View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
Gannets photographed on and around the Bass Rock during the Scottish Seabird Centre landing trip, 2 June 2017. Taken either with Nikon D610 and nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VRII or Nikon D7200 and nikkor 24mm f2.8
These photos are of a single kotuku in the small mudflat and bay of the Hutt river near its confluence with the sea at Petone, neighbouring the Hikoikoi Reserve. As well as watching it stalk prey through the shallow waters of the bay, I was intrigued by its behaviour playing with sticks, as if contemplating nesting. Perhaps it was a young male practicing (males build a preliminary nest platform in the breeding season).
Kotuku - white heron or great egret
A cosmopolitan bird found worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. Of the four or more subspecies, the range of the largest, Egretta alba modesta is found in India, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Geographically and climatically New Zealand is near the extreme limits of its range.
In New Zealand it is a rare bird, and probably always has been. However the species was almost exterminated to satisfy the demand for feathers for women’s hats after its only breeding site on the banks of the Waitangiroto Stream, near Okarito in South Westland was discovered in 1865. By 1941 there were only four nests when it was declared a reserve and patrolled at breeding time. The numbers have now stabilised with a permanent population of around 100 to 120.
Outside of the breeding season these birds disperse widely throughout the country, frequenting shallow waters along the margins of rivers, inland lakes, swamps and coastal estuaries. Its long legs, bare of feathers well above the ankle joint, and long spreading toes fit it especially for wading on a muddy bottom. They are solitary feeders. At night when not feeding they roost in trees. Their voice is the typical heron croak in flight or when disturbed.
Kotuku food consists of mainly small fishes, including eels. Standing in water as deep as its long legs will allow without wetting its feathers, it remains perfectly still until a fish comes within reach, then with lightning like rapidity it strikes and at once swallows its prey. In addition to fish, its food includes, frogs, tadpoles, insects and even birds. I have witnessed a kotuku break a hole in the roof of an aviary and snatch out several canaries.
Their only nesting site in New Zealand on the banks of the Waitangituna Stream. White heron tours are now a major eco tourism industry for the nearby town of Whataroa.
Adult birds start arriving from all over the country around August and take part in elaborate courtship displays. Males build small platforms from which they advertise themselves to females. Displays of the male include a spectacular raising of the nuptial plumes, with the neck erect, the bill snapping and the wing feathers flicking. Once a female is attracted, the pair preen each other and intertwine their long necks, wings and bill. The female builds the real nest platform. The nests are placed in trees or in the crowns of tree ferns near to or overhanging water and at various heights from three to thirteen metres. The nests are well built of sticks and fern fronds. Three to five eggs are laid in September or October and the young are ready to fly in December and January.
The feathers of Kotuku, like the Huia, were highly prized by Maori and were used to adorn the heads of chiefs both in life and after death. The feathers were kept, as were Huia feathers, in elaborately carved boxes.
In Maori oratory, the most telling compliment is to liken someone to Kotuku. It symbolizes everything rare and beautiful. It was said that Kotuku is an inhabitant of the nether world, the spirit land of Reinga, and that an old funeral chant ends with these words to the departed: “Ko to kotuku to tapui, e Tama e – Kotuku is now thy sole companion, O my son!”. So seldom does Kotuku appear in any locality that “rare as the Kotuku” has passed into a proverb among Maori.
Details: Length 92 cm., weight 900 g., entirely white in non-breeding plumage, iris and bill yellow, legs and feet black. In August the adult birds undergo a change, growing long white feathers of loose texture which lie over the back, wings, and tail like a bridal train. These are the nuptial or breeding plumes. The bill becomes black and the facial skin green.
Challenging the dog to a little play.
More photographs of my trip to Winchester, to taste a bit of Christmas atmosphere, will follow. You can find them in the set CHRISTMAS CROWDS.
On a threatened site in Strathspey, Scotland. After moving little this individual performs a rapid burst of wing fluttering. (This was later repeated but not caught on camera). This behaviour appeared to be more than a comfort movement to shake off
rainwater.
Another little behavioural series of these birds horsing around. Some (or all) of the shots aren't very good technically but tell a story of these birds' playfulness which says to me that they aren't just pretty faces.
In this case it seemed like the female was trying to gee up the male by getting in his way all the time. The birds and branch were swinging around so my low shutter speed couldn't freeze the action.
This series of shots are not the greatest of quality as I had to crop out of a much bigger picture, but I am pleased with the behaviour record.
