Category Birds

Downy Woodpecker

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The Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) is a bird in the Picidae famiy of woodpeckers.

The Downy Woodpecker is mainly black on the upperparts and wings, with a white back, throat, and belly. It has white spots on its wings. There is one white bar above the eye and one white bar below the eye. It has a black tail with white outer feathers that have black bars. It has a strong, grey beak. The adult male has a red patch on the back of its head. The male and female juveniles have a red cap. 

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Which Animal has Asymmetrical Ears?

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Which animal has asymmetrical ears? 

Asymmetrical means that two things, or two halves of the same thing, do not look the same – either the same size or the same shape. They look lopsided.

Many owls (but not all owls) have asymmetrical ears. The British Trust for Ornithology says that, in many owls, the left ear is positioned lower than the right ear. The two ears are also out of line on the vertical plane.

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Great Tit Fledgling

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The Great Tit (Parus major) is a common and widespread passerine bird in the Paridae family. It is found throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa. It is not migratory.

The Great Tit has a distinctive black head and neck, large white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts. Its wings are green to blue-grey with white wing-bars. The tail is blue-grey with white tips. Its beak is short and black. It grows to about 13 centimetres (5 inches) tall.

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RESEARCH: Birds that live near the Equator are more colourful

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Birds that live near the Equator are more colourful than birds living further away from the Equator, thought naturalists Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859). In fact, von Humboldt noted that insects and even aquatic creatures, such as crayfish, seemed to be more colourful nearer the Equator.  

The Equator is the imaginary circle at zero degrees latitude that divides the Earth between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. It is a line at the centre of the Earth (the ‘waist line’) halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole. Countries on and near the Equator have tropical climates.

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RESEARCH: Australian Magpies can remove tracking devices from their legs

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The Australian Magpie can remove tracking devices placed on their legs, with help from another magpie. Ornithology is the study of birds and bird behaviour. In a study published in February 2022 in the scientific journal, Australian Field Ornithology, the researchers described Australian Magpies helping each other to remove their tracking devices that the researchers had placed on their legs. 

The Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a black and white bird in the Artamidae family of butcherbirds. It is not related to the Eurasian or European Magpie (Pica pica) in the Corvidae family of crows. The Australian Magpie is widespread across Australia.

In 2019, animal ecologist Dr. Dominique Potvin and her team of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, wanted to study magpie social behaviour because they are highly social birds. Social animals, including social birds, are creatures of the same species that live together in family groups, with their own set of behaviour rules, usually with a hierarchy, or order, of interactions. 

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Brown Thrasher

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The Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) is a bird in the Mimidae family of passerine (songbirds) such as mockingbirds, that mimic other birds. 

The Brown Thrasher is reddish-brown with dark streaks. Its underparts are white or buff-coloured with dark streaks. It has a teardrop shape on its chest. It has a long, rounded rufous (reddish) tail with pale corners. Its eyes are bright yellow. Its beak is brown, long, and curved downward. The male and the female look similar. 

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Juvenile Eurasian Blackbird

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The Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a bird in the Turdidae famiy of thrushes. It is also called the Common Blackbird. It is a thrush common in Europe, Asia, and north Africa.

The adult Eurasian Blackbird is black with grey legs, a yellow-orange beak, and yellow eye-rings. The female has dark-brown feathers. 

The female Eurasian Blackbird builds a mud-lined, cup-shaped nest from grass and leaves. She lays 3-5 bluish-green eggs with reddish-brown blotches, which she incubates for 12–14 days before the altricial (blind and naked) chicks are hatched.

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What are the seven types of bird feathers?

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What are the seven types of bird feathers?

Birds of all species have feathers. 

There are a variety of feathers, but all feathers are made of beta-keratin, which is a protein. 

All feathers have similar elements: the calamus (the thick bottom part of the rachis or stem), the central rachis (like a stem going almost all the way up the feather), the barbs (like branches), and the barbules (like smaller branches with hooks that interlock with other barbules).

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