Trevor's Birding

Talking about birds

2 Comments »7th August, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birds, Camera

A few minutes ago I arrived home after visiting one of our local Residential Aged Care homes. Our ladies’ fellowship group at church had arranged to hold one of their meetings in a small meeting room in the home. I was the guest speaker for the meeting.

I was asked to speak about birds and show some of my photographs of the birds of this area using a PowerPoint presentation. I was asked to keep the talk to about thirty minutes and this was to keep their attention. The old folk tend to drift into the Land of Noddy after that. With my considerable collection of photos and my tendency to rave on a little about my favourite hobby, restricting me to thirty minutes was a challenge. (Or perhaps the organiser knows me too well!)

Anyway, I managed to cull the presentation down to thirty photographs and I mentally gave myself one minute to talk about each photo. Mission accomplished: I only went over by about five minutes. In fact, it took longer to get all the old folk to the room in their wheel chairs and walking frames than it took to give the presentation.

Many of the folk thought the presentation was great with much praise for the photos. And I only heard heavy breathing coming from one person, despite the very warm room. It was a pleasing experience.

Below is one of the photos I showed this afternoon.

Updated Nov 2013.

Mallee Ringneck Parrot

Bird Blogging Conference

No Comments »6th August, 2007; Category: Birders, Blogs

I’ve heard quite a bit about conferences for bloggers but these have usually been for people who write blogs about blogging.

Now we have the First Bird Blogging Conference which is being organized by Sharon Stiteler on her blog called Birdchick.com. This sounds like being a great get together of birders who also blog on the north American continent. Pity it’s such a long way from Australia.

P.S. Anyone know where I can get a return air ticket from Australia for under $500???

Bird Word: Lifer

8 Comments »5th August, 2007; Category: Bird Word, Glossary

Lifer: the first ever time that a birder sees a species of bird it is called a “lifer” or a “tick”.

When you are new to the world of birding and birdwatching, nearly every bird you see is a “lifer” or a new tick in your bird note book or field guide. As the years go by it becomes increasingly hard to find new birds to add to your list. To overcome this there are several courses of action:

Take a holiday in a different part of the country. For example, when I go to Queensland I am sure I will have no trouble adding some 50 or more lifers to my life list. This is because I’ve never been there and there are quite a few birds best seen there (or are not seen anywhere else in Australia).
Take a holiday in another country. When I went to Nepal in 2005 it was my first overseas trip (see my blog called Trevor’s Travels) so almost every bird I saw was a lifer. Great stuff.
Enjoy the common birds. I take delight in even the most common of birds that surround my house and which I see every day. I get to know the regulars in my garden and my ears are easily tuned in to anything unusual or different.
Give up. Start another hobby like stamp collecting… no – that’s not an option.

Check out other words and terms about birds and birding by going to my Glossary of Bird Words.
See also another article on this topic here.

Crested Pigeon

New contact form for this blog

No Comments »4th August, 2007; Category: General

A new feature on this blog for my readers is a Contact Form.

This will now be a constant feature on the side bar under the Contents heading. It is for my readers who wish to contact me via email for whatever reason – rather than leaving a comment or question in the comments section.

The usual comments section will remain of course. And you can also subscribe to my RSS feeds for both posts and comments. This facility is also on the sidebar.

Kalij Pheasant, Central Zoo, Kathmandu

Do birds have sense of smell?

13 Comments »3rd August, 2007; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birds, Frequently Asked Questions

One of my readers contacted me via email today to ask the question: “Do birds have a sense of smell?” It’s a really good question and one I’d never really given much thought to.

Thanks to Bev for this question. (You are the first to use my contact form – see the sidebar.)

Do birds have a sense of smell?

The short answer is yes, they do.

The long answer is more complicated.

The upper mandible (beak) is pierced by the nostrils. Usually the nostrils are near the base of the bill. Relatively few birds are known to use the sense of smell in their search for food; indeed in most species the sense of smell seems to be poorly developed. (Quoted from the book “Birds: their life, their ways, their world” published by the Reader’s Digest in 1979)

So they can smell but most species do not rely on this sense much at all.

Birds that have a good sense of smell

There are always exceptions to the rule!

Some birds do have a highly developed sense of smell. The New Zealand Kiwi, for example, has nostril placed near the tip of the bill and this enables it to smell its food as it probes the earth and leaf litter. The kiwi has a double whammy; not only does it have very poor eyesight, it is also mostly nocturnal in its habits. Having a fine sense of smell is a definite bonus if you are a Kiwi (the bird, not the people of New Zealand!).

I also remember a sequence on “The Life of Birds” videos featuring David Attenborough where he hides a piece of rotten meat under the leaf litter deep in a rainforest. Within minutes the local Turkey Vultures had found the hidden meat, even though they had been several kilometres away.

Likewise some seabirds are able to smell great distances:

For example, fulmars can smell fish oils from up to 25 kilometres (15 miles) downwind, so when these oils form a slick on the sea surface as a result predatory fish and mammals attacking shoals of fish and squid underwater, the fulmar are quickly at the scene to forage for food. Other sea birds can smell a pheromone that fish give off when stressed. (British Garden Birds website)

Conclusion:

Birds do have a sense of smell, but most rarely use this sense. Some species, however, rely heavily on their sense of smell for their survival.

Acknowledgment:

Thanks again to Bev for this very interesting question.