For many years, ornithologists classified birds on the basis of their anatomy and behavior – feather color, plumage patterns, leg length, bill curvature, song, nest structure, and hundreds of other characteristics. In the last twenty or so years, however, DNA has been used to clarify relationships among birds, as we do now with humans. Without […]
On occasion someone e-mails me telling me that they have just spotted an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. It is almost certain that what they saw was the Pileated Woodpecker, found throughout the eastern U.S., the Pacific Northwest, and southern Canada, and a close relative of the Ivory-billed. The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) was one of the largest woodpeckers in
Ivory-billed Woodpecker and UFOs Read More »
Last summer I met a Wyoming rancher who was convinced that aliens from outer space mutilated the dead cows he would occasionally find on his ranch. Now I’m not a rancher, but if I found a dead cow, obviously worked on by something, why would aliens come to mind as the cause? I could come up
Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Sasquatch Read More »
Albino birds are not particularly unusual. I’ve seen white robins, jays, crows, peacocks, and others. And of course there are white domestic chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. The whole explanation of feather color is fairly complex, but let’s just discuss pigments for the time being. These pigments fall into three main groups –yellow, red, and
When I arrived in northern California in 1972, I discovered that there were no Northern Mockingbirds but they are very common now. Mockingbirds expand and contract their ranges with the climate, preferring warmer ones, and they have been increasing in numbers in California since the 1940s. The House Finch, common over the U.S., has, over the
Birds and Climate Change Read More »
Each year over 500,000 birds die worldwide due to oil spills. The recent BP oil rig disaster or the coast of Louisiana is a major ecological disaster, and the effects have been devastating. Louisiana is the southernmost point on the Mississippi River Flyway. The coastal areas provide a critical link between North American nesting grounds
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Feathers are the defining feature of birds. Everything with feathers is a bird and all birds have feathers, no exception. As we know, down bags and jackets keep us warm, and that’s part of their function on a bird. As bird progenitors, the dinosaurs, evolved a few hundred million years ago, they were also becoming
Feathers Make the Bird Read More »
Here is the long-sought answer to the age-old question “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” : the egg. Eggs have been around since some of the earliest animals – like sponges and jellyfish – evolved, about 600 million years ago. Birds have been around for about 150 million years and chickens perhaps 2000
We all know that the Rock (city) Pigeon, House Sparrow, and European Starling were imported from Europe in the late 1800’s and have become minor pests (or major, depending on your point of view.) The Ring-necked Pheasant was brought over from China about the same time and has turned out to be a nice addition
A New Bird on the Block Read More »
