Bird Behaviour in Action
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the horbills are quite large birds used to feed on fruit and mainly insects,arachnids and small vertebrates.
but they are not used to kill aduld birds.
in this case an African Grey Hornbill (tockus nasutus) has cought and killed a social weaver.
"a strange behaviour"
Etosha National Park ,Namibia
original 3K file here:
I was observing a group of sea gulls next to the Yarra River when I took this shot.
I am sure you would have seen these postures and calls before.
I was also curious about these postures and their meanings.
Here you can see two common postures.
The gull in the front is showing the Forward Posture.
As the name implies, this posture is all about displaying a forward motion by holding the body roughly horizontal or slightly diagonally with the neck kinked characteristically.
The tail can sometimes be spread; the bill is either slightly opened or closed.
The Forward posture is used in the following situations:
1) hostile encounters
2) pair formation sequences
3) as a response to a bird approaching in flight
When used in hostile encounters on land, it often includes running towards an opponent, whereas in a pair formation sequence both gulls move parallel to each other
The Gull behind is doing the Mew Call
The Mew call is accompanied by a characteristic Arch-posture in which the head is held down and the wings are held slightly away from the body.
It is usually performed while walking but can be performed while standing, flying, or swimming as well.
The Mew call is used in both aggressive and non-aggressive situations:
Aggressive
1) In defense of food or territory, aimed at an opponent
2 )To attract a mate for support in territory defense
Non-aggressive
1) To attract a partner (also for courtship)
2) To call chicks that have wandered too far from the nest
3) To gather chicks for feeding or after they have been hiding after a disturbance
4) As a nest-relief invitation
5) As a call performed upon landing.
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Peaceful Sunday
Grey seals often fight and can be seriously hurt during mating. The cow is the one about to munch on the side of the Bull's cheek.
Dove and Red-headed Finch.
Many thanks to everyone who chooses to leave a comment or add this image to their favorites, it is much appreciated.
©Elsie van der Walt, all rights reserved. Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. If you are interested in using one of my images, please send me an E-mail (elsie.vdwalt@gmail.com).
RKO_8179. A pelican showing its catch!
Copyright: Robert Kok. All rights reserved! Watermark protected.
More of my work and activities can be seen on:
Please do not use my photos on websites, blogs or in any other media without my explicit permission.
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and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted :-)
Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour
HPPT!!
prunus mume, pink japanese flowering apricot, 'Bonita', j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
Barn Owl - Tyto Alba
Like most owls, the barn owl is nocturnal, relying on its acute sense of hearing when hunting in complete darkness. It often becomes active shortly before dusk and can sometimes be seen during the day when relocating from one roosting site to another. In Britain, on various Pacific Islands and perhaps elsewhere, it sometimes hunts by day. This practice may depend on whether the owl is mobbed by other birds if it emerges in daylight. However, in Britain, some birds continue to hunt by day even when mobbed by such birds as magpies, rooks and black-headed gulls, such diurnal activity possibly occurring when the previous night has been wet making hunting difficult. By contrast, in southern Europe and the tropics, the birds seem to be almost exclusively nocturnal, with the few birds that hunt by day being severely mobbed.
Barn owls are not particularly territorial but have a home range inside which they forage. For males in Scotland this has a radius of about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the nest site and an average size of about 300 hectares. Female home ranges largely coincide with that of their mates. Outside the breeding season, males and females usually roost separately, each one having about three favoured sites in which to conceal themselves by day, and which are also visited for short periods during the night. Roosting sites include holes in trees, fissures in cliffs, disused buildings, chimneys and haysheds and are often small in comparison to nesting sites. As the breeding season approaches, the birds move back to the vicinity of the chosen nest to roost.
