Blue-Footed Booby
Blue-footed boobies take great
pride due to their marvelous feet. During mating rituals, male birds normally
show off their feet to prospective mates with a high stepping strut. The
blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) is a marine bird in the family Sulidae, which
includes ten species of long-winged seabirds. Therefore the bluer the feet, the
mate considered more attractive. The
booby species are thought to take their name from the Spanish word (bobo),
means “stupid, clown, and Fool”. Because
the blue-footed booby is clumsy on land regarded as foolish for their apparent
fearlessness of humans. Blue feet also indicate the current health condition of
a booby, thus, the feet are rapid and honest indicators of a booby's current
level of nourishment. The blue feet are signs that reliably point toward the
immunological and health condition of a booby, coloration is favored through
sexual selection.
These impressively beautiful feet
birds live off the western coasts of central and South America. The Galápagos Islands population includes
about half of all breeding pairs of blue-footed boobies. The female bird is
somewhat larger than the male and can measure up to 90 cm long with a wingspan
of up to 1.5 m. Similar to other boobies the blue-foot nest on land at night. The
boobies are flew in search of seafood, may fly far out to sea keeping an eye
for schools of small fish in cooperative groups such as sardines, anchovies,
mackerel, and flying fish. These
seabirds are exceptional divers, fold their long wings back around their
streamlined bodies and plunge into the water from as high as 24 meters and
swimming underwater in search of its prey. Even, they can also dive from a
sitting position on the water’s surface. These birds hit the water around 97
km/h and have ability to go to depths of 25 meters below the water surface.
Both sexes start breeding between
1 to 6 years. The blue-footed booby usually lays 1-3 eggs at a time, and
they’re very caring to their chicks, use their webbed feet to cover and keep
them warm. Both male and female take turns incubating the eggs, and the
incubation period is falling between 41–45 days. Both male and female birds
share parental responsibilities. The male will provide food for the young and
chicks feed off the regurgitated fish in the adult's mouth. The boobies’
natural breeding habitats are tropical and subtropical islands of Pacific
Ocean. The blue-footed booby wings are brown color, neck and head are light
brown with white streaks, belly and underside full white plumage. The boobies’
are having distinctive yellow color eyes with excellent binocular vision.
The blue-footed booby's hunts singly, in
pairs, or in larger flocks. Blue-footed boobies make raucous or polysyllabic
grunts or shout and thin whistling noises and their ritual displays are also a
form of communication, hence mates can identify each other by their calls. The
blue-footed booby population appears to having trouble breeding and thus is
slowly declining. The decline is feared to be long-term, but annual data
collection is needed for a firm conclusion that this is not a normal
fluctuation. Food problems may be the cause of an observed failure of the birds
to even try to breed.
The Golden-Breasted Starling
The golden-breasted starling has
been called the most beautiful starling in the world. The golden-breasted starling (Lamprotornis
regius) is a medium-sized, up to 35 cm long, passerine in the starling family.
The Golden Breasted Starling is also known as royal starling and a social
animal, living in groups of 3 to 12 individuals. The bird diet comprises mostly
of insects and termites and some fruit of Commiphora and Dobera, though adult birds catch insects in flight and
dig up termite mounds to find prey. They spend most of their time on the
ground, running or hopping in their hunt for insects. To catch termites, they
use rapid flicks of the bill to dig down to their tunnels. When disturbed, they
will fly to the next bush. They infrequently fly above three metres.
The golden-breasted starling
molts once a year, after the breeding season. The female usually lays between 3
to 5 pale green color eggs with red speckles. The birds habitually make nests in tree holes
which are made from leaves, roots, straw and other vegetation. Moreover the
whole family groups cooperate in raising young by gathering food and nesting
materials. The bird likes the rainy season for breeding, i.e. March to May and
November to December. Therefore, during the hotter daylight hours, golden-breasted
starlings will chatter away in a subdued voice with their mates. Their flight
or contact call is cheeo cheeo. When signaling danger, they use chiar chiar.
The stunning golden-breasted
starling is widely distributed in the grassland, savannah and shrub-land of
East Africa, from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania. Furthermore,
this species and L. unicolor sometimes placed in a separate genus, appears
inseparable from birds in rest of species' range. Moreover, just like all
starling species, golden-breasted starlings are highly social birds, noisy and
garrulous when together. They gather in pairs or groups of up to a dozen.
Though, during breeding season, group members assist with nest building and
feeding.
The both sexes are similar; however
the young are duller than the adult. The adult bird has a metallic green head
and upper back, bright golden yellow breast and belly, dark bill and legs,
white iris and metallic violet blue on wings, back, neck and its long tail
feathers. The global population size has not been quantified, but the species
is described as locally common. The population trend appears to be stable, and
it is widespread throughout its habitat range; hence does not approach the
thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion. The bird is evaluated
as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Unluckily
due to its stunning colorations makes it easy for the wild bird trade to create
a market for it. So, “Cosmopsarus regius” populations have come under pressure
in some areas due to large-scale capturing.
