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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.
Frigatebirds don’t occur in the cold waters of the coast of Peru and Chile, but Band-tailed Gulls (Larus belcheri) have developed similar strategy. Instead of hovering, some gulls have set up territories within breeding colonies of Humboldt seabirds. And the story repeats itself multiple times during the day.
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.
Starvation and predators make it hard to grow up, and birds have evolved a lot of strategies to give (at least some of) their chicks the best chance in life. One strategy that varies among birds (and other animals) is the number of offspring. Seabirds are one group of birds that go for the latter strategy. So why do it?
The species that manage to colonize these islands evolve in competition with relatively few other species, developing survival strategies based on interdependence, co-evolution, and mutualism rather than adapting to deal with a broad range of predators and competitors. We must fight to save every species we can, every ecosystem, every niche.
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.
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. Each pair has a strategy and sometimes it is successful and sometimes it is not.
All three species mentioned in this article breed on these islands, but the Piratic Flycatcher employs a truly piratic strategy: the breeding pair targets a recently built woven nest, often by a Yellow Oriole or Yellow-rumped Cacique but they have also been recorded targeting the nests of other flycatchers.
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.
Over the next few days, the Alpine Accentors ( Prunella collaris ) will arrive on their high-Alpine breeding grounds – it is time to start singing, despite that the treeless Alpine landscape is still under metres of snow. all Alpine Accetor photos digiscoped (c) Dale Forbes. all Alpine Accetor photos digiscoped (c) Dale Forbes.
We are into the second attempt at breeding for this season in Broome for Pied Oystercatchers. She successfully raised a chick in 2007, which has been living in a large flock to the south of Broome. We had one pair attempt 5 times in 2009, so they don’t give up easily! Nest site with 3 eggs-one white!
Since discovering our first Pied Oystercatcher nest on Cable Beach in July 2000 we have observed the breeding of these local shorebirds along the coast between Gantheaume Point in the south and Willie Creek in the north, which is a distance of 23 kilometres. The last time they successfully raised a chick was in 2012.
A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It was the end of prescribed burns as part of the Kirtland’s Warbler recovery plan.
It looked like a family of parrots were trying to kill each other” The Black-backed Puffback has what eBird describes as “a fiery red eye” eBird also explains the name: “When excited, males can raise fluffy white feathers on the rump to resemble a puffball.”
During the breeding season, some Cattle Egrets look like teenage girls who have just discovered the existence of make-up, and consequently massively overdo it. While having somebody else raise your chicks like an attractive strategy to me, it is not without dangers. It is probably all downhill from here. What’s next?
The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. In the latter, three or more adult individuals contribute to the raising of offspring.
Many of the most peculiar aspects of birds are involved with mating, whether it’s for attracting mates, defending nests against predators, or raising chicks. One of the more interesting aspects (in my opinion) of breeding in birds is their mating strategy. The final, rarest mating strategy, found in less than 0.1%
Within the bird world, so many different strategies and methods of mating and reproduction have evolved, it simply boggles the mind. When it comes to breeding, Yellow-rumped Warblers are a good example of what many people regard as a “regular” bird. Believe it or not, this is what “fidelity” looks like.
Here local hunters had known about the colony and for generations had been harvesting the birds by simply picking the adults off their nests during the breeding season. However they will not and cannot breed, and once these individual’s natural lifespans are over, these bird populations will be lost forever.
For the authors of this study on the Sabota Lark , this makes them end the abstract of their paper with the slightly pompous and simultaneously slightly unambitious claim that “This study provided a foundation for future comparative studies on avian life-history strategies in larks.” young in 1.5
As with Chinese male humans, having your own building is still vital to raising young. There was a breeding pair at Binjiang Forest Park this June. So, the birds start collecting mud and small sticks. Nest building: a good activity for a rainy day. You should try it too. Not going for the obvious either. Sometimes it works.
I have written about the interesting sex life of these jacanas a few times already (short version: female mates with male, lays a bunch of eggs for him to incubate and raise the chicks, leaves him, finds another male, repeat). The Little Grebe is of course a very common bird that can still surprise by its beauty in its breeding plumage.
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