Spring has Sprung

Check out this youtube video my sort-of son-in-law's father sent me.  The bird is a hummingbird again, but really worth the video.  I've been springing around everywhere trying to get myself organized, but alas, I always seem to need more time, and we all know how limited time is - it waits for no one.  CSTs this week.  I hope our students take it seriously and try their best. 

" http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0"

Falcons

I saw this on the news last night.  Go to See It On Tv - ABC Channel 7

Nest Cam - San Francisco

This view of Peregrine Falcons is possible because biologists at UC Santa Cruz and Cornell University collaborated in the mid-1970s to restore a nearly extinct Peregrine Falcon population. At the time, two pairs were known in California—none could be found nesting east of the Mississippi River.
Widespread use of the persistent pesticide, DDT, contaminated the environment worldwide resulting in eggshell thinning that decimated the Peregrine population. DDT was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972. For the next three decades, the U. C. Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group bred falcons in large aviaries, hatched thin-shelled eggs, climbed to the Cliffside nests of these birds, and restored the California population to an estimated 250 pairs—up from just 2 pairs.
We celebrate this extraordinary success story with the falcon nest camera view of wild nature as it unfolds above city streets. We share the story with school students by presenting school assemblies and with the community by engaging the participation of a large network of UC Santa Cruz students and community volunteers who assist with our ongoing baseline research on this species.
To learn more and be a part of an ongoing discussion about these birds, join the Yahoo! Group at: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SF_PGE_Falcons/.

Falcon nest cameras and discussion groups are a compelling gateway activity where people can gain an appreciation of nature. Together, the nest cameras and discussion groups provide entertainment, wonder, and learning, about nature through an intimate look at iconic birds. They also put wildlife in the headlines stimulating interest community-wide. The discussion group is moderated by a university professor who is also an experienced field biologist specializing in birds of prey. Many teachers use the cameras and discussion groups as teaching tools.

It's been a week already?

I'm still playing catsup, so this will be a bird from the past.  I went for a tiny hike with our classroom students on a field trip, but forgot to take my camera.  We really didn't see any birds although the scouts had built houses for bluebirds.  I think we were just way too noisy.   We did see ground squirrels and jack rabbits and the leftovers from cows and horses. This swam was staying at a fancy hotel on Aruba.  The service rivaled ours on the ship.  I think she was taking the yoga class offered on our days at sea. 

Black Swans are primarily black-feathered birds, with white flight feathers. The bill is bright red, with a pale bar and tip; and legs and feet are greyish-black. Cobs (males) are slightly larger than pens (females), with a longer and straighter bill. Cygnets (immature birds) are a greyish-brown with pale-edged feathers.^[2]
A mature Black Swan measures between 110 and 142 centimetres (43 and 56 in) in length and weighs 3.7–9 kilograms (8.2–20 lb). Its wing span is between 1.6 and 2 metres (5.2 and 6.6 ft).^[2][3] The neck is long (relatively the longest neck among the swans) and curved in an "S"-shape.
The Black Swan utters a musical and far reaching bugle-like sound, called either on the water or in flight, as well as a range of softer crooning notes. It can also whistle, especially when disturbed while breeding and nesting.^[2][4]
When swimming, Black Swans hold their necks arched or erect, and often carry their feathers or wings raised in an aggressive display. In flight, a wedge of Black Swans will form as a line or a V, with the individual birds flying strongly with undulating long necks, making whistling sounds with their wings and baying, bugling or trumpeting calls.^[2]

Checking out the birds in the Caribbean

These little fellows I will call the buffet penguins.  Their origins are from an eggplant and avocado.  They live on cruise ships --  ok, ok --just having a little fun.  I just returned from a cruise in the Caribbean where I practiced doing nothing.  It was hard work, but I give myself an A- because the first week I was still talking work when someone would ask me about my profession.  After that, there was some serious deck lounging and paperback reading going on.  When off on an excursion snorkeling, I worked on sunning and learning how to get tipsy on rum punch and margaritas.  I think my travel mates were proud of the good job I did at all these skills and someday invite me back for a repeat performance.

