Watch a Baby Condor Hatch and Grow on Live Webcam

You can watch a pair of California condors, among the most endangered birds in the world, as they raise a new baby in view of a webcam set up by scientists at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park.

Shatash, 21, and her partner Sisquoc, 28, will take turns caring for the 9-ounce egg until it hatches in early March.

The hatching process will take a day or two, and if the chick runs into trouble along the way, Sisquoc and Shatash will be standing by to help.

Right now, Shatash and Sisquoc are tending to a life-like faux egg while theirs sits in an incubator. Closer to the end of the 52-day incubation period, scientists will switch the artificial egg for the real one.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CONDOR CAM.

California condors are very nurturing parents. They’re also very egalitarian: Both parents take care of their young. Sisquoc and Shatash will discipline, groom and play with their baby. They’ll give it feathers to play with and rub their baby’s soft pink face with their own.

 Five to six months after Shatash’s egg hatches, her chick will start to hop and flap around the nest as it learns to fly. By then, its wispy white feathers will have turned to grey. The fledgling will stay with its parents for about a year imitating them and learning how to pick up food and forage. During this time, the young bird will also learn how to interact with other condors.

Today there are only about 400 California condors left in the world.

Original article here.

High-Speed Animal Flight Videos Show Hidden Aerial World

A Dutch program called Flight Artists sent high-speed video tools to amateur photographers around the world.

The challenge was to capture nature in flight. Over the course of a year, the contest drew 460 amateurs who uploaded more than 2,400 slow-motion video clips shot with their complimentary cameras. A jury of scientists, philosophers and video experts then picked their favorites, which can be seen below.

For more information, including descriptions of all these videos, see the original article here.

High-Speed Video Shows How Hummingbirds Stay Dry

How does a hummingbird keep dry? A series of high-speed videos reveal that hummingbirds shake themselves like dogs. Of course, dogs don’t shake while balanced delicately in mid-air, flapping their wings 45 times per second. At a glance, that might not seem like a pressing problem. But for a bird that weighs a few grams and lives on a razor-thin margin of bioenergetic error, it’s a life-or-death matter. See more in the original article here.

Murmuration of Thousands of Starlings

The video above was taken at the River Shannon in Ireland. It shows thousands of starlings in shape-shifting flocks that are referred to as a "murmation."

Rare Kingfishers Hatch at the Smithsonian

Two critically endangered Micronesian kingfishers, among the rarest animals in the world, hatched recently at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

These new chicks boost the total world population to 131. The chicks are hand-reared, fed at two hour intervals, seven to eight times a day.

Extinct in the wild for more than 20 years, Micronesian kingfishers are difficult to breed in captivity. Male and female birds can be reluctant to bond. Not all parents are able to successfully rear their offspring, and their health can be delicate. A third chick hatched at the Institute’s Bird House on Sept. 3 died two days later of unknown causes.

Original article here.

High-Speed Video Shows How Hummingbirds Really Drink

New high-speed videos of hummingbirds overturn nearly two centuries of conventional wisdom on how they drink.

Researchers previously thought tube-like channels in their tongues sucked up fluid by capillary action. But the new analysis shows that their tongues actually trap nectar by curling around it.

Read more in the original article here.

Baby Bald Eagles Will Hatch on Live Webcam

Live video chat by Ustream

Three bald eagles are expected to hatch in Decorah, Iowa, between March 30 and April 1, 2011, and you can watch it happen on the above webcam.

The nest was built 80 feet up a cottonwood tree near the Decorah Fish Hatchery in 2007, and all 8 of the parents' children have entered the world on camera.

Viewers will be able to see tiny cracks lacing through the eggs before they hatch. The zoomed-in view gets so close, you can count the scales on the eagles’ feet.

The mother eagle laid the eggs on Feb. 23, Feb. 26 and March 2. All three were caught on camera and are up on YouTube.

Original article here.

