This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
A couple of weeks ago I introduced you to the pair of Pied Oystercatchers that were the first to start breeding along our coast this year. Since then we have had the two pairs of Pied Oystercatchers that breed between the Surf Club and Gantheaume Point lay their first clutch of eggs. Pied Oystercatcher nest.
We really don’t like the presence of Black Kites along the beach when the Pied Oystercatchers are breeding. Of course Black Kites also breed and at the moment there is a nest very close to the highway. The adult Black Kites will no doubt find enough roadkill to raise their young. Black Kites on the beach.
This year we have continued to monitor the breeding of several pairs of Pied Oystercatchers along the coast in Broome from Gantheaume Point to Willie Creek on the south side. We have never had a pair succeed in raising all of their chicks and even to succeed in raising one takes a lot of effort because they are so dependent on their parents.
The Cuckoo Cuculus canorus has a bad reputation because of its habit of laying its eggs on the nests of other birds, who then raise their young. The White-rumped Swift Apus caffer , a tropical African breeding species, was only discovered breeding in Europe in the 1960s. Curiously, they also breed in Iberia today.
As the boreal migrants head north, breeding season for the residents and austral migrants is beginning to pick up. There are other austral migrants breeding here, however – I’ve found two separate nesting sites of the incredulous looking Swallow Tanager thus far. I cannot verify or deny his success. Sounds like a party.
But no, my story today is about the birds that come in to breed on the heather moorland which dominates the high ground. It’s quite amazing how birds that we are used to seeing much of the year on coastal mudflats, exploiting the intertidal, change their habits and take to the hills to raise their young.
The colony has grown supporting up to 3 pairs of owls, all breeding at once! The owls from the old burrow area near the classrooms continue to raise multiple broods and 2 other pairs have since moved in. The colony has numbered 17 at one point and fledged as many as 9 owlets during the normal breeding season.
And much of that time is spend loafing around the breeding colonies trying to pair off and engaging in silly-looking behaviours referred to as dancing by scientists. It can take over a year to raise a chick for the larger species, and even species that can fit their entire breeding cycle into one year tend not to breed in consecutive years.
BSL (Breed-Specific Legislation) is the canine equivalent of racial profiling, banning certain dog breeds that have been labeled “dangerous.” ITo, the company behind the popular philanthropic, eco friendly bracelets which raise money for important world causes, has introduced a new “I’m Tired of BSL” bracelet.
They migrate north through the Western United States, breeding in pockets all the way up through Canada. Soon they will disappear, stretching wide wings and taking to the skies in search of breeding grounds farther north. They’ve become familiar in the best way, like a person I’ve come to know and appreciate.
You could raise an eyebrow that at a time of cuts and austerity measures across a range of environment services and departments to be able to find £375k in support of a non-native species that is reared specifically to be killed anyway is a little astonishing. of nearly 500 radio-tagged releases).
Most birds have finished up raising young, but a few are in the thick of it like American Goldfinches. Our latest nester, these birds don’t start their breeding season until July and are frantically feeding young right now. This is such a weird time of year at bird feeders. Didn’t they just arrive?
Predators that rely on lemmings, like the Snowy Owl , took advantage of the bounty and had great breeding success, raising large broods which, after the lemming population crashes, dispersed far and wide. And while I haven’t made it over their yet I hope to before they disperse into breeding territories.
It’s a bang-up breeding year for super-endangered birds! The species, which migrates from the Russian Arctic to Southeast Asia, is down to about 200 breeding pairs in the wild, due to habitat loss and poaching. For the past several years, getting the birds to breed has been an exercise in futility.
This year is the eighteenth year since we discovered our first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in Broome and it didn’t take us long to realise that they are not at all successful at raising young due to egg and chick predation. He last raised a chick successfully in 2016 and has nested in this area since 2008.
Unlike the more common American Goldfinch, the Lesser Goldfinch’s ( Spinus psaltria ) plumage does not change color during breeding season. The female Lesser Goldfinch can sometimes be confused with the female American Goldfinch in breeding plumage. It was great fun watching them raise their young that summer.
We hypothesized that trends in waterfowl hunter numbers, as indicated by Federal Migratory Bird Hunting Conservation Stamp (duck stamp) sales, have become independent of breeding duck populations, and we assess the impacts on habitat conservation. 4 0.81) and 1995–2008 (r 1?4
Eagle Lake, Lake Almanor and Clear Lake have all been identified as Audubon California Important Bird Areas (IBA), meaning that they provide essential habitat for breeding, wintering, and migrating birds. Like the breeding activity of many species this spring, the grebes were late, probably due to the unseasonable weather.
Which these days involves a frenzy to breed and raise a brood. I discovered that one of the Pacific Loons was back, and the first breeding plumaged Purple Sandpiper I’ve seen (having only seen them on fall migration), and Arctic Hare cavorting in their changing coats. In breeding plumage! And now mergansers.
Instead of hovering, some gulls have set up territories within breeding colonies of Humboldt seabirds. Gulls will harvest/steal food from breeding birds within their territories and chase away other gulls ensuring that birds within their territories are not swarmed by multiple food thieves.
Whilst enjoying the Magpie Geese breeding around Broome recently we also noticed a Magpie-lark nest close to the highway in one of the very few trees beside the road. While we had been waiting one of the young had raised itself up and let its waste drop outside the nest. She waited for a moment and flew in towards the nest.
They breed up here, and spend their winters (usually) in the lower reaches of the Arctic and near polynyas (year round ice free waters) such as the North Water Polynya between Ellesmere Island and Groenland. They are able to breed at the age of 5-6 weeks so it is easy to see, given the right conditions how quickly their population can grow.
