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December 2013 About Our
Companion Birds with
Gleanings from all sources about birds indoors and out and other winged things
Volume 2, Number 2 ,
WINGED THINGSFor New Mexico - and Everywhere Else!
.
With
EBCravens
Kashmir Csaky
JAVMA News
California Flocks
Crows the Key to Understanding
Book Review
It is important that you understand the RULES- There are only TWO:
1. If you like this, PLEASE pass it on.
Winged Things has almost 600+ Sub-scribers! I Want More! So PLEASE Tell Your Friends!!
2. If you want to get this again, email me with “subscribe” in the subject line (IF YOU’VE ALREADY DONE THIS, NO NEED TO DO IT
AGAIN).
Articles about Parrots in the Wild and in our Homes - To help Us Make Them Happier - and about other birds, too...
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In This Issue1 From MY Messy Desk........................................................................................................32, New Baby Contest...............................................................................................................43 EB Cravens:Trust Your Parrot’s Good Sense..........................................................54 Kashmir Csaky: Make a Clingy Cockatoo More Independent.......................9 6 Salvatore Angius: The Foods of California’s Wild Parrots..............................137 .R Scott Nolan: JAVMA News........................................................................................178. Worldcrunch: The Parakeets of. Dusseldorf.........................................................219. Annalee Newitz- Io9: Crows Could Be The Key.................................................2310 Snowy Owl Invasion.........................................................................................................2812 Book Review: The Unfeathered Bird........................................................................2913.Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count...................................................................3014 Begging Baby Bird.............................................................................................................3215.World Parrot Trust............................................................................................................3316 The Feeder Station: Top Off Your Crop! Interesting Things to See.......35
Winged Things is Now Archived!To find any issue of Winged Things, go to
avalonaviary.com/wingedthings/yrmonwingedthings.pdf
So, the first issue (November 2012) is found at
avalonaviary.com/wingedthings/12novwingedthings.pdf
You might also visit avalonaviary.com and see Susanne’s site
THANK YOU, SUSANNE COCHRAN !(Give her a couple of days to get the current issue up...)
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Do you remember Mingus? The dear little cherry-headed conure from “The Wild Birds of Telegraph Hill” that went to live at the Oasis in Arizona? Mingus died last week and Jean Gauthier and another care-taker at the Oasis were with him when he passed. They’ve notified Mark Bittner and Judy Irving and I’m sure that they’re sad - but they should know that Mingus’ life was full and happy at the Oasis.
Merry Christmas, all. I’m fighting a mis-erable backache BUT I’m going to Arizona on January 13 to get fixed! Please keep your fingers crossed for me, because there’s a lot going on in this old backbone. It’s hard for me to think and plan and do when I hurt, can’t walk, can’t MOTIVATE!
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I’m so grateful that my son and his wife live in Albuquerque, too - It didn’t have to work out like this, but it did and I can’t tell you how pleased I am. They are such NICE people and I love them.
There’s going to be a lot going on in the parrot world in the next few years, and I hope you’ll all be willing to participate in protecting our right to keep and have birds, especially macaws - and in fighting the legislation and changes backed by the AR folks who want to take those rights away from us. If you can’t get directly involved, PLEASE keep up to date on what’s happening and PLEASE contact your representatives at the state and federal levels about your wishes. IF WE DON’T DO SOMETHING, your parrots will eventually be taken from you. That’s what the AR people want, and don’t kid yourself about it.I’m going to be publishing specific information about proposed legislation on the state and federal levels that will
affect you. Please read. Please pay attention. The Animal Rights people are so organized and they’ve gathered such a war chest and we are so far behind - I’m frightened for the future of our birds.
In the meantime, it’s time to bake birdie cookies, make birdie toys, hang birdie stockings and rearrange birdie play areas for more fun for our kids. And it’s time for bells! Every bird needs a Christmas bell! Just make certain that it’s not a jingle bell..no caught toesies this year!
The past year has been a bad - and good one for me. The people I’ve met doing “Winged Things” have become part of friendships that I’ll treasure forever. I plan on doing this as long as I can and I hope to find someone to take over when I say “enough!” Who knows when that will be. I still miss my Odo. I will forever.
My furnace has stopped working. It’s two years old, the company was out to check it a month ago and gave it a clean bill of health and in the middle of the coldest early December on record it decides to quit. Damn. It’s my fingers, mostly. The kids have a space heater in their room, so they’re toasty...but my fingers are cold. It’s 50 degrees in here, but still...
Have a wonderful Christmas and Chanukah and Solstice and keep safe for the New Year.
After Christmas: This is a short issue. I find that I have trouble sitting down for extended periods...I can’t walk when I stand up. Darned Parkinson’s. I need to exercise and exercise after I get my back fixed. More about parrots next month, I promise.
From My Messy Desk - Karen, a bird owner, that’s all
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MISS PARROT CONFIDENTIAL?Watch it Here:
http://video.pbs.org/video/2365119731/
If you haven’t seen this program, WATCH IT NOW. You can be sure the AR people have.
Important Video from CB Buckley:
Indoor Training for a Baby Conure including Flight Recall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmaqOeheQBA&feature=youtu.be
Please watch. CB sent along this disclaimer, too:Note: The baby still had blood feathers, so we didn’t practice putting on the flight suit as much as I had planned before going cycling. Given his lack of experience when we took the video, we didn’t have time to ease him properly into the suit, but we wanted to document it. While not too calm putting it on, obviously, there was no stress when wearing it.
To hear the song of this bird, go here - http://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/105417
Our own birds are becoming endangered, too...
This has been called North America’s prettiest bird.It’s time to brush up on simply beautiful softbills.: Name this bird!
Common name, and Genus, species, range. A prize for the first correct answer.
IUCN Status in the wild: Near Threatened because of illegal capture for aviary birds.
Although not stated, I’ll bet that habitat destruction is involved, too.
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There tend to be a lot of discussions these days about the ‘rights or wrongs’ of raising, then domesticating wild exotic animals—psittacines being a prime example of such “critters” that were formerly living in jungles and savannahs around the world, but now are housed and reproduced everywhere in captivity.
All moral questions aside about whether or not any kinds of birds should continually be kept in cages, the deeper issues sur-rounding this ‘domestication’ experiment touch on whether 80 years more or less of captive breeding efforts have, in fact, significantly succeeded in taming our wild hookbill friends.
Personally I think not…and I even have a number of lingering mandible–induced scars to illustrate my point. I guess breeder-psittacine nest-tending and casual human petting do not mix very well!
