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Doug Futuyma believes in science and in the scientific basis of evolution. How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity by Douglas J. Futuyma is a synthesis of theory and research about evolution and birds. This is a book that requires attention.
The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent focuses on this last question, but you might find yourself fascinated by the first two, which come early in the book but linger on in the imagination as author Danielle J. Whittaker’s research road is more serpentine than most academics. ” (p.
That’s just what researchers on Cape Cod in Massachusetts are using–a cannon-fired net. One scientists posits that harvesting of horseshoe crabs (their eggs are a preferred Red Knot food source) at a crucial refueling stop on the birds’ migration could be part of the problem. News Conservation Red Knots research'
A logical and outstanding successor to The Genius of Birds (2016), Ackerman’s award-winning book about bird cognition, The Bird Way explores the diversity of bird behavior, the norm and the extremes, with an emphasis on cutting-edge research and findings that explode assumptions. It’s fascinating stuff.
If you want to know why most scientists support collecting this piece in Science explains it better than I can. I can understand why some people are conflicted, but the value to science of the collections is immense. Box after box of egg. I’m not going to rehash the arguments for scientific collecting here.
Tim Birkhead, a respected ornithologist with years of research under his belt, doesn’t quite achieve perfection with this book on the totality of that strange entity, the bird’s egg, but he makes a valiant effort of it and comes away with a very interesting book indeed.
As we know from the French documentary La Marche de l’Empereur ( March of the Penguins) , the females skedaddle from the breeding colony once she produces an egg, leaving the egg to be incubated by the males, who fast for 120 days while keeping the egg in a flap of their feet. (I
That’s the finding of researchers from the University of Sheffield in the UK, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. (If If you’re feeling particularly science-y, the full paper is here.). This differs from humans and other mammals, in which the addition of extra sperm essentially destroys the egg.
Hauber Hauber’s mini-essays focus on specific behaviors, enhanced by references to recent research yet written in a relaxed, personal way. Hauber is really good at presenting scientific findings so they don’t seem scientific at all, simply reasonable answers to our questions. Mark Hauber is currently (just appointed!)
They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. Beagle , pt.
As a Northeast birder I am familiar with the alarming decrease in the number of Red Knots along Atlantic shores and have signed petitions and written e-mails calling for legislation and rules that will limit the overharvesting of the horseshoe crab, whose eggs Red Knots depend on. million in the late 1990’s. Should the gulls be controlled?
Photo of Common Cuckoo by Flickr user jamalhaider There is some interesting new research you will want to know about concerning Reed Warblers and Cuckoos. Science 3 August 2012: 578–580 a. In the common European Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus , females come in two morphs: Gray or rufus. However, Reed Warblers are social learners.
Bird communication is a complex and evolving science. And summary and discussion of recent research on how birds have changed the frequency and pitch of their songs in response to human noise and the possible consequences of those changes (again, we know that we don’t know). And, that’s it.
They have special adaptations to stay warm and to keep their eggs and chicks warm. One part of this question can be answered with some very interesting recent research. Fossil Evidence for Evolution of the Shape and Color of Penguin Feathers Science, 330 (6006), 954-957 DOI: 10.1126/science.1193604 Salas-Gismondi, R.,
If you have always wondered what the minimum anesthetic concentration for isoflurane and sevoflurane for the Crested Serpent-eagle is, science has an answer. The breeding ecology of the Yellow-bellied Warbler was actually studied exactly here at Nonggang in 2019 by 3 Chinese researchers. Glad I did not have to watch these.
A few families have a small number of eggs in the clutches, like gulls or cormorants. Others, like the petrels and some of the auks, will lay a single egg per breeding attempt. Others invest much more effort into fewer young, giving a smaller number a much better start. Seabirds are one group of birds that go for the latter strategy.
It’s a book that counterpoints and combines facts and personal experiences, science-based and eloquent writing styles, textual description and visual information, a history of abundance and an uncertain future. They are by Karlson, from his years as a research biologist in Alaska, and Ted Swem, a U.S.
Or, Pygmy leaf-folding frogs, Afrixalus brachycnemis, from Tanzania, tiny climbing frogs who lay their eggs in leaves and then fold the leaves over them for protection, sealing the nest with secretions. This exhibit has been making the rounds of science museums, and if comes to your area I highly recommend it, not just for kids.
Change Of Heart provides science-based answers to many questions that are hotly debated among animal activists. And why do so many people say the oppose the cruel practices of factory farming, yet still eat meat, eggs and dairy products? In the author's words. Change of Heart has received rave reviews from leading animal activists.
According to a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, human-induced climate change has doubled the area affected by forest fires in the western U.S. Birds are able to fly away, but their nests and eggs can be destroyed. References: 1 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. over the last 30 years.
Erika is a first year graduate student studying Ecosystem Science and Conservation at Duke. For decades researchers have made annual trips out to the Tortugas to catch Sooty Terns, attach tiny silver bands to their legs with unique identification numbers, and then set them free again. Sooty Terns are incredibly birds.
49-50) She is also adept at writing about conservation’s larger context in terms of its history, public policy struggles, and the science behind species re-introduction. Well-researched and footnoted, these sections never feel disconnected from the more personal sections. Endangered. Extinction. Conservation.