Over the past few months there have been a lot of birds breeding around Broome with the excellent rain events that we have been having and the vegetation is at long last revived. Masked Lapwings have been busy breeding for some months now and some may well be on their second clutch of eggs. Masked Lapwing protecting a nest.
This is not surprising at all due to the fact that we have monitored the Pied Oystercatcher breeding success (or lack thereof ) since 2000 along a twenty three kilometre stretch of beach and it is very rare for any of the sixteen pairs to succeed. This pair of Pied Oystercatchers has been successful on one occasion and that was in 2012.
Other warblers such as Chestnut-sided and Black-throated Green are still around but based on their breeding plumage, they will be quick to leave for the north any day now. Wilson’s Plovers are in Breeding Plumage. More Birds are Singing. Spring in Costa Rica is more of a transfer from dry to wet than from cold to hot.
After a very good Wet Season with substantially more rain than normal over the first few months of 2017 the land was flooded and a huge variety of birds arrived in the Broome area to take advantage of the ideal conditions for breeding. The Australian Painted Snipe nest was positioned on higher ground in between the fence and the highway.
Black Drongos must be breeding here – this juvenile was terrorizing his parents with constant calls for food. Presumably, the parents of black drongo chicks sometimes meet with Red-billed Starlings to sympathize with each other about the challenges of raising chicks these days. Black-tailed Gulls , I think.
Bon voyage , friend, may you traverse the next two thousand miles safely, may you not encounter any glass windows and may you find a mate and breed successfully! Surprisingly, a pair of Striated Herons in breeding plumage flew in as dusk tightened its grip. Hopefully they found a suitable place nearby to raise the next generation!
Others, like the petrels and some of the auks, will lay a single egg per breeding attempt. The investment placed in each clutch bur seabirds is so great that only one breeding attempt can be seen to completion each year. They are cavity nesters, breeding in natural cavities or holes dug into the soil. So why do it?
Their remarkable survival skills, evolved over thousands of years, rely on a chain of stopover feeding grounds and habitats for breeding and raising young – but break any one link and the survival of the entire species is threatened. Climate change is the biggest threat to migratory birds this century.
Now everyone has a chance to help the Kiwis save their birds as a Wellington philanthropist, Gareth Morgan, is trying to raise NZ$ 1 million to clear the Antipodes Islands of mice. If the money is raised he will match it to get the work underway.
It seemed to me that this species has a much more liberal approach to raising offspring compared to that other waterfowl: the young chicks were sometimes exploring the wetland dozens of meters away from the mother – so far I think I’ve always seen ducklings to follow their parents quite closely.
Other researchers apparently tried to get their universities to fund their drone toys, resulting in papers with titles such as “The use of drones to study the breeding productivity of Whooper Swan “ Another finding does not come as a surprise to birders watching birds both from cars and on foot.
Okay, they weren’t as fascinating as the birds of prey eating their, or the frankly still weird drawings of nightjars carrying eggs and woodcocks carrying chicks, but still, hornbills were cool because they sealed their mates up in holes in trees and then fed them as they raised the chick. We can hope!
During the breeding season, adult males split from the flocks they normally live in and begin to advertise their availability to females by calling and performing body contortions. Females end up mating with several males laying eggs in as many nests as partners they can have during a breeding season. Photo: Antoine Hubert.
Counting the Birds I was in my teens when I undertook my first bird-survey: it was field work for the British Trust for Ornithology’s The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. The breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland. Published in 1976, The Atlas was, I believe, the very first work of its kind.
Male Brown Teal showing some breeding plumage. Females and non-breeding males look similar The Brown Teal is endemic to New Zealand, and was once lumped with two closely related island forms, the Auckland Island Teal and the Campbell Teal. But names aren’t everything and there is plenty to say about this species.
As is often the case in birds, teenagers, and other living creatures, these charismatic colors play a prominent role in the booby’s breeding rituals. Perhaps that explains why the Galapagos Conservation Trust raises funds to help protect the Islands’ unique wildlife and habitat through the celebration of Blue-footed Booby Day.
The HBW even mentions the importance of Ruoergai for this species: “Key sites for migrants include the Ruoergai Plateau (China), which is also an important breeding area” Common Mergansers also seem to use these wetlands as breeding area. Understated elegance is also something the White-browed Tit is rather good at.
They occur mainly in western and southern portions of North America, breeding inland in colonies on remote islands and wintering along warm southern coasts 1. In breeding plumage, adult American White Pelicans have a distinct “centerboard&# or “horn&# on the ridge of their bill.
But when raised, they seem to have a sort of weird cape. In other words, they never raise their own young. Instead, they lay their eggs in other species’ nests, and let those nest-making birds (often significantly smaller than the cowbirds) raise their young. But in most light, they appear to have a shiny black color.
Of the sixteen pairs of Pied Oystercatchers between Gantheaume Point and Willie Creek on the south side, which is a length of breeding territories covering 23 kilometres-just over 14 miles-only one chick fledges most years. This year one pair of Pied Oystercatchers has once again proven to be able to raise young.
A captive breeding program was established with a facility at Gustavo del Solar’s property, not far from where the birds were re-discovered. This flock is composed of about 54 birds including nine breeding pair. In order to raise our awareness, to remind us of what we have lost, and to inspire us to fight for Every.
But when the biological imperative to breed is on the brain, and springtime is peak time for thinking about breeding, they can become raving psychos, each bird desperate to lay claim to a nest box that would allow it to raise young and thereby pass on its DNA to the next generation and win the evolutionary sweepstakes.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 30+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content