Oh, there are loads of tame and trained cockatiels and budgerigars—not so many lovebirds I deem—who exhibit all the indications of being truly domesticated. But much of this relates directly to the way they are housed, fed and handled (extruded pellets, ‘step up,’ and wing clipping anyone?) and not always to the innate instinctive natures of the parrots
themselves. And for every calm, well-tamed pet psittacine, one can usually go to the other end of the spectrum and find an example of a Chattering Lory, Mitred Conure, Port Lincoln or Hawkheaded Parrot that daily displays all the characteristics of incorrigibility, self-importance, and acute resistance to most fashions of human domestication. ‘Nuff said!
That understood, I must admit I have spent decades trying to bring out the natural activities and true, savvy inborn behaviors of all of my psittacines. Free flight, natural foraging, species’ vocalisations, defensive awareness, flock social norms, mating knowledge are all more important to me than the meek,
EB CravensBird Keeping Naturally
Trust Your Parrot’s Good Sense
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endearing pet bird attributes so loved by certain other birdkeepers. Different strokes for different folks, you know…
It just seems to me that the optimal captive bird is the one fully trained to survive out in nature should it accidentally escape or be forcefully released in the face of an imminent deadly disaster like a wildfire, flood, toxic spill, or tropical storm. I have raised dozens of parrots that had that unique capacity. I remember a dangerous wildfire situation in Southern California many years ago, when one account mentioned a breeding facility that tried desperately to release its beloved flock before smoke inhalation killed them. But opening aviary doors and even cutting exits in the sides of cages would not induce all the birds to leave their flights and save themselves on the wing. That does not qualify as domestication, of course, but it does leave one thinking about what really happens to the brains of psittacines kept in the same enclosures year after year after year.
And so we come to the crux of this little narrative: “Do not be afraid to trust your parrot’s good sense.”
After more than 30 years of raising and training hookbills, I have come to the conclusion that most birds are quite easily more intelligent than humans give them credit for. With some heavily-imprinted exceptions, even the tiniest of species often have the innate wisdom to know male gender from female, seek out water in a new container, choose the nutritive foods that their bodies
most need (including clay and grit sources), and take flight to avoid a hazardous situation they have never even seen before. The more worldly, aged, and experienced a psittacine is, the more savvy he or she will bring to daily decision-making, of course, and that is where we owners and trainers have to assume much responsibility.
Take, for example, the whole toxic plants conundrum. I know keepers who are so terrified of having their pets chew on something toxic that they will literally refuse to give fresh green branches and stems and flowers to their birds. “There might be a wild bird dropping or ants and aphids on the leaves.”When parrots are brought up around natural
and organic chewing material, they readily develop a sense about what is good and what is not so good. The only toxic ingestion stories I have known occurred with either young baby birds or cloistered, untrained birds that were exposed to one of the wrong kinds of plants, and being starved for any vitamin/mineral/enzyme rich greenery, proceeded to ingest same. I do not believe a mature, knowledgeable psittacine that is given a great variety of fresh green things to masticate
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every day would choose to eat something toxic. That does not mean I do not study up and avoid plants that can contain harmful substances, but it does mean I do not obsess about the exact nature of weeds, wildflowers,
common woods limbs and such that can be given to captive birds. A little bit of leaf rust or mildew on a branch? Rinse it and
pluck the worst leaves, yes; but there is no need for bleach or removal of all the green parts as I have known some persons to insist.
I have come to trust the long time amazon parrots in my flock so thoroughly that I allow them to teach me when it comes to certain feedings. When a 40-year-old pair continually refused to eat any of the large red kidney beans in my soak and cook bean mix, I opted to remove those beans from the breakfast fare so that none of my parrots would be able to eat them. After two or three times of offering passionfruit vines and the exotic flowers upon them to my birds, and never having any of this material chewed to bits. I assumed that passionfruit greenery was not suitable for birds and stopped cutting and giving it. The opposite was true with Christmasberry, an introduced bushy tree from Australia spoken of as toxic to humans. My psittacines, even the wild-trapped ones of former years, seemed to love it, so I gave it to
them, and have done so sporadically for more than 25 years with no ill effects.
Some hobbyists I have spoken with are actually appalled that I engage in free flight by allowing my young fledgling psittacines outside on the farm when I am working in the yard. But does it not make sense that a young parrot that continually flies to my shoulder indoors when I walk by and responds by coming when I hold out a hand and speak “Up,” will do the exact same thing out of doors in a safe un-peopled location? It may frighten April a bit, but nevertheless, I see it as giving my psittacines the benefit of the doubt and relying upon their predictable good sense. Frequently, they are the better for it.
There are so many areas in which our birds instinctive perception can be trusted. When breeder facilities place two parrots together for reproduction, but they bicker and stay far apart and compete at the food dish, it should be obvious that the pair is not likely to form
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an ideal pair bond; when a pet up for adop-tion gravitates to the shoulder of the women who venture by, but hesitates to step up on the men’s fingers, astute observers would note that the bird should never be placed in a home with a male primary caregiver. I even allow most of my outdoor birds to choose their own preferred sleeping site in a large walk-in aviary. It may mean re-doing the roof panels or adding perches along a corner wall, but I trust the parrot knows what it is doing when it chooses the safest, most likeable spot to spend the night.
All such methods combine to make birdkeeping so much easier and more enjoyable. All of us realize and admit that parrots are smart—we even like to boast about that to non-bird owners. Yet, admitting our pets and breeder birds are intelligent and trusting that innate intelligence are two profoundly different things. I feel it is important to ask ourselves: “Are we over-protecting our parrots and limiting what they can be?”
With a modicum of diligent study, a goodly amount of surveillance, and a healthy dose of everyday, commonsense carefulness (Don’t leave that chocolate kiss or pelleted mouse bait on the countertop where Polly could
sample it!) we likely will be able to answer that question with an emphatic “No.”
Mahalo, EB
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I have taken on my daughter's 3-year-old hand-reared cockatoo while she goes off the university. The cockatoo is strongly bonded to her, but in her absence she will play with me. The problem is she expects me to play with her all the time and will not play on her own. She is also not interested in the fresh branches that I've offered her. How can I get her to start acting like a parrot? I fear all the attention she has received from my daughter has spoilt her.
The developmental period that begins during fledging and weaning and lasts about one year, is a time of accelerated learning for birds. During this stage of life wild birds must
learn quickly in order to survive. It is throughout this crucial period in a parrot’s life that most pet parrots go to their first home.
When parrots are still juveniles they require a lot of hands-on attention and instruction. They never ask for more attention than they need. However, they can get too much direct attention which will turn a bird into a very demanding pet that refuses to play alone.
