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This little bird looks so stylish with her extra homemade tail feathers! It’s cute, but she’s not just being fashionable. This is a handy trick birds use to carry more nesting material than will fit in the beak. -via The Daily What
Angry Birds Plush Laplander Hat – $19.95
Attention Angry Birds fans! As you are well aware it is a bird versus pig world out there. Now is the time to declare your allegiance by donning one of the above Angry Birds Laplander hats from the NeatoShop. Are you a hungry pig or an angry bird? The war against cold heads and ears is on.
These super soft Angry Birds Plush Laplander Hats are sold separately and are available in Red Bird and Green Pig.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Angry Birds items and Headgear fun!
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The dog Kenzie cannot reach the pot at the back of the stove, so now he’s glad to have spent all that effort protecting his friend Queenie the cockatoo from the cat. Rodents aren’t the only pets who like spaghetti! -via Arbroath
There's something strangely familiar with Mohamed Raoof's "realistic" painted birds. Where might have you seen one before? Perhaps in a popular game involving slingshots and destruction of evil green pig structures?
Toxel has the pics: Link
Watch out for this angry bird! He’s got an AXE and he knows how to use it! Will nothing stop him? -via Buzzfeed
Japanese artist Sato created Torigun, a series of magnificent illustrations of birds in military dress uniforms. They're all fantastic (and I had a lot of trouble looking for the one to post here), but I think I like the robin one above the best. Check 'em all out here: Link - via Lustik
A passenger on a Delta flight from Madison, Wisconsin to Atlanta, Georgia posted a video to CNN of a flying creature in the passenger section. The plane was diverted back to Madison, where the passengers were rebooked. A Delta spokesman said the plane was searched, but they never found the animal. The plane then was returned to service. Link -via Arbroath
An orangutan saves a tired baby chick with a leaf, then inspects it afterward to makes sure it’s all right. There’s not a ton of info available about this video (for instance, which zoo this is or when it was filmed), but the important takeaway here is that orangutans are both extraordinarily compassionate and also kind of gross, as evidenced by the first 40 seconds of the clip. How many times did you think the orangutan was going to eat the bird? I’m not gonna lie–I held my breath a few times.
via Pharyngula
Research into why Transylvanian naked neck chickens have naked necks reveals a complex balance between genes and chemicals that produce a bird’s (not just chickens) feather pattern while it is still an embryo in an egg. Once the combination was discovered, Chunyan Mou from the University of Edinburgh found that bird necks are naturally more disposed to nakedness than the rest of their bodies. This may be no benefit to poultry, but chickens are related to birds that do benefit.
Mou thinks that similar genetic tweaks have happened time and again in the evolution of birds. Many groups have lost their neck feathers independently, including vultures, the marabou stork, and large flightless birds like ostriches and emus. Naked necks allow vultures to stuff their heads into carcasses without soiling any feathers; in other cases, a naked neck probably helps its owner to keep cool in hot climates.
Whatever the benefit, it seems that it’s particularly easy for birds to evolve a naked neck, rather than another part of their body. After all, Mou found that the necks of embryonic ducks, turkeys, quails and guinea fowl all have much higher levels of retinoic acid than the rest of the body. This pattern would normally be innocuous, completely hidden from natural selection. But it allows BMP-boosting mutations to denude the neck in one fell swoop, while keeping the rest of the body covered in feathers. As Mou writes, “An underlying map within the skin provides a one-step route to a bare neck.”
The post goes into detail about how the genes initiate the production of chemical activators and inhibitors, and ends with a parable from Alan Turing that explains the concept in layman’s terms. Link
(Image credit: Demontux)
It’s getting creepy. First, it was Arkansas, then Louisiana … now birds are dropping dead out of the skies over Sweden:
To add to the mystery, 50-100 jackdaws, a bird species in the crow family, fell dead in central Sweden late Tuesday night, English-language Swedish news website The Local reported Wednesday.
