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:
A black Swan attacking a Muscovy duck.
Hope you will enjoy this shot.
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©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).
Barn Owl - Tyto Alba
Norfolk,
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
Bastian with his toy mouse - at 12 y.o. he is still playful as a little kitten... ;)
Posted for the "Happy Caturday" theme "Behaviour".
Bastian (mixed breed), 18.10.2022
Olympus OMD EM5 Digital Camera
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
Both bumblebees are Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum), I think. The feeding behaviour of each individual on Salvia flowers however was consistently distinctive when following them flying from flower to flower. Taken in the garden. Bath, BANES, England, UK
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).
Very interesting behaviour - this LEO was hunting at 10AM (and was very successful at it!) Not typical behaviour for a dusk hunter. My hypothesis is that it was taking advantage of the people / dog activity in the local park, what I mean is that because of it’s proximity to a busy trail, dogs in particular spook mice and other rodents. If I was a betting person I’d say this is an example of a hunter adapting to it’s circumstances!
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.
This little sparrow was really taken with the seed head. It was a joy to watch it work its way round it.
A pair of Northern Gannets at their nest.
The male on the left had just returned and the female started to shake her head from side to side as if saying "Where have you been for all this time?"
The male then started to dart forward excitedly towards the female, beak agape,but never got too close.!
A few days later the female laid her first egg in the nest.
The head shaking is behaviour I have seen before but I have never managed to capture it on camera!.
Taken at RSPB Bempton.
RKO_9069.
Copyright: Robert Kok. All rights reserved! Watermark protected.
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juvenile marsh harrier (up) squawking at it's mum (down) for the moorhen chick in her claws. I don't know what I was doing with my shutter speed so excuse the quality lol but it shows some good behaviour. I'll be posting the mid air swap from the rear in about a week
Courtship behaviour of the great crested grebe.
great crested grebe
Haubentaucher
[Podiceps cristatus]
... says Timmy and Daddy agrees :-)
Happy Caturday 22.10.2022 "Behaviour"
My cat stories: www.wolfgang-kynast.de/katzen.htm
For this month's theme 'Chair'.
I decided on a different take on the theme, using this tiny deckchair and a Margo mini me to sit on it, so she's sitting on the chair, but in fur form :) The tiny biscuit nose was her reward for good behaviour.
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!
A very beautiful and colorful nuthatch found in many parts of the country, but hard to sight unless one knows where to look. After several sightings of various species of nuthatches, I am a bit comfortable in finding them now I suppose.
They are typical nuthatches in behaviour and defy gravity looking for insects, larvae and grub on the tree trunks and branches. The birds are resident in the country and found in deciduous forests often in the upper canopy, but quite possible that they come down to the lower part once in a while. We sighted several of them much to our delight, but shooting them was very challenging due to their size and in the thick canopy.
Thank you so much in advance for your views and feedback.
Species: Lanius meridionalis.
Location: Canary Islands, Spain.
Southern grey shrike and Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) are now recognised as different species. Not only do they differ in some plumage details, but also in size, voice, behaviour and favoured habitat.
Many thanks to people who view or comment on my photos.
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.
A Red-winged Blackbird clings to a bullrush, voicing his displeasure with my presence. Based on behaviour. these have to be my least favourite bird but the males, with their bright reddish-orange wings, are certainly a striking subject.
Thanks for viewing and have a great day :)
We spent a week in Tofino, sort of an annual pilgrimage for my husband and I during the shorebird migration... Aside from the shorebird, there is always an amazing number of Bald Eagles in Tofino... More often than others, they are perched in those tall conifer trees that line the beaches.... not the best photo settings unless you brought with you an extremely tall ladder :)
However, if you are an early riser and the tide is low, you might have a chance to catch an Eagle or a family of Eagles on the shores... I wonder why the Eagles hug the shores that way in the early morning at low tide? Are they hoping that the ocean will push on the shores some weak or dead seals that they can feast on? Are they trying to ambush some shorebirds coming to feed? Or are they just like us, fascinated by the sight and sound of those waves crashing on the shores? I am afraid I will need the assistance of the Birders with some "Sherlock Holmes" skills to resolve this enigma.
This being said, no matter what motivate the behaviour, it sure is a wonderful scene to witness!
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?
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Since lockdown, the animals behaviour have changed especially the squirrels in my local area. The seagulls and pigeons have encroached their territory. The squirrels are now scared, not so easy to photograph them anymore.
This female squirrel is pregnant. She came down from the tree a few times to get the groundnuts from me but she would not come close. When she got the nut she will climb up a tree keeping her distant until she finishes the nut before coming down again.
Although it is noted that animals can be seen more easily these days as compared to before lockdown. The sudden change of the way of life has certainly affected not only humans but of animals too.
Has there been less food for the squirrels ? Most probably it has as the seagulls have move inland to find food because the tourist trade has ceased and not much food for the seagulls at the seafront. Same goes for the pigeons.
So, it is not that a place had became quiet and other animals appear. They are actually forced to look for a greener pasture. Just an observation in my normal location shoot of squirrels.
Brighton 🇬🇧
26th March 2021
Dinnner is served : hedgehogs love eating snails. The name hedgehog came into use around the year 1450, derived from the Middle English heyghoge, from heyg, hegge ("hedge"), because it frequents hedgerows, and hoge, hogge ("hog"), from its piglike snout.[4] Other names include urchin, hedgepig and furze-pig. (Wikipedia) Montenaken, Belgium.
The lip curling you see here is known as the Flehmen Response of rutting Deer. It is a behaviour where an animal curls back its upper lips exposing its front teeth, inhales with the nostrils and can hold this position for several seconds. It may be performed over an area of interest to the animal (e.g. urine or faeces). They usually do this with the neck stretched and the head held high in the air. Flehmen is performed by a wide range of mammals. The behaviour facilitates the transfer of pheromones and other scents into the vomeronasal organ located above the roof of the mouth.