A young parrot will try to express her natural and normal curiosity by exploring and playing with new things. The bird wanders away to play with a toy, her own reflection or in some other way explore her world. The owner feels left out
and after a moment or two of watching the parrot play by herself, picks up and cuddles the bird.
Cockatoos appear angelic, pure, and sweet and their soft feathers make them very huggable. People feel naturally compelled to cuddle with them for long periods of time. Unfortunately, this discourages the cockatoo from exploring and teaches the bird to be dependent and demanding. The young impressionable bird learns that the only safe place to be is with the owner and loses confidence in her own ability to make choices.
Teaching a Clingy Cockatoo to be More Independent
Kashmir Csakyoriginally published in Parrots Magazine.............................................................................October 2013and used with permission. Subscribe - there are more and more American writers.www.parrotsmag.com
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The challenge facing you will be to empower your cockatoo with choices and to teach her independence. Right now your bird has no idea how to make choices much less good choices. Fortunately a three year old cockatoo is still very young and very trainable.
When teaching your bird to make choices begin by setting the parameters for the choices. Offer her two different treats by hand and ask which treat she would like. For example, “Would you like a banana or an apple?” Both choices are good choices. When she picks one of the treats, name the item she picked and praise her for being a good bird. “That’s a banana. You’re a good girl!” You can also do this with foot toys or you can allow her to decide where she would like to perch on her playstand. She cannot make a mistake and pick something objectionable, because you have only offered her acceptable options.
Initially make the choices easy for her. Let’s say she likes almonds and filberts but leaves all her kale almost untouched in her food bowl. Initially offer her the choice of kale or an almond then make the choices more difficult by gradually offering items that have equal value for her such as an almond and a filbert. She will learn that she must give up one thing in order to have the other. Of course there are times when you can let her have both. At the end of a training session offer her a jackpot of her favorite treats. Making choices is the first step in building confidence and independence.
Birds that are clingy need to be weaned away from people a little bit at a time. One way to do this is to provide your bird with toys while she is on your lap, by making what I jokingly call a” lap dance “. The lap dance is a towel that has loops and pockets sewn into it and a long belt- like piece of fabric sewn in the middle of the towel. Fill the pockets with dried treats, paper, beads, and pieces of wood and foot toys. Insert foot toys and suspend small hanging toys from the loops. The lap dance allows a clingy bird to stay physically close to you, yet encourages independent play and some foraging.
Foraging is a natural behavior for all animals that we tend to suppress in our pet parrots. Most people provide their birds with a bowl of food, thus removing the need to forage or work for food which is a time-consuming and an enriching activity. If your bird’s foraging behavior has been suppressed, she will have to be encouraged to forage since this will increase independent behavior.
Picture of “Wookie” the Hahn’s Macaw by Linda Bestwick
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Offer your cockatoo several different foraging toys and move them to different locations daily. You can even make her work to get to food out of her bowl by placing a sheet of paper over it that she will have to tear up to get to the food. Secure the paper with a zip tie. At first you may have to put a big hole in the paper. As she becomes familiar with the paper over her bowl, slowly reduce the size of the hole in the paper until you no longer have to put a hole in the paper at all.
Many foraging toys require that she go through a series of steps before she has access to treats and if she is not accustomed to foraging the steps may be too complicated for her. She will not try or she will give up if it is too hard. Make it easy for her by placing food in the toys so that all she has to do is pick up the food. Once she has learned that the foraging toy is a place where she can find food, teach her the sequence of behaviors to get to the food, backwards. If the last thing she has to do is pull on a knob to get to the treat, work the treat through the toy so that pulling the knob and taking the treat out is the first steps she learns. When she is skilled at that behavior, move on to the next to the last step she must learn. Keep teaching the steps backwards until she has learned the entire behavioral chain.
You can encourage foraging by providing her with inexpensive homemade toys. Cardboard tubes, plastic jars and bottles can be filled with treats, paper, wooden beads or anything that your bird enjoys. Plastic bottles that contain items that rattle around can entertain parrots for hours as long as they eventually succeed in getting the items out.
Prepare small foraging bundles while your cockatoo observes you. Wrap nuts, pellets, seeds, plastic beads and pieces of wood in paper. Use papers of different types, textures and colors and even edible leaves. Then offer them to her by hand. Once she has learned that they contain something edible or fun you are ready for the next step. Make many foraging bundles —this is something that you can do while watching television. Take an old sheet folded into a small rectangle, place it on the floor and toss a few bundles on it, then let her forage through them. As she becomes accustomed to the sheet, spread the sheet out a little at a time or else she may be afraid of something big and unfamiliar covering the floor. Then toss numerous bundles that you have prepared on the sheet. Make sure to include some bundles that
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contain nothing in them, so that she will have to search for the ones that have her favorite items. When she is done, the mess is contained on the sheet.
When you will be away for several hours place the foraging bundles inside the sheet and set it beside the door. When you return home greet her, then spread the sheet out on the floor and allow her to forage through the bundles. She will be busy and happy and she will not demand your undivided attention.
Indirect attention can be as satisfying for your cockatoo as direction and you can interact with her from a distance by providing her with indirect attention. If she can talk, teach her to talk on cue. Parrots communicate with each other in the wild, so teaching a parrot to talk on cue is not particularly difficult. Wait for her to say something then repeat it to her. If she repeats it or even says another word, praise her and repeat the word. The point is to get her to respond to vocal cues by talking, not by screaming. You can be the one initiate the exchange by saying her name and then one of the words she knows. It is important to say her name first. This not only gets her attention, it lets her know that you are talking to her. You don’t want her to think that every time you speak, she is to respond vocally. That could create a real problem.
If she has not learned to talk, then just wait for her to make a pleasing sound. Repeat the sound and praise her for making any pleasant sound back to you. In time, the sounds she makes will remotely resemble a word or have the same cadence as a phrase that you use often. Assume that she is trying to say that word or phrase, tell her she is good and repeat what you think she might be trying to say. Soon she will be talking. Her speech will become clearer with practice if you reinforce clear speech with an abundance of praise. Avoid offering her treats for talking, since this behavior is one that
should be reinforced from a distance. If she begins screaming do not ignore the screaming, ask her to say one of the words she knows or a pleasing sound she makes and replace the screaming with a desirable vocalization.
If she is not taught independence you will spend a lot of time catering to the demands of an unhappy cockatoo. Training may take time and work however, she will become independent and rely less on your attention and you will both be happier. When your daughter returns it is important that she plays with her cockatoo and shows her affection. Though, she must also encourage the independent behavior that you have taught the bird.
