I always love watching birds biting at people way bigger than them. Like obviously depending on the bird and how it gets you it can be pretty bad (i got bitten by a parrot once and tore a strip of skin off my finger) .
But stuff like that albatross basically just gumming that guys arm or the video of the pelican trying to eat the capybara while it studiously ignores it make me giggle.
Spoiled for big
Was just trying to get this chickadee out of a net during bird banding.
Dang, reckt
Jedoc on
+8
Options
The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
I think a second dove took over the nest in my back yard because I think up to 4 pairs of dove's this summer. That or I have one extremely fertile dove.
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Mourning doves can have up to six broods a year so it might just be a regular fertile dove.
+1
Options
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
I saw a spotted sandpiper today.
I was wading down the nearby river and on a sandbar saw the tiniest little sandpiper pitter-pattering along, pecking at this and that at the edge of the water, and bobbing its little tail compulsively. Couldn't ID it at first, just noted it was definitely sandpiper shaped, white belly, light brown on top (no spots, but immature ones don't have spots), and so little, smaller than a robin. Tiny + inland along a river + tail bob = spotted sandpiper.
Sorry about no pictures. I had on me a swimsuit, a T-shirt, and glasses. It was stupid hot and I needed a cooldown after work, and then I saw birb!
On Tuesday I was driving to class and stopped at a red light, as one does. While stopped, I saw a little desert gopher saunter into the street and start looking around. Suddenly it fuckin' darts back to where it came from, and a hawk of some sort swoops down and kind of glides over where the gopher was and landed on the little metal handrail over the culvert walkway. I almost saw something really cool, but instead I got to see something kinda cool.
+4
Options
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Oh right, I could just post a video by someone else. Here's a spotted sandpiper:
On Tuesday I was driving to class and stopped at a red light, as one does. While stopped, I saw a little desert gopher saunter into the street and start looking around. Suddenly it fuckin' darts back to where it came from, and a hawk of some sort swoops down and kind of glides over where the gopher was and landed on the little metal handrail over the culvert walkway. I almost saw something really cool, but instead I got to see something kinda cool.
Earlier this week I saw a coopers hawk swoop down on a large red or small fox squirrel, miss and land in a tree over. After a little back and forth the squirrel charged the hawk, which flew to a tree 2 over. Squirrel still wasn't happy with that and took a single step towards the hawk, at that point the hawk just noped out and flew away.
Squirrel had a little victory dance and might have gained a level.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
edited September 2021
How birds see colour:
According to a Live Science article, 'a bird with ultraviolet-sensitive vision might have spectacularly bright plumage in order to impress a female, but that same plumage might appear dull to predator birds that see only in the violet range.'
There are some species where males and females appear similar but light up spectacularly when seen through UV cameras, such as starlings. With UV vision, the difference is of course very apparent to the birds themselves.
L: How humans see Starlings. R: How Starlings may see each other - with bolder markings and more colour.
A compelling reason behind the theory that UV vision helps find a mate was the discovery that the famously colourful bills of Atlantic Puffins fluoresce spectacularly under UV light. Also known as 'Sea Parrots' and 'Clowns of Sea', Puffins actually alter their appearance. Little known is the fact that their beaks and contrasting plumage only last for the duration of the breeding season, whereupon they return to more muted colours and shed their beaks. The Puffin's bills are key to signalling sexual prowess to other puffins.
L: Puffin during non-breeding season. M: Puffin during breeding season with colourful bill. R: Puffin bill under UV light.
Saw a peregrine falcon try and fight a pair of white tailed eagles. Peregrines are some angry sons of bitches. The eagles seemed pretty chill about the whole thing.
