The Common Raven (Corvus corax) is a large bird in the crow family. It is also called the Northern Raven. It is a corvid.
The Common Raven has iridescent black feathers, with a thick, black beak and black-brown eyes. It has a long, graduated tail. It has black shaggy feathers around its throat and above its beak.
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The Ruff (Calidris pugnax) is a medium-sized wading wetlands bird. It is a Sandpiper in the Scolopacidae family of shorebirds.
The Ruff is a long-necked bird with a small head and a rounded belly. It is grey-brown with white and grey mottled underparts. It has colourful black, chestnut or white head tufts. It has a medium-sized black beak. It has long yellow or orange legs.
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The Luzon Bleeding-Heart Dove (Gallicolumba luzonica) is a medium-sized bird in the dove and pigeon family of ground birds.
The Luzon Bleeding-Heart Dove is grey with iridescent purple, blue, or green feathers. It has a whitish-buff underbelly that has a reddish stripe that looks like blood on its chest. The male has a brighter red patch than the female. Its wings are grey with black bands. Its body is rounded, with a short tail and long pink legs.
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The Temminck’s Tragopan Pheasant (Tragopan temminckii) is a medium-sized bird.
The male Temminck’s Tragopan Pheasant is red and orange, with white-spotted feathers. It has a black beak and pink legs. Its facial skin is blue and bare with no feathers. It has inflatable dark-blue wattles (skin flaps) on its face. The female has brown and white-spotted feathers with blue circular eye skin.
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The Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) is a small bird.
The Mistle Thrush has pale grey-brown upper parts, a greyish-white chin and throat, and black spots on its yellow-beige underparts. It has a rounded head, long pointed wings, and a long tail with white tips. Its eyes are dark-brown and its beak is blackish. It has yellowish-brown legs and feet.
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The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) is a medium-sized freshwater bird in the perching duck family. It is related to the Wood Duck.
The male Mandarin Duck has a red beak, large white crescent above his eye, and a reddish face with ‘whiskers.’ His chest is purple with two vertical white bars, with ruddy sides, and two orange sails at the back. Sails are large feathers that stick up like boat sails. The male has orange legs.
The female has a white eye-ring and a stripe from the eye to her back. She has a paler underbelly, a small white side stripe, and a pale tip on her beak. The female has grey legs.
Both the male and female Mandarin Duck have crests, but the purple crest is larger on the male. When the male moults (sheds feathers), he looks similar to the female, except that he has a bright yellow-orange or red beak.
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The Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) is a medium-sized bird in the Columbidae family of pigeons. It is also known as the Barred Ground Dove. It is related to the Peaceful Dove (Geopelia placida) and the Barred Dove (Geopelia maugeus).
The Zebra Dove is brownish-grey with black and white bars (broad stripes). Its underparts are pinkish with black bars on the sides of its neck, chest, and belly. Its face is blue-grey, with bare blue skin around its eyes. It has a long, narrow tail and a slender body. There are white tips on its tail feathers.
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What is a bird’s egg tooth? How is it used when it hatches from its egg?
When a chick is ready to hatch out of its egg it must break the egg shell.
The chick has a small, sharp, white, projection on the tip of its beak, called an egg tooth.
It is not really a tooth. It is a hard piece of the beak’s tip.
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The Red-Capped Manakin (Ceratopipra mentalis) is a small passerine bird in the Pipridae family.
The male Red-Capped Manakin has a velvety black body, with a bright red head and nape, bright yellow thighs, a pale-yellow chin, and pale-yellow wing linings. The female is olive-green, with paler yellow-green underparts. Both the male and female have brown legs. The male has white eyes and the female has brown eyes.
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The Blue Manakin (Chiroxiphia caudata) is a small passerine bird in the Pipridae family. It is also known as a Swallow-Tailed Manakin.
The Blue Manakin male has a bright blue plump body, black wings and tail, and a red crown. The female is olive-green. Both the male and the female have orange-red legs.
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The King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) is a large marine bird.
The King Penguin has a broad, bright orange cheek patch contrasting with its surrounding dark feathers, and yellow-orange feathers at the top of its chest. It has orange markings along the side of its lower mandible (jaw). It has a long, straight beak.
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Many birds eat bees.
The Asian Houbara Bustard can see a bee 60 metres (200 feet) away.
It usually eats a bee when the bee is on a low plant or on the ground. It approaches the bee from behind.
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The Blue Crane (Grus paradisea) is a large wetlands bird. It is also known as the Stanley Crane or the Paradise Crane.
The Blue Crane has pale blue-grey feathers that are darker on its upper head, neck, and nape. Its beak is greyish pink. It has long wingtip feathers that trail on the ground. It has grey-black wing feathers.
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The Great Argus (Argusianus argus) is a bird in the pheasant family. It is a Galliforme, which includes heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds, such as the turkey, grouse, chicken, quail, partridge, francolin, and pheasant. It is also known as the Giant Argus.
The Great Argus has brown feathers and a blue head and neck, with a rufous (red-brown) upper chest. It has black hair-like feathers on its crown and nape. It has red legs. The male has very long tail feathers and wing feathers covered in eye-spots. The female has a shorter tail and fewer eye-spots on its wings.
The Argus in Greek mythology is a hundred-eyed giant. The Great Argus bird has eye-shaped pattern on its wings that resemble the hundred-eyed giant.
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What does the Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus) eat?
The Brown Rat, common on all continents except Antarctica, is an omnivore, eating almost anything.
It is opportunistic, but it is often seen eating grain and bird seeds.
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The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is a large bird in the parrot family. It is the world’s only alpine (high mountain) parrot. It is related to the flightless Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus).
The Kea is mostly olive-green, which means that it is well-camouflaged in trees. It has brilliant orange feathers under its wings. The feathers on its back and rump are orange-red, and some of the outer wing feathers are dull blue. It has a dark olive-brown face. Its blue-grey upper beak is large, narrow, and curved. It has a short, broad, bluish-green tail with a black tip. It has dark-brown eyes. Its cere, eye-rings, and legs are grey.
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If a bird has a broken or damaged wing, how is it mended?
A veterinarian looks after the health of animals.
A veterinarian (vet) may use a bandaging tape, that does not stick to the bird’s feathers, to hold an injured wing in place. This is to prevent the wing moving and becoming more damaged.
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The Common Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) is a medium-sized bird in the pigeon family. It is also known as the Asian Emerald Dove, the Green Dove, the Green-Winged Pigeon, or the Grey-Capped Emerald Dove.
The Common Emerald Dove has an emerald green back and wings. Its flight and tail feathers are blackish. Its head and underparts are dark pink, fading to greyish on its lower belly. Its eyes are dark brown, its beak is bright red, and its leg and feet are rufous (red-brown).
The male has a white patch on the edge of its shoulders and a grey crown, which the female lacks. Females have a browner colour, with a grey mark on the shoulder.
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The Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae novaeguineae) is a bird in the Kingfisher family. It is the largest Kingfisher in Australia.
The Kookaburra is carnivorous, eating mainly meat.
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