Snowy owls have been spotted in Oregon! They are almost a meter tall, and their diet is 90% lemmings, plus voles and other small mammals. They live in the Arctic the rest of the year, but are known to fly south in large numbers every few winters; it’s called an irruption.This year, the numbers are super high, and it is kind of a mystery. One even showed up in Hawaii and they shot it at the airport! It was the first snowy owl there…ever, and they shot it at the airport.
Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/science/earth/spike-in-snowy-owl-sightings-stirs-speculation-among-bird-watchers.html?ref=science
and here: http://www.owlinstitute.org/
I love the late Cretaceous! It used to be a big mystery when I was a kid, and there was actually a lot of disagreement between scientists about the evolution of raptors and birds. Evidence has been rolling in for the last 30 years, and there are just so many cool pre-birds (that’s what I call them, most scientists would probably have a better name).
This is Citipati. They were huge (emu sized). At least four Citipati specimens have been found in brooding positions, the most famous is a large specimen nicknamed “Big Mamma” found in the Gobi Desert. All of the nesting specimens are situated on top of egg clutches, with their limbs spread symmetrically on each side of the nest, possibly-feathered front limbs covering the nest perimeter. This brooding posture is found today only in birds and supports a behavioral link between birds and theropod dinosaurs.
They are in the genus oviraptorid, or egg-theives, but they were totally misnamed at first. Oviraptor was originally presumed to have eaten eggs, based on its association with a fossilized nest thought to belong to Protoceratops. The discovery of actual nesting specimens of Citipati with the same types of egg showed that they were likely brooding the eggs, not feeding on them.
1. Citipati brooding behavior
2. Big Momma
3. Big Auntie
4. close up
5. A 1922 illustration incorrectly showing reptilian-like protoceratops guarding “their” eggs from the Citipati.
Pigeons can perform abstract mathematical reasoning just as well as primates. I will add that to my super long list of why I think pigeons are totally amazing.
Read more here:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/science/pigeons-can-learn-higher-math-as-well-as-monkeys-study-suggests.html?_r=1&ref=science
Parakeets have taken over Britain! Nobody knows why, but the population has soared to 30,000, up from only 1500 in 1995. They are green parakeets with pink beaks, the kind you would buy in a pet store, but they are feral and breeding exponentially. They are damaging crops, monopolizing bird feeders and out-competing native species like the nuthatch. Scientists have set up Project Parakeet to try to track their spread and better understand why they have been so successful in the UK.
