Parrot-to-Parrot: Video Chat with Friends

Bird Behavior, Musings & News
African gray parrot looks at computer screen (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

3 May 2023

Wild parrots live in flocks and interact with each other all the time but pet parrots often have lonely isolated lives that lead to psychological problems and self-damaging behaviors. We know that video chats help people connect over long distances. Could parrot-to-parrot video chats enrich the pet birds’ lives? The answer “Yes!” was presented at the ACM SIGCHI conference last month.

A research team from Northeastern University, MIT and the University of Glasgow, who study the potential of technology to enrich the lives of pets and zoo animals, enlisted 18 pet parrots and their caregivers in a three-month-long study to connect the parrots to each other online. Even in such a short time the birds became so engaged that they and their caregivers did not want to stop when the study ended.

During the first two weeks, the parrots were taught to ring a bell and touch a screen image of another parrot so that their caregiver would start a video chat with the selected bird.

African gray parrot plays with a bell (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

In the second phase, which lasted two months, the birds were given free reign to request and make calls whenever they wanted. The birds quickly developed favorite video-chat friends with whom they talked, sang and preened. “Parrots who made the most calls also received more calls, suggesting that the study helped the birds become more social. Their caretakers also reported improved bonding with their pets.” — Phys.org.

A parrot in the study video-chatting with Rosie (screenshot from Birds of a Feather Video-Flock Together video)

Here’s how the parrots made friends online.

video from NowThisNews on YouTube

The results were quite exciting in some households.

“We saw some really encouraging results from the study. The parrots seemed to grasp that they were truly engaging with other birds onscreen and their behavior often mirrored what we would expect from real-life interactions between these types of birds. We saw birds learn to forage for the first time, and one caregiver reported that their bird flew for the first time after making a call,” said co-author Dr. Jennifer Cunha who is co-founder of Parrot Kindergarten, Inc. that helped to recruit and train the parrot caregivers for the study.

— phys.org: Video-calling tech could help lonely parrots flock together

Watch a 9-minute video of the study plan and techniques at ACM SIGCHI: Birds of a Feather Flock Together project.

Read more at phys.org: Video-calling tech could help lonely parrots flock together.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons and screenshot from ACM SIGCHI video, click on the captions to see the originals)

Cellophane Bees

Insects
Cellophane bee in May (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

2 May 2023

On a hike at Hays Woods last week with Jared Belsky of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy we saw odd holes on a bare spot of ground, each one surrounded by a dust cone shaped like a tiny volcano. I could tell they where probably made by insects but which ones?

Cellophane bee holes at Hays Woods, 24 April 2023. My foot is in the photo for scale (photo by Kate St. John)

Jared told me these holes were constructed in March by cellophane bees.

Cellophane bees (Colletes inaequalis) are the first bees of spring, sometimes emerging while there’s still snow on the ground. They are members of the group called “plasterer bees” (Colletes sp.) described by Wikipedia below:

The genus Colletes (plasterer bees) is a large group of ground-nesting bees of the family Colletidae that occur primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. They tend to be solitary, but sometimes nest close together in aggregations. Species in the genus build cells in underground nests that are lined with a cellophane-like plastic secretion, a true polyester, earning them the nickname polyester bees.

— Wikipedia account: Colletes

Now that it’s May it’s too late to see cellophane bees making holes, but it’s not too late to learn about them and be ready to watch them next March.

(video by Nick Dorian on YouTube)

p.s. Cellophane was invented in 1912 and polyester in 1928 so these common names of plasterer bees are only a century old.

(bee photo from Wikimedia Commons, holes photo by Kate St. John, embedded video by Nick Dorian on YouTube on YouTube)

No Eggs This Year

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Morela stands at the nest scrape overnight (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

1 May 2023

Alas!

As much as Morela stands at the scrape overnight at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest and as much as she crouches to lay an egg, nothing happens. This has been the case for more than for two weeks now. Every night is like this one on 27-28 April.

video from the National Aviary Falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning

Ecco is solicitous. He bows with Morela several times a day, brings her food and probably mates with her though we don’t see it on camera. Ecco can tell that she’s egg-y but …

Morela’s problem is obviously physical. She may be egg bound but there’s no way to know. Whatever it is, it does not look life threatening at this moment(*).

So there are no eggs this year at the Pitt peregrine nest. I would love for Morela to prove me wrong but … Alas.

Meanwhile, if you’re starved for the sight of peregrine chicks on camera, check out these streaming cameras:

(*) HISTORY AT THIS NEST SITE: In 2014 Dorothy was egg bound, looked very sick (photo at the link) and then passed the egg and was well enough to lay eggs the next year. As of this writing on 1 May, Morela does not look sick like Dorothy did.

(photo and video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Look for One Thing, Find Another

Migration, Water and Shore
American bittern at Panther Hollow Lake, Schenley Park, 28 April 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Sunday 30 April 2023

Early Friday morning in pouring rain, Adrian Fenton was at Schenley Park looking for two soras reported the day before on eBird. Soras (Porzana carolina) are unusual in the City of Pittsburgh so it was worth the trip to look for them, but try as he might Adrian could not find any soras. Instead he found something much better.