This was a family group with the youngsters sitting on a branch waiting for the adults to bring food, which arrived in the form of an amazing variety of insects from damsel flies and field crickets to cicadas, mayflies and beetles, plus others I could not identify.
As each adult approached the youngsters would gape and beg to be fed. Sometimes the insect was delivered on by an adult on the wing, but most times the parents landed on the branch and then selected the youngster they thought the most hungry (or best beggar).
Warou are a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It is a species native to Australia and nearby islands, but not until recently to New Zealand, which has been colonised in the last half century. It now enjoys the status as a protected native. The Welcome Swallow is metallic blue-black above, light grey below on the breast and belly, and rusty on the forehead, throat and upper breast. It has a long forked tail, with a row of white spots on the individual feathers. These birds are about 15 cm long, including the outer tail feathers which are slightly shorter in the female. The call is a mixture of twittering and soft warbling notes, and a sharp whistle in alarm. Young Welcome Swallows are buffy white, instead of rufous, on the forehead and throat, and have shorter tail streamers. Welcome Swallows readily breed close to human habitation. The nest is an open cup of mud and grass, made by both sexes, and is attached to a suitable structure, such as a vertical rock wall or building. It is lined with feathers and fur, and three to five eggs are laid. Two broods are often raised in a season. The female alone incubates the eggs, which hatch after two to three weeks. The young are fed by both parents, and leave the nest after a further two to three weeks. These birds are extremely agile fliers, which feed on insects while in flight. They often fly fast and low to the ground on open fields in large circles or figure 8 patterns. They will often swoop around animals or people in the open.
Their relatively short self introduction to New Zealand pretty much matches my own life as I am 56. When as quite a young boy I first got interested in bird watching, these were very rarely seen birds and none in the South Island between Nelson and a small number near Invercargill. Now they’re everywhere and are a delight to watch swooping after insects over open fields or water.
Breeding behaviour
Where possible, the birds excavate a nesting burrow into the soil. Sometimes they will make use of Manx shearwater or rabbit burrows. Where burrowing is not possible, the birds nest under boulders or in cracks and cavities in cliffs.
The birds defend the nesting site and its immediate surround, and use it in subsequent years. Puffins lay only a single egg, in late April or early May. Both parents incubate it for 36-45 days, and they share the feeding duties until the chick is ready to fledge.
The fledging period is very variable, ranging from 34 to 60 days, depending on the area and year.
Adult birds desert their young shortly before they are ready to leave the nest. The timing of the breeding in puffin colonies is highly synchronised, and so the departure of all adults takes place within a few days.
The young birds leave their nest burrow and make their way to the sea, normally under cover of darkness to avoid predators. In some colonies, for instance in Iceland, nearby bright lights confuse the young birds, which then fly into the light and end up on city streets.
Puffins usually reach breeding age at 5-6 years old, and often live for 20 years.
Governments around the world are drawing on behavioural insights to improve public policy outcomes: from automatic enrolment for pensions, to better tax compliance, to increasing the supply of organ donation.
But those very same policy makers are also subject to biases that can distort decision making. The Behavioural Insights Team has been studying those biases and what can be done to counter them, in collaboration with Jill Rutter and Julian McCrae of the Institute for Government.
The report was launched with remarks from Alex Chisholm, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.
Dr Michael Hallsworth, Director of the Behavioural Insights Team in North America presented the key findings.
The findings, their relevance to policy making today, and what they mean for the way governments make decisions were discussed by:
Polly Mackenzie, Director of Policy for the Deputy Prime Minister, 2010–15 and now Director of Demos
Dr Tony Curzon Price, Economic Advisor to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.
#IfGBIT
Photos by Candice McKenzie
Some odd Sea Lion behaviour. One Sea Lion sat motionless in the water for perhaps an hour holding a fin/fluke in the air. Every few minutes it would raise its head and take a breath of air. A second Sea Lion was sitting beside it and would also raise its head occasionally. Mating behaviour?
Point Roberts.
Madeline Gannon, Research Fellow, Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University, USA; Cultural Leader captured during the session: Being Human: Behaviour at the World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People's Republic of China 2018.Copyright by World Economic Forum / Sikarin Thanachaiary
"You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realise that you control your own destiny." Albert Ellis (via Twitter twitter.com/kimfishercbt/status/719221855517818881)
I was up at one of our local churchyards for my walk this morning when I noticed this female Mallard.
She was quacking away and then flew up into a hole in a tree, if she's nesting there I worry about the babies when they hatch.
The pond is just across a fairly busy road if they try to get there.