This odd-looking bird is a charismatic giant that can live up to 25 years in the wild. It has piercing eyes and and can grow up to 1.5m tall with a wingspan of 2.6m. For some, its cartoon-like charm is magnetic, for others it’s a menacing-looking predator. It is hunted for its meat and eggs and threatened by […]
Tag: Swallows
“I can barely believe that such an eerie sound could be created by an animal.” Tourists armed with tech are heading into the Amazon – to save monkeys
Screeches, yowls and the hum of cicadas echo alongside yelps, squawks, splashes and drips. It’s first light in the Peruvian Amazon and my ears are enlivened with the joyous din of nocturnal symphonies jostling with the waking dawn chorus. Then, I hear it: a long growl, like an approaching storm. I peer into the towering […]
“It has huge back legs armed with dagger-like claws that can reach 12cm long.” 10 bonkers birds that break the rules of nature
While there are plenty of weird birds to be found in the natural world, this avian selection is particularly extraordinary. From the only bird that hibernates, to the bird that can kick a human to death, here are 10 birds that defy the norms of nature. Birds that break nature’s rules Livingstone’s turaco The bird with metal […]
Autumn is approaching – but some birds will attempt a high-risk third brood
Birdsong is virtually over, and signs of autumn have already begun to show: most of our swifts and cuckoos have departed for Africa, and Arctic waders are passing through the UK on their way south. Yet for some birds, the breeding season is still going strong. Birds that feed on flying insects – notably swallows […]
Shrinking trees and tuskless elephants: the strange ways species are adapting to humans
From the highest mountains to the depths of the ocean, humanity’s influence has touched every part of planet Earth. Many plants and animals are evolving in response, adapting to a human-dominated world. One notable example came during the Industrial Revolution, when the peppered moth turned from black and white to entirely black after soot darkened […]
Traversing a Continent to Keep their Species Alive – the Importance of Migratory Birds
I met Dr. Eduardo Corona at a recent University of Texas Urban Bird Project presentation in San Antonio, Texas. Corona shared his work on “Birds and their biocultural role in Mesoamerica.” Dr. Corona is an archeologist and researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) in Mexico and a distinguished member of Mexico’s […]
Two days too late
I arrived for a short family visit in Israel yesterday afternoon. This morning, completely knackered after yesterday exhausting day of travel, I did the obvious thing – I went in the early morning to Ma’agan Michael to see the putative Asian House Martin – potentially the first for WP. Since it was found by Barak, […]
Tree Swallows
Tree swallows spend most of their day flying in pursuit of small aerial insects, gliding swiftly through the air and twisting and turning artistically as their blue feathers flash in the sunlight. This haiku written in 1818 by Issa, one of Japan’s foremost poets, recognizes the aerial exploits of swallow-kind: Gliding through the cloudburst so […]