The lyre bird, not only mimics the calls of other birds, buy also man made noises such as cameras, saws and chainsaws, in an attempt to impress potential mates. David Attenborough narrates the above clip.
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Birds show off their dance moves
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Crows can recognize people and remember them for years. Listen to this interesting report from NPR. Researchers alienated a crow, and then were razzed and harassed by its family and neighbors wherever they go.
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Laboratory footage showing a pigeon solving Wolfgang Kohler’s famous box-and-banana problem, which he studied with chimpanzees in the early 1900s. Depending on their previous experience, pigeons could solve this problem in a human-like fashion in as little as a minute. This pigeon has learned to push boxes and to climb, and it has been rewarded with grain for pecking at a small toy banana.
In this situation, the banana is out of reach and the box is not beneath it. At first the pigeon looks confused, then it begins pushing the box – sighting the toy banana as it pushes – and then stops pushing when the box is beneath the banana, then climbs and pecks. This and related studies were summarized in Dr. Epstein‘s 1996 book, Cognition, Creativity, & Behavior.
This is another example of interesting thoughtful bird behavior.
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Using Barn Owls (Tyto alba erlangeri) For Biological Pest Control In Israel
Great stuff.
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In the webcast an Aukuu bird (Black-crowned Night Heron) fishes using bread as bait. They normally hunt by waiting at the side of a lake and fishing. This individual learned how to bait the fish with bread and improve the fishing results. It also passed on that method to other birds that learned how to use the bait method themselves.
Another bird using bait (with turtles trying to get the bait) and another bird using bait (with a stork trying to steal the fish). And another one. The videos seem to be different species of birds to me.
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photo of a Rusty blackbird, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Report Warns Many Bird Species Declining In U.S.
The report includes some good news about birds that were on the brink of extinction but have rebounded because of conservation efforts, including the Laysan duck and the wild turkey. But it also says many bird species are in trouble — including birds that live on the oceans, in grasslands, in deserts, in the Arctic, on the coasts, in wetlands and in forests.
Development, agriculture, energy production, pollution, invasive species and climate change all put birds at risk.
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The report shows that many other birds are in trouble. Half of the birds that migrate along on the coasts are declining, and so are many seabirds and lots of the birds that live in grasslands and in deserts.
And despite Hawaii’s reputation for rich flora and fauna, more bird species are vulnerable to extinction there than any place else.
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This duckling seems imprinted on this puppy in China.
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Photo of a plane that crash landed in the Hudson River, New York, by jkrums.emergency landing in river by New York City
The United States Coast Guard has reported that they have sent units to the scene of the incident, and that a nearby ferry was giving life jackets to survivors. According to witnesses, the plane landed in the river, making a large splash in the water, at a somewhat gradual angle.
“This looked like a controlled descent,” said Bob Read, who witnessed the incident from his office.
A source told The Wall Street Journal that the plane initially was maneuvering to make an emergency landing at nearby Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, but lost too much altitude and had to ditch in the river.
Unconfirmed reports are citing the pilot as saying that the plane encountered a flock of geese and that some of them went into each of the jet’s engines, leading to a loss of powered flight. Passengers told the press that they heard a loud bang shortly after takeoff.
A Federal Aviation Administration official said that the plane was only airborne for three minutes. For these rare waterlandings, pilots are trained to bring the plane down as they would on land, but with the landing gear still stowed.
How often do birds cause plane crashes?
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I have posted photos from the first day of my Utah trip: Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake is
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