Hidden Messages Found in Bird Nest Decorations

The discovery of messages in raptors’ nests has raised the possibility that many bird species encode signals into these structures, with seemingly decorative flourishes actually full of meaning.

Among black kites, scraps of white plastic are used to signal territorial dominance. To other kites, the scraps are a warning sign. To humans, they hint at an unappreciated world of animal communication.

A few species, such black wheatears and bowerbirds, are already known to use nest design in courtship displays. But such communication is considered uncommon and relatively one-dimensional, aimed entirely at finding a mate.

In a study published in Science, researchers describe their careful observations of 127 black kite nests in Spain’s Doñana National Park.

They found that, several weeks before females laid eggs, birds festooned their nests with pieces of white plastic. Fitter birds, in possession of the best territory, tended to use more plastic. Weaker birds, with less-desirable territory, used less. Elderly and very young birds used none.

Territorial confrontations are common among kites, and proved closely linked to plastic displays. Kites with much plastic in their nest were rarely challenged, while those with little were challenged daily, even hourly.

The plastic appears to be a convenient way of codifying and announcing strength, saving kites from indiscriminate or ill-chosen battles. The birds also had access to green and transparent plastics, ostensibly preferring white because of its long-distance visibility.

When the researchers intruded, however, adding extra plastic to nests, challenges paradoxically became more frequent — suggesting that kite community is aware of existing claims, and quick to test would-be cheaters.

Read more in the original article here.

Most Overlooked Endangered Species Candidates

Think of endangered species, and you probably think of Florida panthers or blue whales or California golden condors -- big, charismatic animals.  But endangered species can be small, odd and unappealing, too. These animals are no less special.

Below are pictures of some of the animals that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided this year to consider for endangered status. Many steps remain in their bureaucratic journey to protection, which can take years, even decades, and may end with a decision that they're not endangered.
 
Read and see more in the original article here.

Below are the Altamaha spinymussel, the Berry Cave salamander,the Golden-winged Warbler, the western Gull-Billed Tern, and the Hawaiian Scarlet Honeycreeper.

Owl Landing

Alabama Wildlife Center releases 3 rehabilitated owls at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve

Three young great horned owls were released today back into the wild at the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve near Pinson in northeast Jefferson County.

Two of the birds had suffered injuries this spring and the third was found separated from its parents. Each spent five months in rehabilitation at the Alabama Wildlife Center located at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham.

One bird was found near Childersburg on April 10 with a possible bite mark on its right wing. The second bird was brought to the center from Tennessee on April 29 after it was found alone. The third bird was found May 19 in Huntsville after possibly being hit by a vehicle.

After weeks of care and training to survive in the wild, wildlife center officials picked the preserve as a release site. The preserve consists of 462 acres of wooded land purchased under Alabama's Forever Wild program. The land is co-managed by the state and the Southern Environmental Center. It is open to the public.

Original article here.  Click on the thumbnails below to see the full size pictures:

Cameras on a Peregrine Falcon and a Goshawk

These are two of the fastest maneuvering birds in the world -- the Peregrine falcon and the Goshawk.   Rarely do we get to see them in action, at least to this extent. But, some have decided to take it a step further by attaching cameras on the back of these magnificent creatures. And what was captured on camera for the first time ever, was proof once again, that nature in it’s glory is a sight to behold.

The video includes speeds of nearly 200mph, dives and turns that produce 10+ G's, maneuvering through dense forests at high speed only inches from the ground, and only a fraction of a second from impact.

The fastest Peregrine falcon ever has been clocked at 242 miles per hour.  During flight, the change in direction from a 150 mph dive, then to a sudden lift, would make a human lose consciousness, and that’s only at it’s "playful" speed of 150 mph.  They can dive at unfathomable speeds, and suddenly lift only inches from the ground.

Maneuvering through the dense forests as Goshawks do is something that no computer or human invention has been able to duplicate fully. Their precision and accuracy is flawless.


