The One-Third Difference

Dr. Roger Lederer
[caption id="attachment_10776" align="alignleft" width="477"] Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs.[/caption] Have you ever noticed that there are pairs of birds that look a lot alike but are different sizes? How about Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers? Or Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs. Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers. And Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks. These pairs are…
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Half Female Half Male Cardinal

Dr. Roger Lederer
[caption id="attachment_10768" align="alignleft" width="489"] cardinal gynandromorph[/caption] There is a Northern Cardinal visiting a backyard feeder in Erie, Pennsylvania that looks like a male on its left side (red plumage) but resembles a female cardinal on its right side (gray plumage).  The bird is called a gynandromorph- an organism that contains both male…
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Hummingbirds in Combat

Dr. Roger Lederer
Hummingbirds fight; that's obvious to anyone who has watched them at a hummingbird feeder. And their bills are made for fighting as well as feeding. The bills are long and sharp and can be use to thrust, parry, and pluck the feathers of an opponent. They are also made for…
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The Probers

Dr. Roger Lederer
[caption id="attachment_10753" align="alignleft" width="370"] Shorebird Beaks[/caption] We've all watched birds pecking at trees working their way around the trunk and sticking their bills under the bark. These  are the insectivore probers, looking to extract an invertebrate [caption id="attachment_10750" align="alignright" width="183"] Brown Creeper[/caption] morsel. The penduline-tits of Eurasia, so named because…
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Books, and More Books

Dr. Roger Lederer
I read one time that there is almost one bird book a day published in the United States. That’s a lot. Some of these are very minor local books, some are just junk, some are terrific and a lot are inbetween. One review of the best books of 2018 can…
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Swallows and Tattoos

Dr. Roger Lederer
[caption id="attachment_10733" align="alignleft" width="548"] Barn Swallow[/caption] Swallows seemed to have captured people’s imaginations over the years. They are attractive, acrobatic, long distance migrants and one of the most aerial birds. Aristotle noticed them around 363 BC and stipulated (Aristotle didn’t always collect data or do proper or sufficient observations) that…
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Bird Egg Coloration

Dr. Roger Lederer
[caption id="attachment_10724" align="alignleft" width="568"] Dinosaur Eggs[/caption] Birds are the only vertebrates that lay colored eggs. But in a new paper, Dinosaur egg colour had a single evolutionary origin, lead author Jasmina Wiemann of Yale University said that nonavian dinosaur ancestors had colored eggs as well. About a decade ago, Richard…
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Plumage

Dr. Roger Lederer
“Plumage” comes from the Old French meaning feathers or appearance. Today the word is almost exclusively used for a bird’s set of feathers. Depending on the species, birds have various plumages throughout the year. Feathers wear out, are broken, or lost and they need to be replaced on a regular…
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Do Birds Matter?

Dr. Roger Lederer
[caption id="attachment_10705" align="alignleft" width="235"] California Condor[/caption] I have had this website, Ornithology.com for 20 years now. I started it just before my retirement from a university where I taught ornithology and ecology. Now, in my leisure years, I write this blog, give lectures, lead field trips, write articles and books,…
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