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Diverse Foods of California’s naturalized ParrotsA look at the varied diets which have enabled California’s parrots to successfully thrive for many decades.By Salvatore Angius Visit http://www.californiaflocks.org/our-project/August 16, 2013
While documenting and monitoring the diverse naturalized parrot flocks throughout California, parrot flocks were encountered in many cities ranging from southern San Diego Co. to as far north as Sacramento and as east as Bakersfield, CA . As thirteen species of established parrots were successfully located, I have documented these parrots behavior including their interactions within their flock and with other wildlife, communicative calls: (original and mimicked) , preferred nesting sites, human involvement , geographical ranges, population numbers, noted hybrids, and extensive diets. While several of these mentioned aspects helped enable the survival of these parrots, It is unarguably the
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extensively varied diets which play the key role in their successful survival.
It comes as no surprise that many residential households have regularly witnessed parrots thriving well in their neighborhoods for decades. This is undoubtedly due to the abundance of imported landscaping trees which have provided these parrots with the consistent year-round diverse diets they need. Having their fair share of options and portions, these survivors have learned what to eat and what to avoid. These parrots can also recognize when a ripe fruit is edible, or when a mature or ripened seed pod becomes unedible, i.e. Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). While some have learned where to locate nontoxic flowers rich in nectar and pollen, others have also learned which plants to extract juices for hydration purposes. Furthermore a few species have also been seen routinely consuming bark particles from selected trees.
It is important to note that many mentioned foods are not currently discussed in aviculture. Therefore, the harvesting of these foods for a pet is strictly left at the owner’s discretion. A few featured plants shown being consumed such as Avocado, and Giant Bird of Paradise are currently listed as toxic foods for parrots under aviculture guidelines. I discourage any feeding of these plants until further research is done to determine their safety. For those who still choose to feed their pet parrots any of the other items, I recommend washing any item thoroughly before offering it and to avoid harvesting from the ground for possible pesticide poisoning. With the exception of the Silk Floss fruit (Ceiba speciosa) fed on exclusively by Yellow Chevroned Parakeets, the vast majority of the items are consumed by different parrot species and do not appear to be species specific. These shared foods are consumed by many species both closely and distantly related. As food is considered to be the universal language of mankind, this rule also appears to apply to California’s parrots as well.
There is no doubt on anyone’s mind that the survival of these birds is sustained by the varied food sources available. The fruit, nectar, flower buds, and sometimes bark, of imported landscaping plants make up the bulk of their diets. The availability of most of these seasonally consumed foods are not year around. The variety and concentration of these imported plants make finding easier for these parrots. For this reason, our parrots typically prefer urban settlements to our natural ecological areas. In these urban areas, some species such as Indian Ringnecks, Nanday Conures and possibly Blue Crowned
Red-crowned Amazon drinking morning dew from a utility line.
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Conures routinely frequent household bird feeders. While less common, there are also accounts of Mitred Conures, Red Crowned, and Lilac Crowned Amazons who also frequent birdfeeders in Southern California as well. With many food and vitamin sources available, the diets of these parrots are anything but basic. We have documented and photographed over sixty food items to date. A photo gallery link will soon be provided with these foods and their referenced plant names on this site as well.
While we know that exotic and imported flora are the preferred diet choice among California parrots, we also know that the origins of many consumed exotic plants such as African Wild Plum (Harpephyllum Caffrum), or Cape Chestnut (Calodendrum capense) are not found in their native ranges. So how did they learn what to eat? In their settler days, this possibly may have originated with either a trial and error phase. This may have
a l s o p o s s i b l y h a v e b e e n accomplished by following other bird species such as Crows and Band Tailed Pigeons which currently share many food items with these parrots. Today’s flock members appear to have it much easier. From young ages, fledglings stay close to their flock where various adults feed them. This helps them associate a tree’s appearance with food. Later, a fledglings parents will leave their own young for a few hours in a specified, non-toxic tree to better acquaint these juveniles with foraging behavior
and its edible contents. While these curious fledglings chew on everything in sight, they learn to familiarize themselves with what’s food and what’s not. While adult parrots may rely on a flock’s loud communicating calls to help guide them to food, this may also include recognizing the distinct calls of other parrot species which also share a majority of the same seasonal diet.
Hydration methods are also unique among various parrot species in California. While Indian Ringnecks and Nanday Conures may at times be observed at ground level taking drinks from water basins, this behavior has never been witnessed among our state’s larger Amazons nor Mitred Conures despite our triple digit hot summer temperatures. Instead, these parrots have possibly adopted alternate methods for hydration. One observed method of hydration involved by a Red Crowned amazon using lower beak to accumulate and scoop morning dew from the top of a utility power line. Other flocks of Amazons have been observed often repeatedly chewing various juice filled fruits and palm fronds which they later discard after juices were extracted. Another occurrence
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involved an Almond tree which was commonly frequented by three White Fronted Amazons (Amazona Albifrons). After finding numerous discarded yet still intact almonds at its base, I’ve witnessed that each almond had a similar punctured hole created by the parrot’s beak. As these parrots routinely returned to this tree for nearly a week to repeat this behavior, It is later believed that the consumed juice found in the almond was the actual reason for these repeated arrivals
Hydration methods are also unique among various parrot species in California. While Indian Ringnecks and Nanday Conures may at times be observed at ground level taking drinks from water basins, this behavior has never been witnessed among our state’s larger Amazons nor Mitred Conures despite our triple digit hot summer temperatures. Instead, these parrots have possibly adopted alternate methods for hydration. One observed method of hydration involved by a Red Crowned amazon using lower beak to accumulate and scoop morning dew from the top of a utility power line. Other flocks of Amazons have been observed often repeatedly chewing various juice filled fruits and palm fronds which they later discard after juices were extracted. Another occurrence involved an Almond tree which was commonly frequented by three White Fronted Amazons (Amazona Albifrons). After finding numerous discarded yet still intact almonds at its base, I’ve witnessed that each almond had a similar punctured hole created by the parrot’s beak. As these parrots routinely returned to this tree for nearly a week to repeat this behavior, It is later believed that the consumed juice found in the almond was the actual reason for these repeated arrivals
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September 15, 2013
Birds of a feather
Few in number, avian veterinarians are a dedicated lot Story and photos by R. Scott Nolen
posted September 4, 2013Stuart Blackman can’t imagine life without Rufus, his pet scarlet macaw. “I grew up with Rufus. I don’t know what life would be like without him, God forbid,” said Blackman of the spectacular red bird he’s owned for nearly 31 years.Rufus was Blackman’s first pet bird and is just one of his four exotic avian companions, housed in separate expansive cages lining the windows of Blackman’s Chicago loft. There’s Zoey, 24, a rose-breasted cockatoo; Gainsborough, 8, a hyacinth macaw; and Quebe, 4, a Queen of Bavaria conure.
