I’m convinced that imprints have no bones in their necks
They do have, 14 vertebrae to be exact (twice the amount of humans and most mammals, in fact!), and that, along with adaptations like a single socket pivot in the skull instead of two and changes in their arteries to prevent circulatory problems, is why some birds of prey like hawks and owls can turn their heads so drastically!
Most anyone who has encountered a flamingo has probably been impressed by its signature ability to balance on a single long, spindly leg for remarkably long periods of time.
But actually, scientists have now shown that what appears to be a feat requires almost no muscle activity from the bird.
In fact, they found even a dead flamingo’s body will naturally fall into a stable one-leg balance if positioned vertically. That research was recently published in Biology Letters.
People assume that Pete Marra, head of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and author of the recent book Cat Wars, hates
cats. This is not the case.
“I love cats,” he says, calling them
“fascinating, magnificent animals,” that seem to have a “freakish love
for me.” He’s even considered a pet cat, despite being mildly allergic.
“This is the thing people don’t realize,” Marra told me recently at a
café near his office in Washington, D.C. “I’m both a wild animal
advocate and a domestic animal advocate. If my mother thought I wasn’t
supporting cats, she’d be flipping in her grave.”
It’s an understandable mistake. After all, Marra has made himself
the public face of what sounds a lot like an anti-cat crusade. For
years, the wildlife ecologist has been investigating the lethal implications of cats and urging that pet owners keep them indoors.
Now, he argues in Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer,
co-authored with freelance writer Chris Santella, the time has come
for more drastic action: a concerted, nationwide effort to rid the
landscape of cats. (The book is based on Marra’s personal and scientific
research, and the views and conclusion are expressly his own and do not
represent those of the Smithsonian Institution)…
The Titmice are not coming as often as they used to. But I have seen them grabbing stuff from the little suet cage with sheep wool that I hung in the yard. They must be building somewhere near.
Alabama, the Bluebird lady, has laid her fifth egg yesterday. We will see if another one comes up. Otherwise, I think they are perfectly set for incubation time. Clarence is bringing her snacks to the nestbox all the time and they seem to be a pretty good team 🙂
You know what, instead of shoving my own very positive opinion on this topic down your throat, let me bring my good buddy NEW ZEALAND ENDEMIC FAUNA to the table to field this one!
For several million years, mammals were entirely extinct in NZ. Birds – and to a lesser extent reptiles, amphibians and insects – filled those niches that had been taken by mammals everywhere else in the world.
The kiwi bird, for example, is a case of convergent evolution with small omnivores like mice and other rodents; they’re nocturnal, have a highly developed sense of smell, and have lost the ability to fly due to spending their lives hunting for underground prey.
Moawere huge, flightless bird versions of deer – they were the primary large herbivore on the islands until humans arrived and hunted them to extinction in a turn of events that shocked absolutely no one. Haast’s Eagle was a huge bird of prey – filling a large predator niche like that of a wolf or a lion.
Flightless birds have (ironically) really taken off (ha, ha) in New Zealand; species like the kakapo, the takahē, the weka, etc. Without terrestrial predators to prey upon them, flightlessness wasn’t as big of a danger as it is anywhere else. The non-flightless birds are just as interesting – Nestor species are parrots that diverged earlier than any other extant psittacine, wattlebirds are found only on the islands, and the mohua are passerines of their own distinct family.
lovingdread 