This hummingbird was taken while we toured Diamond Botanical Gardens on the island of St. Lucia.  I believe it is the purple-throated carib.
Hummingbird Metabolism and Survival & Flight Adaption - Interesting Information
With the exception of insects, hummingbirds have the highest  metabolism rate of any animal on earth (high breathing rate, high heart rate, high body temperature).
Because of their "extreme" metabolism, the active hummingbirds require frequent feedings throughout the day - every ten to fifteen minutes and potentially visiting 1,000 flowers a day, lapping up nectar at the rate of 13 licks per second. They have to eat up to half of its body mass and drink roughly eight times its body mass each day. In preparation for an impending migration, hummingbirds may consume 3 up to 10 times their body weight in food - about 14,000 calories per kilogram - per day. (Humans consume, on average, 26 calories per kilogram per day). Before migration, hummingbirds will almost double their weight as they store up fat to serve as fuel and hence increasing their potential flying time.
The hummingbird has the largest heart in proportion to its body- and has the highest heartbeat rate. Their hearts pump about 1,200 times per minute in flight and 200 beats per minute at rest– making it the fastest beating heart of all animals - except for the pygmy shrew with a recorded heartbeat of up to 1511 times per minute. (A shrew is a small animal that resembles a mouse – it occurs in Asia.) Their wings beat seventy times each second; and their hovering flight used by them to gather nectar requires staggering amounts of energy. Their daytime body temperature ranges from 105° to 108°F (40.5° to 42.2°C).

Migrating South

I'm taking off for warmer weather during Spring Break.  Will land in Florida, and what better bird to represent the state.  Then will glide onto a ship which will escort me and my girlfriends around the Caribbean for some sun and whatever else happens to cross our path.  Here's a little information about flamingos.  By the way, these were taken at the zoo in Hong Kong
.A wide variety of birds have been proposed as their closest relatives, on a wide variety of evidence. As a result, flamingos are generally placed in their own order.

The arcuate bill of this American Flamingo is well adapted to bottom scooping

Flamingos often stand on one leg, the other tucked beneath the body. The reason for this behavior is not fully understood. Some suggest that the flamingo, like some other animals, has the ability to have half of its body go into a state of sleep, and when one side is rested, the flamingo will swap legs and then let the other half sleep, but this has not been proven.^{[citation needed]} Recent research has indicated that standing on one leg may allow the birds to conserve more body heat, given that they spend a significant amount of time wading in cold water.^[12] As well as standing in the water, flamingos may stamp their webbed feet in the mud to stir up food from the bottom.
Young flamingos hatch with grey plumage, but adults range from light pink to bright red due to aqueous bacteria and beta carotene obtained from their food supply. A well-fed, healthy flamingo is more vibrantly coloured and thus a more desirable mate; a white or pale flamingo, however, is usually unhealthy or malnourished. Captive flamingos are a notable exception; many turn a pale pink as they are not fed carotene at levels comparable to the wild. This is changing as more zoos begin to add prawns and other supplements to the diets of their flamingos.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Feeding

Flamingos filter-feed on brine shrimp and blue-green algae. Their beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat, and are uniquely used upside-down. The filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae which line the mandibles, and the large rough-surfaced tongue. The pink or reddish color of flamingos comes from carotenoid proteins in their diet of animal and plant plankton. These proteins are broken down into pigments by liver enzymes.^[13] The source of this varies by species, and affects the saturation of color. Flamingos whose sole diet is blue-green algae are darker in color compared to those who get it second hand (e.g. from animals that have digested blue-green algae).^[14] Zoo-fed flamingos, who often lack the color enhancer in their diet, may be given food with the additive canthaxanthin.^{[citation needed]}lamingos are very social birds that live in colonies that can number in the thousands. These large colonies are believed to serve three purposes for the flamingos: predator avoidance, maximizing food intake, and exploiting scarce suitable nesting sites.^[15] The most basic and stable social unit of flamingos are pair bonds which are made up of one male and one female. The bond between them tends to be strong; however, in larger colonies (where there are more mates to choose from), mate changes will occur.^[16] In pair bonds, both the male and the female contribute to building the nest for their egg and defending it. Before breeding, flamingo colonies split into breeding groups of around 15-50 birds. Both males and females in these groups perform synchronized ritual displays. These displays serve to both stimulate synchronous nesting and establish pair formation for birds that do not already have mates.^[17] A flamingo group stands together and display to each other by rasing neck, followed by calling with head-flagging and then wing flapping.^[18] The displays do not seem to be directed towards an individual but instead occur randomly.^[18]
Flamingo pair bonds establish and defend nesting territories. They locate a suitable spot on the mudflat to build a nest, which is usually chosen by the female.^[18] It is during nest building that copulation usually occurs. Nest building can also be interrupted by another couple trying to steal the nesting site. Flamingos will viciously defend their nesting sites and young. After the chicks hatch, the only parental expense is feeding.^[19] Flamingos produce a crop milk, like pigeons and doves, due to the action of a hormone called prolactin (see Columbidae). It contains more fat and less protein than the latter does, and it is produced in glands lining the whole of the upper digestive tract, not just the crop. Both parents nurse their chick, and young flamingos feed on this milk, which also contains red and white blood cells. In the first six days, the adults and chicks stay in the nesting sites. At around seven to twelve days the chicks begin to move and explore their surroundings. After two weeks, the chicks join groups called "microcrèches" and their parent soon leave them in these groups. Later, many microcrèches come together to form crèches which contain thousands of chicks. Chicks that do not stay in their crèches are vulnerable to predators.^[20]

Two for One

I missed last week - just too busy.  I took a bird picture in the parking lot of the grocery store and that's it.  I guess it's another type of sparrow or black bird (no time to hunt down the info)- just the ordinary bird that hangs out near a food store waiting for crumbs.   Why am I more willing to leave something for these feathered friends more than my human beggars?  I guess because they seem to appreciate it more.

