View allAll Photos Tagged Behaviour
Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand: the myth probably originates from the bird’s defensive behaviour of lying low at the approach of trouble and pressing their long necks to the ground in an attempt to become less visible. Their plumage blends well with sandy soil and, from a distance, gives the appearance that they have buried their heads in the sand.
They stand proud!
House Finches
April 8, 2025, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
In the hedge in the yard a pair of house finches displaying courting behaviour with the male giving seeds to the female.
Haemorhous mexicanus
The red of a male House Finch comes from pigments contained in its food during molt (birds can’t make bright red or yellow colors directly). So the more pigment in the food, the redder the male. This is why people sometimes see orange or yellowish male House Finches. Females prefer to mate with the reddest male they can find, perhaps raising the chances they get a capable mate who can do his part in feeding the nestlings.
House Finches feed their nestlings exclusively plant foods, a fairly rare occurrence in the bird world. Many birds that are vegetarians as adults still find animal foods to keep their fast-growing young supplied with protein.
There’s something delightful about people‑watching — those tiny, unguarded behaviours that surface when no one thinks they’re being observed. While waiting for family in the Queen Street Mall, I found myself just watching the afternoon unfold.
This lady wandered over, set her shopping bags down with surprising precision, and arranged them like she was preparing a Vogue magazine photoshoot. She snapped her “proof of purchase” shot, completely absorbed, and it made me smile. It also left me wondering what on earth was inside those bags that deserved its own documentation.
Telemonia male jumping spider courtship show, there is a female telemonia jumping spider in the opposite side! Will post the other image soon!
Some trees escaped the bedevilment of last November's late frost: white transparent apple, medlar, quince, this crabapple and the later olives. I got the apples, the sulphur-crested cockatoos took the quinces in one early morning raid on the day I planned to spread its net, nothing touches and unripe medlar and the olives flowered when it was cruelly dry; limiting for a tree that needs a drink.
Crabapples, like the medlar are a pretty unattractive proposition for a snack until they swell and soften, always set too many fruits, and have limited culinary uses. I was intending to make verjuice this season from the Riesling grapes until Jack Frost changed my plans. I didn't need any pickled crabapples because there's still some stuck away in the pantry, and momentarily thought instead to adopt the English position — verjuice from crabapples. Or, I could leave the net pulled back, and let the birds have them.
Crimson rosellas, and pied currawongs make good use of them. But what drew my attention to this — one of the few fruits remaining on this tree — was the gentle chatter of the king parrot couple: Charles and Camilla.
The crabapples are all gone now, so the bird attractants are few. I'll let you in on a behavioral trait I've observed consistently over the years. Sulphur-crested cockatoos, and short-billed corellas are the laziest flying white rats on the planet! An unregulated feedlot near me wastes so much feed that some days there are so many cockatoos and corellas on the ground that it looks like it has snowed. But on grey days, like today, they are too **beeping** lazy to sift through the cow pats and instead set about pulling out roof screws, stripping trees of shoots, leaves and bark, or taking desperately to chewing up olives. The olive is a disgusting, bitter thing straight off the tree. They know this. But smart enough to know it's fruit, and too stupid to learn that all olives are the same, they pick one, don't like it, and so keep doing the same thing over and over in some vain lunacy that they'll find a good one. They never do.
A crazy person squirting them up the date with a high pressure hose, or charging about wielding a leaf rake while making the sort of screech you imagine says banshee or bunyip, causes them to set up an alarm call, and scatter the flocks. A few will resettle, but this only happens a couple of times before they get even more bored than when they started, and leave. I am, it seems, not a bird attractant after all.
A little artistic licence for this one.
The Red Kites were circling together at one stage but I photographed them separately before combining them in Photoshop for this shot.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Sanderling (Calidris alba) is a small wader. It is a circumpolar Arctic breeder, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to South America, South Europe, Africa, and Australia. It is highly gregarious in winter, sometimes forming large flocks on coastal mudflats or sandy beaches.
