Not all birds sing songs. Some birds make no sound at all.
The birds that sing songs are called songbirds, perching birds, or passerines. They belong to the diverse Passeriformes order of birds.
Continue reading “Songbirds”
Tag passerine
Tiny bird, loud song
The Eurasian Wren is a tiny bird, but it has a loud song.
The Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) is a small passerine song bird in the Troglodytidae family. It is native to Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Continue reading “Tiny bird, loud song”
RESEARCH: Birds that live near the Equator are more colourful
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.
Continue reading “RESEARCH: Birds that live near the Equator are more colourful”
What is the difference between the Australian Magpie and the Eurasian Magpie?
What is the difference between the Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) and the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica)?
The Australian Magpie is a bird in the Artamidae family of butcherbirds, whereas the Eurasian or European Magpie is a bird in the Corvidae family of crows. The Australian Magpie is an artamid and the Eurasian Magpie is a corvid. They are both passerine songbirds.
Continue reading “What is the difference between the Australian Magpie and the Eurasian Magpie?”
Western Kingbird
The Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis) is a bird in the Tyrannidae family of flycatchers. It is a tyrant passerine (songbird).
The Western Kingbird is grey with yellow feathers. It has a black, squared tail with white outer feathers. It has a grey beak.
Continue reading “Western Kingbird”
American Robin
The American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a bird in the Turdidae family of thrushes. It is a songbird.
The American Robin has a reddish-orange chest with a black to greyish head. It has white eye arcs that look like eyebrows. Its throat is white with black streaks and its belly and undertail are white. It has a brown back. Its beak is yellowish with a dark tip. Its legs and feet are brown.
Continue reading “American Robin”
Brown Thrasher
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.
Continue reading “Brown Thrasher”
Eastern Meadowlark
The Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) is a medium-sized bird in the Icteridae family of blackbirds. It is a songbird.
The Eastern Meadowlark is mainly brown with black streaks. It has yellow underparts with a black V-shape on its chest. It has white sides with black streaks. Its long beak is pointed. Its head is striped with light-brown and black feathers.
Continue reading “Eastern Meadowlark”
What is the difference between the Eurasian Blue Tit and the Great Tit?
What is the difference between the Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and the Great Tit (Parus major)?
The Eurasian Blue Tit and the Great Tit are both in the Paridae family of passerines.
The Eurasian Blue Tit and the Great Tit both have large white cheeks, a yellowish-green back, and blue-grey wings with white wing-bars.
Continue reading “What is the difference between the Eurasian Blue Tit and the Great Tit?”
Eurasian Blue Tit
The Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is a passerine bird in the Paridae family of song birds. It is also known as the Eurasian Blue Titmouse.
The Eurasian Blue Tit has a distinctive azure-blue crown and a dark-blue line passing through its eye and encircling its white cheeks to the chin. Its forehead is white, and a bar on its wing is also white. Its nape, wings, and tail are blue and its back is yellowish-green. It underparts are yellow with a dark line down its abdomen. Its beak is black. It has bluish-grey legs. Its eyes are dark brown.
Continue reading “Eurasian Blue Tit”
CREATURE FEATURE: Brazilian Tanager
The Brazilian Tanager (Ramphocelus bresilius) is a medium-sized bird in the Thraupidae family.
The Brazilian Tanager male is crimson-red with black wings and a black tail. The female is olive on her upperparts and yellowish on her underparts with yellow-olive wings and tail. In winter, the male looks similar to the female, except that its wings and tail remain darker. Both the male and female have a pale, stout, smooth beak, pale legs, and small dark eyes.
Continue reading “CREATURE FEATURE: Brazilian Tanager”
CREATURE FEATURE: Eastern Olive Sunbird
The Eastern Olive Sunbird (Cyanomitra olivacea) is a small bird in the Nectariniidae family of passerine sunbirds.
The Eastern Olive Sunbird is olive in colour. It has short wings and a short tail. Its beak is long, thin, black, and arched. It has small black eyes and black legs.
Continue reading “CREATURE FEATURE: Eastern Olive Sunbird”
Eurasian Wren
The Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) is a small passerine song bird in the Troglodytidae family.
The Eurasian Wren is rufous-brown with a paler, greyer underbelly. Its wings and tail are barred with darker brown and grey. However, it can vary in colour. It has short, rounded wings. Its beak is dark-brown. Its legs are pale brown.
Continue reading “Eurasian Wren”
Albert’s Lyrebird
The Albert’s Lyrebird (Menura alberti) is a large passerine songbird in the Menuridae family. It is a ground-dwelling bird.
The Albert’s Lyrebird looks like a partridge or pheasant, with a plumpish body, slender neck, and a long tail. It has short, rounded wings, which makes them poor fliers.
When the tail is fanned out, the male’s large tail looks like a lyre musical instrument. His tail has 16 modified feathers. Two of the tail feathers, called medians, are broad, brown curved feathers with dark tips. There are also two thin dark feathers, called lyrates. The rest of the 12 tail feathers are white filamentaries.
Continue reading “Albert’s Lyrebird”
European Bee-Eater
The European Bee-Eater (Merops apiaster) is a small passerine bird in the Meropidae family of bee-eaters.
The European Bee-Eater has brown and yellow upper parts, green-grey wings, a yellow throat, and a bluish belly. It has a long, thin black mask around its orange-brown eyes, with a shiny blue line above its eye. It has a notched tail. Its beak is black. The male and female look similar, but the female tends to have greener feathers on the shoulders.
Continue reading “European Bee-Eater”
Eurasian Treecreeper
The Eurasian Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) is a small passerine bird. It is also known as the Common Treecreeper.
The Eurasian Treecreeper has camouflaged, patterned, light-brown and dark-brown upperparts, white underparts, and a rufous (red-brown) rump. It has a white eyebrow. Its tail is brown and long. It has a curved, dark-grey beak. It has pink-beige legs and feet, with long, hooked claws.
Continue reading “Eurasian Treecreeper”
Dunnock
The Dunnock (Prunella modularis) is a small passerine, or perching and singing bird in the accentor family. It is also called the Hedge Accentor, the Hedge Sparrow, or the Hedge Warbler.
The Dunnock is a brown bird with streaks of darker brown on its back. Its underbelly is light-brown. It has a blue-grey head. It has a fine-pointed beak. It has pink legs. The male and female look similar.
Continue reading “Dunnock”
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
The Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus dilutus) is a passerine bird in the sparrow family.
The Eurasian Tree Sparrow has a chestnut crown and nape, with a black patch on each white cheek. It also has a black patch on its chin, throat, and the area between its beak and throat. Its beak is grey in summer and darker, almost black, in winter. Its upperparts are light brown, streaked with black. Its brown wings have two distinct, narrow, white bars. Its legs are pale brown.
Continue reading “Eurasian Tree Sparrow”
Northern Wren
The Northern Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes trogolodytes) is a small passerine song bird, and a sub-species of the Eurasian Wren.
The Northern Wren is rufous-brown with a paler underbelly. It has short, rounded wings and a tail with a dark barred pattern. Its beak is dark-brown. Its legs are pale brown.
Continue reading “Northern Wren”
African Black Swift
The African Black Swift (Apus barbatus) is a small passerine bird in the Apodidae family of swifts. It is highly aerial, spending most of its life in the air. It is not related to swallows; it is in the same Order as hummingbirds.
The African Black Swift is black-brown except for a small, white or pale-grey patch on its chin. It has a short, forked tail. It has long, swept-back wings, which can rotate at the base (like hummingbird wings). It has short legs.
Continue reading “African Black Swift”