This backpack is connected to satellites and functions as a tracker for each individual.From The Guardian:Researchers have long struggled to understand the movements of the birds in the wild – which is where the solar backpacks come in.They have a two-year lifespan and will be tracked by satellite. Previously, tracking was limited by a 12-week battery life and the birds could only be followed with a transmitter in the field.While the data collected from every tracker is going to be used as the foundation for further plains-wanderer conservation efforts.Image: Zoos Victoria#conservation #plainswanderer #bird #extinction
Australian Magpies Outwitted Scientists by Helping Each Other Remove Backpack-like Tracking Devices
In ethology, or the study of animal behaviour, unpredictability is part of the job. Scientists who had been testing a new tracking device during a pilot study on the movement and social dynamics of Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) received a pleasant surprise—they found out that the magpies had helped remove each other's trackers.
Why Did Hundreds of Birds in Mexico to Suddenly Fall From the Sky?
A security video camera caught a chilling footage of a bizarre wildlife event in the city ofCuauhtémoc in northern Mexico: a flock of birds suddenly plummeted out of the sky and slammed into the ground. While most of the birds managed to fly away, dozens of them were left on the ground, apparently dead from the impact.The birds were a flock of migratory yellow-headed blackbirds (Tordo Cabeza Amarilla or Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus), which migrated to the southwestern United States and Mexico in the winter.But what could have caused hundreds of birds to fall from the sky like that?Local newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua, which reported the event on February 7th, surmised that the birds were affected by toxic gas or pollution from wood-burning heaters and agricultural chemicals and the cold weather in the area. Wild guesses and conspiracy theorists had a field day: fanciful theories like avian flu, 5G or collision with an invisible spaceship were touted on various social media posts. Others suggest that the birds hit an electrical power line and were electrocuted.But ornithologist Kevin J. Mcgowan think that "the only thing that makes sense" was that the birds were fleeing from a predator, and they made a big mistake in swooping down while flying. "This truly was an 'oops' moment for the birds," he said to The Washington Post, "A really big 'oops' moment."Another ornithologist, ecologist Dr. Richard Broughton with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, concurred. "This looks like a raptor like a peregrine or hawk has been chasing a flock, like they do with murmurating starlings, and they have crashed as the flock was forced low,' he said to The Guardian. 'You can see that they act like a wave at the beginning, as if they are being flushed from above.'
How Did Birds Survive the Asteroid Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs?
Around 66 million years ago, the Chicxulub event changed the world when an asteroid slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula and plunged the world into a darkness that killed off 75% of the existing species. The dinosaurs were the best-known of the victims. But not all dinosaurs died out. The few that survived were birds. Even then, the surviving bird species were only a small percentage of the birds that existed before the asteroid impact. Why these these particular species of birds survive? What's the difference between Cretaceous birds and those living today? It appears to be big brains. But it's not just size- new scans of Ichthyornis, a bird that went extinct after the asteroid impact, shows a small forebrain, or cerebrum, like many dinosaurs. Modern birds have much larger forebrains compared to their other brain structures. The forebrain is responsible for many functions, so scientists don't yet know exactly how a larger forebrain aided some birds' survival, but speculate that it might have made them more able to modify their behavior in the face of a new environment. Just don't call them birdbrains. Read more about this research at LiveScience. -via Damn Interesting Image credit: Torres et al/CC BY 4.0)#bird #dinosaur #birdevolution #extinction #asteroid #birdbrain
Watch This Tailorbird "Sew" Its Nest Using Leaves
Tailorbirds are called that because, well, they are a kind of tailor!The small birds, found in the tropical parts of Asia, get their name from the way they build their nests. They pull together large leaves and sew them together with plant fibers or even spider's webs to make a cradle.#bird #tailorbird #nest #sewing
'Mia' the Bearded Vulture Got a New Foot and Became the World's First Bionic Bird
In a large bird such as a bearded vulture, the loss of a limb is often fatal as the animal's inability to walk or fly would lead to death due to malnutrition.So when 'Mia' the bearded vulture injured its foot when it got tangled in sheep wool it tried to use to build a nest, the bird's future looked bleak. Thanks to bionic limb reconstruction specialist Oskar Aszmann and his team at MedUni Vienna, however, Mia can walk again with two feet. Aszmann has been working on surgical techniques to attach bionic limbs for humans in a procedure called 'osseointegration,' where the prosthesis is directly connected to a bone anchor to ensure a solid skeletal attachment. Now, for the first time, he and his team have managed to apply the technique to an avian patient."The bird made the first attempts to walk after just three weeks and the prosthesis was under full load after six weeks. Today the bearded vulture can once again land and walk using both feet, making it the first ‘bionic bird’," said Aszmann in a statement.Image: S. Hochgeschurz, O. Aszmann et al/Nature#bird #bionic #BionicLimb #foot #surgery #osseointegration #beardedvulture
Clever Cockatoos Learn to Open Trash Bins Through Social Learning (i.e. Copying Others)
Suphur-crested cockatoos in Australia are known to scavenge food from trash bins. Recently, animal behavior researchers discovered that the techniques that the cockatoos use to lift the lids of the trash bins are actually learned behavior that spread through social learning.In late 2018, the researchers noted that a cockatoo in northern Sydney invented a distinct way to lift open the lid of the garbage bin, and that behavior was copied by birds in neighboring districts."We observed that the birds do not open the garbage bins in the same way, but rather used different opening techniques in different suburbs, suggesting that the behavior is learned by observing others," said Barbara Klump of Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.Image: MPI of Animal Behavior / B. Klump
American Woodcock Teaching Its Chicks How to Lure Worms
The American woodcock has a peculiar way to rustle up earthworms - it rocks back and forth as it walks!People think that the American woodcock's peculiar bobbing walk is a form of worm grunting, as vibration of the soil encourage worms to surface (presumably because the vibrations are similar to those produced by digging moles that eat them - so the worms are trying to escape their feared predator).#bird #dance #AmericanWoodcock #wormgrunting #wormcharming #chick
"Monday Morning Mood" - This Pic of a Pied Starling Bird Captured How We All Feel on Mondays!
South African photographer Andy Mayes took this photo of a pied starling perched in a tree at the Rietvlei Nature Reserve in South Africa and said, "It perfectly sums up my mood on most Monday mornings." So he titled the photo, "Monday Morning Mood" and it's one of the finalists in the 2021 Comedy Wildlife Photography competition.Image: Andy Mayes#photography #WildlifePhotography #bird #starling #grumpy #Monday
Bird Migration Across Europe Tracked by GPS
Watch 'em fly! In this nifty video clip, the migration of birds in Europe is tracked with GPS.Video: wonderofscience#bird #animalmigration #migration #GPS
Privacy & Cookie Policy
DMCA Policy
Website Accessibility Statement