10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Most Acorn Woodpeckers are cooperative breeders and live in family groups of up to a dozen or more individuals. Within a group, 1–7 male co-breeders compete for matings with 1–3 joint-nesting females who lay their eggs in the same nest cavity. This is their range map courtesy of Nature Serve.

Woodpeckers 207

Woodpeckers Breeders North America Groups 207

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

In China, wherever there is one real tourist attraction (like the Great Wall), the local strategy seems to be to add some fake attractions – replicas of palaces or tombs, amusement parks, shopping centers – in order to maximize the income from tourists. But the starting point has to be a real attraction, not a fake one.

China 264

China Birds Pythons Eagles 264

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

There are two patterns that are fairly extreme that fall into this category: brood parasitism and helper-at-the-nest strategy. In the former, a female lays her fertilized egg in the nest of another species, in the hopes that her offspring will be raised by the unwitting hosts. It turns out that the two strategies may be related.

Breeders 251

Breeders Breeding Science Raised 251

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

To be honest, both the robin and the flycatchers shown above remind me of the easter eggs I hunted for as a child – the same strong colors in front of a green background, same time of the year (feel free to insert your own Proust Madeleine reference here) … Bluethroats apparently are good at imitating other birds.

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147