Bird of the Week

Bird 306 – Great Skua

This week we meet a great villain of the bird world, the Great Skua.

So what is a Skua? Well picture for me if you will, a pleasant day by the beach. You’re having some fish and chips, when a flock of seagulls turns up to snag your taters. They’re noise, boisterous, aggressive and don’t like taking no for an answer. Well, imagine a seagull twice the size, with a hooked beak and a barrel chest, and then you’ve got some idea of what a Skua is. They’re like a jacked up seagull.

And to be fair, they are closely related to the Gulls and Terns, belonging to the same broad sub-order of birds.

The Great Skua lives in the Atlantic Ocean and spends most of its life out at sea. While they will do some of their own fishing, the Skua is what biologists delightfully term a kleptoparasite. Which is just a really fancy word that means they steal other bird’s food.

The Skua’s strategy is to hang out close to where other birds’ nest: Gulls, Terns, Puffins, they aren’t fussy about who they target. They will wait for an honest bird to head back to their nest, with their catch and then the Skua will take chase. They will relentlessly pursue the smaller bird, harassing them until they give up their dinner. They can get pretty aggressive too, latching onto their wings and forcing them into the water if they don’t abandon their meal.

As a pirate of the sky, the Skua is one of the apex predators of the oceanic air, and few things give them much bother. They are the barbaric lords of the North Atlantic.

25/06/2023

Photo credit:
1: “Great Skua (Stercorarius skua), Lamba Ness – geograph.org.uk – 3971579” by Mike Pennington
2: “Grote jager / Stercorarius skua / Great skua” by Dirk-Jan van Roest
3: “Great Skua attacking Gannet near Stac an Armin” by Kognos

Bird 305 – Tufted Puffin

So everyone knows and loves a Puffin. Those delightful, plump, bright-billed birds from the Atlantic Ocean. But did you know there was another Puffin that lives in the Pacific Ocean. Although they may not be quite as cute as the Atlantic Puffin, the Tufted Puffin is no less flamboyant.

The most sticking feature of the Tufted Puffin is their name-sake tufts. Flaring off the back of their eyes are two long golden crests that sweep back over their heads. This is not a permanent feature of the bird. It grows during the summer breeding season and then disappears in the winter. Both males and females sport the grand plumes, and they seem to act as a signal of health that both genders use.

Like most members of the Auk family, the Tufted Puffin has evolved for underwater pursuit, and like a penguin, they use their wings to fly through the water. They can only stay submerged for about a minute though, so not quite as impressive as their southern cousins. Because they have rounded wings, they aren’t great in the air, and are incapable of gliding.

Because of their rounded, plump nature, the Puffin is also a favourite target of predators. Large birds, foxes and bears never miss a chance to chump down on a Puffin. To avoid these predators, Puffins nest almost exclusively on isolated islands that are mammal free. They can form into huge colonies, up to 25,000 birds strong.

Mated pairs share egg and chick raising duties and dig a burrow up to 1.5 metres deep. This also keeps their eggs safe from birds like Seagulls that would love to lap up their eggs if given half the chance. The Puffin seems to be a little too tasty for its own good.

17/06/2023

Photo credit:

1: “Tufted Puffin Nesting” by USFWSAlaska

2: “Tufted puffins” by USFWS Headquarters

3: By Dark jedi requiem at English Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/…

4: “Tufted Puffins” by Mike’s Birds

Bird 304 – Spot-billed Toucanet

When we think of a Toucan the first thing that comes to mind is probably Toucan Sam, the official Froot Loops barker. Or maybe the Toucan who’s always stealing Guinness.

But these birds are more or less a riff on the most famous species of Toucan, the Toco Toucan. Did you know there are 43 different species, all of them living in Central and South America? Today we meet one of the most colourful, the Spot-billed Toucanet.

As you may have guessed from the name, the Spot-billed Toucanet has both a vibrantly coloured beak, and is rather small, at least by Toucan standards. They average a bit over 30cm long, and also lack the prominent, almost ridiculous, bill of their cousins.

Unlike many other Toucans, the Spot-bill is sexually dimorphic, and the males have brighter darker colours, while the females are more chestnut in complexion. They are native to Brazil, but they don’t come from the Amazon. Rather, they can be found in the south-east of the country, living in the old growth Atlantic forests.

Like most Toucans, the Spot-bill makes a nest in the hollow of a tree. They like to use old woodpecker holes. Despite the powerful looking bill, the Toucan’s beak is light and not well equipped for excavation. Scientists speculate that one of the bill’s primary functions is thermal regulation. Using a series of blood vessels within their bill the Toucan can quickly pump blood into it, to take heat away from their body. Which is a pretty fancy trick for staying cool in a tropical environment.

