Swallows
Swallows are nice birds with white undersides, iridescent blue-green backs, and moderately forked tails. The swallow body is 5 to 6 inches in length. In contrast, its long, deeply forked tail distinguishes the barn swallow. The cliff swallow is also recognized by its pale, orange-brown rump, white forehead, dark rust-colored throat, and steel blue crown and back.
Swallows feed insects and spend a large part of each day in the air catching flies, beetles, and mosquitoes. Their long, pointed wings give them great speed and maneuverability. Normally, swallows are not seen on the ground except when collecting mud for their nests.
picture source : http://www.pestproducts.com/swallows.htm
Spice Finch
Spice Finch is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and the Philippines.
Spice Finch is 11–12 cm in length. The adult has a stubby dark bill, brown upperparts and darker brown head. The underparts are white with black scale markings. The sexes are similar, but immature birds have pale brown upperparts, lack the darker head and have uniform buff underparts.
Spice Finch diet consists of dry seed, rice, small insect, and greens as the basis. Melons and cucumber are also enjoyed as are green seedling grasses.
Penguins
Penguins are birds with black and white feathers.But unlike most birds, penguins are not able to fly, they swim.Penguins use their wings for swimming.Penguin’sare carnivores.They mostly eat seafood.The main food is fish.They also eat squid, krill and crustaceans.Penguins hunt for fish, squid or shrimp like krill in the oceans to fill their stomach.Most penguins can swim about 15 miles per hour.Some penguins live in Antarctica, Coast of South America, South Africa, Galapagos, Southern Australia and New Zealand.
habitat
Most penguins spend more time in the water. Their bodies are designed adapt to the water. They have feathers that help them to move but also to keep the water from reaching their body.
nests
penguins use grass, rocks, sticks, and other debris to build nests and burrows. This is where they will lay their eggs as well as care for their young when they are born until they can go to the water to hunt for food on their own.
Herons are good hunters
Herons are good hunters, with long strong beaks on the end of a long neck which uncoils to deliver a quick, powerful lunge.
Their long legs give them added height advantage and a long stride.
The primary food for Heron is small fish, though it is also known to opportunistically feed on a wide range of shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and small birds.
woodpecker
woodpecker nest in cavities.A cosy hole in a tree trunk is the place where Woodpeckers nest. The nest entrance is very round. Almost every species nests in tree cavities, although in deserts some species nest inside holes in cactus and a few species nest in holes dug into the earth.
they will cut a hole in a tree trunk, but they'll already know that the tree's insides are hollow and good for a nest.... they don't hollow out a tree, just put a hole where there is already a cavity.....
ChickeN Fact Again
- A chickens' heart beats 280-315 times a minute
- It takes a hen 24-26 hours to lay an egg.
- A chicken takes 21 days to hatch.
- Chickens lay different colored eggs, from white, to brown, to green, to pink, to blue.
- A chickens' body temperature normally runs at 102-103 degrees F
chicken Egg !!
A hen requires 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg. Thirty minutes later, she starts all over again.The Egg anatomy, below :
SHELL- the first line of defence against the entry of bacteria
- can be brown or white; nutritional value of the egg is the same
- composed mainly of calcium carbonate
- approximately 8,000 to 10,000 tiny pores allow moisture and gases in (O2) and out (CO2)
SHELL MEMBRANES
- there are two membranes on the inside of the shell
- one membrane sticks to the shell and one surrounds the white (albumen)
- the second line of defence against bacteria
- composed of thin layers of protein fibres
GERMINAL DISC
- appears as a slight depression on the surface of the yolk
- the entry for the fertilization of the egg
WHITE (ALBUMEN)
- there are two layers: thin and thick albumen
- mostly made of water, high quality protein and some minerals
- represents 2/3 of the egg's weight (without shell)
- when a fresh egg is broken, the thick albumen stands up firmly around the yolk
CHALAZA
- a pair of spiral bands that anchor the yolk in the centre of the thick albumen
- the fresher the egg the more prominent the chalazas
- unnoticeable when the egg is cooked
YOLK MEMBRANE
(VITELLINE MEMBRANE)
- surrounds and holds the yolk
- the fresher the egg the stronger the membrane
YOLK
- the egg's major source of vitamins and minerals, including protein and essential fatty acids
- represents 1/3 of the egg's weight (without shell)
- yolk colour ranges from light yellow to deep orange, depending on the hen's food
AIR CELL
- forms at the wide end of the egg as it cools after being laid
- the fresher the egg the smaller the air cell
Chicken Facts
- Chickens are not capable of sustained flight.
