No. He could eat them if he wanted to but these barbell fish are his helpers. They eat ticks from his skin and food from his teeth. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
The hippo and the barbell fish are just one example of the unlikely partnerships animals make with other species. Watch the premiere of Nature’s Perfect Partners on Wednesday May 11 to learn about many more — lizards with lions, a fish with a blind shrimp, toads with tarantulas.
Though it’s been less than two weeks since the first Baltimore orioles returned to western Pennsylvania, it didn’t take long for them to arrive in force and begin to establish their territories.
Now they’re everywhere and obvious — singing, chasing, chattering with annoyance, drowning out the songs of other birds.
As soon as they’ve paired up Baltimore orioles sing a lot less and become almost secretive.
Hope with her remaining chick, 6 May 2016 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
This afternoon as Hope and Terzo’s last egg began to hatch, Hope picked the new chick out of its shell, ate part of it, and fed the rest to her only remaining chick, C1.
All four of Hope’s eggs hatched but there is only one chick to show for it. On April 29 she killed and ate the second chick (C2) feeding part of it to C1. C3 hatched on April 30 but he never thrived. (Some of you speculated that she didn’t fed him adequately even though there is plenty of food.)
Hours after C3 died Hope fed him to C1. And now she has killed and eaten C4, again feeding him to C1.
We don’t know why Hope is doing this. Perhaps her situation will prompt biologists to study her case. In the meantime we can only wonder.
Needless to say her actions are distressing, so turn off the nestcam if it upsets you.
This is very abnormal behavior!!
p.s. I have no predictions on what she’ll do next. I have no idea how the season will end.
“Lesley The Bird Nerd” has photographed backyard birds for a long time. She’s especially fond of blue jays and discovered that photos help her identify the jays as individuals.
Each blue jay has a different face!
Watch her video and learn how to do it yourself. (You’ll need a camera.)
p.s. Some of you have said this confirms your worry that C3 was not being fed enough. Those of us who have watched peregrines for many years went back thorough the footage and confirmed that C3 was fed as much as C1 (i.e. his parents offered him food) but he would not eat as much. He exhibited something we call “failure to thrive.”
Robin fighting his reflection (photo by Charlie Hickey)
On Throw Back Thursday:
This is the time of year when birds go mad and fight with car mirrors and windows. They don’t realize that the angry bird who won’t back down is a reflection of themselves.
Though some birds become obsessed with particular locations it’s a temporary problem while they’re establishing their territory. Unfortunately the obsession could last for weeks!
If you’ve got a problem bird, cover the reflection for a few days so the bird can’t see itself. Your car will look funny with plastic grocery bags on the side mirrors but the bird will give up. Massachusetts Audubon has some helpful tips.
In 2013, this robin wasted a lot of time fighting his “challenger” on Charlie Hickey’s front door in: Tapping At My Chamber Door.
Things got exciting on the Kestrel Nestcam in Boise, Idaho last Wednesday, April 27. By the end of the day four of the five kestrel eggs had hatched. The fifth one hatched the next day.
Watch the first feeding in the video above.
American kestrels nest in holes and will readily use a nest box so The Peregrine Fund erected one on their campus and set up two streaming cameras — one inside the box and one outside. Click here to watch the KestrelCam in Boise, sponsored by Bosch.
Here are some cool things you’ll notice about the kestrels:
The chicks are all the same size because they hatched within about 24 hours. Kestrels’ synchronous hatching strategy is similar to peregrines.(*)
American kestrels have malar stripes (mustaches) just like peregrines.
Their markings make it look as if they have eyes on the backs of their heads.
Kestrels are more colorful than peregrines but the mother’s plumage is muted compared to the male’s. She’s striped and brown. He has a cinnamon back and blue-gray wings.
When the chicks lose their down and develop juvenile plumage, they’ll resemble their mother.
Idaho is two time zones away so you’ll see these birds in the sun for two hours after night has begun in Pittsburgh.
Thank you to “Norca” for alerting me to this Kestrel Cam.
Ooops! This morning the inside-the-box camera is down for maintenance. Please be patient … and watch the videos listed below the cam window.
(*) NOTE: Hatching at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest is delayed this spring because Hope started incubation about a week before she laid the 4th egg. Her mate E2 died March 15. Terzo arrived on or before March 23. There was a 15 day gap between the 3rd and 4th egg.
(video from the American kestrel nestcam, The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho)
Hope and Terzo with 2 chicks, 1 May 2016 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
As we watch the chicks at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest, some of you wonder if they’re getting enough to eat. Others think Terzo isn’t hunting because Hope always brings the food to the nest.
THIS IS FIXED! An Internet problem: We couldn’t see the nestcam on the Aviary website. THIS IS FIXED!
Here are some Peregrine FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that explain what’s going on.
Tires in the woods, western PA (photos by Kate St. John)
There are tires in the woods nearly everywhere in western Pennsylvania. Singles, pairs and piles of tires. Tires rolled down the hillsides into the hollows. Tires dumped on top of trash. Tires too heavy to lift, left by the side of the road.
I’d say this is a uniquely Appalachian problem but it happens across the U.S. Dumping tires is illegal but people do it because they think it’s expensive to dispose of them properly. In fact it’s cheap — about $2 per passenger tire in PA — and it’s easy to find a disposal place that’s probably closer than the illegal dump site. Just type in your zip code at the Earth911 website.