Once a pair-bond has been formed, the male will make short flights at dusk around the nesting and roosting sites and then longer circuits to establish a home range. When he is later joined by the female, there is much chasing, turning and twisting in flight, and frequent screeches, the male's being high-pitched and tremulous and the female's lower and harsher. At later stages of courtship, the male emerges at dusk, climbs high into the sky and then swoops back to the vicinity of the female at speed. He then sets off to forage. The female meanwhile sits in an eminent position and preens, returning to the nest a minute or two before the male arrives with food for her. Such feeding behaviour of the female by the male is common, helps build the pair-bond and increases the female's fitness before egg-laying commences.
Barn owls are cavity nesters. They choose holes in trees, fissures in cliff faces, the large nests of other birds such as the hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) and, particularly in Europe and North America, old buildings such as farm sheds and church towers. Buildings are preferred to trees in wetter climates in the British Isles and provide better protection for fledglings from inclement weather. Trees tend to be in open habitats rather than in the middle of woodland and nest holes tend to be higher in North America than in Europe because of possible predation.
This bird has suffered declines through the 20th century and is thought to have been adversely affected by organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in the 1950s and '60s.
Nocturnal birds like the barn owl are poorly monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey and, subject to this caveat, numbers may have increased between 1995-2008.
Barn owls are a Schedule 1 and 9 species.
Population:
UK breeding:
4,000 pairs
Europe:
110-220,000 pairs
Gonepteryx rhamni (known as the common brimstone) is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It lives throughout the Palearctic zone and is commonly found across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Across much of its range, it is the only species of its genus, and is therefore simply known locally as the brimstone. Its wing span size is 60 - 74 mm.
The brimstone relies on two species of buckthorn plants as host plants for its larvae; this influences its geographic range and distribution, as these plants are commonly found in wetlands. The adult brimstone travels to woodland areas to spend seven months overwintering. In spring when their host plants have developed, they return to the wetlands to breed and lay eggs] Both the larval and adult forms of the common brimstone have protective coloration and behaviour that decreases their chances of being recognised and subsequently preyed upon.
The adult common brimstone has sexual dimorphism in its wing coloration: males have yellow wings and iridescence while females have greenish-white wings and are not iridescent. This iridescence is affected by environmental factors.
RKO_9069.
Copyright: Robert Kok. All rights reserved! Watermark protected.
More of my work and activities can be seen on:
Please do not use my photos on websites, blogs or in any other media without my explicit permission.
Thanks for visiting, commenting and faving my photos. Its very much appreciated!
From the "senses" series: Vision
If someone sees something, they react. Cause-effect. According to Pavlov, reflexes could be conditioned. If you don't see, you don't react. But if vision is deprived from you and you know and watch that you don't see because someone doesn't want you to see, you react. Cause-effect.
Red-winged Blackbird perched on a bed of dried Cattail stems along the shore of Gillies Lake in the Gillies Lake Conservation Area located in the City of Timmins in Northeastern Ontario Canada
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I met this beautiful female common blue butterfly resting on kidney vetch while I was walking at Elliot in Arbroath with my mum and dad in June this year.
This pair of twin calf North American Moose (Alces alces) were observed in a behaviour not expected this early in their life cycle in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.
25 October, 2012.
Slide # GWB_20121025_5388.CR2
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© Gerard W. Beyersbergen - All Rights Reserved Worldwide In Perpetuity - No Unauthorized Use.
I had a day in Ottawa between work in Vancouver, and took a few hours to visit some wetlands. This bird was extremely well-sheltered from the shore, enabling it to hunt and rest without disturbance. Because it was pretty intent on the water, which it observed from a dead tree trunk, I was able to crawl through some bushes and young trees and park myself in a way it couldn’t see me. I had just enough space to set up my monopod and find a clean line through branches.
The Night-Herons around here have a way of hunting in deeper water that involves launching or pouncing off a branch or a dead tree trunk. They enter the water feet and bill first, with a great splash, and try to ambush their prey. (I have a few images of that I may post later).
