Pollinator Week was June 21-27, 2021. Birds are key global pollinators of wildflowers and ornithophily (bird pollination) occurs in more than 60 flower families. Bird pollinators include the orioles and hummingbirds of the New World, honeycreepers of Hawaii and central and South America, sunbirds of Africa, and the lorikeets and honeyeaters of the Australasian realm. …
According to a recent study*, there are about 50 billion living birds in the world, six times as many as there are people. It was not easy to come up with that figure but the diagram below gives a graphic representation of how the researchers did it. It’s not easy to understand, but basically, using …
A little anatomy today. In Chicago when I was a kid of about 10, I was sitting on my home’s front porch when a parakeet landed on my head, obviously an escapee. A tame and lovely blue bird, I kept him for several years. I used to watch him warble (or whatever the semi-musical sound …
I am reading the The First Frontier by Scott Weidensaul, prolific nature writer and eminent ornithologist. A synopsis of the book reads: “Frontier: the word carries the inevitable scent of the West. But before Lewis and Clark, … it was the East that marked the frontier—the boundary between Native cultures and the first colonizing Europeans- …
There’s a birdwatcher in Central Park in New York City who calls himself Birding Bob. He leads bird walks in the park for the nominal sum of $10. But according to the New York Times, Bob ruffles the feathers of some birdwatchers. What he does is play bird calls, which some birdwatchers consider unethical because …
Just returned from East Texas a short while ago. Did some birdwatching of course but saw nothing exotic or unexpected, but I was struck by the difference in coloration in East Texas birds compared to those at my home in Northern California. The Blue Jays were a striking blue and black and white, making our …
The majestic Golden Eagle, named for the shining feathers on the back of its head and neck, inspires awe around the world. Reflecting the reverence many have for this raptor, the Golden Eagle is the national symbol for five countries: Albania, Germany, Austria, Mexico, and Kazakhstan. The scientific name Aquila chrysaetos comes from the Ancient …
Why are there only 10,000 species of birds when there are 25,000 species of fish and 350,000 species of beetles out of at least 900,000 species of insects. A 1959 paper by G.E. Hutchinson entitled Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why are There So Many Kinds of Animals? provides some ideas. Birds have only been …
In Late and Middle English, the word “swallow” meant “gulf, abyss, hole in the earth or whirlpool,” and later “throat or gullet.” The Norse version of the word meant “devourer or swallower.” Today it means to put a drink or piece of food down the throat, accept a story without question, or the familiar small …
I earlier talked about Elizabeth Gould, bird artist of the 19th century who may not have been given enough credit for her works. There are others, too, in recent years who are outstanding bird artists but not well known. One is Lars Jonsson (1952-), ornithologist and artist, who started painting birds when he was young; …