"We do not know what the cause is," Skovde police commander Tomas Ahlgren said. The birds fell in the city of Falkoping, which is southeast of Skovde.
But conspiracy theorists beware: mass deaths by birds are actually quite common (the US Geological Service’s National Wildlife Health Center website listed 90 in the last 6 months alone) and the culprit is usually something mundane: military death ray, er, I mean bacterial infection.
Link (Photo: Bjorn Larsson Rosvall)
Remember the thousands of blackbirds dropping dead over the skies of Arkansas? The one that officials are referring to as being caused by a "stress event" (well, duh!)
Well, it’s happening again. This time in Point Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 300 miles south of the original death spot in Beebe, Arkansas:
The birds were found Monday along Louisiana Highway 1, about 300 miles south of Beebe, Ark., where more than 3,000 blackbirds fell from the sky three days earlier. Authorities say examinations showed those birds suffered internal injuries that formed deadly blood clots. [...]
"They collided or were hit by something that caused hemorrhages or bleeding, internal bleeding or bruising," Karen Rowe, an ornithologist at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, told CBS News.
Some speculated Monday that a bout of bad weather was to blame. Others said one confused bird could have led the group in a fatal plunge. A few spooked schoolkids even guessed that the birds had committed mass suicide.
"There was probably some physical reason, but I doubt anyone will ever know what it was," said Thurman Booth, the state’s wildlife services director.
Obviously it’s a new military death ray! Link – via Boing Boing
Image: Mark Witton/Darren Naish
What do you get when you combine a bird with a giraffe? The largest flying creatures that have ever existed on Earth:
With wingspans of 40 to 50 ft, the Azhdarchids were pterosaurs as big as some modern aircraft, with incredibly lop-sided bodies. Hugely long legs, beaks and necks adorned unusually small torsos with wings that were, surprisingly, proportionately short. It is thought that they were not able to hunt in flight, but needed to land and scrabble awkwardly for anything that they could swallow whole. Since one of these terrifying monsters stood as much as 20ft tall, it is easy to imagine that man might well have been a prey animal for them, had they lived alongside each other.
Environmental Graffiti has a feature of more less well known, but equally savage prehistoric predators: Link
Scientists have unearthed the fossilized remains of a prehistoric bird with a wingspan of 17 feet! The Latin name given to the new species, Pelagornis chilensis means “huge pseudoteeth” because it had bony tooth-like projections.
The enormous wingspan gave P. chilensis certain advantages, like the ability to travel long distances and reach areas of the open ocean thick with potential prey. The researchers think it feasted on fish and squid, and may have trolled its hunting grounds with its lower beak skimming the water until its teeth could clamp down on a wriggling meal. But lead researcher Gerald Mayr says that a 17-foot wingspan is probably close to the maximum for a flying bird.
The bird flew over South America between 10 and 5 million years ago, which means it may have been seen by our hominid ancestors. Link
Previously: Argentavis magnificens
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The good news: Tired of overcrowded cities? A pristine and uninhabited tropical island is still available.
The bad news: It’s filled with snakes.
Atlas Obscura has more on the intriguing Snake Island of Brazil:
Off the shore of Brazil, almost due south of the heart of São Paulo, is a Ilha de Queimada Grande. The island is untouched by human developers, and for very good reason. Researchers estimate that on the island live between one and five snakes per square meter. The snakes live on the many migratory birds (enough to keep the snake density remarkably high) that use the island as a resting point.
That figure might not be so terrible if the snakes were, say, 2 inches long and nonvenomous. The snakes on Queimada Grande, however, are a unique species of pit viper, the golden lancehead. The lancehead genus of snakes is responsible for 90% of Brazilian snakebite-related fatalities. The golden lanceheads that occupy Snake Island grow to well over half a meter long, and they possess a powerful fast-acting poison that melts the flesh around their bites. Golden lanceheads are so dangerous that, with the exception of some scientific outfits, the Brazilian Navy has expressly forbidden anyone from landing on the island.
http://atlasobscura.com/place/snake-island-ilha-de-queimada-grande
Piwi the Kiwi was born emaciated and with two broken legs. For a while, it looked like he wasn’t going to make it. But New Zealanders aren’t going to take that news lying down.
