Tags: Birds Singing / Pied bushchat

Pied bushchat singing the best song ever

- Saturday, May 2, 2015 No Comments

The pied bushchat (Saxicola caprata) is a small passerine bird found ranging from West Asia and Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognized through its wide range with many island forms. It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey. 
This male Pied BushChat was very tame and visited the plot regularly. It looked really smart in its full breeding plumage with jet black body contrasting to the white rump and under tail coverts. It also regularly performed its short sweet song.

Many male passerines show a marked peak of singing activity before sunrise. It is generally believed that the main functions of the dawn song are mate attraction and territory defence.

We examined whether seasonal patterns of dawn song characteristics (i.e. song rate and level of song complexity) of male Pied Bush Chat were related with different breeding stages (unpaired, laying, nestling and fledgling). It was predicted that if the main function of dawn singing in Pied Bush Chat is to attract the female, then males should change their dawn singing behaviour after pairing.

Tags: Birds Singing / Calandra Lark

Calandra Lark singing a beautiful song

- Friday, April 10, 2015 No Comments

Calandra Lark singing a beautiful song. The calandra lark (Melanocorypha calandra) breeds in warm temperate countries around the Mediterranean and eastwards through Turkey into northern Iran and southern Russia. It is replaced further east by its relative, the bimaculated lark.

The Calandra lark is the bulkiest species of this family. Adult male in breeding plumage has greyish-brown upperparts with blackish streaks. In spite of the pale-edged feathers of the back, this bird appears very dark, almost black when flying, as well seen from above as for below. Chin and throat are white, like lower breast and belly. Upper breast is pale buff streaked brown. When in flight, we can see the white spots on primary and secondary feathers, contrasting with the dark plumage. On the neck side, at the base, there is an elongated black spot. The short tail is blackish-brown, with the two outer rectrices mainly white. The bill is strong, conical, and down-curved on culmen, with darker upper mandible. The lower mandible is yellow. Legs and feet are yellowish-brown. Eyes are brown.

It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but Russian populations of this passerine bird are more migratory, moving further south in winter, as far as the Arabian peninsula and Egypt. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.

This is a bird of open cultivation and steppe. Its nest is on the ground, with 4–5 eggs being laid. Food is seeds supplemented with insects in the breeding season. It is gregarious outside the breeding season.

This is a large, robust lark, 17.5–20 cm long. It is an undistinguished-looking species on the ground, mainly streaked greyish-brown above and white below, and with large black patches on the breast sides. It has a white supercilium.

In flight it shows short broad wings, which are dark below, and a short white-edged tail. The wing and tail patterns are distinctions from its more easterly relatives.

As soon as March, the males sing very loudly. The Calandra Lark’s song is very loud, with melodious notes, often interspersed with harsh tones which make the melody less strong and pleasant than expected. This bird is able to mimicry the song of other birds’ species. The flocks utter their nasal chatters in the harvested corn or barley fields “klitrr”. The song flight includes high-pitched trills.

Tags: Birds Singing / Hummingbird

Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song

- Wednesday, April 8, 2015 No Comments

Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song.

Hummingbird Singing a Beautiful song. Birdsong and Sounds.

What is a hummingbird?
Hummingbirds belong to the avian family Trochilidae and their closest relatives are the equally fascinating swifts. Hummingbirds are small (2-20 grams), with long narrow bills, and small saber-like wings.

Males (and occasionally females) often have a colorful gorget (see sidebar): small, stiff, highly reflective, colored feathers on the throat and upper chest. These shiny feathers and others around the head may look sooty black until a hummer turns its head to catch the sun and display the intense metallic spectral color.

Hummingbird Superlatives
The Smallest Birds: The bee hummingbird of Cuba is only 1.95 grams, which means that theoretically 16 could be mailed first class for 39 cents. The calliope hummingbird, the fourth smallest bird, weighs in at a whopping 2.5 grams (less than an ounce) and can be found in the mountains of western North America.

The Tiniest Egg: The smallest birds come from the smallest eggs. Makes sense. But how small? The one to two eggs in a ruby-throated hummingbird clutch are about as tiny as peas and are placed in a walnut-shell sized cup woven from spider webs and plant material.

The Avian Helicopter: Hummingbirds and swifts are able to stroke with power both on the down- and up-beat of a wing flap. Their power and small size allow tremendous agility in flight. In fact, hummingbirds are the only vertebrates capable of sustained hovering—staying in one place during flight—and they can fly backwards and upside down as well.

To their maneuverability, hummingbirds add speed and stamina. Hummingbirds have been clocked at close to 30 mph indirect flight and more than 45 mph during courtship dives. Migratory ruby-throated hummingbirds have no problem flying 18 to 20 straight hours to cross the Gulf of Mexico, powered by their fat stores and given a bit of help from winds.

Life in the Fastlane: A ruby-throated hummingbirds heart beats from 225 times a minute when the bird is at rest to more than 1,200 times per minute when its flying around. Its wings beat about 70 times per second in direct flight and over 200 times per second while diving.

Asleep on the Job: Hummingbirds are one of the few groups of birds that are known to go into torpor. Torpor is a very deep sleep-like state in which metabolic functions are slowed to a minimum and a very low body temperature is maintained. If torpor lasted for long periods, we would call it hibernation, but hummingbirds can go into torpor any night of the year when temperature and food conditions demand it.

Hummingbirds are the masters of torpor because the have to be. Their feathers offer poor insulation and they have incredibly high metabolic demands. Torpor allows them to check-out physiologically when they cant maintain their normal 105° body temperature.

Calliope Hummingbird
Where Do Hummingbirds Live?
The almost 340 species of hummingbirds are entirely restricted to the New World, where they can be found from Tierra Del Fuego to southern Alaska and from below sea level deserts to steamy tropical forests up to 16,000 feet in the Andes of South America.

Most species live in the tropics, and while 17 species regularly nest in the United States, many of these are found close to the Mexican border. Most areas in the U.S. have one or two breeding species, and only the ruby-throated hummingbird nests east of the Mississippi.

Tags: Birds / Birds Singing / Lyrebird / The Mimic

Lyrebird – The Mimic

- Thursday, April 2, 2015 No Comments

Lyrebird – The Mimic: A complex larynx enables the Lyrebird to create an incredible array of different sounds, ranging from its own songs to songs based on human sounds, such as a chainsaw, laser beams or camera shutters.

Lyrebird

The lyrebird’s superpower is the ability to mimic an incredible array of sonic information, which it uses as a self-defense mechanism to intimidate and hide from its predators.

This remarkable bird is able to mimic as many as 20 different species at a time and constantly sings its own songs and other tunes in an effort to keep safe. Lyrebirds are indigenous to Australia, found in the Great Dividing Range and the rainforest close to the border of Queensland and New South Wales.