The peregrines around here have a friendship with a red tailed hawk that lives nearby {like over in a field that goes on for several miles squished between a row of businesses along the road and apts a distance away} I call it the sagebrush preserve it's also where a lot of coyotes live
But back to the Red tailed hawk I have seen them hunt together one dives to scare up birds the other catches one. I have seen local birds harass the peregrine whom flies off to get their rather showy friend {they will land on a house or light pole spread their wings and circle like a wrestler taunting the birds}
On the entire eastern side of the continent, you basically only get one kind of hummingbird, the Ruby-throated. We had a couple female birds at our feeder when last week, I notice a hummingbird with some brightly coloured feathers on its neck, so I naturally assume its just a male version. I snap a few photos of it outside our kitchen and move on. It comes back later in the day, I snap a few more photos and then take a closer look at it. Turns out, it has alot more orange on it than I am used to seeing. I post the photos around to some birders and get some feedback that it is likely a vagrant Rufous hummingbird. I get in contact with a local hummingbird bander who was finally able to visit me this morning where he temporarily captured the bird, banded it, ID'd it and took a bunch of measurements. He ID'd as a Rufous hummingbird (the easiest way to do this is by examining the tail feathers for a particular shape) and that makes it one of about 60 or so sightings of this bird in this state ever. He's been visiting very consistently over the last week and may stick around for a while well past when all the other hummingbirds would have normally left. Very excited about this!
Photos under the spoiler (I shrank them down so hopefully they are not too big to share)
I didn't realize being a birder gave you power over birds to command and handle them.
Yeah, it's the bander who is pictured holding the bird. He was very comfortable holding it as well. He is trained and registered to do so I believe. I am pretty sure it is otherwise illegal to capture and handle most birds on your own.
Posts
Dang, reckt
Shit, new page!
I was wading down the nearby river and on a sandbar saw the tiniest little sandpiper pitter-pattering along, pecking at this and that at the edge of the water, and bobbing its little tail compulsively. Couldn't ID it at first, just noted it was definitely sandpiper shaped, white belly, light brown on top (no spots, but immature ones don't have spots), and so little, smaller than a robin. Tiny + inland along a river + tail bob = spotted sandpiper.
Sorry about no pictures. I had on me a swimsuit, a T-shirt, and glasses. It was stupid hot and I needed a cooldown after work, and then I saw birb!
Look at that tail waggle!
Granted, the one I saw looked more like
but that bobbing tail was quite distinctive, even for me seeing a sparrow-sized bird on a sandbar while I kept my distance in a river.
Earlier this week I saw a coopers hawk swoop down on a large red or small fox squirrel, miss and land in a tree over. After a little back and forth the squirrel charged the hawk, which flew to a tree 2 over. Squirrel still wasn't happy with that and took a single step towards the hawk, at that point the hawk just noped out and flew away.
Squirrel had a little victory dance and might have gained a level.
nuts to that
That is all.
Ooh, found another great Twitter thread from there.
https://www.sensorama.world/post/the-amazing-world-of-uv-vision-seen-through-the-eyes-of-birds
No, see, it works if you lick your thumb and touch the bird!
That's a slippery slope. Everyone sees it, nobody's sayin' it.
But back to the Red tailed hawk I have seen them hunt together one dives to scare up birds the other catches one. I have seen local birds harass the peregrine whom flies off to get their rather showy friend {they will land on a house or light pole spread their wings and circle like a wrestler taunting the birds}
On the entire eastern side of the continent, you basically only get one kind of hummingbird, the Ruby-throated. We had a couple female birds at our feeder when last week, I notice a hummingbird with some brightly coloured feathers on its neck, so I naturally assume its just a male version. I snap a few photos of it outside our kitchen and move on. It comes back later in the day, I snap a few more photos and then take a closer look at it. Turns out, it has alot more orange on it than I am used to seeing. I post the photos around to some birders and get some feedback that it is likely a vagrant Rufous hummingbird. I get in contact with a local hummingbird bander who was finally able to visit me this morning where he temporarily captured the bird, banded it, ID'd it and took a bunch of measurements. He ID'd as a Rufous hummingbird (the easiest way to do this is by examining the tail feathers for a particular shape) and that makes it one of about 60 or so sightings of this bird in this state ever. He's been visiting very consistently over the last week and may stick around for a while well past when all the other hummingbirds would have normally left. Very excited about this!
Photos under the spoiler (I shrank them down so hopefully they are not too big to share)
I have 549 Rock Band Drum and 305 Pro Drum FC's
REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS
Yeah, it's the bander who is pictured holding the bird. He was very comfortable holding it as well. He is trained and registered to do so I believe. I am pretty sure it is otherwise illegal to capture and handle most birds on your own.
I have 549 Rock Band Drum and 305 Pro Drum FC's
REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS REFS
When did Giraffe DNA get mixed up into a bird?
That Neck tho!