Here’s a neat story of Kiwi ingenuity in helping out their plucky national bird:
Losing blood, Piwi was rushed back to Massey University’s veterinary science centre.
Fortunately another kiwi was available to provide blood for a transfusion, and Piwi pulled through. But his fight wasn’t over.
Palmerston North physiotherapist Fiona O’Connor prescribed a strict rehabilitation regime, including treadmill workouts, massage and physio exercises.
It was the first time the veterinarians had used a treadmill for a kiwi’s muscle development … and Piwi wasn’t happy.
Wildlife vet Dr Lisa Argilla said Piwi didn’t take to the treadmill naturally, and would be grumpy when woken for his workout three times a week.
"He was particularly stubborn in true kiwi form, and just sat there [as if saying] I’m not going to do this.
"He’d bite carer’s hands when he got fed up with walking. But he’s quite a tolerant little guy," she said.
Link – via Lemon Drop (who has a neat video clip of Piwi the Kiwi on a treadmill)
This cockatoo’s name is Billy, but they should have named him Houdini! -via reddit
Photo: Zsuzsa Ákos
Next on Milan Fashion Week is this trendy backpack for pigeons! Just kidding – that’s actually part of a scientific study led by Tamás Vicsek of Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, to determine which bird in a flock of pigeons is the dominant one:
If you’re a scientist and you want to learn which birds lead the flock during flights and which follow, there’s probably no better way to research that question than to fit the birds with little backpacks containing GPS devices and track them. Really.
So that’s exactly what some scientists did. They strapped GPS-bearing backpacks onto homing pigeons, then followed their flight patterns in minute detail.
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Is this a scene from Finding Nemo? Or Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds? No, this bird was caught absconding with a piece of lunch on Google Street View, specifically on John Street in Brighton, England. Link -via reddit
You might recall Sir David Attenborough introducing us to the lyrebird, a master of mimcry (and later the wonderful remix). Chook the lyrebird lives at the Adelaide Zoo. After a period of construction at the zoo, Chook was able to recreate the sounds of hammers, saws, and power tools exactly. Link -via Arbroath
Researcher Wolfgang Goymann and colleagues were studying the migrations of the garden warblers (Sylvia borin) when they discovered an interesting nugget of information:
While pockets of flab accumulated over the winter months may be a source of frustration for some, it can be a cause of joy for others …
The researchers fitted ten fat birds and ten lean birds on the Italian island of Ventotene with temporary adhesive radio transmitters. [...]
Monitoring their test subjects using the stick-on surveillance bugs, the German boffins found that the more rotund ones had sex sooner and generally slept only one night in any given location. Plumpness led to sexual success for the wobblebottomed group, while their spindly counterparts took longer to get any action – and tended to make longer stays of more than one night, too.
The Moa was the only wingless bird that ever existed.
The moa were hunted to extinction by 1500 by the Maori in New Zealand. They were the only species of birds with no wings. But wait, you say, what about kiwis, emus, and ostriches? Well, these flightless birds, a group of birds called ratites, actually do have wings (some of them vestigials).
Oh, and one more thing. I mentioned New Zealand – have you ever asked yourself where is Old Zealand? New Zealand is actually named after Zeeland, a major seafaring province of the Netherlands, by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642 (yup, the island of Tasmania is named after him). Captain James Cook misspelled it New Zealand and the name stuck ever since.
Sisso the swift was found with a damaged wing seven months ago. The little bird has healed, but must learn to fly all over again with some inventive physical therapy. Sisso takes flying lessons suspended from a custom-made sling!