Oh and I suppose they also use their beaks to help them reach stuff … you know, normal beak behaviour.

10/06/2023

Photo credit:

1: By Jairmoreirafotografia – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…

2: https://www.guinness.com/en/ou…

3: Spot-billed Toucanet by Exotic Bird Life

4: “spot-billed toucanet” by Diogo Luiz

Bird 303 – Thunderbird

This week we move from the realm of the real to the mythical. Around the west coast of America and Canada for hundreds of years the Native American tribes told tale of the great and mighty Thunderbirds.

Usually depicted as a massive eagle, the Thunderbird was said to be a god of the upper world, residing in the sky. Its wing beats were so powerful they created thunder, and lighting would flash forth from its eyes. Sometimes the Thunderbird would do battle with the Great Horned Serpent, who was the God of the underworld.

Across America they were depicted on Totem Poles as great eagles, wings always splayed out.

Some scientists believe the myth could have arisen thanks to the fossilised remains of Pterosaurs that the Native Americans may have discovered.

Still today the myth of the Thunderbird continues to touch our culture. The pokemon Zapdos is inspired by the mythological stories.

Birds have always featured in the imagination of human culture, and I have nothing but respect for a peoples who saw the most awesome forces nature had to dish out and thought, yeah, I reckon a bird is responsible for that.

04/06/2023

Photo credit:

1: By Internet Archive Book Images – https://www.flickr.com/photos/… book page: https://archive.org/stream/ann…,

2: By Dr Haggis – w:Image:Thunderbird_on_Totem_Pole.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…

3: Zapdos pokemon

Bird 302 – Willie Wagtail

Today’s bird has been on the ‘to do list’ for at least five years. They’re one of my all time favourites, the Willie Wagtail. This is a quintessential Australian bird, and if you’ve spent any time in the suburbs you would have met one. They have a distinct melodious song, a bold personality, and an unmistakably habit of flicking their tail around.

The first thing we should note is that their name is deceptive. Despite the name Wagtail, this Willie isn’t related to the Wagtail family, they’re actually a member of the Fantail family. And like 90% of birds, the males also lack a penis, so the willie part doesn’t make a lot of sense either.

Jokes aside, they are so named because of the distinctive way they wag their tail while perched. As to the Willie part, we’re less sure where that came from, but it was likely borrowed from Ireland, where the White Wagtail bird is sometimes colloquially known as a Willie Wagtail too. But the Irish Willie is a true Wagtail, our Australian one is a Fantail in disguise.

The thing you have to love about the Wagtail is their bravery. Wagtails are highly territorial, and if anything gets near their land they were boldly attack it. They don’t care how much bigger it is than themselves. They’ll go after kookaburras, hawks, eagles, snakes, hell, they’ll even attack a dog or a person if they stray too close to their nests. But they’re also smart: when attacking they don’t go near the face, but will almost always strike the butt. The Wagtail is fearless. And with their determined white eyebrows they always look like they mean business.

Fun fact, when the Wagtail is in attack mode, their eyebrows will flair larger than when they are calmly going about their business.

The Willie Wagtail is the odd one out when it comes to the Fantail family. All their cousins stay to forested areas where they can flit about and hide from larger birds. Not only is the Wagtail unafraid to get into anyone’s grill, but they love open areas. They are happy running along the ground, or perching on a branch where they hunt for small insects and bugs.

They’re brave, beautiful, and don’t take no guff from no-one; what’s not to love?

28/05/2023

Photo credit:

1: “Willie Wagtail- Dressed to Impress” by birdsaspoetry

2: Willie Wagtail by birdsaspoetry

3: “Willie Wagtail, Collared Sparrowhawk: The Time for Negotiation is Over” by birdsaspoetry

4: “Little Raven, Willie Wagtail: Frustration” by birdsaspoetry

Bird 301 – Common Murre

Today we meet the penguin of the Northern Hemisphere, the Common Murre, or as they are known in Europe, the Guillemot.

With their black backs, white bellies, wedded feet and a tendency to stay off land unless it’s breeding season, the Common Murre ticks a lot of Penguin boxes. Except for the fact that they can fly. Just like Penguins, they are underwater pursuit hunters, getting to depth of over 100m. They have evolved special wings that are handy for propelling them under the waves. But unlike the Penguin, Murres have hung onto flight.

