Archive for the 'birds' Category
Wordless Wednesday # something, out of words
25 November 2009
Vultural Studies
5 September 2009Just a short note to commemorate International Vulture Awareness Day -
My mother shot this photo of two California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) near Big Sur a few weeks ago:
Here is how she described her experience:
Sunday was a real remarkable day. 6 or 7 condors soaring over the cliffs, water and roosting on a luxury home south of Nepenthe. We also at the same time had a pod of dolphin below us . It was unreal. They were so close I couldn’t believe my eyes and almost fell down a cliff I got too close to. It was a good day.
Wish I had been there! Go check out more Multi-Vultural Awareness at The Ethical Palaeontologist, Earth Wind and Water, and Swamp Things.
Marine reptiles take wing.
18 August 2009
Consider the albatross.
Rather, consider the word albatross.
OED informs us that albatross probably comes by way of alcatras an obsolete word used variably for frigate birds, gannets and/or pelicans adapted from the Spanish/Portuguese word alcatraz–the toponymous island turned prison turned tourist attraction is named for the brown pelicans which still (despite that nasty late-20th century business with DDT) abound there–itself apparently adapted from alcatruz (Pg.) via algcaduz (Sp.) the bucket on a Moorish water wheel or al-qadus (Arabic) — except that Wikipedia (citing the American Hertiage Dictionary) argues that al-qatraz القطرس is Arabic for “sea eagle”. Our friend Dampier used algatross which would seem to make for a nice intermediate between alcatras and albatross. Cook — who, superstitions aside, shot and ate his fair share — used both albetross and albatross. OED suspects the transition from Alca to Alba might be inspired by albus (Latin for “white”).
None of which has anything to do with anything except,check it:
Pinguinus is, or rather was, not a penguin.
Puffinus is not a puffin. Not even close.
Pelecanoides is not a pelican. More like an auk really, except that it’s not.
Got it?
Images: top Wikipedia, middle and bottom Collection Georges Declercq via EOL used under Creative Commons 3.0.
Follow My Nose It Always…uh I think I’m having a hot flash
23 July 2009
Very cool paper out in Science today demonstrating that the Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco) uses its bill for thermoregulation.
The story seems to be getting some good traction with the popular press, unsprisingly given the winning combination of outside the box thinking, novel application of hi-tech toy tool (an infrared camera) and charismatic megafauna.
Check out LiveScience for an awesome video (or if you are lucky enough to have access to Science you can watch the video–commercial free–in the supplementary info for the new paper).
Adapted from Figure 1 - Tattersall et al. 2009
Note that the new study does not explicitly rule out sexual selection or foraging strategies as important factors in the evolution of the Toucan bill. Multifunction is ubiquitous in nature (something paleontologists who argue that X structure evolved for Y reason would be well-served to remember). Nevertheless the Tatterall et al. paper poses an interesting question as to whether thermoregulation has been an overlooked factor in the evolution of other bird groups. The Hornbills of tropical Asia and Africa–often claimed as ecological analogues of Neotropical Toucans–would be a logical candidate for similar study.
Oh yeah, here’s some hive mind Wikipedia brilliance on Toucan Sam:
Biologically speaking, Toucan Sam appears to be a Keel-billed Toucan parrot. Keel-billed Toucan Parrots are well-known for their colorful beaks and propensity for fruit in their diets, two features which are very consistent with the character.
Really Wikipedia? Toucans are parrots? RU SURE? And anyway I thought he was a Mountain Toucan you know, biologically speaking. He is blue after all.
And before anyone calls me out for complaining about a Wikipedia entry without fixing it, I mean, come on, it’s really too awesome to amend isn’t it?
Looking For Shit on Google Earth
3 June 2009Naturally, shortly after reading about Fretwell and Trathan’s success locating emperor penguin breeding colonies by searching satellite imagery for Antarctic skid marks, I fired up Google Earth to have a shot at shite-site sighting myself. Generally, Google Earth’s coverage of Antarctica is fairly low res, understandably. So I was actually slightly surprised that plugging in the coordinates provided by Fretwell and Trathan yielded astonishingly good results.
Amazingly, a few of these are even among the newly discovered sites noted in the new study.
In fact, one wonders if there might yet be undiscovered colonies waiting to be found by intrepid Google Earth explorers, as has already been done with Roman villas, impact craters, and Cannabis plantations &c.
Next up: Google Earth, guano mining and seal hunting.
Crap of the Penguins
2 June 2009
Dan Colen "Bird Shit" 2007
Honestly, I suppose the whole “of the week” thread is getting stale, microecos has never been been big on consistency. But this is clearly the best research paper that will be published this week:
Peter T. Fretwell and Philip N. Trathan
Methods Using Landsat ETM satellite images downloaded from the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA), we detect faecal staining of ice by emperor penguins associated with their colony locations. Emperor penguins breed on sea ice, and their colonies exist in situ between May and December each year. Faecal staining at these colony locations shows on Landsat imagery as brown patches, the only staining of this colour on sea ice. This staining can therefore be used as an analogue for colony locations. The whole continental coastline has been analysed, and each possible signal has been identified visually and checked by spectral analysis. In areas where LIMA data are unsuitable, freely available Landsat imagery has been supplemented.
Results We have identified colony locations of emperor penguins at a total of 38 sites. Of these, 10 are new locations, and six previously known colony locations have been repositioned (by over 10 km) due to poor geographical information in old records. Six colony locations, all from old or unconfirmed records, were not found or have disappeared.
Main conclusions We present a new pan-Antarctic species distribution of emperor penguins mapped from space. In one synoptic survey we locate extant emperor penguin colonies, a species previously poorly mapped due to its unique breeding habits, and provide a vital geographical resource for future studies of an iconic species believed to be vulnerable to future climate change.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2009.00467.x
Satellites, penguin shit and important conservation biology data. It does not get better than this folks.
Wordless Wednesday – Are You Mocking Me?
27 May 2009
