Birds With Beautiful Crown

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.

Micro Post: Whooping Crane

Elaborate courtship dance of whooping cranes.

Cranes are the symbol of long life and fidelity in eastern Asia. They inspired artists to picture them in their paintings since antiquity. Human admire cranes for its qualities such as mate for life, their elaborate courtship dance, their white plumage and many other.

Whooping crane also can be found in North America and almost extinct when their total numbers were less than 20 birds by 1941 - caused by lost of their wetland habitats. Their breeding areas are in the Midwest and Canada, and migrating to the Gulf coast during the winter. Their number had increased up to 600 today through captive breeding, wetland management and by teaches young cranes to migrate.

Whooping crane will keep on moving while searching for foods.

It can be in small flock.

Conservation work; feeding the young.

Whooping crane is a large bird that can reach height up to 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) and have a wingspan up to 2.3 meters (7.5 feet). Males weigh on average 7.3 kg (16 lb), while females weigh 6.2 kg (14 lb). The next largest bird in the same family is the great egret which is over a foot (30 cm) shorter with weight one-seventh the weight of this crane.

Whooping Cranes will keep on moving, browsing and probing for food rather than hunting patiently and stealthily like heron. They can be in small flocks too. Other than that, cranes are known for its elaborate courtship dance and usually painted by artists against white snow background. 

Flying above the water.

Flapping its wings.

Flying in small group.

Popular subject in painting.

Micro Post: Quetzal

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.

Micro Post: Cock-of-the-rock

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.

Micro Post: Victoria Crowned Pigeon

The closer look of Victoria crowned pigeon.

Commemorates the British monarch Queen Victoria, the Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria) is the largest pigeon in their family. It is so easy to recognize by its size, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast, and red irises. It is part of ground dwelling pigeons from more than 40 species of pigeon can be found in New Guinea region.

Being the largest it reaches the size typically 73 to 75 cm (29 to 30 in) long and weight of up to 3.5 kg (7.7 lb). There are two other crowned pigeon that slightly smaller that also live in New Guinea.

The Victoria crowned pigeon at Gondwanaland Zoo Leipzig, Germany.

The Victoria crowned pigeon at San Diego Zoo.

Crowned pigeons have 16 tail feathers while there’re only 12 in any other pigeons. The easiest way to recognize the crowned pigeons is by its superb fan-shaped, lacy crest of plumes on the head of both sexes.

All crowned pigeons live on the forest floor, flying into the three only to roost or nest. Because of its size, they produce a loud clapping sound when it takes flight. They also have similar mating calls as the other two species of crown pigeons with courtship display.

This bird will enjoying walking on the land.

They also can easily found moving in pack.

Even though easily breed in captivity, the Victoria crowned pigeon become rarely in their own natural habitat due to logging and hunting for its plumes and meat. Trapping of pigeons to be kept alive for captive collections is now illegal, but is still likely to be occurring. Now you can see this bird in most zoos and bird parks all around the world.