Questions relating to the study of birds
9
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2answers
137 views
Did we first have swimming birds or flying birds?
Looking at the swimming birds building nests just across my garden, I suddenly wondered how evolution came to swimming birds and whether flying birds started swimming or whether swimming bird like ...
9
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1answer
86 views
Chicken Genome what are the LGE 'chromosomes'?
The chicken genome identifies two "LGE" sequences in the chicken genome. Are these distinct chromosomes or some highly variable sequence from the genome that is put in a separate sequence? I'm ...
8
votes
1answer
88 views
Plumage as indicator of health in birds
Anybody know which traits of bird plumage are accurate indicators of a birds health? For example feather coloration, feather brightness, amount of feather wear, number of feathers, moult timing, moult ...
7
votes
1answer
433 views
Why is the Kakapo more attracted to humans than its own kind?
The Kakapo can be seen in this video by BBC. It is said that the species is strongly sexually attracted to humans. Why could this be the case?
7
votes
1answer
128 views
How can an albatross stay airborne for months?
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes. They range widely in the Southern ...
7
votes
2answers
184 views
What's the name of this bird?
This morning I saw a bird that I have never seen before. Since it was quite big, I'm very interested in knowing its name.
The bird was quite big, at least 2-3 times of a common blackbird. The wings ...
5
votes
1answer
67 views
What is this crow eating, and is it a common part of the corvid diet?
Here's a picture (by Rob Curtis) of a crow carrying and eating the corpse of what looks a bit like a small hawk or falcon:
Other pictures clearly show the crow is eating the dead bird. This image ...
5
votes
1answer
52 views
Are there grass or fiber eating birds?
My understanding, that may be wrong, is that cellulose/fibre has little nutritional value to many animals because it's hard to break down thus making consumption inefficient. However, Ruminating ...
4
votes
1answer
64 views
Birds from the Family Columbidae Feed Young “Crop Milk”
Birds from the family Columbidae (e.g., doves and pigeons) produce a fatty, milk-like substance in their crop. The secretion is often referred to as "crop milk." They feed crop milk to their young ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
What kind of bird species is this?
Every now and then I got a glimpse of this bird which I'm pretty sure is not native to Northern Germany where I live. There are at least three of these birds around but I usually only see something ...
2
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1answer
50 views
Is this an Emperor Penguin or a King Penguin?
I have a book from Dorling Kindersley called Animal Encyclopedia (the German version that I have is called Das große Tierlexikon) with images from animals.
One is titled Emperor Penguin ...
2
votes
2answers
60 views
Do diurnal birds of prey recognize each other by their appearance?
Just what the title states.
I recognize people around me by their facial appearance to begin with, then by their little idiosyncracies; this applies perhaps to most other humans too. We rely pretty ...
1
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2answers
118 views
Can someone identify this bird?
We recently found a nest in the back garden and a little bird inside. Can you help us identify it? The nest is quite small like the bird so we are wondering whether this is the parent or a baby chick. ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
Is it possible to pet/groom birds?
I wonder if it's possible to pet a domestic crow, or an owl. Do birds respond to grooming as cats or dogs, for example? If so, then how does one pet a bird?
0
votes
0answers
31 views
Birds placing sticks on train tracks?
I live in a semi-rural area in Germany, close to a park which trains go through every 20 minutes.
Today, I saw something that left me perplexed.
There is a large population of birds that look like ...
