OT Things to ponder

[durnedwolf]

So I'm guessing I need to put meat in the feeder for this bird... Would beef jerky be OK?

What is this anyway - a Great White Seagul?

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: durnedwolf

So I'm guessing I need to put meat in the feeder for this bird... Would beef jerky be OK?

What is this anyway - a Great White Seagul?

But it doesn't have a laser on its head...

[Will_L]

Learned something new today...
Pigeons apparently mourn over fallen members of their flock. A pigeon has been standing vigil over a dead pigeon across the street for several hours now, occasionally it pecks at it, nudges it and has even tried to pick it up and fly off with it but hasn't been able to accomplish that. If a car or person approaches it flies up to a windowsill nearby and watches until its safe to return to its comrade. First time I've seen a pigeon do this.

[geofflambert]

Pretty sure that would be the surviving spouse. They mate for life.

[geofflambert]

.

[geofflambert]

The AMA has come up with a new specialty title. Professionals treating E.D. will now be known as Orthodocs.

[geofflambert]

.

[Will_L]

Thanks Geoff, didn't know they mated for life.
Vigil lasted a bit over 5 hours.

[BBfanboy]

OK - we have gone long enough without bird news to take us out of our inner sanctums. Here's proof that birds get cranky about the lockdown too and take it out on people ...

https://globalnews.ca/news/7078640/tran ... awks-back/

[fcooke]

Oddly enough I have been seeing more diverse bird life recently. More blue jays, robins, etc. And then a couple of days ago a pair of starlings. I thought they usually stayed pretty close to the ocean. We are about 75 miles from the ocean. But they are fun to watch. I still have never caught our blue heron taking a fish. But I did see our bear a few days ago. she and I have an agreement we won't eat each other.

[RangerJoe]

That bear is more scared of you than you are of her. Just don't hit her with a vehicle.

Starlings are all over. Some IDIOT released some because he wanted them in the US because Shakespeare had them in his plays. Just like someone wanted to hunt rabbits in Australia.

[RangerJoe]

Of course, then there is the male bear who could not walk it off [X(]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wt1EnCEDpY

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: fcooke

Oddly enough I have been seeing more diverse bird life recently. More blue jays, robins, etc. And then a couple of days ago a pair of starlings. I thought they usually stayed pretty close to the ocean. We are about 75 miles from the ocean. But they are fun to watch. I still have never caught our blue heron taking a fish. But I did see our bear a few days ago. she and I have an agreement we won't eat each other.

If the bear goes up a tree:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YYzrnmwd_0

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: fcooke

Oddly enough I have been seeing more diverse bird life recently. More blue jays, robins, etc. And then a couple of days ago a pair of starlings. I thought they usually stayed pretty close to the ocean. We are about 75 miles from the ocean. But they are fun to watch. I still have never caught our blue heron taking a fish. But I did see our bear a few days ago. she and I have an agreement we won't eat each other.

We have starlings here in the middle of the continent. My bird book shows their range as coast to coast from the arctic tundra to northern Mexico.

The only really unusual sightings I have had were a coyote on the ice in the middle of the river in late March (in the pre-dawn twilight) and a couple of beavers on separate occasions swimming up-river (kicked out of their lodge for inappropriate behaviour, I guess).
Otherwise, watching a lot of ducks and geese on the river - about twice the usual crop. The wood ducks are most colourful but the white scaup ducks are easiest to spot. When the ducklings started to take to the water, I saw one adult duck with at least 20 ducklings following closely - duck day care!

[BBfanboy]

A wood duck pair:

[BBfanboy]

Greater scaup duck:

[fcooke]

We have a pair of geese who pretty much call our pond home......

There's some coyotes out there and the dogs will not not leave the safety of the house lights at night. There have been deer corpses some mornings. But the dogs are smart and are not going into the woods at night.

Had ducks come in last year for a day or two but then left. I would like to have full time ducks on the pond. Might even feed them as compensation.

[geofflambert]

This appeared in the NYT today in print but it's not in the online version of the article. I want a decent copy of it, it looks like a Pieter Bruegel painting, sorta.

[RangerJoe]

So the male birds did change their tune and are doing so again. The question is, does it help get the females:[&:]

Twenty-year study tracks a sparrow song that went 'viral' across Canada

Most bird species are slow to change their tune, preferring to stick with tried-and-true songs to defend territories and attract females. Now, with the help of citizen scientists, researchers have tracked how one rare sparrow song went "viral" across Canada, traveling over 3,000 kilometers between 2000 and 2019 and wiping out a historic song ending in the process. The study, publishing July 2 in the journal Current Biology, reports that white-throated sparrows from British Columbia to central Ontario have ditched their traditional three-note-ending song in favor of a unique two-note-ending variant—although researchers still don't know what made the new song so compelling.

"As far as we know, it's unprecedented," says senior author Ken Otter, a biology professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. "We don't know of any other study that has ever seen this sort of spread through cultural evolution of a song type." Although it's well known that some bird species change their songs over time, these cultural evolutions tend to stay in local populations, becoming regional dialects rather than the norm for the species. This is how the two-note ending got its start.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-twenty-ye ... viral.html

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

So the male birds did change their tune and are doing so again. The question is, does it help get the females:[&:]

Twenty-year study tracks a sparrow song that went 'viral' across Canada

Most bird species are slow to change their tune, preferring to stick with tried-and-true songs to defend territories and attract females. Now, with the help of citizen scientists, researchers have tracked how one rare sparrow song went "viral" across Canada, traveling over 3,000 kilometers between 2000 and 2019 and wiping out a historic song ending in the process. The study, publishing July 2 in the journal Current Biology, reports that white-throated sparrows from British Columbia to central Ontario have ditched their traditional three-note-ending song in favor of a unique two-note-ending variant—although researchers still don't know what made the new song so compelling.

"As far as we know, it's unprecedented," says senior author Ken Otter, a biology professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. "We don't know of any other study that has ever seen this sort of spread through cultural evolution of a song type." Although it's well known that some bird species change their songs over time, these cultural evolutions tend to stay in local populations, becoming regional dialects rather than the norm for the species. This is how the two-note ending got its start.

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-twenty-ye ... viral.html

Just the younger generations shortening things because they are too lazy to sing all the notes, or because of the internet ...