Over the years, Blackman has spent tens of thousands of dollars on specially made cages, imported vitamins, feed, and veterinary care for his birds, which he sees as his children. And like any good father, Blackman is highly protective of his brood. “Birds are not for everyone,” he stressed. “They require a lot of training on the owner’s part. They are very smart and have sensitive feelings.”
The pet-owning public seems to share Blackman’s sentiment about bird ownership. The AVMA’s 2012 U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographic Sourcebook estimated the size of the nation’s pet bird population to be 8.3 million animals at year end 2011—a 20.5 percent decline since 2006 when the previous study was published. Approximately 3.7 million U.S. households owned a bird in 2011, down from 4.5 million in 2006. Bird ownership has dropped nearly 46 percent over the past two decades, the survey found.
By comparison, the AVMA survey estimated the number of pet cats and dogs at year end 2011 to be 74 million and 69.9 million, respectively. Additionally, 36.5 percent of U.S households owned dogs and 30.4 percent owned cats.
Gainsborough, a hyacinth macaw, is one of Stuart Blackman’s four pet exotic birds. He considers the birds to be his children, and spares no expense to ensure their health and well-being.“
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Not surprisingly, the number of U.S. veterinary practices catering to bird owners is dwarfed by the abundance of small animal clinics. Of the more than 14,000 practices listed in MyVeterinarian.com, 3,527 offer avian medical services, AVMA records show.
The Association of Avian Veterin-arians, established in 1980 for the purpose of educating small animal practitioners in avian medicine, today has approximately 1,714 members, according to AAV Executive Director Robert Groskin. Around 1,400 of them are practitioners, and of these, only about 10 percent are in an exclusively or almost exclusively avian practice, while the remainder have an avian caseload of 30 percent or less.
“The majority of our members do not see birds exclusively. They have a mix of birds, exotic small mammals and reptiles, and dogs and cats,” Dr. Groskin said.
The field of avian medicine has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Safer anesthetics, a better understanding of avian pharmacology, increasing availability of sophisticated diagnostic tests, and greater insights into bird physiology have yielded important health care advances.
“The AAV just had its annual conference, where one of the sessions was surgery on the avian skull. That was unthinkable two decades ago,” Dr. Groskin said.
“Everything we’ve learned on pet birds has benefited the avian population overall,” he added. “We have a greater capacity to protect the health of the remaining birds of an endangered species.”
Bird doctorsSmall in number, veterinarians who practice avian medicine are a different breed, motivated by a love of the species and a passion for the bird’s unique medical needs.
Dr. Peter Sakas has practiced at Niles Animal Hospital and Bird Medical Center in suburban Chicago for more than three decades. In 1985, two years after receiving his DVM degree from the University of Illinois,
Dr. Sakas bought the hospital from his mentor, Dr. T.J. Lafeber, a leading authority on pet bird care and medicine at the time.
Having previously earned a master’s degree in parasitology, Dr. Sakas enrolled in veterinary college with plans for a career in research and academia. He spent his summer breaks working for Dr. Lafeber, who ultimately steered him into avian medicine. Now, Dr. Sakas is himself an authority on avian medicine. A frequent lecturer for veterinary colleges and associations, he is author of “Essentials of avian medicine: A guide for practitioners,” published by the American Animal Hospital Association.
Dr. Sakas estimates pet birds account for more than 30 percent of his hospital’s caseload, noting that many clients also own dogs, cats, and varieties of exotic pets. He sees birds ranging from finches to macaws as well as wild birds, including raptors. Cockatiels and parakeets are the most frequently seen patients, however.
Dr. Peter Sakas examines a patient during a checkup. Unfortunately, far too few pet owners see the value of such routine preventive health care, according to the Association of Avian Veterinarians.
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He says a person chooses a bird as a pet for personal reasons ranging from the aesthetic (the colorful plumage) to the practical (cats and dogs make them sneeze) to the desire for a loving pet. People sometimes inherit birds that have outlived their owners. Dr. Sakas believes many pet owners are alike in their willingness to do anything to care for an animal companion. “We do some pretty involved surgeries,” Dr. Sakas said. “We remove the reproductive tract of birds that have tumors or an egg that will not pass. Some people balk at the expense of such a surgery, but most people say, ‘Do whatever you can to save my bird.’”
Dr. Anthony Pilny is one of two veterinarians board certified in avian medicine on staff at The Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine in New York City. Birds make up more than half the practice’s caseload, Dr. Pilny said, and range from finches and macaws to pigeons and other wild birds. The most common avian health problems Dr. Pilny sees are related to reproduction. Obesity can also be an issue, particularly for Amazon parrots, which are predisposed to
weight gain, he said. Pet birds typically live sedentary lives; they may be unable to fly as a result of trimmed wings—a procedure The Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine offers but doesn’t recommend—and owners don’t always understand their pet’s dietary needs. As a result, they become overweight. “Obese birds can develop similar diseases to humans such as atherosclerosis, elevated triglyceride levels, and heart disease,” he said.
EducationThe most valuable service the avian practice offers, in addition to health care, is client education. “It’s vitally important. It’s what we spend so much time doing,” Dr. Pilny explained. “We always educate clients as to our recommendations on feeding, exercise, lighting, behavior, training, travel, boarding, and so on.” No welfare issue currently facing the pet bird community is more serious than pet relinquishment. “It’s a huge problem. Birds have become one of the most surrendered pets,” Dr. Pilny acknowledged. “Because most shelters don’t take them, they wind up in sanctuaries, of which more and more are popping up all over. It’s very sad.” Dr. Sakas agrees. “People buy these birds, and they don’t know their needs, and they don’t know how to handle them,” he explained. “Maybe the bird’s a screamer, a feather picker, or aggressive. Owners get frustrated, the relationship is not what they expected, and they just want to get rid of the bird. We see a lot of unwanted birds, because people make poor choices. They don’t do the research beforehand to learn what’s involved in caring for a particular variety of bird.
Birds are highly intelligent animals, and they get bored quickly. People who want them as an ornament keep them in a cage because they’re beautiful. However, when they don’t interact with them, not meeting the bird’s emotional needs, the bird will become frustrated and engage in unwanted behavior. Birds are flock animals, and they need activity outside the cage.”