- Chickens are a bird .
- There are over 150 kinds of domestic chickens.
- It takes 21 days for a chick to hatch.
- To produce a dozen eggs, a hen has to eat about four pounds of feed.
- Chickent can't swim haha :D
Swan
The swans are the largest members of the duck family. Swans are is one of the largest water bird that can fly.The largest species.can reach length of over 1.5 m and weigh over 15 kg . Their wingspans can be almost 3 m.Swans can fly as fast as 50 to 60 miles per hour.
Habitat: large freshwater areas, such as rivers, lakes and canals. Also estuaries, especially in winter.
Geese can eat on land and in water. They are herbivorous, though a small number of small aquatic animals. In the waters, get their food by filtering water, and their diet consists of roots, stems, and leaves of aquatic plants and plant in water.An adult swan eats about 4kg of aquatic vegetation every day. It reaches these underwater plants by plunging its long neck into the water
ostrich
The Ostrich is a large flightless bird native to Africa. They roam African savanna and desert lands and get most of their water from the plants they eat. It is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs and the ability to run at maximum speeds of about 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph), the top land speed of any bird.
They mainly feed on seeds, shrubs, grass, fruit and flowers.Ostriches typically eat plants, roots, and seeds but will also eat insects, lizards, or other creatures available in their sometimes harsh habitat.
Pigeon
Pigeons are a member of the bird family Columbidae (doves and pigeons). Pigeons are commonly seen in many major cities and have been raised as pets or used as carrier pigeons for their homing ability.Although pigeons can live free in the wild, they can also be pets and are easy to feed.Pigeons can fly up to 40 or 50 miles per hour and may fly as far as 600 miles a day.Pigeons can fly very fast.Pigeons also have very strong "homing instincts" that help them find their way back from far away
pigeon eat mainly seeds, although in cities their diet has been expanded to include popcorn, peanuts and bits of bread.
Pigeons reproduce throughout the year, even during winter, and can raise four or five broods annually. The female usually lays two white eggs. Both parents take turns keeping the eggs warm. Males usually stay on the nest during the day; females at night. Incubation takes about 16 to 19 days and the young are fed crop milk for about the first two weeks.
Do pigeons have any predators?
Hawks and other large animal-eating birds (birds of prey) catch and eat pigeons. The Peregrine Falcon is a bird of prey that lives in some cities and feeds on pigeon
Sooty-headed Bulbul
The Sooty-headed Bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster) is a species of songbird.It is found in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
Australian Birds Bell miners
The Bell Miner, Manorina melanophrys, colloquially known as the Bellbird, is a colonial honeyeater endemic to southeastern Australia.
Bell miners are aggressive birds that defend their colony area communally, excluding most other passerine species
Bell miners live in large, complex social groups. Within each group there are subgroups consisting of several breeding pairs, but also including a number of birds who are not currently breeding.
gull
gull common name for an aquatic bird of the family Laridae. It is found near all oceans and many inland waters.Their plumage is usually white with gray or black markings on the back, wings, and head. Their long, narrow wings are adapted to soaring and their webbed feet to swimming. They have strong bills, hooked at the end; they eat clams and fish and sometimes insects, but are most useful as scavengers in harbors and bays. They are often seen hovering over the wakes of ships, seeking refuse, and frequenting garbage dumps. The common gull—called sea gull in North America—is the herring gull Larus argentatus smithsonianus, a subspecies of the common European gull L. argentatus.
It is found on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and on the Great Lakes. The larger great black-backed gull, L. marinus, is more northern; the ring-billed, Bonaparte's, and laughing gull are smaller. The Franklin's gull of the Great Plains is called the "prairie dove." The California and western gulls are common on the Pacific coast. The kittiwake is a small oceanic gull of the genus Rissa, seldom seen on land. The lesser black-backed and little gulls are European. Gulls are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Charadriiformes, family Laridae.
Pelican
Pelicans are large birds with large pouched bills.Pelicans can swim well with their short, strong legs and their feet with all four toes webbed . The tail is short and square, with 20 to 24 feathers. The wings are long and have the unusually large number of 30 to 35 secondary flight feathers. A layer of special fibers deep in the breast muscles can hold the wings rigidly horizontal for gliding and soaring. Thus they can exploit thermals to commute over 150 km (100 miles) to feeding areas.
