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| Sunday, 22 May 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Avian marvels
Birds have fascinated man for thousands of years and have been the object of much scientific study. What is the one characteristic that distinguishes birds from other animals? Their feathers of course. These elaborate and colourful feathers are made of a substance known as keratin. Birds live in all kinds of habitats, and come in various shapes, sizes and colours, as there are thousands of varieties of birds on our planet. Let's check out some of them today... Black Woodpecker The biggest woodpecker in Europe and Asia, the Black Woodpecker is also the loudest. Clinging to the side of a hollow tree, it hammers on the trunk with its chisel-like bill in bursts of 2-3 seconds, making 14-18 'hits' per second. The noise created by the head banging sounds like a machine-gun and can be heard up to a distance of 1.8 km. In exceptionally good conditions, it could be heard as far away as 3-4 km. If not for the protective tissue at the base of its forehead, it would have damaged its skull because of the powerful way it hammers on a tree trunk.
The Black Woodpeckers feed mainly on ants and their larvae, and on wood boring beatles. The birds have sticky tongues with five pairs of barbs at the tip which can be extended to 55 mm (2.2 in) beyond the tip of their bills. They hack away at trees and stumps, sometimes creating massive craters in them, and then enter their tongues to spear the food within. Distributed throughout Eurasia, from Spain and Scandinavia east to Kamchatka, and south to the Caspian Sea and Southwest China, the Black Woodpeckers live in forests. In spring, these birds utter a very loud, ringing call that sounds like laughter. They nest in holes made high up on trees or telegraph poles, laying up to 4-6 eggs. The incubation period is 12-14 days. Snowy Owl
This stunningly beautiful ghostly white owl which silently floats across the snowy Arctic wastes in full daylight is known as the 'Phantom of the North'. Huge in size, with a wingspan of about 160 cm (5.25 ft), the Snowy Owl habitually floats over the northern tundra in search of its favourite food, lemmings and voles. It is one of the most powerful of all owls and is capable of killing and carrying off 10 or more lemmings, each upto 15 cm long and weighing upto 130 g, in one day! Its breeding habits are fascinating. It nests on a small scrape on the ground, usually on a small hummock or rock outcrop. It lays 3-9 eggs or as many as 14 eggs in years when the food supply is good. The incubation period is 30-33 days. Snowy Owls move south in large numbers and have even turned up as far south as Bermuda and northern India. Some Snowy Owls remain in northern Greenland throughout the Arctic winter. Eastern Whipbird It is quite a common bird in the brush country of eastern Australia and its remarkable whipcrack call is familiar and quite unmistakable. A rather shy bird which feeds mainly on insects, it prefers to live within dense vegetation such as scrub, wooded areas and thickly wooded gullies. It tends to keep near the ground and runs quickly away from danger through the vegetation when disturbed.
The easiest way to know whether the elusive Eastern Whipbird is present is to listen to its call which is distinctive. The male's song is made up of several fluty notes followed by an amazing sound just like the crack of a whip. It is this unmistakable sound that gives the bird its name. Occasionally another two short sharp notes follow the whipcrack sound. but they are made by the female although it seems to have come from the same bird. The female birds build nests of twigs and roots low in a bush and lay 2-3 eggs. Cape Sugarbird Wherever shrubs known as the protea which have spectacular flowers are found, these rather dull birds with their long tails will be present. Protea shrubs grow only in Southern Africa, mainly on slopes of mountains. They blossom at different times according to the altitude.Cape Sugarbirds are almost totally dependent on these plants for their food and nesting requirements. They feed on insects and nectar from the flowers. Distributed throughout the Southern Cape Province in South Africa, these birds grow upto a length of 45 cm (18 inches) including the tail, which may grow upto 30 cm (12 in) in males. The birds weigh only 25g (0.9 oz).Sugarbirds nest in the protea bushes and are extremely territorial when breeding. The birds build cup-shaped nests of grass and small twigs and line the nests with fluff and seed pappi from proteas. Red-headed Woodpecker This woodpecker breeds in North America from the Atlantic coast, across to the mid-west. It travels many hundreds of kilometres from its breeding areas in open park lands, wooded valleys and light woodlands to find an adequate supply of acorns on which it solely depends in the winter. It also eats a wide variety of insects and vegetable matter. Red-headed Woodpeckers collect as many acorns as they can and store them in any handy crevice or cavity they can find. They often store more than what they can possibly eat, and sometimes never even touch the food they have stored. When it comes to nesting, they bore holes in dead trees, fence posts or telegraph poles and lay about 4-7 eggs. The incubation period is about 14-16 days. Facts and Pix: Remarkable Animals |
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