Wildlife

House Sparrow Feeding Time for Fledglings

Jeff

Sierra Vista, AZ is known for the birds that visit that area year-round. There are migratory birds that leave south and central America as well as Mexico and spend part of the summer in the southeast portion of Arizona. While visiting that region recently, we took note of a house sparrow nest in a tree and a male and female that were taking care of their young.

In the picture (below), the “dad” is bringing food to the babies. If you look closely you can see a grasshopper (or similar insect) just to the left of the tip of the yellow arrow (center of photo).

The adult bird is getting ready to “cram” the insect down the throat of the chick. They do this with great energy.

Male house sparrow cramming food into chick's mouth

In this case, as in some bird species, both adults take turns feeding the chicks. This is a picture of “mom” watching the meal being delivered and perhaps providing instructions.

Mother bird gives offering advice about feeding

The male bird has left for a “refill” and both chicks look on in anticipation. The one on the left almost appears to be frowning as it awaits its turn.

Chicks await more food delivery

Here is another photo of the chicks looking on with apparent increased vigilance and vocalizations.

Chicks calling for more food

This scene repeated itself over time and we enjoyed watching the protocol of the house sparrow for taking care of its fledglings. It is estimated that these chicks were just a few days away from leaving the nest as they are rather large; as chicks go.

Read More:

House Sparrow (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

Sialis: House Sparrow Biology

House Sparrows Habits

 



.JBRish.com originally published this post

Dubai World Record Eagle Flight – Video

Jeff

“[An] Eagle cam captures stunning footage of an imperial eagle descending over 2,700 ft (830 m) from the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.”

Goal: Take an Imperial Eagle (with a camera attached) to the tallest building in the world and from that height, have it locate its handler and land on the arm of that trainer. The bird looks around for quite some time until it sees the trainer and then it folds its wings (@ 1:40 +/-) and dives. What details could a human see from that height? (Admittedly, the trainer appears to be in the middle of a large red square, but still…)

Apparently this event was held to draw attention to the fact that these eagles are endangered.

To learn more about how the eyesight of humans and eagles compare, read What If Humans Had Eagle Vision?

Eastern Collared Lizard – (Crotaphytus collaris)

Jeff

During our hikes in and around Las Cruces, NM, we came across several very interesting creatures. Among them was this one particular lizard that, at first, was hard to believe was real.

Eastern Collared Lizard

Doesn’t it look like a toy found in a discount store?

Once it was seen in and among the native flora, it looked a bit more natural as it blended with the environment.

Eastern Collared Lizard

Look at this closeup shot…

Eastern Collared Lizard Closeup

Aren’t those great markings on the head? And the feet..yellow toes! What’s with that?

Here’s a great side shot of the markings on its chin and the dots on the back. I never saw a lizard that had such a colorful persona.

Eastern Collared Lizard Closeup

Of course it was real. I actually touched the first one we saw to get it to scoot away, but it didn’t go too far. It “appeared” to be as curious of us as we were with it.

In the picture below, the two dark “collars” are easy to spot and provide a clear segmenting of the shoulder from the torso.

Eastern Collared Lizard Sunning

More lizards were spotted and will be presented in a future post, but the Eastern Collared Lizard was my favorite.

Read More:

Reptiles and Amphibians of Arizona

Visit the Arizona Herpetological Association

New Mexico Herpetological Society

School Time for Orangutans – Picture

Jeff

Not quite a barrel of monkeys, but close!

Baby orangutans on the way to school

Picture courtesy of the Mirror, UK – www.mirror.co.uk

These baby orangutans were recently rescued from captivity according to a story in Mirror – UK. Once rescued, these apes need to be taught, well…how to be apes. They receive training in climbing and fending for themselves before being released into the wild.

Read the entire story and see the picture gallery at the link below:

Orangutan orphanage: Baby apes go to ‘forest school’ in wheelbarrow after being rescued from captivity

Whale of a Fight – Video

Jeff

“Swimming with humpback whales was the most magical, humbling, powerful experience of my life,” Karim Iliya writes, but things turned a bit scary when he jumped into the water in the middle of a fight between four adult males competing for the right to mate with a lone female

This video has beautiful, near stunning, pictures of one of earth’s most majestic creatures.