Diet
The diet of a Pelican usually consists of fish, but they also eat amphibians, crustaceans and on some occasions.They often catch fish by expanding the throat pouch. Then they must drain the pouch above the surface before they can swallow. This operation takes up to a minute, during which time other seabirds are particularly likely to steal the fish.
The white pelicans often fish in groups. They will form a line to chase schools of small fish into shallow water, and then scoop them up. Large fish are caught with the bill-tip, then tossed up in the air to be caught and slid into the gullet head first.
Parrots
Parrots, also known as psittacines (pronounced /ˈsɪtəsaɪnz/),[2][3] are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes,[4] found in most warm and tropical regions.
The parrots are a broad order of more than 350 birds. Macaws, Amazons, lorikeets, lovebirds, cockatoos and many others are all considered parrots.
Though there is great diversity among these birds, there are similarities as well. All parrots have curved beaks and all are zygodactyls, meaning they have four toes on each foot, two pointing forward and two projecting backward. Most parrots eat fruit, flowers, buds, nuts, seeds, and some small creatures such as insects.
Characteristic features of parrots include a strong curved bill, an upright stance, strong legs, and clawed zygodactyl feet. Most parrots are predominantly green, with other bright colors, and some species are multi-colored.
The most important components of most parrots' diets are seeds, nuts, fruit, buds and other plant material. A few species also eat rats and worms, and the lories and lorikeets are specialised to feed on nectar from flowers, and soft fruits
Due to their large size (of the majority of parrot species) and intelligence, parrots have few natural predators in the wild. The human trapping and hunting parrots, is the main predator of the parrot along with monkeys, snakes and large birds of prey that tend to feed more on the eggs of the parrot rather than the bird itself. s on each foot, two pointing forward and two projecting backward. Most parrots eat fruit, flowers, buds, nuts, seeds, and some small creatures such as insects.
Colibri
The violetears are hummingbirds of the genus Colibri. They are medium to large species found in Mexico, and Central and northern South America. The Green Violetear occasionally wanders as far north as the United States and even Canada.
Violetears have ample rounded tails and short or medium black bills. Three of the four species have a mainly green plumage. The males have a violet blue patch running back and down from the eye, which is erected when they are excited, and a glittering throat patch. The female plumage is generally like the male’s, but the ear and throat patches are smaller.
Violetears build substantial cup nests into which two white eggs are laid. They have loud persistent songs, often repetitions of double notes.
These birds come readily to artificial nectar feeders, and show no fear of humans. They are aggressively territorial, and at feeders or flowering shrubs they spend much time chasing other hummingbirds, rather than feeding.
Flamingo
Habitat
Chilean flamingos live in warm, tropical environments in South America. They are found from sea level to altitudes of 4,500 m (14,760 ft) and they inhabit muddy, shallow lakes that can be either alkaline or brackish. As the soil in the area where they live is mainly alkaline it is barren of vegetation and desert like.
They live in colonies that can range vastly in size from a few dozen birds to thousands of individuals.
Diet
Chilean Flamingos feed upon aquatic invertebrates, diatoms and algae. They mainly feed during the day and they sweep their bill upside down through shallow water picking up food as they go. They are filter feeders and their tongue pumps up and down, 5 - 6 times per second, pushing the water out of their beak.
Breeding
Chilean Flamingos breed in colonies that can contain thousands of individuals and after courtship rituals of synchronized dancing, preening, neck stretching and honking they mate during April and May.
They produce one chalky white egg that is laid on a mud mound in shallow water. The nest of each pair is situated approximately 1.5 m (4.9 ft) from neighbouring nests so the chick remains safe from other breeding pairs. Both parents incubate the egg which takes 27 - 31 days to hatch. They will defend their nest during the breeding season, otherwise they are non-territorial.
After the chick first hatches they are fed a substance called "crop milk" which comes from the parents' upper digestive tract. Either parent can feed the chick this way and other flamingos can act as foster feeders. When the chicks are old enough to walk they gather together in creches that are watched over by a few adult birds. By the time young flamingos reach 3 - 5 years of age they will have reached sexual maturity and gained their full adult plumage.