But there is a catch. Wings that are good for swimming aren’t that great for flying. Yes, the Murre can fly, but they have to work really hard to stay in the air. Their flight is sometimes described as looking frantic. They can go really fast in a straight line, but they are not agile in the air.

They tried to get the best of both worlds, and honestly came off second best. They’re not as swift underwater as a Penguin, and they’re not as agile in the air as Frigatebirds, which often target them and try to steal their catch. But hey, they manage to make a living so it can’t be all bad.

The Guillemot has also been a source of one of the great mysteries in the bird world. They lay some of the most beautiful coloured eggs. They have an elongated shape that is sometimes described as conical or pyriform. There are many theories as to why their eggs are shaped this way, and the question has never really been settled. For a long time people thought the shape stopped the eggs from rolling off the narrow cliffs where they nest. But this theory is largely discredited and today there are many others.

Some people think the shape could help keep part of the egg from getting caked in poop (Murres are notoriously filthy nesters). Other people think the shape might be more aerodynamic and keep the mother birds streamline before they lay their egg. And yet others think the shape might be more efficient at transferring heat from parent to egg during incubation. Quite likely it could be a combination of all of these factors that have led to the strange shape.

The Common Murre was also at the centre of one of the oddest chapters of history. A little something known as the Egg War, when egg starved Californians literally killed each other for the right to collect and sell their eggs during the American Gold Rush. It’s a rather wild tale with egg pirates, murder, lighthouse keepers with delusions of grandeur and quite a few hats, and it is the subject of our latest podcast episode, why not check it out.

20/05/2023

Photo credit:

1: Common Murre, by NaturalWorldLover

2: Under Water Swimming by Lala Ann Page

3: Common Murre by Rab

4: Murre eggs by L. Brian Stauffer

Bird 300 – California Quail

Bird of the Week 300! Who would have thought we’d be this deep into a gag intended to be something like 6 emails.

Today, we’re going to feature maybe the most important bird in weekly lore, the California Quail. This is the bird that launched 300 emails, story for another time. Yet somehow, I have never properly featured them, today they get its moment.

The California Quail is a native of California – shocking I know. But it has been introduced to various places around the world, including British Columbia, Hawaii, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, South Africa, New Zealand, and Norfolk Island and King Island in Australia. And who could blame people for wanting to be near these birds. Just take a look at that handsome head plume. That fine crest feather is actually six individual feathers masquerading as one.

The California Quail is a religious dust bather. If they can, they will take one every day, fluffing their feathers about in the dirt. Ornithologists use the tell-tale signs of the dirty indentations they leave behind to track and find the Quails. Which shows how committed they are to their daily constitutional.

These Quails are communal birds. They live in little family units called coveys. They usually consist of at least two females, several males and their chicks. The chicks all kinda get raised by the whole family. Often the chicks are cared for by males not even related to them. They’re just a very caring and sharing bird.

But honestly, when everything is said and done, they’re just gorgeous to look at.

Thank you to everyone for reading and sharing these silly emails. They only exist because you keep opening them.

Until next week, this has been, Bird of the Week.

14/05/2023

Photo credit:

1: “California Quail (m)” by Becky Matsubara

2: “California Quail (male and female)” by sedge23

3: “California Quail” by Kaaren Perry

4: Dust bath by Calinda.

Bird 299 – Horned Curassow

For our 299th bird we have an unusual and endangered bird from Bolivia. And it answers the question, what do you get if you crossed a rhino with a chicken? You get the Horned Curassow.

This bird is so rarely seen it was only officially described by science in 1939. The man who described it was one James Bond, a renowned expert of Caribbean birds. Of course, today he is more famous as the source of 007’s name. When Ian Fleming was first writing his spy novel, he had one of Bond’s books on his shelf and thought the name sounded dandy. But we’re not here to talk spies, we’re here to talk giant chickens.

The Curassows of South America are distantly related to the Brush turkeys of Australia, although they still make nests, rather than incubating their eggs in giant heaps of rotting leaves.

Because the Horned Curassow has such a low population, lives in remote locations and is famously skittish, little is known about them. We don’t even know what their horn is for. It could be a sexually selected ornamentation, or it may do something practical for the bird, I honestly don’t know.

The Horned Curassow is confined to three remote locations in the jungle mountains of Bolivia. In 2021 a team of ornithologists trekked into the mountains and set an array of camera traps to see if they could get an idea of the population. And to their surprise they found more than they were expecting. Granted, they only found 17 birds, but the initial survey suggests their population may be larger than first thought (which gives you an idea of how rare these birds are).

