Critter News

AUGUST 15, 2008

Nils Olav, a king penguin on the Norwegian King's Guard , was bestowed a knighthood for simultaneously defusing an IED while taking out a machine gun in Iraq. The IED was already defused. OK, I don't think Norway even has troops in Iraq.

Norway 100

Norway Penguins Ostriches Iraq 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2020

On the very last morning, after packing our van to commence our journey to Mount Kenya, we left our lodge (after negotiating our way past the resident Common Ostriches and Grey-crowned Cranes ) and made a couple stops before leaving Baringo proper. The first stop was along a narrow dirt track adjacent to some farming land.

Kenya 258

Kenya Owls Ostriches Hunters 258

10,000 Birds

JULY 13, 2014

Ratites in trees: the evolution of ostriches and kin, and the repeated evolution of flightlessness (ratite evolution part II). Western Scrub-Jay is three species. Gowen et al.

Elephants 222

Elephants New Zealand Sparrows Ostriches 222

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2019

For any of us who have seen Ostriches or Emus in real life, the link is not hard to believe. Large skeletons reigned over the large space, with smaller exhibits, dioramas, and life-sized tree displays showcasing information about our evolving earth through a range of species and life forms. Looks like a bird to me!

DC 181

DC Washington Bald Eagle Ostriches 181

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2015

I encountered these Red-winged Starlings at the Cape of Good Hope National Park, a lovely park for Bontebok, Ostriches , nesting Cape Cormorants , Malachite Sunbirds and Cape Sugarbirds. The red of the wing is visible here. The ashy-grey head of the female. Worth a visit if you are ever in Cape Town! The famous Cape of Good Hope.

Ostriches 148

Ostriches South Africa Africa Reptiles 148

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 5, 2015

We haven’t seen the reason yet, but suddenly you could have palpated a tension in the air that made the zebras step away and even one female Ostrich stand up… Then the Lord of the waterhole came, a young – although nine years old White Rhinoceros.

Rhinos 177

Rhinos South Africa Rhinoceros White Rhinos 177

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

The beaches further south of Boulders Beach are productive as well – I saw African Oystercatcher as well as that most typical beach wanderer, the Ostrich. The species is endangered – hopefully, their appeal to tourists and the resulting revenue will contribute to its protection.

South Africa 136

South Africa Penguins Ostriches Birds 136

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

We will explore the dry savannah for korhaans, bustards, lapwings, Ostrich and smaller birds like waxbills and firefinches and we’ll look for Dickinson’s Kestrel , Lanner and Red-necked Falcons. Hornbills, Paradise Flycatchers , day roosting Giant Eagle Owls or if we’re really lucky Pel’s Fishing Owl , the holy grail!

Botswana 203

Botswana Africa Angola Elephants 203

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 28, 2014

Among birds the Egyptian Vulture uses rocks to crack Ostrich eggs, the New Caledonian Crow and Woodpecker Finch (one of several Darwin Finches of the Galapagos Islands), uses sticks to extract grubs from inside a branch. The use of tool by animals is surprisingly rare.

Fish 164

Fish Ostriches Woodpeckers Breeders 164

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 20, 2014

The new 48-genome analysis included only ostrich and tinamou DNA, so it doesn’t shed further light on paleognath interrelationships, but it does reinforce their distinctiveness from all other living birds. Now it’s late 2014, six and a half years later, and here’s what we know today. Open Jarvis et al.’s

Family 279

Family Parrots 2014 Birds 279

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 10, 2016

There were a lot of elephant dung along the dirt tracks – an entire fortune, having in mid that a framed slice of it could be bought in curio shops for 8 Euros.

Elephants 211

Elephants Botswana Zimbabwe Africa 211

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2016

It is a good place to come down to from the city and look for Ostrich, Cape Gannets , Cape Cormorants , Cape Sparrows , Cape Buntings, Cape Sugarbirds, Cape Grassbirds and presumably lots of other birds with cape in the name. It is apparently the meeting point of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, but how this is so isn’t clear to me.

Penguins 173

Penguins Mongoose Birds Ostriches 173

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Typical species include busy Secretarybirds that patrol the grasslands, families of Common Ostrich , White-bellied Bustards , Yellow-throated Sandgrouse , vultures, snake-eagles and numerous seedeaters, including lovely Purple Grenadiers and Green-winged Pytlias , to mention just a few.

