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‪たたた、たいしたこと、なかったしぃ💦‬ ‪.‬ #キミに出会えて僕に出会えた🐥 #私を見つける #スズメ写真集『あした、どこかで。３』好評発売中💕 詳しくは🏠→http://alive-cr.com . #すずめ #写真 #ちゅん活 #ちゅんポトレ #雀 #sparrow #鳥 #野鳥 #bird #動物 #animal #癒し #自然 #nature #photo #photography #妄想会話 #メッセージ #message #おじさんとすずめ #東京 #tokyo #東京すずめ #爆弾低気圧 #明けて

silverwolf47

So much FLOOOF

striderepiphany

This is the funniest joke I’ve ever made

incorrectmhaquotes

Aizawa

rockinsquawkin

@interstellaireylo

galactic-kosher-ace

Ah yes, the daily struggle. I know it well 😂

silverwolf47

It me.

quantum-dragon

Sooooo it turns out @silverwolf47 was the second person to ever edit the Taylor Swift wiki page!!?? I’m so proud

silverwolf47

In 2006. She was a mere CHILD.

dumbbirdsfieldguide

Red-winged Buttwad This blackbird is extremely abundant in North America. So, you probably have already spotted one of these assholes sitting on a cattail, flaunting its gaudy shoulder markings. Territorial and full of themselves, the males make a big deal out of trying to get noticed during breeding season by nasally shrieking their “CONK-ah-SKwEEE” song, over and over, from every damp field and soggy roadside.

The buttwads in northern North America migrate to the southern U.S. – southern, and some lazy western populations, don’t migrate at all. Interestingly, who cares, because they’re already everywhere. Also, during winter, these bastards congregate in flocks as large as several million to eat grains. Nobody needs this. I mean, really. We already have starlings for this shit.

Identifying the female: Nondescript brown and easily mistaken for, like, a million other drab birds, so, not really worth it.

superbnature

smelling the flower by geertweggen http://ift.tt/2pTPFeO

dumbbirdsfieldguide

Red-winged Buttwad This blackbird is extremely abundant North America. So, you probably have already spotted one of these assholes sitting on a cattail, flaunting its gaudy shoulder markings. Territorial and full of themselves, the males make a big deal out of trying to get noticed during breeding season by nasally shrieking their “CONK-ah-SKwEEE” song, over and over, from every damp field and soggy roadside.

The buttwads in northern North America migrate to the southern U.S. – southern, and some lazy western populations, don’t migrate at all. Interestingly, who cares, because they’re already everywhere. Also, during winter, these bastards congregate in flocks as large as several million to eat grains. Nobody needs this. I mean, really. We already have starlings for this shit.

Identifying the female: Nondescript brown and easily mistaken for, like, a million other drab birds, so, not really worth it.

usfwspacific

Hawaii’s Magnificent Forest Birds

The Honeycreepers and the Ohia – Opposites Attract

Article by Holly Richards, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region.

This is the first in a series of articles examining the issues impacting Hawaii’s forest birds.

Somewhere around six million years ago, a small ancient species of finch found its way to the most remote archipelago in the world. Over 2,000 miles from the nearest major land source, and uninhabited by humans or any other mammals, the small islands of Hawaii were a blank canvas just waiting to be filled with a brand new family of birds - the Hawaiian Honeycreepers. The story of the Hawaiian Honeycreepers is one of the most beautiful and complex examples of adaptive radiation in evolutionary history.

The Hawaiian Honeycreepers evolved from one ancestor into many diverse beak shapes. [image from “The Hawaiian Honeycreepers: Drepanidinae” by Douglas Pratt (2005)

For millions of years, the birds thrived on the tiny islands in the Pacific. There were no mammals, no humans, few other species to compete with, and a great diversity of habitats. The first Honeycreepers arrived on ancient islands that have since eroded away. As each new island in the chain rose from the sea and cooled the tiny birds colonized it, splitting off into dozens of new subspecies along the way. Each split in the family tree yielded more complexity and novel ways to find food, attract a mate, and fill an ecological niche.

From their beginning, the Honeycreepers were shaped and molded by the unique landscape of the islands themselves.

Fossil records show that at one time there were as many as 50 species of Honeycreepers in the Hawaiian Islands, each with unique adaptations their particular ecological niche. But changing ecosystems have not bee kind to the birds, today only 17 species of Honeycreeper remain. They have been pushed out by invasive species, habitat loss, and introduced diseases.

The ʻakiapōlāʻau (Hemignathus wilsoni) - a small yellow bird with a dramatically curved beak - is the only bird in Hawaii that fills the niche of the woodpecker. It uses its smaller bottom mandible for pecking into the tree like a woodpecker and then pries out insects with its long curved top bill. Photo Credit: Jack Jeffrey/USFWS

Unfortunately, all of this magnificent diversity can also be a limitation if the habitat or the environment changes. “A lot of the very specialized birds that had the most unique characteristics were the first to go extinct once the habitat started changing,” said Steve Kendall, Wildlife Biologist for Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge.