Now onto my bird picture for this week...  this friendly fellow is named Paco and like a previous bird I photographed with one leg, Paco has one wing.  But one missing limb doesn't stop him.  He tried to bite me when I took his picture.  I think I have been having sympathy pains as my shoulder has been achy all week - Ha,Ha.  Paco joined us for book club this month and contributed his 2 cents.  We read the Memory Keeper's Daughter and he helped us every time we would forget what happened.  We had a lively discussion and lots of yummy southern food, including Paco's favorite - chicken.

Facts about this animal

This is a large amazon with a total lenght of 35-38 cm and a body-weight of up to 500g.

The plumage of the nominate subspecies is yellow on the entire head and throat, the upper parts are green, the under parts yellowish-green too, and the tighs yellow. The flight feathers are green becoming violet-blue towards the tips. The carpal edge is yellow, the bend of wing red with some yellow, and there is a red speculum. The tail is green with the lateral rectricess basally marked with red and outermost feathers edged with blue. The iris is orange, cere and base of bill grey, in particular in younger birds, or horn-coloured, tip of bill horn coloured, the bare eye-ring is whitish, and the legs and feet are pale grey.

Juveniles have yellow only on crown to lores. Their iris is brown.

Outside the breeding season, yellow-headed amazons have communal roosts and may congregate in large flocks, in which pairs are evident. During the day, they are seen in small parties of up to ten birds, foraging quietly in the crowns of trees.

Yellow-headed amazons begin exploring nest sites in March. Like all amazons, they are cavity nesters, and may start chewing out a hole in a tree trunk that had been previously nested by a woodpecker. The clutch of two to four eggs is incubated for 25–26 days by the female alone. The male remains near the nest entrance and feeds the sitting female.

Yellow-headed amazons feed regularly on the large green nut that is produced in abundance by the Ebano tree, and the small, not very sweet fruit of the Strangler Fig tree, as well as other nuts, seeds, fruits, buds and flowers. They are also fond of maize and cultivated fruit.

Costa Rica

I found out that a good friend is going to Costa Rica soon and it reminded me of all the beautiful birds that hang out there.  We had a great guide that is an expert when it comes to birds.  I went back through my scrapbook and relived the terrific time we had.  I did get a shot of the quetzal, one of the most colorful and elusive birds that exists, I believe, but this picture was taken by Marcos.  Wow - imagine if we all dressed like this!

Fast Facts 

Type: 

Bird

Diet:  Omnivore

Size:  Body, 15 to 16 in (38 to 40.5 cm); tail, 24 in (61 cm)

Weight:  7 to 8 oz (200 to 225 g)

Protection status:  Threatened

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

The resplendent quetzal is an aptly named bird that many consider among the world's most beautiful. These vibrantly colored animals live in the mountainous, tropical forests of Central America where they eat fruit, insects, lizards, and other small creatures.
During mating season, male quetzals grow twin tail feathers that form an amazing train up to three feet (one meter) long. Females do not have long trains, but they do share the brilliant blue, green, and red coloring of their mates. Male colors tend to be more vibrant.
Resplendent quetzal pairs use their powerful beaks to hollow hole nests in rotted trees or stumps. Inside, they take turns incubating two or three eggs—though males have such long tails that they sometimes stick outside the nest.
Young quetzals can fly at about three weeks of age, but males do not begin to grow their long tail plumes for three years.
Resplendent quetzals are also known as Guatemalan quetzals, and the birds are the symbol of that nation. Guatemala also trades in currency known as the "quetzal."
Unfortunately, these striking birds are threatened in Guatemala and elsewhere throughout their range. They are sometimes trapped for captivity or killed, but their primary threat is the disappearance of their tropical forest homes. In some areas, most notably Costa Rica's cloud forests, protected lands preserve habitat for the birds and provide opportunities for ecotourists and eager bird watchers from around the globe.
Such admirers continue a long history of adoration for the quetzal. The bird was sacred to the ancient Maya and Aztec peoples, and royalty and priests wore its feathers during ceremonies.