Tanzania 242

Tanzania Africa Stud Leopards 242

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 3, 2024

To me, their silhouette looks like a large shorebird or miniature Ostrich, they are good-sized birds with thin necks and legs and large heads. I soon understood that we had arrived a bit early so we could wander through a dusty, shrubby field to spook up a Savile’s Bustard. Bustards are awkward birds who bounce around in the brush.

Senegal 231

Senegal Gambia South Dakota Birds 231

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Not, as Linneaus thought, an ostrich, nor even, as later scientists concluded, a distant cousin of pigeons deserving of family rank, it was an honest-to-goodness pigeon, deeply embedded within the family Columbidae. The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) — that towering icon of modern anthropogenic extinctions — was a pigeon.

Solomon Islands 279

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius 2006 279

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2012

Well, I’m sure there are birders out there who can walk past Halloween Pennants or Ostrich Ferns without pausing, and who doesn’t care if the bird is in the White Spruce or Eastern White Pine, but I’ve never met one. “None of the above,” he proudly proclaimed, “I am a naturalist!” A naturalist, he told me, looks at everything.

Massachusetts 214

Massachusetts Rhode Island North America Reptiles 214

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2013

Even people with no other interest in wildlife, who couldn’t tell a sparrow from an ostrich (or even a dolphin from a fish) love dolphins. People ascribe near mythic status to the members of the family Delphinidae (and other related families). Which has always mystified me slightly.

Dolphins 162

Dolphins Sharks New Zealand Albatross 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 3, 2016

We haven’t seen the reason yet, but suddenly you could have palpated a tension in the air that made the zebras step away and even one female Ostrich stand up… Then the Lord of the waterhole came – the White Rhinoceros. The bull weighing almost two tones stopped at the edge of the clearing to sniff the air.

Wildlife 189

Wildlife Tigers Asia Europe 189

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

to the ongoing conservation of breeding Lesser Flamingos at Kimberley’s Kamfers Dam to the Albatross Task Force, which works with fishermen to find solutions to seabird bycatch (birds caught in fishermen’s nets).

South Africa 255

South Africa Africa Leopards Penguins 255

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 18, 2017

We got a daddy Ostrich on the drive in with his chicks, and another Southern Black Bustard on the walk in (never rains but it pours). Southern Black Bustard. Once we reached the park we hit the Abrahamskraal Hide, a touch of fresh water in an otherwise dry park.

Ostriches 100

Ostriches Cooking Family Birds 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 8, 2022

Anyway, I was much keener to see this kingfisher than the Emu (who I consider to be a bit of an underprivileged ostrich). On the other hand, some websites state that the Laughing Kookaburra is Australia’s national symbol. Duncan – in a 10,000 Birds post – apparently also thinks it would make a good national bird.

Australia 147

Australia Birds Parrots Ostriches 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2018

71): Ingredients include feathers from a Spangled Cotinga (called ‘Chatterer’ by tiers), Blue Macaw, Red-Ruffed Fruitcrow (‘Indian Crow’), Ostrich, and, according to Johnson, Golden Pheasant (the jungle c**k, I think). Here it is as typed out in The Feather Thief (p.

Collecting 108

Collecting Iraq Ostriches Science 108

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2018

All in all we saw almost 30 Ostriches that morning. Much like all of this trip, there just is not nearly enough time for each location, not even close. South Africa has certainly brought this clearly into focus.

Africa 100

Africa South Africa Ostriches Penguins 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 4, 2019

The purple feather of the title is an ostrich plume (now housed in the Museum of London), a symbol of Emmeline’s crusade and personal style (if you saw the 2015 film Suffragette , Meryl Streep, playing Pankhurst, is wearing a hat full purple feathers).

Virginia 126

Virginia Portland Industry New York City 126

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Fortunately, Berninger recently covered the song “Big bird” A big bird ( Ostrich , Cape Town, South Africa). Of course, hard for me not to mention the National or their singer, Matt Berninger, given the slightest chance.