Original article here.

Ravens Console Each Other After Fights

After ravens see a friend get a beat down, they approach the victim and appear to console it, according to new research.  This is the first evidence for birds consoling one another.

Ravens are one species of corvid, a famously smart group of birds, so they are a natural set of study subjects for researchers probing the uniqueness of mammalian behaviors like empathetic consolation. The consolation of fight victims has only been definitely shown in chimpanzees and bonobos. Recent studies show similar behaviors in dogs and wolves, but how consolation works in those animals hasn’t been tested.

The scientists noticed that birds with whom a victim spent a lot of time were most likely to approach it after a fight.  A victim’s “friends” seemed to notice when it was stressed by the fight.

Original article here.

Crows demonstrate their cleverness with tools

Scientists studying New Caledonian crows have found they can use three different tools in succession to gain a food treat. The crows are known to solve problems and fashion and use tools in the wild, but their clevernes and innovation in the experiments astounded the researchers.

Investigations into the abilities of the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) revealed the birds can create tools out of unfamiliar materials, and they can also use several tools in succession.

The scientists captured seven wild crows and placed them in an aviary where they were presented with a complex problem in which meat was placed out of reach. It could be drawn out by a long stick, but the stick was out of reach inside a barred toolbox. The long stick could be retrieved using a short stick, but this was attached to a string tied to a branch. So to win the treat, the birds had to first pull up the string to retrieve the short stick, then use the short stick to pull out the long stick, and then use the long stick to draw out the meat.

One of the birds (nicknamed Sam) spent the first 110 seconds simply inspecting the parts of the task, and then completed it the first time without error.  Below is Sam's successful first trial:



Below is Professor Russell Gray discussing recent research on New Caledonian crows, their capacity to make and wield tools, and experimental results which suggest that their understanding of tool use should not be overestimated:



Original article here.

Fastest Wings on Earth Show Extremes of Sexual Selection

With feathers that resonate at precisely 1,500 hertz, the male club-winged manakin is perhaps the bird world’s most perfectly tuned example of sexual selection.

By pinning down the frequency, researchers have completed a long investigation into the bird’s sonic physiology and showed just how far some guys go to impress the ladies. According to scientists, the fundamental anatomy of the wings has been completely reworked to play a sound for courtship.

The early work focused on the anatomical peculiarities of the males’ wings. One odd middle feather has seven ridges, while an adjacent feather has an especially thick tip. A high-speed video recording of males making their trademark sounds showed they shake their wings 107 times per second. That’s faster than a hummingbird’s wingbeats, and faster than was even thought to be possible in a vertebrate.

The sound was replicated by putting feathers inside an apparatus that measured their acoustic resonance at high-speed vibrations. At 1,500 vibrations per second, and not a few more or less, the feathers’ resonance swelled.

That number is predicted by the feathers: seven ridge bumps, multiplied by two — the upstroke and downstroke — multiplied by 107 wingbeats per second equals a frequency of 1498 hertz, almost exactly what they measured in the lab.



Original article here.

All-Black Penguin Discovered

The above melanistic penguin was discovered at Fortuna Bay on the subantarctic island of South Georgia.

Melanism is merely the dark pigmentation of skin, fur--or in this case, feathers. The unique trait derives from increased melanin in the body. Genes may play a role, but so might other factors. While melanism is common in many different animal species, the trait is extremely rare in penguins. All-black penguins are so rare there is practically no research on the subject--biologists guess that perhaps one in every quarter million of penguins shows evidence of at least partial melanism, whereas the penguin above appears to be almost entirely melanistic.

The penguin did not appear to exhibit different behavior than that of his fellow penguins, and he seemed to mix well with them.

Original article here.

Owl in Flight

Raptor Talons

The pictures below are from a recent study on raptor talons. For a summary of the findings, read the article here. The talons below are from the following: (A) goshawk (B) red-tailed hawk (C) peregrine falcon (D) great grey owl (E) osprey.

