Category Archives: Beyond Bounds

Birds of the Gods

Beyond Bounds, Books & Events


Coming this Sunday January 23 at 8:00pm on PBS’s Nature is a fascinating program you won’t want to miss:  Birds of the Gods.

Narrated by David Attenborough, the show travels with Indonesian ornithologists to the remotest parts of New Guinea to film stunning birds-of-paradise.

New Guinea is a huge, mountainous, jungle-covered island north of Australia that had no mammalian predators until humans arrived.  When they did, they were fascinated by these flashy birds whose courtship dances became part of human culture and whose feathers became essential symbols of status and wealth. 

In Indonesian villages the feathers adorn elaborate headdresses and are used like money.  Because the feathers are valuable the villagers protect their birds until needed for ornamentation.  Unfortunately New Guinea’s habitat is changing.  The program shows how local scientists are helping villagers preserve the headdresses with mothballs, allowing more birds to live. 

Why are the feathers so valuable? 

Birds-of-paradise are an excellent example of runaway selection.  The drab females of these 40 species select mates who are “fashion icons.”  All the males have elaborate feathers and amazing dance repertoires, but only the fanciest plumes and the best dance steps win a mate.  The females watch intently, stepping in for a closer look.  After thousands of generations only the most beautiful dancing males catch the females’ attention to reproduce. 

To give you an idea of their beauty, shown above is a male Greater Bird of Paradise in courtship display.  You can see his beautiful ruby tail and wings and his astonishing yellow-and-white upper tail coverts.  This is only his back end!  His chest is iridescent green.

But to really understand these birds you have to see them dance.  The program has awesome video footage of courtship displays.  My favorite is the ultimate fashion icon, the Superb Bird of Paradise.  You have to see him to believe him!

Watch Birds of the Gods this Sunday, January 23 at 8:00pm EST on PBS.  This news just in!  Check your local listings!  The show isn’t running on all stations.

In Pittsburgh, it’s on WQED.

(photo of a Greater Bird of Paradise in courtship display, by Andrea Lawardi via Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the photo to see the original)

A Taste of What We Never Knew

Beyond Bounds


Last Thursday at Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Florida I heard the screech of birds calling in flight.  The sound reminded me of terns so I searched the sky for large white birds but couldn’t find any.  Then I remembered.  That’s the sound of parakeets.

In western Palm Beach County escaped or released monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) have gone wild.  In the four hours I spent at the wetlands I counted at least 20 flying by but they never landed.

Later at Boynton Beach Inlet I found a large flock of black-hooded parakeets (Aratinga nenday), native to South America and pictured above.  They loafed on the wires above the park and frequently commented on the world going by.  Some perched in pairs shoulder to shoulder, leaning against each other and allo-preening.  When other parakeet flocks approached, the large flock screeched a greeting so the others would join them.  Eventually the flock numbered at least 75 birds.  They grew restless and circled up and away.

Two hundred years ago there were parakeets in Pennsylvania, but no more.  When Europeans first came to this continent the Carolina parakeet ranged from New York to Florida, from eastern Kansas to the east coast.  But the birds quickly left when settlers arrived on the scene, even when suitable habitat remained.  Perhaps the birds were smart to leave.  The settlers killed them for their beautiful feathers and as fruit-tree pests.

Eventually the pressure of human encroachment took its toll on the Carolina parakeet.  By 1878 the only colonies east of the Mississippi were in remote parts of Florida.  By 1918 the last known bird died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Interestingly the monk parakeet is winter-hardy and has established feral colonies as far north as Brooklyn (NYC), Chicago and Connecticut.  They could live in Pennsylvania but the state considers them agricultural pests and it is illegal to sell or own them.

And so we will never know what it was like when wild parakeets roamed Pennsylvania.  In Florida you can get a taste of it.

(photo of black-hooded parakeets in Brazil, from Wikipedia.  Click on the photo to see the original)

Magnificent!

Beyond Bounds, Water and Shore


Wow!  Saw this bird at Boynton Beach Inlet around noon last Thursday while I was in Florida visiting my family.  He was all black without the red gular throat skin, a non-breeding male.

Magnificent frigatebirds are large tropical sea birds unlike any other.  With a 7-foot wingspan and a long forked tail they are powerful and graceful in flight, so good at flying that they can ride out a hurricane.  

On land they are far from graceful.  Their legs are so short that they can’t walk so they use their strong toes and claws to perch on trees, woody shrubs, boat rigging or whatever is convenient. They never land on the ground and very, very rarely land on water.

Frigatebirds got their name because pirates sailed in frigates.  Though they get most of their meals by catching fish and squid near the ocean’s surface, frigatebirds are known for stealing food from other seabirds whom they harass until the victims regurgitate the fish held in their throats.  The frigatebirds then dive and catch the meal before it hits the ocean.

This is only the second time in my life I’ve seen a magnificent frigatebird, so for me this was a rare sighting.  Frigatebirds don’t breed on the coast of Florida (except in The Keys) but they travel widely … because they can.

Magnificent!

(photo from Wikipedia by John Picken. Click on the image to see the original.)

Where’s Willow?

Beyond Bounds, Doves & Chickens


How many birds do you see in this picture?  If you were a gyrfalcon you’d know right away.

These are willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus), a non-migratory grouse that lives in the open tundra and moorland of Scotland, Scandanavia, Siberia, Canada and Alaska.