From the YouTube posting:

“Humpback whales are known to be one of the most majestic mammals on earth, but what happens when a diver winds up in the middle of a whale fight?

This weekly storytelling series uses the imagery of photographers and adventurers around the world to give us a deeper connection to and understanding of the human condition.”

More of Karim Iliya’s photos

Kestrel Reprise – Photography

Jeff

Nearly a month ago, I published a post about this American Kestrel that suddenly arrived in our neighborhood. You can see the original pictures here. I was happy to get the pictures I did that day since I hadn’t seen this bird before and I was able to mark it off of my lifetime birding list. I wasn’t sure I would get another opportunity like this. As a novice “bird watcher,” this is exciting stuff. I understand that Kestrels are one of the few birds that will eat other birds.

The pictures aren’t great, but as a record of spotting this bird, they would suffice. I use a Canon SX50 HS which has a 50x zoom that goes from 24mm to 1,200mm. One would think that it would deliver an up close and personal view of anything you wanted, but often even that reach doesn’t seem long enough.

Since then, we have watched as a Curve-billed Thrasher took to the offense to try and keep the Kestrel away from its nest and other neighborhood birds have become a bit uneasy as well.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in the courtyard this morning and saw this:

American Kestrel by Jeff Ross taken in Cave Creek, AZ

As a matter of perspective, here is a picture taken when we had been in the house only a while and it will give you an idea of the location of the fountain on which the bird has perched.

Courtyard in Cave Creek, AZ

And here is one last picture of this very pretty bird.

American Kestrel Closeup by Jeff Ross taken in Cave Creek, AZ

Amazingly, the bird sat on top of this fountain for more than twenty minutes. I was able to get within 15 feet of it and the only thing it did was shift its weight. The bird was extremely alert and it was riveted on my every move. You can envision what a hunter a bird like this can be with those big eyes and talons!

Heads Up – European Eagle Owl

Jeff

This would be both a birder’s and photographer’s delight. A European eagle owl in the town of Noordeinde, Netherlands likes to land on the heads of people. It apparently has had some experience with humans since it does not seem to be the least timid around them. The bird rests where it lands for a brief period and then is off to find another perch!

Birds at the Gilbert Water Ranch – 20150412 – Part 3

Jeff

For those who have been following my blog for a while, you might recall that I wrote about a bird walk I took on April . You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

This is the final installment in the series.

If you want more information about the “Water Ranch” more formally named the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona, you can visit their website at the link below:

Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch

You can view a map of the preserve here:

The bird walk I took was an offering of the Desert Rivers Audubon Society – Read About them here.

While we were on our walk we were able to identify several more birds not described previously. A common bird is the Great Tailed Grackle that can sometimes be found in local parking lots. Notice the yellow eyes.

Great-tailed Grackle

A bird that I hadn’t identified before was the Long-billed Dowitcher which enjoyed wading through the water and exploring as it walked. Every now and then, the group would take off as a unit and fly around before alighting once again.

Long-billed Dowitcher

As one would expect at a place with all of this water, there were many ducks and of course cute ducklings:
Duckling

Duckling

As I might have noted in previous writings, I am relatively new to the hobby of bird watching or bird identification so I was somewhat surprised to hear the term “mutt duck” used in describing some of the ducks that are apparently of mixed parentage.

While I knew that a mutt, when referring to dogs, was a mixed breed, I didn’t know this term was used elsewhere in the animal kingdom.

Here are two pictures of what our fellow birders thought were mutt ducks:

Mutt Duck

Mutt Duck

Who you calling a mutt?!

If you happen to be in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and you enjoy birding, I would recommend a stop at the Gilbert Water Ranch. It might be wise to contact them for information about the best months to visit. During the heat of the summer, the number of birds drops dramatically along with the number of visitors.