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Feeding ducks bread could actually be harmful
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Feeding bread to wild ducks is incredibly harmful. Bread has almost no nutrients that are useful for the duck, so they become malnourished and more susceptible to disease. Compounding the problem is excessive bread in the water, which leads to high levels of E. coli and even botulism outbreaks. Wild ducks need to stay wild, and artificially feeding them causes them to lose their natural instincts for acquiring food. If you want to feed captive waterfowl, consider chopped vegetables, whole grains, or fruit instead. ...
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3025 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Unusual defence mechanism
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While the video may look like a trick an owner could teach their animal to do, some birds actually do play dead to avoid predation. If they feel in danger, they will essentially 'play dead' since predators are more interested in live, healthy prey than dead prey.
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3 |
3412 |
savio |
10 years ago |
A bird with a moustache
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Inca terns are unique and beautiful birds—slender with white-tipped gray feathers, a white curly moustache, yellow lips and a bright orange-red bill. They have a distinctive call that sounds like a high pitched laugh, which is often accompanied by bowing gestures. Inca terns are natives of the western shoreline of South America and the islands located offshore. They are especially abundant in northern Chile and Peru in the summer. They migrate in winter, venturing to Ecuador and central Chile. Inca terns swoop down and pluck fish from near the water’s surface. They also sometimes get scraps left behind by whales, or flock to where sea lions are eating on rocks, to steal stray bits of food. A male who is interested in a female will perform aer ...
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2971 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
A beautiful Egyptian vulture
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Egyptian vultures not only feed on dead animals, but are opportunists who will also eat small or injured animals, and will even steal eggs of other birds and crack them open. The vultures are listed as endangered by the IUCN. In Asia, they have lost about a third of their population each year since the turn of the century. Hunting and accidental poisoning (ingesting insects that have been treated with a pesticide) are two of the main causes for their decline.
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2 |
2485 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Ever seen a potoo?
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Potoos are a small New World family of solitary and nocturnal birds. Most are so poorly known they seem more fiction than substance, their gruff or wailing cries ghostly delusions of the dim nocturnal world they inhabit.
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2 |
2736 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Birds of Paradise
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A must see introductory video about paradise birds. This video reveals the astounding beauty of 39 of the most exquisitely specialized animals on earth. After 8 years and 18 expeditions to New Guinea, Australia, and nearby islands, Cornell Lab scientist Ed Scholes and National Geographic photojournalist Tim Laman succeeded in capturing images of all 39 species in the bird-of-paradise family for the first time ever.
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2 |
3262 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Bird with a bad hair day
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The Resplendent Quetzal ( Pharomachrus mocinno) has a range running from southern Mexico to western Panama. Its sinuous, jade-green tail feathers once adorned the clothing of Mayan rulers and served as currency. Now, bird-watching tourism boosts local economies in quetzal territory.
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3042 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Drinking seawater to survive
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A seagull on a glass roof looking really cute. Seagulls are able to drink seawater to survive thanks to salt glands just above their eyes. These glands eliminate excess salt from the seawater and flush it out of the birds' nostrils in liquid form, an action that's often mistaken for a sneeze.
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2 |
1933 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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2 |
4684 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
The Philippine eagle
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The Philippine eagle ( Pithecophaga jefferyi), also known as the monkey-eating eagle, is found exclusively in the forests of the Philippines. It has brown- and white-coloured plumage, and a shaggy crest, and generally measures 86 to 102 cm (2.82 to 3.35 ft) in length, weighs 4.7 to 8.0 kg (10.4 to 17.6 lb), and has a 2 meter wingspan. It is considered the largest of the extant eagles in the world in terms of length and wing surface. Among the rarest and most powerful birds in the world, it has been declared the Philippine national bird. Unfortunately, however, it is critically endangered, mainly due to massive loss of habitat resulting from deforestation in most of its range. Killing a Philippine eagle is punishable under Philippine law by 1 ...
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1204 |
bio_man |
6 years ago |
What color is a toucan's skull?
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Well, obviously it's white, but take a look at its bill! The attractive 7.5-inch-long bill is possessed by both male and female toucans. Interestingly, they use them during a mating ritual, pitching fruit to one another, but has very limited use as an excavation tool. Toucans make their nests in tree hollows found in rain forest regions of Southern Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean region to which they are native. ...
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1100 |
bio_man |
6 years ago |
A baby macaw
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Here are some adorable images of macaw parrot chicks getting weighed and measured. The one on the left is just one week old, and the one on the right is seven weeks old. Researchers at the Tambopata Research Center have been studying the wild macaw populations for years and tracking the growth of the nestlings. By climbing up into the trees and gathering data on these macaws, the researchers are able to do a lot of interesting science and gather information critical to protecting these species. ...
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1 |
4797 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The kiwi bird
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The kiwi is a flightless bird found only in New Zealand. They're around the size of a chicken, and lay the largest eggs in relation to their body size of any bird in the world. Their eggs can be up to 20% of the females body weight - the equivalent of a 130 pound woman giving birth to a 26 pound baby. ...
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5498 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
A parrot with a wicked hairstyle
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This is a Palm Cockatoo, also know as the Goliath Cockatoo. Palms are distinguished by their size, huge beak (second only to the Hyacinth Macaw among psittacines and largest proportionate to size), solid black feather coloration, large open crest, bare red cheeks, and red and black tongue. You have to see their tongues to believe the coloration. It's amazing. Palm Cockatoos are severely threatened. They are CITES Appendix I birds and are protected in Australia. As a testament to their rarity, typical prices in the U.S. for Aterrimus Palms are around $8000 and Goliaths around $14,000. Perhaps contributing to their rarity is the fact that, according to both Low and Forshaw, they lay only one egg per clutch. ...
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5917 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Birds evolving from fish, a possibility?
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A flying fish moves its tail up to 70 times per second to propel itself up and out of the water. Those specialised pectoral fins are spread wide and tilted slightly upward to provide lift, and then folded back against the body to lower the fish back into the ocean. Flying fish (family: Exocoetidae) are eaten by dolphins, tuna, birds, squids and porpoises, so they needed to develop an ingenious mode of escape - such as flying - in order to survive.
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1 |
2878 |
duddy |
10 years ago |