Willow ptarmigan are masters of disguise.  In summer they are brown and speckled like the vegetation they eat and hide in.  In winter they molt into white plumage to match the snow, and between the seasons they’re brown and white like patchy snow and dirt.  Willow ptarmigan have to be well camouflaged because so many predators eat them including foxes, wolves, owls, peregrines and gyrfalcons.

How did willow ptarmigans get their name? 

“Willow” comes from what they eat in winter: the twigs and buds of willows and alders.

“Ptarmigan” comes from the Gaelic word “tarmachan” which means to grumble or croak and describes the sound these birds make.   Tarmachan has no “P” but in the late 17th century somebody put a P at the front of the word to make it look Greek and scientific.  By the early 19th century the P stuck and became the accepted spelling of the word.

Did you find three birds in this picture?  If so, you probably followed their tracks.  Ptarmigan know their tracks are a dead giveaway so they sometimes fly directly to a hiding place and burrow into the snow.  Then it’s really hard to find them and you’ll certainly be wondering, “Where’s Willow?”

(photo by Ansgar Walk from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original where you can also see wing marks in the snow.)

Are you the “Partridge in a Pear Tree?”

Beyond Bounds, Doves & Chickens

Red-legged partridge (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The Twelve Days of Christmas repeats the refrain “A partridge in a pear tree.”  What species are they talking about?

The song comes from England, so shouldn’t the bird?  Unfortunately it’s more complicated than that.  The words were published in England in 1780 but they are older and probably French.  So the partridge could be either French or English.

Here’s a partridge that’s both:  The red-legged partridge is originally from France but was introduced in England in the 1770’s.

Now about the pear tree…

The gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas are fantastic and extravagant.  (Imagine receiving eight maids-a-milking!)   “A partridge in a pear tree” is fantastic too because partridges are terrestrial birds who rarely perch above the ground.  But of all the partridges in England the red-legged partridge is the most likely to do it.

Despite this convincing argument musicologists say the pear tree might be an English mangling of the French word for partridge — perdrix.  In French the ending consonant is often silent. Say PER dree three times fast and it begins to sound like “pear tree.”

Are you the partridge in the partridge?

 

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)

Behind the Scenes of “Hummingbirds”

Beyond Bounds

This video is so cool you really must see it.

It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of PBS’s NATURE show Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air.  In it the producer describes how they filmed these tiny birds and what they learned.

Bird watchers and photographers can relate to their experience, how hard it was to capture what they were looking for and how rewarding it was when they did.  I felt a kinship when the team spent days trying to get a split-second video of a hummingbird catching an insect.

And what an expensive video endeavour!  You’ll be amazed by NATURE’s cameras and lenses.

So click on the video and enjoy.  You’ll be dazzled.  I guarantee it!

(video from PBS NATURE)

p.s. If you didn’t see Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air when it premiered last January 10th on PBS’s NATURE or this month when WQED re-broadcast it during our year-end fund-raising effort, you can view its entire 50 minutes online here.

Theatrical

Beyond Bounds, Water and Shore


Doesn’t this duck look fancy!

Harlequin ducks are named for the male’s colorful plumage.  Not only does he look dramatic but he appears to be wearing a “harlequin” mask.  From a distance the dot on his head masquerades as an eye, making him look like he’s facing the opposite direction.

His scientific name reinforces the theme:  Histrionicus histrionicus, “dramatically exaggerated.”

These ducks have a dramatic lifestyle, too.  They breed on fast flowing northern rivers and spend the winter in the most turbulent water on North America’s rocky coasts.  They like turbulent water so much that many adult harlequins are found to have broken bones. 

I have never seen a male harlequin duck but that’s because I haven’t spent time on our rocky coasts in winter.  Eastern harlequin ducks are listed as endangered in Canada so I really should make the effort to see one. 

Maybe I’ll visit Barnegat, New Jersey this winter.  That’s where this bird was photographed.

(photo by Peter Massas from Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the photo to see the original.)

Ornamental

Beyond Bounds


Many birds have benefited by their association with humans.  Some, like chickens, have expanded their range and variability because we cultivate them for food.  Others now live worldwide merely because they are beautiful.  That’s what happened to the peacock.

Native to South Asia, the blue peacock or peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is the National Bird of India.  Male peafowl are so beautiful that people have deemed them sacred, used them as symbols of power, and kept them in captivity or semi-captivity for centuries.

Peacocks are especially suited for an ornamental life because they don’t stray far.  Like our wild turkeys they nest and feed on the ground and roost in trees at night.  They don’t migrate and they have strong local attachments so they’re perfect for gracing the palace grounds.

The males are pure ornament.  They don’t help raise their young and, in the wild, would barely meet with the ladies at all.  Their chief family-oriented activity is to lure the females to special display grounds where they dazzle them by raising and quivering their long, beautiful upper-tail coverts.  Yes, this beauty is all in their upper-tail coverts.  Their tails are insignificant.

Keeping peacocks does have a few drawbacks.  I’ve read that they can be ornery and don’t mix well with other domestic birds.  And they are loud.  Their name, “Pea” fowl, comes from the sound they make — “pia-ow” — a loud plaintive cry that carries through the forest. 

If you have heard the peacock’s call it is unforgettable.

(photo by Brian Herman)