I’m baking bread and looking out my kitchen window at the first migratory visitors to my bird feeder. There’s a White-crowned Sparrow. Resident birds are partaking of the goodies too as the leaves turn, the weather gets cooler and the insects less abundant. Titmice, doves, towhees, jays, and the occasional Cooper’s Hawk come by to […]
Forty Years From Now Read More »
In the northern hemisphere, birds have been heading south for the past few weeks, or even longer, depending on the species and where they are starting from. Some birds have not begun their southward trek yet. Wherever they begin and whatever their destination, it’s a perilous journey. Just before I sat down to pen this
It’s Migration Time Read More »
You have probably heard from one of many news sources, like the NY Times and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, that birds are vanishing. Somewhere between 25 and 30% of all birds in North America have disappeared since 1970. That’s about three billion breeding birds. I have heard estimates of up to 40%. It’s devastating
Birds are Disappearing Read More »
Imagine coming home one day and finding your house severely damaged, all your bank accounts drained, and people you don’t know hanging around. It would be intimidating and stressful. You might be able to adjust and rebuild there or nearby and recoup your financial losses or you might move elsewhere if you could find suitable
Even though Big Bird was 8 feet two inches tall, he wasn’t the biggest bird we know about. The biggest bird that ever lived was the Elephant Bird of Madagascar that stood nearly 10 feet tall and weighed about 1700 pounds. Its egg weighed 22 pounds. Extinct since the 17th century, there were reports by
Just today I received an email from a reported at a British newspaper in Yorkshire, England, asking if I knew anything about babies (human babies) being attacked by seagulls. No, I hadn’t, so I looked it up. Couldn’t find any information on baby attacks, but I read about others. One woman complained that her Chihuahua
In 1889 a religious book emphasized the spur provided by the possession of a song. This notion matched the quotation under examination: A bird sings because it has a song and must sing it. In 1902 a column in “The Brooklyn Daily Eagle” of Brooklyn, New York suggested that duty was not the key motivator:
I’ve always known that birds’ eggs are pretty amazing structures. Encased in a shell with everything it needs to produce a new bird, an egg does so in 10 to 60 days, depending on the species. You can get an overview of the development of an egg here or a much more detailed discussion of
The Mysteries of Eggs Read More »
According to Science Daily, May 23, 2019, warm blooded animals – birds and mammals – are getting smaller. That seems bizarre until you put some pieces together. Scientists have known about Bergmann’s Rule for many years. This “rule” is actually a general ecomorphological concept which says that as the environment gets colder, the body sizes
The Incredible Shrinking Birds Read More »
I just returned from a fishing trip to northeastern Montana with two biologist friends from graduate school. Impressive scenery. I expected it to be flat and cold. Well, it was cold, but the topography – mountains and valleys and canyons made for an attractive background. We fished and talked biology for 10 days. Not being