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The endangered patient?The avian patient is indeed a rare bird. According to the AVMA pet ownership and demographics survey, 12.4 percent of bird-owning households had at least one visit to the veterinarian in 2011, a decrease of 10.8 percent since 2006. Further, 6 percent of them had one visit, 2.4 percent had two visits, 1.2 percent had three visits, 2.8 percent had four or more visits, and 87.6 percent had no visits to the veterinarian in 2011. “Do birds see veterinarians enough?” Dr. Groskin of the AAV asked. “They don’t. Birds will benefit most by routine annual health exams. As avian veterinarians, we are constantly improving our abilities to provide better care for our patients. Having a regular conversation with our clients about their birds benefits both the health of their pet as well as the relationship they have with their bird.” The AAV is exploring options for raising awareness among bird owners about the importance of regular veterinary visits similar to what the Partnership for Healthy Pets initiative is doing for cats and dogs. Both Drs. Pilny and Sakas say their practices were largely unaffected by the recent recession. “We were fine,” Dr. Pilny said, “mostly because we see sick or injured patients regardless of the economic climate. Bird owners don’t tend to do a lot of wellness visits, and owners choosing to skip elective visits or optional diagnostic testing doesn’t affect us, because our avian patients don’t need vaccines, heartworm tests, or flea products.” “We did see people tighten their belts,” Dr. Sakas said, “but our practice is diverse enough it didn’t hurt us.”
Learn more about pet bird medicine by visiting the Association of Avian Veterinarians website.
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The Parakeets Of Dusseldorf Ruffle City Feathers
Reprinted with permission from Worldcrunch www.worldcrunch.comDUSSELDORF — The air is ice cold without a hint of wind. As night falls over Düsseldorf, they come flocking from all directions: thousands of ring-necked parakeets. They land on the plane trees that line the luxury Königsallee shopping street. Men in expensive suits and women in fur coats look up in amazement. A little girl tugs at her mother’s sleeve and says, “Mommy, they’re back.”
But not all Düsseldorf residents share the same sense of wonder at the exotic birds. Business owners on the upscale shopping street have come together to demand that the city authorities do something about the parakeets, which come every night from an area 25 kilometers wide to roost in the trees on the Königsallee.
Karl-Heinz Eiffler, the group’s leader, claims that they have nothing against the birds themselves, just their sheer numbers and the mess they leave behind. “In the morning, the street is covered with their droppings,” he complains. “The Königsallee is a luxury shopping street. The birds tarnish its image. If someone wearing a suit sits on a bench under the trees and gets a present from above, he’s not going to be happy.”
Eiffler and his colleagues have told the city authorities about the problem and they have reacted accordingly. Ten benches have been removed from the street. Now the bird droppings fall
directly onto the pavement and passersby are only in danger as they walk under the trees. Eiffler is not impressed by this solution. “In winter nobody wants to sit outside anyway. But when it gets warmer people will want to, and then we’ll have the same problem.”
Tobias Krause, head of the city park authority, shrugs his shoulders. He says the benches are being cleaned, and then they’ll have to see about what to do next. He has
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no plans to do anything about the parakeets. They are simply there, and they have been there for some time.
Twenty years ago a breeding pair was brought over from India to the Rhineland, although nobody knows who brought them. “The birds are not on any kind of blacklist,” Krause says. “Soon everyone will get used to them. Some people find it hard to accept anything new, but nowadays no one knows that swans are not native to Germany, for example. They came from Eastern Europe.”
A bad rap
Ring-necked parakeets have just as many natural predators as other birds, and they do not take over breeding grounds, Krause emphasizes. They do not eat other birds and there have been no instances of shoppers being attacked by parakeets. The reality is that the parakeets simply perch in the trees, and the branches do not reach all the way across the street to the pavement by the shops, so customers are not in danger from droppings.
Krause himself is bold in the face of danger. He stands under the plane trees and points to the droppings on the pavement. “That’s from a jackdaw. And that’s from a crow.” It’s not as if the parakeets alone are responsible for the mess on the street.
Above all, Krause feels sorry for the birds. “They can only just survive here. It’s really too cold.” Every winter the population drops by many hundreds. Krause often finds birds with frozen feet. “Even just a little further north it’s too cold. They’d have no chance of surviving in Berlin. They can just about manage here in the Rhineland as it’s slightly warmer.”
In Bonn and Cologne there are a few thousand parakeets, but they roost in many different sites across the cities. No one knows why all the parakeets in the Düsseldorf region have decided to make their home on the Königsallee. “They like places where there is very little wind,” says Krause. “But you can find sites like that all over the city. And the Königsallee is no warmer than other places.”
Krause thinks the answer might be light. Unlike the city’s parks, the Königsallee is lit by streetlamps at night. “There are lots of falcons here that hunt parakeets. If it’s not completely dark, the parakeets can recognize the danger more quickly.”
The business owners on the Königsallee have caught wind of this possible explanation and developed a plan to drive away the parakeets. Karl-Heinz Eiffler tells us that they’re planning to switch off the streetlamps at night. It remains to be seen whether a blackout on the street will spell the end for the parakeets of the Königsallee.
Read the full article: The Parakeets Of Dusseldorf Ruffle City Feathers - All News Is Global Worldcrunch - top stories from the world's best news sources Follow us: @worldcrunch on Twitter | Worldcrunch on Facebook
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Crows could be the key to understanding alien intelligence
Crows are among the planet's most intelligent animals, teaching their young to use tools for foraging and banding together to fight off intruders. Now, the first study of how abstract reasoning works in these birds' brains could shed light on how intelligence works in a truly alien, non-mammal brain.
We've studied brain structure pretty extensively in mammals from humans and apes to whales and mice. But German neuroscientists Lena Veit and Andreas Nieder are the first to watch what happens in crow brains as these birds worked their way through a series of brain-teasers. They actually wired the crows' brains up with electrodes, watching as individual neurons fired when the crows did a test that required abstract reasoning. What Veit and Nieder found reveals a lot about what intelligence looks like in a brain that's nothing like our own.
The Evolution of IntelligenceThe crow, and some of its relatives in the corvid family (such as jays and magpies), are among the only intelligent species we've encountered outside the world of mammals. But their brains are utterly different from ours. The mammalian seat of
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reason is in our prefrontal cortex, a thin layer of nerve-riddled tissue on the outside of the front region of our brains. Birds have no prefrontal cortex (PFC). Instead, they have the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL), which is located toward the middle of their brains. You can see the different regions in the image, below.
The thing that's really interesting about comparing bird and human intelligence is that we did not evolve from a common, intelligent ancestor. Our last common ancestor with birds lived during the Permian period, about 300 million years ago, before the age of dinosaurs. It probably looked like a cross between a reptile and a rodent, and was roughly the size of a big raccoon.