The bird was successful, and emerged with a pretty decent-sized Catfish. What I hadn’t realized at that moment was that, around a small bay from where I sat enclosed in branches, there was a prospective mate. What followed was an amazing twenty minutes of this bird displaying mating behaviours, including a fairly flashy ‘watch me swallow this food that I can catch for all of us’ dance.
I will post more of those images as well.
Curious behaviour, the Redshank didn't eat the fish, it just picked it up and dumped it on the edge of the water. It must have been annoying the Redshank!
Stag frantically digging up mud at the edge of a lake to cover its antlers before dressing them in vegetation. Not sure if this is to impress the ladies or threaten other males in the rut.
I made a quick trip to the nature reserve after work and met this beautiful and friendly girl. After moving to a very photogenic spot on the grass she spent several minutes turning, preening and generally showing off all her best sides for the camera! It was hard to pick a shot in the end :)
A pair of Sarus Crane (Antigone antigone) was searching for food seriously for the caring of their little chick sticking together. It was the learning course for the chick to pick the right food after searching. The beauty of this behavioural shot is that it is a living documentation of parental care and behavioural learning in their natural habitat with an artistic composition. Pics was taken from Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.
Not sure what,s going on here.At first i thought the ants were moving their larvae to another location,but the first larvae is clearly a plant hopper nymph! So moving plant hopper larvae for security,or food?
Thanks for your comments and faves,they are truly appreciated.
First is a Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar, next a Soldier Beetle, then a Ladybird and a Hoverfly. Please try viewing large. Thank you....
A lack of any feeling about self or other, a mind-state that gives rise to boredom, rancor, apathy, and a passive, inert, or sluggish behaviour. Physically, acedia is fundamentally with a cessation of motion and an indifference to work; it finds expression in laziness, idleness, and indolence.
Sloth | Seven Deadly Sins Series: 4/7
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CREDITS
[BB] Knee Socks
Black Cats Poses - Bored in Space 2
*Bolson / Tattoo - Russel
Izzie's - LeLutka - Insomnia Frown Lines 75%
[ kunst ] - Anuket Septum Ring
[ kunst ] - Juniper necklace
[ kunst ] - Nose plaster
[omnis] BlackWidow/2 - ML - Right
Spoiled - Lewdy Gamer Shirt
TF: Machinist (F) :: Face : With Hollow
Although the Eastern Spinebill is sometimes called Australia’s hummingbird due to its ability to hover while gathering nectar - the diminutive Brown Honeyeater is no slouch in this department either!
Hovering behaviour actually occurs more frequently than thought, not only in terms of the range of avian species but also in its occurrence within species. Recent research found that neither the geographical distribution of bird species nor their traits (size, body mass) are a limiting factor for hovering behaviour, but that plant traits are important. Quite simply when perches at the plants are inadequate or lacking, hovering is then more appropriate or necessary
These birds were nesting and this one was showing off to a female. The straw he picked up was too big for the nest, but then size matters here!
This is the typical courting behaviour of the Silverbills - carry a supersized straw and dangle in front the female with some kind of special moves to woo her. There were several suitors, but the large straw gives him a better chance of wooing the female. Once accepted, the male brings nesting materials to the female, while the female builds the nest - a small cup in the bushes.
These are resident birds - around 10-14 cms - found throughout the country easily in the countryside. The birds are always seen in flocks and found together around other munias like Scaly Breasted and Tri-colored.
Thanks in advance for your views and feedback. Much appreciated.
I wonder if it's the environment that does my birds look like they have rather a special attitude
Could it be me.....
hehehehe
This magpie was rather frenetic in her behaviour, very eager to eat at my food tray and having her mouth open for most of the time.
She actually missed my food tray too, poor lil one - well she was quite big actually
May is going to be images made at either Las Canteras or Maspalomas Beaches, Gran Canaria.................all are done this year, an attempt has been made to contrast the freedom of Las Canteras with the "Organised" behaviour of Maspalomas