Now that it is almost Christmas, you will hear the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” created in about 16th century England. This song has more birds in it than any other holiday song. You know, “On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree.” The […] The post Birds of Christmas appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
Woodpeckers are successful creatures and well-known to everyone. Perhaps the most famous woodpecker is Woody, the cartoon woodpecker, but the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, very likely extinct since 1948, is the most well-known real one. There are many kinds of woodpeckers in the world, around 250 species. Propped against the side of a tree trunk, they rapidly […] The post Why do Woodpeckers Peck? appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
This is the time of year you see flocks of birds heading south. If they are geese, they typically fly in a skein or V formation. Ducks fly in looser skeins, and smaller birds like shorebirds and songbirds fly basically in a bunch. Pelicans and cormorants fly in a line. And many blackbirds and starlings […] The post Flocks Heading South for the Winter appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
I receive all kinds of questions from around the world, and I have been contacted by newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows, Hollywood producers, authors, artists, scientists, architects, and even a fighter pilot in Iraq, asking about some aspect of birds. Mostly they are straightforward questions about identification, bird houses, feeding, behavior, diseases, etc., but […] The post Do Ducks’ Quacks Echo? And Other Bird Myths [Updated] appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
Birds have been around for over 200 million years. Of perhaps 125,000 avian species that existed during that time, over 11,000 still populate every habitat on Earth except the center of Antarctica and the depths of the oceans. Hominids have been around for maybe six million years, and modern humans only around 200,000 years. But […] The post Birds in Modern Life appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
In the northern hemisphere spring and summer are the times of the year birds are breeding – singing, courting, nesting, egg-laying, incubating, and feeding young. For most songbirds, incubation will last about 7-10 days and the young remain in the nest after hatching while the parents feed them. As the young grow, the nest eventually […] The post Nature Knows Best appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
With its three-color receptors, the human eye can distinguish over a million colors. An LCD television can produce over one billion colors. And Sherwin Williams, a paint manufacturer, makes about 1700 colors. And someone has to name them. Until the 17th century, there was no word for the color orange, so orange-colored things were described […] The post The Evolution of Bird Color Guides and Identification appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
There are more than 90 million pet cats in the U.S. learn about their effect on the bird population. The post Bird Population and Feral Cats appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
It is considered the height of arrogance, and now against the rules of nomenclature, for the discoverer of a species to name the organism after his or herself, but many species have been named in honor of others, such as Baird’s Sandpiper, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Bouganvilla. Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823 -1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and […] The post Birds Named After People appeared first on Ornithology.| Ornithology
There are a number of species of birds with widespread distributions such as the Peregrine Falcon, Mallard, and European Starling. Each has a designated scientific name, but all of the nearly 11,000 species of birds have an official common English name as well, as established by the International Ornithological Committee. So for every English-speaking country […]| Ornithology