Gliding through the air current. Photo by: worldatlas.com
Wondering albatross is listed as one of the
largest bird live in the world today. It’s also known as snowy albatross, white-winged
albatross or goonie (Diomedea exulans)
is large seabird that lives in the Southern Ocean. Albatross known for its
gliding skills where some individual known to circumnavigate the Southern Ocean
three times (covering more than 120,000 km or 75,000 miles) in one year.
It takes 11 years for wondering albatross to
become mature and ready to mate. While they are mate for life and breed in
every two years make their population rate decreasing every year (for South Georgia
Islands population). They only produce one egg at a time. This makes the population
growth very slow even though they can reach life span up to 50 years.
Wandering albatross of South Georgia Island. Photo by: Brocken Inaglory
The wandering albatross has the longest
wingspan that ranging from 2.51 to 3.5 m (8 ft 3 in to 11 ft 6 in). This makes
them a great glider – they can keep on gliding for several hours without
flapping their wings. They actually use less energy while flying than when they
sit in their nest. Their capability makes them rarely seen on land and gather
only to breed, by form large colonies on remote islands.
Albatrosses are night feeders and feed on
cephalopods (squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish), small fish, and crustaceans and
almost anything that float on the sea. They usually follow ships in hopes of
feeding on its garbage. In order to feed they also make shallow dive. They can
eat as much that they become unable to fly and just float on the water.
Being so big and spend most of their time in
flight, wandering albatross have almost no natural predators. But since they
were heavily hunted they are listed as vulnerable under Conservation status by
IUCN. Even though they are no longer being hunted today, their population
growth is very slow and pollution (such as plastics and oils) might be the main
contributor to their death.
The superb lyrebird on the tree. Photo by: Fir0002
Most of the birds have beautiful colours and shapes, but when it comes to Superb Lyrebird there are more qualities to be looked at: the super skill of mimicking sounds rather than just unique plumes that gave them their name.
Lyrebird has two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds. They are from genus Menura, and the family of Menuridae. The male Superb Lyrebird has a beautiful tail feathers that they will fanned out in courtship display. Two of its tail feathers are curved, in display it resembles the shape of a lyre.
The two species of lyrebirds are superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae), and Albert’s lyrebird (Menura alberti). Both species inhabit the areas of the south-eastern Australian mainland and southern Tasmania. They are ground-dwelling species in the moist forest, yet they still roost in trees at night. They rarely move far from their areas that usually within a range of 10 km in diameter.
The female Albert's lyrebird. Photo by: Peter Ellis
Superb lyrebird popular with its ability to mimic other sounds, whether natural sounds or mechanical sounds. It is believed that 80% of its songs are the result of this mimicry. They sing throughout the year, with its peak during the breeding season, from June to August. They can sing for four hours a day. They have been recorded mimicking human sounds such as a mill whistle, a cross-cut saw, chainsaws, car engines and car alarms, fire alarms, rifle-shots, camera shutters, dogs barking, crying babies, music, mobile phone ring tones, and even the human voice.
As any ground-dwelling birds it mostly feed on insects such as cockroaches, beetles (both adults and larvae), earwigs, fly larvae, and the adults and larvae of moths. Other preys include centipedes, spiders, and worms. Less commonly prey on stick insects, bugs, amphipods, lizards, frogs and occasionally, seeds. It finds food by scratching with its feet through leaf-litter. Lyrebird tends to forage alone, while females and young males may be seen feeding together.
Male superb lyrebird, sing their mimicry songs. Photo by: Fir0002
Lyrebirds are not endangered in its natural areas. Albert’s lyrebird however, had been listed as vulnerable by the ICUN, but then with carefully managed habitat, the species was re-assessed to near threatened in 2009. Nowadays superb lyrebird is classified as common. Their main predators include cats and foxes, other than increasing in human populated areas.
Cockatoo has beautiful crest/crown on top of its head.
Birds have many beautiful features and some of
them also have elaborate crown or crest while other have less or none at all. These
crown not only to give those birds beautiful features to attract mates but also
to show the bird’s emotions. So their crown is very important for
communication.
They are few types of crowns for birds. Most of
the bird's crown are formed by different colours and shapes of feathers. It can
be small or sometimes very different from their head’s feathers such as for
crowned crane or cockatoo. There are many other birds have the same type of
crown and they use it for different purposes.
Crown craned crest made up of totally different feathers.
Malachite Kingfisher has more prominent crest of feathers.