This bird is similar in size to a Dunlin, but stouter, with a thick bill. It shows a strong white wingbar in flight, and runs along the sandy beaches it prefers with a characteristic "bicycling" action, stopping frequently to pick small food items. It eats small crabs and other small invertebrates. In spring, the birds arrive on the High Arctic breeding grounds.
The winter bird is very pale, almost white apart from a dark shoulder patch. Later in the summer, the face and throat become brick-red. Sanderling behavior is distinctive. It can be told from other small wading birds, given good views, by its lack of a hind toe. (wikipedia)
A Sanderling in breeding plumage along the Sagres coastline, Portugal.
Just for fun. We found a very cooperative immature Eagle yesterday. A big crop I wouldn't intentionally get that close.
I wen't down to check out the birdbath after and a few feathers remained. So sad really but that is nature right?
This is a good time of the year to find this species of shield bug in the long grass and bushes on the mendips and it has almost become an annual ritual to see if I can find feeding individuals. This is quite a common site with them feeding mainly on caterpillars and sawfly larvae, occasionally adult butterflies or moths.
Best viewed very large.
Visit Heath McDonald Wildlife Photography
You can see more of my images on my other flickr account Heath's moth page
Psychologist Timothy Leary developed an interaction behaviour theory which demonstrated a strong and consistent interdependency of behaviour between people.
Based on his research Leary arranged a set of interpersonal variables into a circle and which lead to an interpersonal circumplex model for assessing interpersonal behaviour, motives and traits. The construct of the model is formed by two main dimensions:
-1 - the degree of dominance / submission and
- 2 - the degree of friendliness / unfriendliness.
The first set of behaviour is located on the orthogonal y-axe of the model; the latter set of behaviour is located on the orthogonal x-axe of the model. Interpersonal behaviour plotted in the model reflects the degree of friendliness and dominance of that specific person at a given moment in time.
7 Days of shooting
Week #39
Flowers
Shoot anything saterday
Astronauts from five space agencies around the world are taking part in ESA’s CAVES training course – Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills.
The two-week course prepares astronauts to work safely and effectively in multicultural teams in an environment where safety is critical.
As they explore the caves of Sardinia they will encounter caverns, underground lakes and strange microscopic life. They are testing new technology and conducting science – just as if they were living on the International Space Station. The six astronauts relying on their own skills, teamwork and ground control to achieve their mission goals – the course is designed to foster effective communication, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership and team dynamics.
This year is the first international space cooperation to involve astronauts from China, Russia, Japan, ESA and America, with cosmonaut Sergei Vladimirovich, ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, taikonaut Ye Guangfu, Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide and NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Jessica Muir taking part.
This picture was taken on the second day underground for the ‘cavenauts’. They will spend six nights without sunlight, setting up basecamp in the Sa Grutta cave in Sardinia, Italy. As with any astronaut mission, science and technology are an important part of the undertaking. The astronauts are making 3D maps of the caves they explore using photograph-based measurements.
Follow CAVES via twitter @ESA_CAVES or with #CAVES2016 or on the CAVES blog.
Credit: ESA-V.Crobu
Always rewarding when you obtain images of snake behaviour, and particularly when it is looping behaviour from a stunning little Bandy Bandy! This one was found beneath a stone in the Herberton Range up on the Atherton Tableland last week while out and about looking for reptiles with the fella's.
...not the birdie
Poppy, my dog, had a better idea than to look at the camera as I'd asked her, instead watching the pretty buttercup catching the sunlight. As is often the case (with her being half collie), her idea was superior to mine, and resulted in a better composition than I'd planned originally, confirming to me, yet again, that the IQ is most definitely on the wrong end of the lead! :D
Doing what cockatoos like to do best, Little Corella ripping cones to pieces in pine trees. Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Matti-Jay asked for photos of her playing with the lock to the tools shed at Memorial park back in December. Bit cheeky really, I'm not sure she would have had such a grin if park maintenance turned up :)
I was delighted to note that she's wearing the flower earrings I made many moons ago that I gave her for Christmas. Boxing Day 2017.