The bird tail is 60% of bird
length would usually be its main feature, however starling coloration and vivid
golden yellow covers the rest of the underparts including the thighs and under-tail
coverts. Legs are black. This species is also known as the superb starling. Source: Charismatic Planet
The Channel-Billed Toucan
The
Channel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos vitellinus) is a toucan that found on
the Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana and in
tropical South America, in the southeastern Amazon, as far south as
southern Brazil, north-western Venezuela and central Bolivia. Normally
they found in the forest and woodlands areas, extend into drier regions
particularly along water ways. Moreover they can also found in lowlands
areas, but may wander up to an altitude of 1700 meters. The
Channel-Billed Toucan upper plumage, abdomen, tail and bill are black;
however upper-tail and under-tail feathers are red. Moreover, the bare
eye-patch, bill base are blue and throat is white, and chest is
yellow-orange fading to white on the sides. The irises are dark brown
and lower chest sharply contrast with a broad red band. The mating
ritual is a fun-loving affair for toucans, as they throw fruit to one
another.
Just
like others toucans, the channel-billed has huge bill, typically 48 cm
long and 9 to 14 cm bill and 300 to 430 g weighs. It is very akin to
Cuvier’s Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus cuvieri) make you confused. The
Channel-Billed likes to eat fruit, but can intake insects, tiny
reptiles, eggs, and frogs. Vocally, the channel-billed toucan is very
conspicuous bird. Its call is a repeated, high pitched single note and
it can be described like a croak or yelping sound cree-op cree-op
cree-op. As it makes each note of sound, it lifts and drops its head
while holding its tail feathers erect and making side to side movements
on its perch and pairs of channel-billed toucans tend to communicate
vocally in an irregular chorus. The Channel-Billed fairly long-lived
with a lifespan is 20 years. The captive toucans cannot learn to talk
like parrots, but they are very much quieter and friendly and easy
tamed. So far, global population size has not been quantified, but this
species is described as “fairly common”.
The
male and female birds are very active in raising the newborns. The
Channel-billed Toucan breeds between March and June and during breeding
season, one of these Toucans would lay between two and four eggs which
are incubated by both the male and female in a high unlined tree cavity,
have generation period of 18 days, and incubate for 15 to 16 days.
Although in some cases, they can be impatient sitters, often leaving
their eggs uncovered for hours at a time. The newborn channel-billed is
blind and naked at birth and open their eyes after three weeks. Moreover
breeding in captivity requires attention to a number of details; even
successful breeder’s rates as low as 30% for the incubation of eggs.
The
young channel-billed remain in the nest after hatching and have short
bills and specialized pads on their heels to protect them from rough
floor of the nest. Their feathers do not start appearing until 4 weeks
old. Moreover, they’re stranded and unable to leave the nest for about 8
weeks, dependent upon both parents to feed them. After this, the young
can care for themselves. They start to leave the nest after 40 to 50
days, depending on bird size. Channel-billed toucans reside in small
families including of two parents and young. They may also form small
flocks numbering 3 to 12 individuals. Oftentimes they’ve joined groups
of other bird species including other toucan species to feed. When
travelling, they mostly fly alone, in pairs or in straggling groups
arranged in single file.
Amusingly,
the babies are born with a smaller bill which takes more than a few
months to reach full size. Thus, not only has the Toucan amazed the
world with its majestic beauty but it has also mystified the world. For
long times biologists have been captivated by the Toucan’s outstanding
beak. Why was it so large? Therefore, some advised that it aided in the
picking of fruit, while the others, that it was a deterrent to
competition. Thus, a new research has revealed that the beak in fact
supports regulate the Toucan’s body temperature. This species is
suspected to lose population due to its extent of appropriate habitat in
the Amazonian portion of its range over 35 years. By taking the
pessimistic scenario of forest loss and factoring in the species’
susceptibility to hunting, fragmentation and edge-effects, it is
suspected to decline by 32.1% over three generations from 2000.Source: Charismatic Planet
You can find more detail about toucans at
Wikipedia Click Here.
Hooded Pitohui The First Documented Poisonous Bird
The hooded pitohui (Pitohui
dichrous) is a pitohui of New Guinea is one of few recognized poisonous birds
in the world. Both male & female have black and orange patches in their
plumage. This bird is normally placed in the family Oriolidae, and its close
relatives are variable pitohui and rusty pitohui. The bird, hooded pitohui is
about the size of a blue jay and is familiar to local villagers and
ornithologists alike. But only now have scientists learned that the bird
harbors a poison. Pitohuis are normally about 23 cm long with strong legs and a
powerful beak.
Therefore, the first known
poisonous bird is “common quail” that cause coturnism. So, neurotoxin named
“homobatrachotoxin”, found in the birds' skin and feathers, causes numbness and
tingling in those touching the bird. It is believed, that bird has taken
poisons from their diet, which is mainly comprises of Choresine beetles of the
Melyridae family. These exclusive beetles are probably source of lethal
batrachotoxins found in Colombia’s poison dart frogs. Moreover this species
population is not quantified but believed not approaching thresholds for
vulnerable. The hooded pitohui is common and widespread in New Guinea and is
evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red list of Threatened Species.
This is unbelievable that a bird
had never before found an example of a bird using a chemical defense against
its enemies. However, fish, amphibians, insects, and reptiles are well equipped
with noxious compounds that make them repugnant, but birds were thought to rely
on fast flight to escape being eaten. Indisputably, there are other bird
species that have chemical self-defense mechanisms to stop predators from
eating them, but to date, this is the only bird found to actually be poisonous
to humans. However, the natives of New Guinea do eat them, but tip off they
must be prepared very prudently, including skinning. So the bird has been
labeled to the venomous creatures of the earth.
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