The swift is being treated at an Israeli animal hospital and it is thanks to this ingenious device – which resembles a mobile in a child’s bedroom – that he can practise flying.
Fitting snugly into a red tube-like vest made of bandages and gauze pads, Sisso has holes for his head, wings, feet and tail.
A string is fixed to the harness and attached to the ceiling which allows him to whizz around a room at the Ramat Gan Safari Park Animal Hospital without falling to the floor.
However, until the muscles in his weakened right wing become strong enough, he will be kept indoors and in the sling.
Sisso will be freed when he can fly normally again. Link -via mental_floss
BIRD film from Andrew Zuckerman Studio on Vimeo.
To help promote his illustrated book, Bird, Andrew Zuckerman directed this short video of birds from around the world. Shot against a glorious white background, the film captures the beauty of our feathered friends, mirroring the photos in his book. A must-see for bird lovers.
The last thing seen by many a field mouse. 1000 frames per second. (via Cynical-C)
For at least two weeks straight, UK tree surgeon John Hancock had a robin as his lunch companion. The species has been known to accept hand-feeding before, but this was different as the bird actually comes into Hancock’s truck to feed.
“We used to throw the odd crumb towards him, but none of us expected him to join us in the truck every day. He will take anything out of your hands and seems to enjoy human company.”
Now the robin descends from nearby trees every day and lands on John’s wing mirror ready for the snacks they bring especially for him.
Mr. Hancock and friends made a YouTube video of “Robbie” and created a Facebook fan page.
You can’t make stuff like this up. A piece of a baguette dropped by a passing bird caused a shutdown at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.
The LHC is scheduled to be reactivated later this month. The bread incident won’t affect those plans. Link -via Boing Boing
A 13-year-old macaw flew fifty feet up into a tree and was too scared to fly down. Emma Hooper of Botley, England believes that Cleo flew away because she was distressed at moving to a new home. When the RSPCA refused to come, Hooper called to rent a hydraulic lift, but was told it wouldn’t be available until the next day. Hooper stayed by the tree all night long.
“I felt so helpless. It was awful, the worst feeling in the world.
“I took out a chair and blanket but I was getting strange looks from people driving by.
“They looked very confused when I said my bird was stuck up in the tree.
“I ended up driving my car around the corner and parked next to the tree. It was warmer and I felt safer but I still got no sleep.
The cherry picker arrived at 7:30 AM, and Cleo was finally brought down. She had spent 16 hours on the same branch. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: SOLENT)
The budget wasn’t the only thing that the council members of Madison, Wisconsin, had to consider during its meeting: they also decided to make the plastic lawn flamingo its official bird!
The new mascot was debated for five minutes, and then the Common Council voted 15-4 to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.
The idea was by a 1979 prank on Bascom Hill when the Pail and Shovel Party on campus put out 1,008 of the birds. "It sure lives in Madison lore as a really fun thing," said Wisconsin State Journal writer Doug Moe. Moe proposed the idea in a column, and Alder Marsha Rummel brought it to the council. "Let Madison have a little fun and laugh at itself. We’ve always been pretty good at that. I might suggest in these so-called tough times, a little laughter is not a bad thing," Moe said.
Not everyone embraced the idea of voting on the plastic flamingo. "I respectfully ask for this City Council to devote more time to more serious business at hand," said Alder Thuy Pham-Remmele, of District 20. But Rummel defended bringing the proposal to the council. "We are capable of multitasking in life, and if you don’t have a little fun, it’s not worth living, and I spent like 20 minutes on this since April," Rummel said.
Channel3000 has the story: Link – via L.A. Unleashed
The Kenyan honeyguide bird has an unusual and very remarkable behavior: it engages in an interspecies collaboration with humans to locate African bee colonies. In exchange for their guide service, the birds then share the harvest of the recovered honey.
Sir David Attenborough explains in this very interesting BBC clip titled Talking to Strangers.
– via presurfer
From the Upcoming 
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