Biologist Dakota McCoy, (seen here performing with a tray of drinks in hand, in “The Incompetence Opera,” part of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony) has a new study about color in birds. McCoy, together with colleagues Teresa Feo, Todd Alan Harvey, and Richard O. Prum, published “Structural absorption by barbule microstructures of super black bird of paradise feathers,” […]
Tag: Birds
Intentional Fire-Spreading by Raptors in Australia [research study]
Some birds intentionally spread fire from place to place, sometimes in cooperation with other birds, says this new study. “Intentional Fire-Spreading by ‘Firehawk’ Raptors in Northern Australia,” Mark Bonta, Robert Gosford, Dick Eussen, Nathan Ferguson, Erana Loveless, and Maxwell Witwer, Journal of Ethnobiology, vol. 37, no. 4, 2017, pp. 700-718. The authors write: “We document Indigenous […]
Stimulating interest in ornithology: The “Masturbation in birds” project
Dr. Price’s “Masturbation in birds” project aims to stimulate interest in ornithology. Dr. Price, based at the University of Liverpool, explains: One of the projects I work on is trying to understand why some species of bird seem to masturbate loads, and other species don’t seem to do it at all. Masturbation is a pretty […]
Attracting birds – with a ‘Songbird Magnet’
Want to attract birds? Specifically, Purple Martins or Eastern Bluebirds, Baltimore Orioles, House Wrens, House Finches, American Goldfinches, & Indigo Buntings etc etc. Then you could try the Bird-X Songbird Magnet. “As bird lovers, it only makes sense with the science & resources we have available, to offer an electronic songbird attractant.” – say the […]