At 7:29am I was writing Friday’s blog when I got Adrian’s Rare Bird Alert that there was an American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) among the reeds at Panther Hollow Lake. This bird is rare indeed! I dropped everything, put on my rain gear, and drove 5 minutes to Schenley Park.

Upon arrival I caught up with Adrian and he showed me where the bittern was. Except that I could not see it at first. Its camouflage is so good that it took me a while to latch onto the bird. Thank you, Adrian, for your patience!

More birders arrived, some looking from above on Panther Hollow Bridge. Charity Kheshgi viewed from eye level, as I had, and captured some great images of this cryptic bird.

American bittern at Panther Hollow Lake, Schenley Park, 28 April 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)
American bittern at Panther Hollow Lake, Schenley Park, 28 April 2023 (photo by Charity Kheshgi)

Charity noticed that the bittern made a vertical wiggle with its neck and took a video. You can hear the sound of red-winged blackbirds and the ka-thunk of cars overhead on the Panther Hollow Bridge in the background. The wiggle is typical American bittern behavior though I’m unable to find an explanation for it.

Watch on TikTok

By the end of Friday, 29 people had reported the bittern in eBird(*) but many more than that stopped by for a look. Some of them missed it on Friday, including Steve Northrop who found a sora that hadn’t been seen all day! See his checklist with sora photo.

So Friday came full circle with a search for a sora that found a bittern and a search for a bittern that found a sora.

On Saturday the bittern and sora were still present with an ever changing crowd of birders, binoculars, cameras and scopes. The crowd did not disturb the birds as the best viewing was from (up the hill) gravel paths 40 feet from the nearest water. The bittern was visible for most of the day Saturday, but the sora remained elusive. Around 6:30pm both birds put in an appearance and Steve Northop was there to witness it. Ta Dah!

Look for one thing, find another.

UPDATE on Friday 5 May 2023: Both the bittern and sora were still present on Friday 5 May in bright sunshine. By that time they’d stayed in Schenley Park more than 7 days and had become celebrities. My estimate is that 200 people came to see them, many of us multiple times.

(photos and video by Charity Kheshgi)

Seen at Enlow Fork, 26 April 2023

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Large-flowered trillium, Enlow Fork, 26 April 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

29 April 2023

Tomorrow is the big Enlow Fork Extravaganza at State Gamelands 302 on the border of Washington and Greene Counties. Known for its wildflowers and birds, the site is called “Enlow Fork” because its defining feature is the creek that runs through it, the Enlow Fork of Wheeling Creek.

Though tomorrow’s weather looks like rain, my friend Barb Griffith and I had a nice day there on Wednesday April 26.

At Enlow Fork, 26 April 2023 (photo by Barb Griffith)

We saw 45 species of birds including First of Year gray catbird, Baltimore oriole and American redstarts (checklist is here). We were disappointed not to find any wood thrushes, scarlet tanagers or rose-breasted grosbeaks though we have seen them there in late April in years past.

Spring leafout at Enlow Fork was late compared to the City of Pittsburgh, even though Enlow is 40 miles south of town. The side-by-side photos below show leafout at Schenley Park and at Enlow Fork on virtually the same day. I didn’t expect our urban heat island to make that much difference.

Leafout comparison: Schenley Park 25 April, Enlow Fork 26 April 2023 (photos by Kate St. John)

Lack of leaves and much less deer browse made the wildflowers superb. Here are just a few of those we saw. As always, if I’ve misidentified any, please let me know.

(photos by Barb Griffith and Kate St. John)

I Miss The Schenley Park Foxes

Mammals, Schenley Park
Fox kits in Schenley Park, 25 April 2020 (photo by Frank Izaguirre)

28 April 2023

Three years ago this week, five little foxes came out every day to play inside the fence surrounding their den under the Neill Log House in Schenley Park. At the end of April 2020 their antics were a bright spot in sixth week of the COVID shutdown and attracted a crowd.

Five little foxes attract a crowd in Schenley Park, 27 April 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)

After the fox family dispersed, Public Works cleaned up the log house basement and blocked access to the den. In the spring of 2021 the family denned in a rock outcrop below the Falloon Trail but that must have been too close to people and dogs. They haven’t been back since then.

When I saw this Twitter video by @urbanponds_101 I remembered the Schenley Park foxes.

Gosh, I miss them!

Five Little Foxes

(photos by Frank Izaguirre and Kate St. John; Twitter embed from @urbanponds_101)

Left or Right-Footed?

Bird Anatomy
Feral pigeon walking (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

27 April 2023

On Throw Back Thursday an old topic but a good one …

Humans have a trait called handedness in which we show a preference for using one hand over the other.  Interestingly, dominance in the left hemisphere of our brains results in right-handedness and vice versa. About 90% of us are right-handed.

This hemispheric dominance is called functional lateralism and birds have it too. They show it by the foot they use, the eye they look out of, or the crossing of their bills.