South Africa 257

South Africa China Germany Birds 257

10,000 Birds

APRIL 20, 2014

But you won’t find Ostrich or another ratite in first place on Jetz et al.’s For example, the split between the ratites and all other living birds is very ancient, the earliest split that still has living members on both sides.

Madagascar 278

Madagascar Comoros Ecuador South America 278

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2015

Ostriches are infected as well as, in one known case, Falcons. There will be a Turkey for every table for the US Thanksgiving. H5N2 is a subtype of Influenza A, and infects many species of birds including those mentioned as well as ducks (domestic and wild).

Mississippi 183

Mississippi Fowl Minnesota Turkey 183

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2015

Struthionidae (Ostriches). Ostritch ( Struthio camelus ); Wakkerstroom, South Africa, 22 February. ANATIDAE (DUCKS). White-faced Whistling Duck ( Dendrocygna viduata ); Kasane, Botswana, 1 January. Lesser Whistling Duck ( Dendrocygna javanica ); Singapore Botanical Gardens, Singapore, 25 February.

2015 198

2015 South Africa Botswana Singapore 198

10,000 Birds

MAY 14, 2014

First off, it seems that New Zealand’s two iconic families of ratites, large flightless southern birds that includes emus, rhea, ostriches, cassowaries and the extinct elephant birds, are not particularly closely related. Moa and Kiwi aren’t brothers and sisters.

New Zealand 167

New Zealand Sea Lions Penguins Lions 167

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2022

Vagrancy in Birds is organized into two major parts: (1) A detailed, 62-page synthesis of research and theory and (2) “Family Accounts,” 259 pages covering bird families from Struthionidae/Ostriches) to Thraupidae/Tanagers and allies (Clements is the taxonomic authority).

Compassion 264

Compassion Birds Eagles Science 264

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 8, 2014

That list included: Hoopoe (a dove-sized, pink, black and white bird with a flamboyant crest), Great Bustard (a bird of open grasslands, sort of an ostrich / turkey cross) and a Bee-eater (iridescent blue, green, gold and chestnut, a little bit like a streamlined kingfisher.) It would be icing on the cake if I saw any of those.

Spain 180

Spain Ostriches Africa Canada 180

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2014

Many people may claim to find it hard to distinguish a sparrow from an ostrich but in truth everyone knows what a pelican is. Who’s a pretty boy then? Rainbow Lorikeet. Australian Pelican.

Penguins 230

Penguins Pelicans Parrots Australia 230

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

Images of ostrich-mimic Ornithomimus by Julius Csotonyi, their fossils indicated that juvenile plumage differed from adult dinosaur plumage; drawings of Sinocalliopteryx and early bird Confuciusornis by Cheung Chungtat; nest of an oviraptorid, large capsule-shaped eggs laid in pairs in a circle, from Wikimedia.

Mongolia 205

Mongolia Reptiles Science Indiana 205

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 3, 2014

The Emu is the second largest living bird in the world by height, second only to the Ostrich. It is also the largest bird native to Australia 1. They can be rather intimidating when they are close up and looking at you eye to eye. Click on photos for full sized images.

San Diego 143

San Diego Ostriches Zoos Australia 143

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 5, 2014

1700, is a fake, formed from a plaster cast of a real Dodo head and real Dodo feet combined with chicken wings and Ostrich feathers. Number 10, Stuffed Dodo at the Horniman Museum, London, c. I’m not sure what to make of this.

Mauritius 173

Mauritius Egypt Cyprus Collecting 173

10,000 Birds

JUNE 2, 2018

And Great Tinamou gets knocked from its taxonomic top spot (a position that it has held since day 1) by the Common Ostrich. Common Ostrich – Struthio camelus. No peace for the blessed (Are you all as impressed as I am that Tom is in Africa and still finding time to review photos, share checklists and write blog posts?).

2018 100

2018 Australia Los Angeles Albatross 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 4, 2018

Common Ostrich – Struthio camelus. Burchell’s Starling – Lamprotornis australis. Kruger NP Central Park. 23 May 2018. African Pied Wagtail – Motacilla aguimp. Kruger NP Central Park. 23 May 2018. 23 May 2018. Blacksmith Lapwing – Vanellus armatus. 23 May 2018.

2018 103

2018 Australia Los Angeles Albatross 103