While some other birds crown are formed by
fleshy upright structure known as comb. Their comb can be vary in size, colour
and shape that located at the top of the bird’s head. The easiest example for
birds that have this type of comb are jungle fowl, and domestic roosters.
They are various types of chicken combs.
Casque is little bit different as it is built
from keratin (more like cow’s horn). There are also different types of shapes,
colours and sizes of casque in birds that showing signs of wear over time. Few
example of birds with casque are cassowary and hornbill.
Casque on cassowary's can be part of their weapon too.
Rhinoceros hornbill is another type of bird with casque on its head.
Little bit different than comb, wattles is
formed by fleshy growths on a bird’s head, face and neck. So this structure not
only formed on the head that make it different than comb. The easiest example
for this type of crown are Muscovy ducks and wild turkeys.
Wattle on these wild turkeys will expand and turn redder when they get excited.
It is wonderful to see the different types of
these crowns on birds as it also the easiest way to identify the bird species in
the field. While for the birds itself, it shows how unique they are from any
other species of animals (mammals) that mostly use their horns for protection
or fighting.
No matter what are the reasons birds have such
elaborate crown on their head, all we need to do is to properly observe this
feature on birds. Hopefully this is another interesting thing for us to learn
more about birds in order to protect them for the future.
Quetzal popular for its stunning plumage and long tail feathers.
Quetzal is considered one of the most beautiful birds in the world. It has immensely coloured plumage with iridescence green or golden-green wing coverts, back, chest and head, while red in its belly. They are fairly large with size up to 32 cm (13 in) slightly bigger than any other trogon species.
They habitats ranging throughout mountainous rainforest of Central America where they prefer the high mountain ranges at altitudes of between 4,000 and 10,000 feet. These areas are highly in moisture and cooler with dense vegetation. High moisture level too will form great deal of fog and these types of areas known as the best place for quetzal to live and breed.
Perching on the branch of tree in its clouds forest.
Leaving its nest.
Flying out of its hole.
Even though “quetzal” mostly used for the resplendent quetzal, the long-tailed quetzal found in southern Mexico and Central America, which is also the national bird and the name of the currency of Guatemala. Now it is also referring to all other species of the genera Pharomachrus and Euptilotis.
They are strongly sexual dimorphic where the females’ plumage are only brown and grey. They live high in the trees close to the top of the canopy in the hole where they either built it using their powerful beaks or ones that have been abandoned by woodpeckers. With their striking colours of plumage, quetzals are perfectly camouflaged in the dense vegetation of the rainforest.
Quetzal in omnivorous and also skilled hunter that capable to swoops its prey before eating whilst still in the air. They also prefer fruit-based diet from vast numbers around fruiting trees. They diet will change to small animals including insects, lizards, frogs, snails and larvae to provide nutrition for its body needs. As any other birds in the forest quetzal also play bigger roles in dispersing the seeds from fruits and berries throughout the forest from their droppings.
The male quetzal.
The female quetzal.
Although the quetzal known for its long tail feathers, they only grow when the males reach their maturity estimated at least three years. It can also be longer for some individuals. Anyway, these long tail feathers can reach length up to 1 meter long against its body around 35 cm (average).
Well there are many other interesting things to know about this beautiful bird. So if you have something to share about it, please write it down in the comment area.
The prominent fan-shaped crest on cock-of-the-rock.
What kind of name, anyway this bird cock-of-the-rock absolutely the bird that going to catches the attention on anyone. They live in tropical and sub tropical rainforest close to the rocky areas, where they build their nest. They are two main species of this bird; the Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) and the smaller Guianan cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola).
The Guianan cock-of-the-rock live in the lowland forest in the South America’s north-east, while the Andean or Peruvian live in the higher Andes gorges. The Andean cock-of-the-rock also became the national bird of Peru.
The Guianan cock-of-the-rock.
The Andean cock-of-the-rock.
Both species has exhibit sexual dimorphism in term of bright colours and also their prominent fan-shaped crests. They also perform lek displays as part of their complex courtship behaviour in order to get an attention of the overall brownish females. Their nest will be build on the rocky cliffs or large boulders, and raise the young on their own. Usually there will be two eggs in their nest that is built out of plant fibres and saliva. The incubation period will be around 23 ~ 28 days.
Group of males for their lek.
The female.
Female in their nest.
It is not easy to locating this bird in the forest canopy as it is very shy unless during their mating season. With their primary source of food are fruits and berries, they are also important as dispersal agents for rainforest seeds.