Birds Use Light, Not Magnetic Field, to Migrate

In European robins, a visual center in the brain and light-sensing cells in the eye — not magnetic sensing cells in the beak — allow the songbirds to sense which direction is north and migrate correctly, according to a new study in Nature. The study may improve conservation efforts for migratory birds.

Researchers have known that built-in biological compasses tell migrating birds which way to fly, but the details of how birds detect magnetic fields has been unclear.

Some researchers had proposed that iron-based receptors in cells found in the upper beaks of some migratory birds sense the magnetic field and send that information along a nerve to the brain. Other scientists favor the hypothesis that light-sensing cells in birds’ eyes sense the magnetic field and send the information along a different route to a light-processing part of the brain called cluster N.

To find the location that houses the magnetic compass, scientists caught 36 migratory European robins and made sure that the birds could all orient correctly under natural and induced magnetic fields. Next, the researchers performed surgeries on the birds to deactivate one of the two systems. The team either severed the nerve that connects the beak cells to the brain, or damaged the brain cells in cluster N that receive light signals from cells in the eye.

Birds with the severed beak-to-brain nerve — called the trigeminal nerve — still oriented perfectly, suggesting that the beak cells are not important for orientation. On the other hand, birds with damaged cluster N regions could no longer sense and orient to magnetic fields. These robins failed to pick up both the Earth’s natural magnetic field and the artificial fields created by the researchers.

Understanding more about how birds navigate and sense the environment may have important conservation implications. Migratory birds that humans have relocated often fly back to the original migratory grounds. But if researchers can figure out how the birds navigate, conservationists may be able to trick the birds into staying where it’s safe.

Original article here.

Birds "Transform" Themselves in Preparation for Migration

As fall approaches, millions of birds across North America prepare for their migration to warmer climes. Many species fly for thousands of miles, often without stopping.

At their baseline state, migratory birds are already equipped with evolutionary tools such as hollow bones and optical compasses and lungs that provide purer oxygen than is breathed by any mammal. But when dwindling sunlight triggers their migratory physiology, they undergo many more fascinating changes.

In just a few days, their food intake rises by multiple orders of magnitude — the equivalent of having a hamburger for lunch on Monday, and 100 hamburgers on Friday. Even seed-eaters switch to insect-heavy diets rich in energy-dense polyunsaturated fats.

The fat is packed on aerodynamically, tucked in the lower back and wherever else it won’t add much drag. Some species, such as warblers, which can weigh less than an ounce but fly 2,500 miles without resting, double their body weights in preparation for the voyage.

In order to keep pace with the dietary influx, the birds’ digestive organs expand. Even the cells of their stomachs swell. But shortly before takeoff, with no more need for this extra bulk, their guts shrink back to size.

In the meantime, the birds’ pectoral muscles become thicker and denser. The pecs of the red knot, a shorebird that makes 2,000 mile-long migratory flights, swell by 40 percent.

Much of this added muscle mass will be burned for in-flight energy, but most of their fuel comes from fat. Unlike mammals, who fuel endurance exertion with protein and carbohydrates before switching — a transition felt as “hitting the wall” — birds start by burning fat, and use only the minimum of protein needed to keep their brains running. They never hit the wall.

To better turn fat to fuel, their bodies boost production of fat-metabolizing proteins. In sparrows, levels of the proteins double from their usual rates. To further feed their cells, extra oxygen-carrying hemoglobin protein is pumped into the blood, right up to the limit where it would be too thick to flow.

Some species do rest during migration, stopping for a few weeks before crossing some especially vast and barren expanse, such as the Sahara. Even in this brief time, red knots’ pectorals will shrink at first, and their legs and stomachs swell. When the birds are done eating and ready to fly again, the process will be reversed. Their hearts grow the whole time.

Read more in the original article here.