Posts Tagged With: birds

A Bird Named Clark

We spent today bird watching again. We wanted to find a really interesting bird that is known for its amazing memory! So off we went with our binoculars in search of the Clark’s Nutcracker!

Date: 11/16

Location: Temperate Rainforest

• Clark’s nutcrackers have long shark beaks for extracting pine seeds from cones.
• They store these seeds for the winter.

• Scientists say Clark’s nutcrackers make a spacial map in their brain and that is how they remember where their food caches are!
• Unlike other birds, Clark’s nutcrackers are active during winter and often may have chicks in January or February.
• These amazing birds do forget seeds over the season and in turn plant pine trees all over the forest.
• Clark’s nutcrackers are members of the corvid family (crows and jays).
• These great little birds were discovered by William Clark on his expedition west with Meriwether Lewis!
• They do stay in monogamous pairs. Both female and males incubate the eggs.

We had so much fun watching these gregarious birds in the forest! We are so fascinated by their cache behavior. Their memory is crazy. Scientist have studied these little birds to learn about how intelligent they really are. Edmond swears they keep little maps with X marks to keep up with all of those seeds!

Whoooooo Did We Spot?

We spent our first night in a cabin in the forest. The trees are so big and tall. We hope to learn more about the trees while we are here, not just the animals. It is definitely chilly, but we sat on the back porch so that we could listen and look for this animal. And man did we hear them and we did spot one with our night vision goggles! We found the great horned owl.

• Great horned owls have feathery tufts on their heads.
• They are the most abundant owl in the Americas.

• They have been known to predate on falcons, other owls and even scorpions.
• Great horned owls are nocturnal.
• Male great horned owls are smaller than the females.
• Great horned owls are known to mate for life. You can often hear pairs call to each other.
• They have bright amazing yellow eyes.

We could have stayed up all night to listen to the owls calling each other! Take a listen to their haunting calls. These amazing raptors can be found all over North America, but it sure was neat to spot them on our first night in the temperate rainforest!

One Magnificent Frigate Bird!

Date: 10/13

Location: Galapagos Islands

• Magnificent frigate birds feed on flying fish that catch when the fish jump out of the water.
• They spend most of their lives at sea.

• Male magnificent frigate birds have large red throat sacs. They use these to attract females during mating season.
• Females are dark with white coloration. They are also large than the males.
• They have long hooked bills.
• You magnificent frigate birds stay with their mother for up to a year.
• They are also known as the Man-O-War bird.

We watched these birds soar from the boat and then as we were on land watching the Sally Lightfoot crabs. These amazing sea birds are so graceful in the air, diving down to catch their meals. Sea going birds are a favorite at the University- Professor Baxter might be a bit bias though :). Hehehehe!

Date:9/7

Location: Amazon Rainforest

Observations:

We went to same spot on the edge of the forest to see if we could spot any vultures. We saw a carcass of a large animal across the open grass field the day before and were hoping the vultures would come today. It didn’t take long before the turkey vultures showed up! And then finally a king vulture swooped in and everyone else moved out its way. They definitely are kings of the carcass! Hahahaha!