This ancestor's simple brain was ruled by instinct rather than higher-level cognition. Still, lurking inside its rather small skull was a brain part called the pallium, which over millions of years evolved into the PFC in mammals and the NCL in birds. That makes mammal and bird intelligence an excellent example of parallel evolution — both groups of animals developed intelligence independently of one another.
Despite all their differences, the PFC and NCL have a few features in common. Veit and Nieder write in Nature Communications that both regions are involved in "working memory, reversal learning and reward prediction." The areas also "share important properties such as dense innervation by dopaminergic fibres and connectivity patterns with multiple sensory input, limbic and motor output regions." What that means is that the NCL and PFC are both packed with neurons, or nerve cells, that respond to the crucial neurotransmitter dopamine. Its neurons are also connected to the parts of the brain that handle memory, emotion, and body movements. The PFC and NCL are brain command centers, synthesizing information from a vast array of inputs and outputs.
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Testing Crows' Ability to Reason
http://youtu.be/JY8-gP3Sw_8Watch this fascinating video of a crow solving a complex task on the first try.
Given that the NCL is the seat of crow intelligence, the researchers decided to see whether they could actually watch in real time as a crow figured out a puzzle. They used crows that had been raised in captivity, and trained to do a test kind of like the Sesame Street "which one doesn't belong?" quiz. The crows had to identify whether two images were different or the same.
First, the researchers put electrodes over the crows' NCL, to watch each neuron firing. Then they would present the crow with an image. Next, the crow would be prompted to choose an image that matched or didn't match that image (they had already been trained to do this with a sound or sign that either meant "match" or "don't match"). Finally, the crow would be presented with two images and have to choose the matching or not matching one.
This is a test that requires abstract reasoning, because the images change all the time and the crows have to apply the abstract idea of "match" or "not match" to a variety of inputs. In addition, this test reveals that the researchers defined intelligence as an
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ability to do abstract reasoning. Obviously there are many ways to define intelligence, and this is simply one way to do it.
What the researchers found was pretty amazing. They identified what they call "abstract rule neurons" which governed which answer the crows would give. Basically, the birds' brains assigned one rule (match) to one neuron, then the other rule (don't match) to another neuron. When the crows correctly matched an image, the match rule neuron would fire. When the crow gave an incorrect answer, or became confused, the abstract rule neuron fired only very weakly.
Veit and Nieder concluded that this was strong evidence that crows' brains have developed to handle abstract rules, which is why the birds are good at learning and responding to a variety of situations in a flexible way. They note that "the ability to guide behavior by general rules rather than by relying on fixed stimulus-response associations constitutes a survival advantage." This is the same survival advantage conferred on humans due to our intelligence. But our intelligence occupies a very different structure in our brains.
Alien Intelligence on EarthWhat this experiment suggests is that two dramatically different species might have similar abstract reasoning abilities — even if their brains are completely unlike each other. If we imagine that intelligence can only dwell in a mammal-like brain, we may miss out on discovering smart life forms elsewhere. The crow brain may be the first truly alien intelligence we've been able to study.
The crow brain may also help us better understand what's required to build an artificial intelligence, too. We can look at what the crow and human brain share in common, and speculate about what it might take to create an intelligence that resides in a non-brain structure. As I mentioned earlier, both the PFC and NCL contain many neurons connected to other parts of the brain, and they work a lot with the neurotransmitter dopamine. These regions also appear to deal in abstract rules.
Most of all, we can find hope in the idea that intelligence isn't just a quirk of one type of brain. Many kinds of brains can become intelligent. We are not alone.
Comment: Wow!
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The midwestern and northeastern United States, especially coastal regions and areas along the Great Lakes, is currently experiencing an invasion of Bubo scandiacus. Snowy Owls have been sighted as far south as North Carolina and some locations have as many as seven! Here in New York State Snowy Owls have been reported in more than ten counties, with most of those counties having birds being seen in multiple locations. Birders in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, West Virginia, Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Maryland, and Virginia are all enjoying Snowy Owls, but none as much as the North Carolina birders, who are enjoying their first and second Snowy Owls in thirteen years. (Though the birders in Bermuda who spotted one over the weekend are probably pretty happy too – it is their third record in thirty years!)
Even more impressive are the reports out of Newfoundland, where hundreds of Snowy Owls are being reported. Can you even imagine hundreds of Snowy Owls? I certainly can’t. If you want to keep up with what is going on up there you can do worse than The Bruce Mactavish Newfoundland Birding Blog.
Personally, I saw six Snowy Owls this past weekend in three different counties,
SNOWY OWL INVASION
Snowy Owl in Queens, New York, 1 December 2013
Snowy Owl in North Carolina by Nathan Swick
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which is pretty freaking cool, and more than enough to blow my mind. If I were in Newfoundland I would probably be going crazy.
Why the irruption of owls from the north? There must have been a lot of lemmings this past summer. I’m interested in the fact that this is the second big irruption in three years, which makes me wonder if something weird is happening with the lemming populations as they relate to climate change. (Idle speculation is fun!) Whatever the reason, going out to the coast and having a shot at multiple Snowy Owls in a single day is awesome. Here’s hoping that they find the food they need and survive the winter to return north to breed. And here’s also hoping that they don’t cause any controversy, though
stories are already being told of misbehaving photographers…
How far south will Snowy Owls be found this winter? Will the irruption become larger and include more than the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes? Stay tuned and get out there looking!
Snowy Owl in Queens, New York, 1 December 2013
A map, adapted from eBird, showing where Snowy Owls have been reported in the eastern United States in November of 2013.
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Book Review: The Unfeathered BirdKatrina van Grouw
Princeton University Press, 2013
This book is for anyone who loves art - and birds. Katerina van Grouw is the former curator of the ornithological collections at London’s Natural History Museum, a taxidermist, and experienced bird bander, a successful fine artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Fine Art. The creation of The Unfeathered Bird has been her life’s ambition.
It is a unique book that combines art, science and history. there are 365 beautiful drawings, arranged and accompanied by jargon-free text and it’s the only book on bird anatomy that’s aimed at the general reader.
The drawings are not static - they show birds in actions particular to their species, and they are all based on actual specimens. Many of the species in this book have never been illustrated before. She illustrates an underwater view of a diving loon, the musculature of a porpoising penguin and an unfeathered sparrowhawk plucking its prey.
The text is fun to read, and relates the bird’s anatomy to its lifestyle and evolution, and examines questions such as why penguins are bigger than auks, whether harrier hawks really have double-jointed legs, and the difference between wing claws and wing spurs.
