Eternal Sunshine

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Posts tagged bird

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rhamphotheca: Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis), Wingham Wildlife Park, Kent, England * In the wild, it is found in arid regions of SW Africa. (photo: Kevin Law) Hey… weren’t these the birds that Jane was drawing when she was with Tarzan?

rhamphotheca:

Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis), Wingham Wildlife Park, Kent, England

* In the wild, it is found in arid regions of SW Africa.

(photo: Kevin Law)

Hey… weren’t these the birds that Jane was drawing when she was with Tarzan?

Filed under lovebird parrot bird africa

38 notes

rhamphotheca: How Male Hummingbirds Use Their Tails To Impress Females By SINDYA N. BHANOO When male hummingbirds perform valiant dives in front of females, they are actually enticing them with high-frequency vibrations produced by their tail feathers, a new study reports. The vibrations are audible, precise and separate from the humming of the wings that gives the birds their name. Females may be making use of these vibrations to select mates, said the study’s lead author, Christopher Clark, an expert on biomechanics at Yale. Dr. Clark and his colleagues from Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, report their findings in the current issue of the journal Science. “The sounds of each species are fairly distinctive and fairly unique,” he said. “It clearly evolved as a communication signal.” The researchers studied 31 tail feathers from 14 species of hummingbirds. They placed the feathers in a wind tunnel and used a Doppler vibrometer to measure the vibrations… (read more: NY Times) (photo: Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna, by Chris Clark)

rhamphotheca:

How Male Hummingbirds Use Their Tails To Impress Females

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

When male hummingbirds perform valiant dives in front of females, they are actually enticing them with high-frequency vibrations produced by their tail feathers, a new study reports. The vibrations are audible, precise and separate from the humming of the wings that gives the birds their name.

Females may be making use of these vibrations to select mates, said the study’s lead author, Christopher Clark, an expert on biomechanics at Yale. Dr. Clark and his colleagues from Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, report their findings in the current issue of the journal Science. “The sounds of each species are fairly distinctive and fairly unique,” he said. “It clearly evolved as a communication signal.”

The researchers studied 31 tail feathers from 14 species of hummingbirds. They placed the feathers in a wind tunnel and used a Doppler vibrometer to measure the vibrations…

(read more: NY Times)

(photo: Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna, by Chris Clark)

Filed under hummingbird bird north america

112 notes

rhamphotheca: njwight: WTF, you say?  Behold, the Saddle-billed Stork. This goofy gal stands about 5 feet tall with a wingspan of 9 feet and weighs in at 17-20 lbs, making her the largest stork in the land. (African land, that is) Saddle-bills have no muscles in their voice box so for the most part, they are silent. To communicate they rattle their bills. five feet tall… that’s just one inch shorter than me. T-T

rhamphotheca:

njwight: WTF, you say?  Behold, the Saddle-billed Stork. This goofy gal stands about 5 feet tall with a wingspan of 9 feet and weighs in at 17-20 lbs, making her the largest stork in the land. (African land, that is) Saddle-bills have no muscles in their voice box so for the most part, they are silent. To communicate they rattle their bills.

five feet tall… that’s just one inch shorter than me. T-T

Filed under bird nj wight stork africa

532 notes

rhamphotheca: allcreatures: The Burrowing Owl and the Spigot A burrowing owlet appears to be wondering how to turn on the sprinkler. The cute scene was captured by photographer Megan Lorenz during a hot spell in Cape Coral, Florida. Megan says: “We have had some very hot weather in Florida recently and we’ve all done everything we can to keep cool. It seems the burrowing owls have the same idea and garden sprinklers seem like the perfect solution to them. I saw one burrowing owl land in the spray and immediately spread its wings to get as much moisture on them as it could. But the funniest sight was the juvenile owlet who perched on the sprinkler hose and seemed to be staring at the tap. It was almost as if he was wondering how to turn it on.” Picture: Megan Lorenz / Rex Features (via Pictures of the day: 19 August 2011 - Telegraph)

rhamphotheca:

allcreatures: The Burrowing Owl and the Spigot

A burrowing owlet appears to be wondering how to turn on the sprinkler. The cute scene was captured by photographer Megan Lorenz during a hot spell in Cape Coral, Florida. Megan says: “We have had some very hot weather in Florida recently and we’ve all done everything we can to keep cool. It seems the burrowing owls have the same idea and garden sprinklers seem like the perfect solution to them. I saw one burrowing owl land in the spray and immediately spread its wings to get as much moisture on them as it could. But the funniest sight was the juvenile owlet who perched on the sprinkler hose and seemed to be staring at the tap. It was almost as if he was wondering how to turn it on.”

Picture: Megan Lorenz / Rex Features (via Pictures of the day: 19 August 2011 - Telegraph)

Filed under owl bird north america