Red crossbills, two males, Deschutes National Forest in Oregon (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Pigeons show it with their feet. If we could watch closely enough we’d notice that a pigeon leads with one foot when it lands, choosing to land first on its dominant foot. Find out more in this 2016 article:

Pigeons Have A Favorite Foot

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)

How Plain-Tailed Wrens Sing The Perfect Duet

Ecuador, Vocalizations
Plain-tailed wren at banding station, Bellavista, Pichincha, Ecuador, 2011 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

26 April 2023

Eighty days ago at Ecuador’s Bellavista Cloud Forest Reserve our tour group heard this species singing from a thicket and added him — or perhaps a pair of them — to our Life Lists.

The plain-tailed wren (Pheugopedius euophrys) is hard to see but its incredibly loud voice is easy to hear, made doubly loud when a pair sings a complicated duet. The duet below was recorded near Tandayapa, Ecuador, perhaps at Bellavista, while other birds were singing in the background. The plain-tailed wrens drown them out.

Intrigued by the birds’ fast-paced, precise duet, researchers in 2021 studied the birds’ brain waves to find the signal that governed the interchange. Instead of an added signal they discovered that, “the species synchronizes their frenetically paced duets by inhibiting the song-making regions of their partner’s brain as they exchange phrases.” The listener’s brain hears something from the partner that mutes his/her own song-making at just the right moment.

“Think of these birds like jazz singers,” said lead author Melissa Coleman. “Duetting wrens have a rough song structure planned before they sing, but as the song evolves, they must rapidly coordinate by receiving constant input from their counterpart.

“What we expected to find was a highly active set of specialized neurons that coordinate this turn-taking, but instead what we found is that hearing each other actually causes inhibition of those neurons—that’s the key regulating the incredible timing between the two.”

It’s not too far-flung to think of these birds as jazz singers. “There are similar brain circuits in humans that are involved in learning and coordinating vocalizations. [Lead authors] Fortune and Coleman say the results offer a fresh look into how the brains of humans and other cooperating animals use sensory cues to act in concert with each other” just like jazz singers.

Here’s one more duet from Tandayapa, Ecuador. Amazing.

Read more at Good News Network: Duetting Songbirds ‘Mute’ the Musical Mind of Their Partner to Stay in Sync, Researchers Find. (quotes above are from this article.)

See the original study at PNAS: Neurophysiological coordination of duet singing.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons, audio embedded from Xeno Canto; click on the links to see the originals)

Pollen Season Gets Worse Every Year

Climate Change, Trees
Oak tree in bloom with dangling pollen flowers (photo by Kate St. John)

25 April 2023

If your pollen allergies have gotten worse there’s a good reason for it. A study of North American pollen trends in the last 30 years, led by William R. L. Anderegg, found that pollen season is starting earlier, lasting longer and has higher pollen counts than in the 1990s because of climate change.

Yale Climate Connections reports “In Anderegg’s research on pollen in North America, he saw pollen seasons starting about 20 days earlier than they did in the 1990s” and pollen concentrations increased by 21%. The higher temperatures and carbon dioxide in today’s atmosphere make plants more productive and allergies worse.

Right now in Pittsburgh we are at the height of pollen season. Recurring hot weather, 15+ degrees above normal, caused the oaks to bloom early and pollen so intense that my car turned yellow while parked at Anderson Playground for just an hour last Friday.

Allergy sufferers get a double whammy here because the pollen is added to Pittsburgh’s poor air quality making it particularly dangerous for children and people with asthma and respiratory illness.

A sneeze! Pollen allergies are in for a bad time (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

So, no, you’re not imagining it. Pollen season in North America is bad and is still getting worse.

Scientists predict that average pollen counts in 2040 will be more than double what they were in 2000.

— Allergies and climate Change, Harvard School of Public Health
Shaking a pine bough, releases a cloud of pollen (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Track the pollen count and get the daily forecast at pollen.com.

screenshot of pollen map on 25 April 2023 from pollen.com

Gesundheit!

(photos by Kate St. John and from Wikimedia Commons. Screenshot from pollen.com)

Vigil

Nesting & Courtship, Peregrines
Ecco waiting at the nest overnight, 24 April 2023, 5:04am (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)

24 April 2023

Yesterday morning I was sure Morela was going to lay an egg but when Ecco brought her breakfast she left the nest for two hours. At 9:40am she tried laying again for 90 minutes but no egg. All afternoon it was Ecco on the green perch, not Morela, as you can see in the timelapse video below, 7am-7pm.

12-hour timelapse at the Pitt peregrine nest, 23 April 2023 (video from the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

She returned to the nest at 8:22pm but did not lay last night.

This morning at 5:00am Ecco was back at his vigil on the green perch (photo at top). As of this moment (7:45am) he’s been back and forth to the perch but Morela still hasn’t come.

Ecco waits at the green perch, 24 April 2023, 7:17am

I don’t know what’s going on but it’s now so late in April that I think a challenger is unlikely.

All we can do is wait and watch the National Aviary Falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning.

We’re joining Ecco in his vigil.

(photos and videos from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)