Ever wonder where bird names come from? And what they mean?
Harry over at his blog called Heraclitean Fire had fun with the dictionary recently. He discovered some interesting things about words and birds. He tells about his discoveries in a post called Birding the Dictionary.
Related articles:
White-browed Babbler
I’ve written a number of times about the birds that come to visit the bird baths in our garden (see the links below).
We are constantly delighted to see the stream of honeyeaters, pardalotes, parrots and many other species that come to drink. Some linger awhile to bathe. Some are tentative in their approach, others come in boldly, chasing away any who may linger too long.
White-browed Babblers
White-browed Babblers are frequent visitors to our garden. They come in their family group, scuttling through the low bushes, scurrying up the branches of the mallee trees searching for insects and spiders and filling the air with their cat like calls.
From time to time their foraging antics bring them close to the bird bath. Sometimes they get as close as a metre away. I have never seen them land on the bird bath, let alone take a drink or bathe.
I recently read a series of posts on the Birding-Aus forum that many species of birds do not need to drink, or drink very infrequently. They manage to gather enough moisture from the insects, beetles and spiders they eat.
Related Articles:
Updated November 2013, and September 2015
The latest edition of Birds in the News is available on Living the Scientific Life. It contains plenty of links to a wide array of articles about birds in the news.
Sections include:
If you don’t read anything else, have a look at the absolutely wonderful photo of the Puffins right at the top.
The latest edition of the carnival I and the Bird #44 has been posted at The Greenbelt. Here you will find plenty of links to birding blogs from around the world.
As usual, I have made a contribution to the carnival, but I only just made it to this edition. I must try to get my links in well before the due date in future.
Related articles:
I was telling my wife about all these bloopers and she reminded me about an incident in 1987 when we were camping at Lake Hattah in the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park in Victoria.
We were very annoyed trying to get to sleep one night when we heard a low “ooom-ooom-ooom” sound coming from nearby. We thought that some inconsiderate campers had a power generator going. Power generators are not allowed in most National Parks.
Next morning we discovered the source of the noise – a Tawny Frogmouth perched on a branch above our tent.
Even though the frogmouth started calling again the next evening, we slept well.
To read more birding bloopers click here.
Question for readers:
When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).