According to the HBW, when breeding, male birds do most of the incubation and parenting while females often leave the nest up to one week before the eggs hatch. According to Couzens, after laying the eggs, females sometimes immediately abandon their first mate and pair up with another male. But maybe that is actually a good thing.
This bit of science is a nice final counterpoint to an account that has emphasized art, history, and literature. He effectively brings his point across by presenting facts and images and a little bit of hard science. How many eggs did a pigeon lay? This is not that kind of book, as Fuller makes clear from the beginning.
Environmentalists recognize the meat industry as extremely ecodestructive – including fish, dairy, eggs, feed crops with their massive use of water & topsoil and toxic runoff killing rivers and oceans, and the killing of billions of free-living animals to protect farmed animals and feed crops.
The team explored Nevada and Utah, with Ridgway collecting thousands of bird specimen, plus nests and eggs for the Smithsonian. This is probably one of the reasons Daniel Lewis,the author,turned from writing a popular biography to a history of ornithology as a science and the ornithologist as a profession. It’s challenging reading.
Fortunately for the honor of the species, the researchers found that kleptoparasitism was practiced at a low rate (4% of observations) while much more often, drongos captured insects disturbed by other species (41% of observations). There is a lengthy description of how these rules – after much deliberation – came to be accepted.
In the slightly frighteningly named journal “Science of The Total Environment”, there is a paper on organochlorine compounds in Purple Heron eggs nesting in sites located around a chloralkali plant (Ebro River). Summary result: relevant chemicals emitted by the plant can be found in the eggs.
Where does the female Emperor Penguin go after she has produced that one egg and handed it over to the male for incubation? This is essentially a survey of ornithological marine research told in the voice of one of its most passionate and experienced participants. Technology to the rescue!
Peripatetic ornithologist Nick Sly has long been a friend of the blog here and has contributed such classics as Green-rumped Parrotlets from Egg to Adult and Forpus passerinus and the Ornithologists of Masaguaral. Please read and then vote for either Nick or Maria’s research! To win, we need your votes! Thanks for your support!
How to choose bird feeders; how to make nutritious bird food; how to create a backyard environment that will attract birds; how to survey your feeder birds for citizen science projects; how to prevent squirrels from gobbling up all your black oil sunflower seed (sorry, none of that works). million people in the U.S. in 2011*) came about.
New research on bluebirds helps address this question. Here it is in graphic form: Original Caption from Science Magazine: Duckworth et al. (4) 4) show that female western bluebirds experiencing increased conflict with individuals from non-bluebird species have more androgens in their eggs and produce sons that hatch early.
These fossils are seen as proof that some dinosaurs brooded over its eggs. And, he places current research within a framework of paleontological history of intrigue, backstabbing, and name-calling feuds. (No, There is a lot of science here to explain. Like birds. Don’t let the university press imprint deceive you.
The photographs are from VIREO, the ornithological image collection associated with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, which licenses bird photographs to many guides and reference books. I am particularly happy to see that the bird communication section includes recent research on singing female birds.
Ignotofsky is best known for her 2016 book Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, of which Scientific American noted “The world needs more books like this.” is like this: meticulously researched, densely illustrated, and designed for non-linear reading. And What’s Inside a Bird’s Nest?
If we were just birders, or photographers, this would be dreadful behavior, but we were here to watch people engaged in Science. And Science requires Sacrifice. Sara, one of the researchers, explained that it was a newish bird. Enough to draw the attention of a predator. Do I sound facetious? I’m not. I salute you.
“A reading of recent research shows that Australian birds are more likely than most to eat sweet foods, live in complex societies, lead long lives, attack other birds, and be intelligent and loud.” ” (Tim Low, “Where Song Began”). While this may sound attractive at first, it also covers highly immoral behavior.
Of course, it is hard to resist looking at a paper titled “Host personality predicts cuckoo egg rejection in Daurian redstarts” Basically, the personality of a female redstart (bold or shy) predicts the responses to parasitic eggs – bold hosts are more likely to reject parasitic eggs.
For example, a researcher and presumed ornithologist set out with two hypotheses related to the Ashy Drongo (and another drongo species) and wrote a paper about it. ” Nicely phrased, too – who would want to argue with an “evolutionary adaptive strategy”?
Jennifer Ackerman points out in the introduction to What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds , that we don’t know much, but that very soon we may know a lot more. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read.
Indeed, most cuckoo eggs are accepted by the babax ( source ), although a small proportion of hosts reject cuckoo eggs and often boast about this capability when having a few too many drinks. Meaning: we did real science, Martens did not. ” Meaning: we did real science, Martens did not.
Birders are always happy to see a turtle or tortoise, and there are times of the year when my social media feeds are sprinkled with photos of turtles beings removed from roads or crawling to land to lay eggs. Lovich and Whit Gibbons bring decades of research and experience to this book. On the positive side, authors Jeffrey E.
But seriously, Science has a more interesting set of answers, and some recently published research on European Robins helps to examine this question in some detail. Applied Animal Behaviour Science Volume 29, Issues 1-4, February 1991, Pages 403-451 a. Why is the Robin’s breast red? 2011.01187.x x Estes, Richard.
The Zoo episode focuses on two Pink Pigeon couples: The Stud and Serendipity, a male and female that the zoo people hope will mate and produce a viable egg, and Thelma and Louise, a same-sex pair-bonded couple who the zoo people hope will incubate the egg and nurture the chick. Because, Ms. On the WCS web page, Ms.
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