This week in birds - #90

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Luke Seitz, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

The common name for the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is "Fool Hen." It got the name because its first defense when threatened by a predator is to freeze in place until the threat is almost upon it. Then it bursts into flight, which may startle the predator enough to allow the bird to make its escape. Those who observed this action apparently saw it as a foolish strategy. But maybe the Fool Hen gets the last laugh, because it is thriving, its population stable.

The bird's proper name is Spruce Grouse and it lives in the cold, cold North, mostly in Canada but occasionally dipping into the northernmost United States. It is a bird of the coniferous forests, especially those that feature dense undergrowth of shrubs such as blueberries. True to its name, one of its favorite foods is spruce or other coniferous needles.

Spruce Grouse are at home in the trees and prefer to walk along tree limbs or on the ground rather than fly. An interesting feature of the bird is that each fall they grow "snowshoes"—short fleshy bristles called pectinations—on their toes, which help support the bird on snow and probably help to grip slippery branches as well. These bristles are shed each spring.

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Those magical white owls made famous by Harry Potter, the Snowy Owls, are making their annual incursion into the northern United States. Snowy Owls are normally birds of the High Arctic and birders get very excited when they venture farther south.

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Tomorrow is the first day of December, which means that Christmas Bird Count season is almost upon us. This will be the 114th CBC. If you are interested in participating this year - and why wouldn't you be? - the Audubon website will help you find a count that is taking place near you.  

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Researchers have determined that Barn Owl nestlings are able to recognize their siblings' calls. Clever little owlets! 

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The bonobo, formerly called the pygmy chimpanzee, is probably the least well-known of all the great apes. It is also one of the most severely endangered. It is rapidly losing space to encroaching human populations and activities in its home range of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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It seems hard to believe but apparently some Californians mistake Turkey Vultures for California Condors! Now, vultures are much smaller than condors, and, typically, they are found in groups, whereas condors are usually solitary. But they are both black and they both have naked heads, so, yeah, I guess there is a certain family resemblance. 

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The UK had a particularly wet and cold spring in 2012 and it was especially hard on birds, but studies show that urban birds actually fared much better than their country cousins during that season.

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The effects of climate change in the Galapagos Islands  threaten the continued existence of the flightless Galapagos Cormorant. The warming of the ocean's waters near the islands' coasts is adversely affecting the cormorant's food supply, which in turn affects the bird's ability to breed successfully.

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An editorial in the Seattle Times makes an argument for keeping some totally natural wild spaces in urban parks. Actually, that seems like a no brainer to me.

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Those who are only familiar with the domesticated varieties of turkey may be surprised to learn that Wild Turkeys can actually fly. True, they are not equipped for long distance flying, but they are perfectly able to execute explosive take-offs and fly for short distances, sufficient to escape predators. Not unlike their cousin, the Spruce Grouse, actually. 

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The male Laysan Albatross is a philandering rascal that will mate with as many females as he can, but he only participates in raising one chick. So his other "wives" with their chicks will often pair up with another female albatross which will help to raise their chick.

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The okapi, also known as the "forest giraffe," has joined the growing number of animals on the Red List of Threatened Species. This wonderful animal is the national symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a close relative of the giraffe and is endemic in rain forests, but its numbers have declined drastically to the point that it is now considered endangered, just one step away from extinction. Poaching and habitat loss, as well as the presence of rebels, illegal miners, and elephant poachers are all threats to the okapi's survival.

For the compilation of this Red List, the status of 71,576 species was assessed. Of that number, 21, 286 were found to be in danger of extinction. 

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Around the backyard:

I was unable to complete my regular observations for Project FeederWatch last weekend because of heavy rains and very cold weather. We had over three inches of rain during the period. This weekend's conditions look a lot more promising and I am eager to see what will turn up at my feeders.