The Horned Curassow is largely threatened by habitat loss. Although, because they are a large turkey-like bird, they are also threatened by locals hunting them for food. There is currently conservation work going on in the local communities to educate people further about the rare bird in an effort to preserve the remnants of their population. With any luck, this strange bird can be saved and we can learn more about what makes them unique.

07/05/2023

Photo credit:

1: Photo by Greg Hume

2: Photo by Peter Stubbs

3: horned curassow captured on camera trap. Image by Asociación Armonía.

Bird 298 – Elegant Crested-Tinamou

Today we have a curious little bird to teach us a thing or two about the Emu and Ostrich. It is the Elegant Crested-Tinamou.

Chances are you’ve never heard of the Tinamou. They belong to an odd family of birds that live in South and Central America. At first glance, you may think there isn’t much special going on. They sorta look like a chicken/partridge thing. Sure they have some neat cryptic colouration, and I will admit a rather elegant crest, but beyond that what is there to a Tinamou?

Well, it just so happens that the Tinamou is closely related to the large flightless birds of the world: the Ostrich, Emu, Cassowary. But that isn’t the strange part. The strange part is that they can still fly. They are the only flighted member of the ratite family.

For a long time, it was thought they were only distantly related to the Ratites, but these days we know they are basically cousins. In fact, they are so closely related that they finally answered a question that had long troubled ornithologists. Were the ancestors of the Ostrich and Emu able to fly, or were they always grounded? Turns out that yes, once upon a time the ancestors of the Emu could fly and they lost the ability. Chances are the Tinamou looks a lot like what the ancient Emu and Ostrich did a couple of tens of millions of years ago.

Tinamou also have similar breeding habits to the Ostrich and Emu. The alpha male establishes a communal nest that the females of the flock all lay into. He then takes responsibility for guarding the young. Even after they hatch, only the male provides care. The babies are able to leave the nest and run around almost straight away. But they stick close to their dad for a while for protection.

But maybe the most remarkable thing about the Tinamou is their eggs. The Elegant Crested-Tinamou lays an olive green egg, but they have a high gloss finish, that makes them almost jewel-like in appearance. There are 46 species of Tinamou, and they all lay a different coloured egg, but they all have a vividly beautiful finish of the same quality.

Would you like to know more about eggs? Well good news, because our latest podcast episode is all about the science of birds eggs, and how they protect and help a baby bird grow. Also damn delicious. Out now on Apple and Spotify.

30/04/2023

Photo credit:

1: “Elegant Crested Tinamou” by VSmithUK

2: “Elegant Crested Tinamou at National Zoo” by brian.gratwicke

3: “elegant crested tinamou” by Francesco Cecere

4: “File:Eudromia elegans MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.2.2.jpg” by Roger Culos

5: Tinamou eggs by Paul Verzone

Bird 297 – MacGillivary’s Prion

Get ready for some funny words, as we meet this week’s bird, MacGillivary’s Prion. Prions are cute little birds, that make up a unique subset of the Petrel family. They live mainly in the southern oceans and breed on tiny subantarctic islands.

The word ‘Prion’ derives from Greek, and means ‘saw’. And that’s the saw you use to cut down trees, not the saw you use your eyes for. They are so-called because of their funny serrated beaks. Although, this is a bit misleading. Their other common name, Whalebird, gives a better clue to what is going on. They have funny structures in their beaks, almost like the baleen of a whale. Even though, in birds, this hairy tooth-like filter is called lamella.

Prion’s have this lamella for the same reason whales do. They filter water to catch crustaceans. Kinda like a Pelican, the Prion also has a little sack that hangs off the bottom of their bill called a gular. They scoop up water and then force it out through the lamella, baleen-teethy things and that’s how they catch their dinner.

Now MacGillivary’s Prion is critically endangered. In part because they make their burrows on Gough Islands, where a massive mouse infestation has devasted their nestlings. The mice crawl into their burrows and eat their babies alive. Pretty gruesome stuff. From 2014-2020, only about 8% of their nesting attempts were successful.

But there is some good news. After a large scale baiting program on the island, the mice were almost totally removed. In the last two years their nesting success has shot up to 82%. This is great news for these super fluffy, part whale, part pelican, part petrel chicks. More monitoring is needed to make sure the mice don’t return but it is a positive step to save these cute little guys.

23/04/2023

Photo credit:

1: Mystery Prion by Marc Guyt

2: Lamellae by Colin Miskelly

3: MacGillivray’s Prion. Photo: R. Daling/RSPB