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:
GAMBIA FEB 2019
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NORMALLY VERY PLACID HERON, with no neck showing, but something came near, did not see what it was, it reeled out its neck , with a feather duster look, with a loud grunting type call, was quite taken back with its very long neck behaviour. Have shown the normal pose thirty seven images back, if you want to compare
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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).
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
Dove and Red-headed Finch.
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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).
This very small nutria was walking silently in the shadow, that's why I had to use high ISO. Zoom in for more details.
As you can see his fur has a lot of different shades of brown.
And as you can see he was very young : big head and small body
(_DSC0025_DxO-2048N)
Flamingos usually stand on one leg, with the other being tucked beneath the body. The reason for this behaviour is not fully understood. One theory is that standing on one leg allows the birds to conserve more body heat, given that they spend a significant amount of time wading in cold water. However, the behaviour also takes place in warm water and is also observed in birds that do not typically stand in water. An alternative theory is that standing on one leg reduces the energy expenditure for producing muscular effort to stand and balance on one leg. A study on cadavers showed that the one-legged pose could be held without any muscle activity, while living flamingos demonstrate substantially less body sway in a one-legged posture. As well as standing in the water, flamingos may stamp their webbed feet in the mud to stir up food from the bottom. This one I found at the Houston Zoo.
RKO_9069.
Copyright: Robert Kok. All rights reserved! Watermark protected.
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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.
It is not just the boys that enjoy singing in the springtime.
However, the tune and the volume is a little softer.
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.
Taken a few months back in the Kent coastal town of Whitstable. In general seagulls in the British coastal resorts have a bad reputation for their aggressive behaviour, well deserved I should add. Should you just be tucking into your lovely bag of chips (fries) you'd better beware that if you take your attention away for even a second then chances are one of these guys will be swooping in for a free meal. It can scare the bejesus out of you! And if they don't steal your food they just might leave you with something else in the form of an embarrassing white streak down your back, or heaven forbid, on your head!
** Please read **
I'm going to be leaving this message on my next few posted images. This is to let the photographers that I follow know that due to the immense amount of time it takes me to go through all the photos that appear in my Flickr stream each day I am setting my stream to show only one image per day per person. It's either that or get Flickr burn-out. Apologies in advance if your photos don't get as much of my attention as they used to. Hopefully people will understand my reasons for doing so. Thanks.
We just couldn't believe this!
Many of you would have seen adult Grebe's doing the Weed Dance., an elaborate and beautiful 'Courtship' ritual
But what we have here are two Grebe chicks from the same family spontaneously performing (with all the same complex moves) the very same dance
They are young and immature., so this cannot be 'learnt behaviour' but instead somehow engrained into their DNA
We were taken by surprise and It was wonderful to watch!
Thanks for looking, comments and faves. Much appreciated!
I first saw this behaviour earlier in the year. On that occasion the adult spent ages trying to get to the flesh of the starfish.
This youngster once it had seen off all it's rivals didn't mess about and simply swallowed the starfish whole.
Starfish - Asteroidea
Herring Gull - Larus Argentatus
Oban Bay Scotland
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Halcyon senegalensis
L'offrande de nourriture du mâle à la femelle est un comportement très fréquent... avant les choses plus sérieuses...
Parc national Kruger, Afrique du Sud
The offering of food by the male to the female is a very frequent behaviour... before more serious things happen...
Kruger National Park, South Africa
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....
This bird was a pretty exciting find at Britannia yesterday. I visited the park at the end oft he work day, mostly because our weather, which had been great, was changing for the worse, and I had hoped the last bit of sunshine and warm weather might bring out a few birds. I had no idea this bird - and a female, which was a lifer for me - would be around. It was in a flock of about thirty Yellow-rumps, and it only became visible after about ten minutes of monitoring the flock (Northern Parulas were present as well).
Unlike the behaviour of this bird in the spring, when it tends to be low to the ground, and often on the ground, this bird had joined in with the Yellow-rumps, hawking insects and flying around rapidly. It was tough to get any decent image, as the bird rarely touched down for long. But the light cooperated, and patience (as it often is) was rewarded. Not a rarity, but a great surprise this late in the migration. And fun to obtain an image with some trace of fall colours - he spent a lot of time near but not fully in some beautiful Staghorn Sumac, which would have been amazing.
OBSERVE Collective
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I was watching a group of Harbour (Common) and Grey Seals hauled out on the beach at Horsey, Norfolk during the first week of June when a big male Grey Seal caught my attention at the water's edge. It seemed to be holding down another smaller seal and when other seals approached it behaved aggressively towards them. The struggle continued for some time but the malevolent looking big bull clearly had the upper hand. Nov. - Dec. is the breeding seasons for Grey Seals on the east coast towards the latter part of which time male/male competition can be intense. This behaviour was, therefore, very unusual in that it was seen at a time of year when Grey Seals should not be competing (or mating). My thanks to Tim Melling for his explanation and interpretation concluding that the big size difference makes it likely that this behaviour was probably sexual aggression towards a non willing female.