Drepanis pacifica was endemic to the big island of Hawai`i, USA, and was last recorded in 1898 above Hilo (Greenway 1967) and in 1899 near Kaunana (Pratt et al. 1987).

From: Birds of the Sandwich Islands, By Wildon Scott (1899) Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute

One of the most spectacular members of the Honeycreeper family is the ‘i’iwi (Drepanis coccinea, pronounced /iːˈiːviː/, ee-EE-vee) . Their long curved bill and distinctive red and black plumage have become iconic symbols of Hawaiian natural and cultural heritage.

In the early 1800’s naturalists describe flocks of ‘i’iwi flying up and down the mountain slopes of the Hawaiian Islands foraging on nectar and insects. Today they are rarely seen below 4,000 ft, and are restricted to narrow bands of high elevation forests.

Their long curved bill matches the size and shape of the flowers of the lobeliad family. Lobeliads were once found all over the islands, but like so many of Hawaii’s native species, those plants have become scarce. To survive, the ‘i’Iwi has had to turn to another iconic Hawaiian species for their survival - the mighty ʻōhiʻa lehua.

'Ōhi'a form the backbone of Hawaii’s native forest ecosystems, and for the ‘i’Iwi they have come to mean survival. The flowers of the ʻōhiʻa lehua tree are now the primary source of food for ‘i’Iwi, and the birds spend 80% - 90% of their time foraging in ʻōhiʻa forests.

Top: An feeds i’iwi on a lobeliad flower. Photo Credit: Jack Jeffrey Bottom: An i’iwi feeds on a ʻōhiʻa tree. Photo Credit: Raymond Lara

Unlike the Honeycreepers, which evolved to fill highly specialized niches in the environment, the ʻōhiʻa lehua are decidedly generalist. 'Ōhi'a are one of the most common trees in Hawaii. They are also the first trees to colonize lava fields after eruptions, and not surprisingly they can withstand high levels of toxic volcanic gasses.

Top: “Lehua Blüte vom Ohia Tree - Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park” by Frank Hamm - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Ōhi'a lehua blollom. Photo credit: NPS

‘Ōhi'a can be found from sea level all the way up to the tree line at around 8,000 ft. Not only do the trees thrive in an incredible diversity of soil types and climates conditions, but they also grow in a variety of sizes and colors.

In a rapidly changing Hawaiian ecosystem, ʻōhiʻa lehua forests have become a lifeline for many of Hawaii’s forest birds who rely on the abundant tree for either food or shelter.

Serious challenges are on the horizon for both the ʻiʻiwi and the ʻōhiʻa lehua. Avian malaria, a disease spread by invasive mosquitoes is impacting many of Hawaii’s forest birds, but few species are as susceptible to the disease as the ʻiʻiwi, which can have a fatality rate from the disease as high as 90%. As a result of the spread of avian malaria across the lower elevations of the islands, the ʻiʻiwi have all but disappeared below 4,000 feet.

For now, ʻiʻiwi have found refuge from the disease in the cooler high elevation ʻōhiʻa lehua forests of places like Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, where decades of habitat restoration are showing signs of success.

Next in the series:

We explore how avian malaria is changing the sights and sounds of Hawaii’s forests, even as scientists and conservationists across Hawaii are working together to find solutions.

ostdrossel

Sigh, and there you go. This morning, road workers found these two baby Doves on the ground in the neighbour’s front yard, and he called me overe knowing that I care so much about birds. Their nest must have been in one of the trees that were cut yesterday, it was nowhere to be found. It is kind of a miracle that they made it just fine. The mom was around, so we made a new nest in a hanging flower basket and put it into a nearby tree. Hopefully, she will find them and they will be just fine.

commentisweird

mindblowingscience

In a surprise for paleontologists, the well-preserved fossil suggests that the animal spent its life scampering around on the forest floor.

A pheasant-size dinosaur found in China is causing a stir among scientists trying to understand the origins of flight.

The newly named species, Serikornis sungei, adds to the ranks of dinosaurs that effectively had four wings, thanks to heavily feathered hindlimbs and forelimbs. But in a twist for paleontologists, the evidence suggests that Serikornis couldn’t fly.

alithographica

Similar toxic effects are seen in the Variable Pitohui and the Rusty Pitohui, but not to the extent of the Hooded Pitohui. There are also several species of non-toxic pitohui that have evolved to mimic the coloration of the Hooded Pitohui in an attempt to confuse predators. I’ve done a previous Sci Fact on tetrodotoxin - click here for that!