In the section on Parrots, Ms van Grouw states “There are many, many characteristics of parrots that endear them to humans: their colors, their ability to mimic the human voice, their extreme intelligence and their devotion to a single owner. Sadly, the capture of wild birds for the pet trade has had a disastrous effect on wild populations already decimated by habitat loss.”
This is a must-have book for anyone who loves learning about birds.
Budgerigar: Melopsittacus undulatus
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70,000 Hawk-Eyed Volunteers Gearing Up for 114th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count
by National Audubon Society
Reprinted with permission from National Audubon Society www.audubon.orgNew York, NY - The longest- running citizen science survey in the world, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) will take place from December 14, 2013 to January 5, 2014. Tens of thousands of volun- teers throughout North Ameri- ca will brave winter weather to add a new layer to data that has shaped conservation and Congressional decisions for over a century.
Each year, the Audubon Christ- mas Bird Count mobilizes over 70,000 volunteer bird counters in more than 2,300 locations across the Western Hemi- sphere, from above the Arctic Circle to Brooklyn and Los Angeles to Tierra del Fuego. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count utilizes the power of volunteers to track the health of bird populations at a scale that professional scientists could never accomplish alone. Everylocalcountispartofthis vast volunteer network and continues a tradition that stretches back more than 100 years.
"Audubon was a social network before the world ever heard the term," said Audubon President and CEO David Yarnold (@david_yarnold). "Each December the buzz from our social net- work goes up a few decibels, as people with the knowledge and the passion for birds provide what no organization alone can. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count harnesses volunteer power to gather knowledge that shapes conservation policy at enormous scales in this country. I couldn't be prouder of the volunteers who contribute each year."
The Audubon Christmas Bird Count revealed the dramatic impact climate change is already having on birds and a disturbing decline in common birds, including the Northern Bobwhite quail. The many decades of data not only helps identify birds in need of conservation action, it also reveals success stories. The CBC helped document the come- back of the Bald Eagle and significant increases in water- fowl populations, both the result of conservation efforts.
Last year's count shattered records. A total of 2,369 counts and 71,531 people tallied over 60 million birds of 2,296 different species. Counts took place in all 50 states, all Canadian provinces, and over 100 count circles in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. Three new counts were even welcomed in Cuba, where for the first time ever the tiniest bird in the world, the Bee Hummingbird, was included in CBC results.
Several interesting avian incursions were recorded during last year's CBC, including those of Northern Shrikes, Snowy Owls and winter finches. The most significant
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event was an unprecedented movement of Razorbills (a puffin relative) in huge numbers far south of their normal range off the East Coast of North America. Warming sea temperatures in the North Atlantic, which depressed their usual food supply, resulted in tremendous numbers of hungry Razorbills almost 1,000 miles farther south than normal. Prior to 2012, there were few records of Razorbill in Florida and parts of the upper Gulf of Mexico. It is unknown how many of these birds were able to return northward to their breeding grounds for the summer of 2013; many washed up dead along the coast. Audubon Christmas Bird Count data are an integral part to the under- standing of how these and other birds are faring in the non-breeding season.
"This is not just about counting birds," says Gary Langham, Audubon's chief scientist. "Data from the Audubon Christmas Bird Count are at the heart of hundreds peer- reviewed scientific studies and inform decisions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, and the EPA. Because birds are early indicators of environmental threats to habitats we share, this is a vital survey of North America and, increasingly, the Western Hemisphere."
The Audubon Christmas Bird Count began in 1900 when Dr. Frank Chapman, founder of Bird-Lore - which evolved into Audubon magazine - suggested an alternative to the holiday "side hunt," in which teams competed to see who could shoot the most birds. While the ultimate goal of participating in a count is tallying a representative sample of the birds on a count day, the natural competitive spirit of birders is what drives them to do the most thorough job possible. CBC has become a treasured holiday tradition, a reunion with birding friends and a way for anyone to play a small part in a big conservation picture. The growing combined pool of contributed sightings helps researchers understand how birds are faring in a way that Chapman could never have conceived back in 1900.
The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is a citizen science project organized by the Na- tional Audubon Society. There is no fee to participate and the quarterly report, American Birds, will be available online. Audubon Christmas Bird Count information is also available online in Spanish. For more information and to find a count near you visit, Get Involved in the Christmas Bird Count - Find a Count Near you.
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Now in its second century, Audubon connects people with birds, nature and the environment that supports us all. Our national network of community-based nature centers, chapters, scientific, education, and advocacy programs engages millions of people from all walks of life in conservation action to protect and restore the natural world. Visit Audubon online at www.audubon.org.
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Fledgling Yellow-headed Blackbird Begging For Food
By Ron Dudley, on December 2nd, 2013
Young Yellow-headed Blackbirds leave the nest long before they can fly, at the very early age of 9 – 12 days. From then until they can fly they spend their time hiding in the dead vegetation near the surface of the water and begging incessantly for food. This youngster had the begging routine down to a science. [...]
http://www.featheredphotography.com
Sign up for Ron’s Blog to be delivered to your inbox. It’s a lovely way to start the day.
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Support the Conservation Effort of Your Choice
Our Birds, Our World - Are Slowly Disappearing
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2013 is nearly over, but there is still time to help parrots. Right now when you give to the World Parrot Trust's Save Africa's Parrots campaign, your gift will be matched – doubled – to save these endangered birds!
And for our supporters in the US and Canada: you have just 2 days left to make a gift to help parrots and receive a tax benefit.
Support like yours makes it possible for the World Parrot Trust to help save Africa's most at-risk parrots, like African Grey, Timneh and Cape parrots.
There's still time to help! Donations made by December 31st qualify as a tax deduction.
And again, every dollar is matched until January 31st, 2014. Just imagine how good it would feel to make a difference in the lives of these endangered parrots!
Please, join us to help Save Africa's Parrots.
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The Feeder StationTo Top Off Your Crop
Links - some fun, some educational - to broaden your birding experience
Click on the link to see a fun video....
This is a crow that has found a use for a jar lid on a snowy day in Russia:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRnI4dhZZxQ
You must see Squawkomo, the Robot Steampunk Parrot!
<http://tinyurl.com/mecnckd>
IMPORTANT: Watch this video on using shock-collar training techniques - on HUMANS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQAayRtXkwE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
And here is an idea Barbara Heidenreich had a while back that finally came to fruition. Training wild pigeons.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5gGBI6OhkY
Aggression: Behaviour Modification - It's not just for the dogs! It even works for wild birds protecting young.<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JH-Ncbj3KM&feature=youtu.be>
