My Science School

 

          The Cuban tody is a cute little bird with green and white plumage. It is endemic to Cuba and adjacent islands. It is small, just about 11 centimetres long and about 59 grams in weight. One characteristic of the bird is the size of its head. Its head is large when compared to its body. It has a thin flat bill.

           The bird lives in dry lowlands, evergreen forests, coastal vegetation, and near streams and rivers. Its diet predominantly consists of insects. However, it may also include small fruits, spiders and small lizards. Although there is still much to be known about these little birds, their mixed-species flocking is quite famous.

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          The blue jay, a native of North America, is fairly common in those regions. Their ability to adapt well to suburban habitats enabled them to be friendly with humans. Therefore, these birds are easily found in parks and yards of houses.

          The bird is predominantly blue in colour with a white chest and belly. It has a blue crest. It breeds in deciduous and coniferous forests. The diet of the blue jay consists of nuts and seeds such as acorns, soft fruits, arthropods, and occasionally small vertebrates. The bird measures 22 to 30 centimetres from bill to tail and has a weight of 65 to 110 grams.

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       ‘Secretary’ is a post in offices and organizations. Can a bird be called a secretary? Yes, there is bird named the secretary bird! It gets its name from its long crest feathers that look like the quill pens that 19th century office workers used to tuck behind their ears.

       The secretary bird is a bird of prey, but unlike other raptors it has long legs, wings and a tail. It is found only in Africa. These birds spend time in the open grasslands and savannahs of the sub-Saharan region. Their diet consists of snakes, other reptiles, amphibians, tortoises, rats and other small mammals as well as young game birds. Although secretary birds can fly, they take to flight only when it is absolutely necessary. They are basically terrestrial birds.

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       Have you seen a kingfisher? This remarkable bird has the ability to swoosh down to a water body and return with a priced fish. The stork-billed kingfisher is one of the largest among the kingfisher species. A tree kingfisher, the bird inhabits larger, well wooded lakes, rivers and forest streams. These birds can be seen in wooded coasts and mangroves too. They are commonly found across India except the Northwest regions. The stork-billed kingfisher is also found in other parts of Southeast Asia, form Pakistan to Indonesia.

       A stork-billed kingfisher has a fairy long tail. It prefers to stay hidden in vegetation for long periods. It feeds on fish, but also eats crustaceans, reptiles, rodents and young birds. It is territorial and will chase away eagles and other large predators from its habitat .adults dig their nests in riverbanks, decaying trees, or termite nests.

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The ostrich is the largest among the living bird species on Earth. An ostrich can attain a height of 2.1 metres and can weigh up to 145 kilograms! The bird is also the fastest biped on Earth, meaning a being that walks on two legs.

The ostrich is a flightless bird. The strength of the bird reacts in its large and powerful legs. It can hit a speed of over 60 kilometres per hour while running. The feat is not for a few minutes; it can sustain the speed for about half an hour! The ability to run at high speeds is necessary for an ostrich as it lives in open habitats. It helps it form potential predators such as the big cats. It is also capable of inflicting fatal wounds with its huge feet. While food is scarce in such environment, swift running also helps it to move quickly in search of food supplies.

The ostrich is well adapted to desert life; the bird has keen eyesight and ability to live without water for long periods. The bird absorbs moisture from the plant matter that comprises most of its diet.

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       Probably North America’s most colourful bird, the painted bunting has various colours on its plumage such as yellow, blue, red, green and orange which looks like a painted canvas.

       However, it is very difficult to spot it as this bird has a tendency to remain hidden amongst dense vegetation. The bird likes to forage amongst low branches and relishes seeds, insects, insects’ larvae and spiders. It sometimes steals insects from a spider’s sticky web without getting stuck!

       The male bird is aggressive during the breeding season. They can be spotted fighting with other males of the species at times. These fights can even lead to death! The bird was a favourite of pet lovers and was once widely kept as a cage bird on account of its beautiful plumage. Even today, hundreds of birds are caught and kept in cages. Human interventions like this have adversely affected the population of the bird.

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The golden oriole has a bright yellow plumage that is easily noticed. The most distinguishable aspect of the bird may be its flute-like melodious call. The bird rarely descends to the ground because it has short, weak legs, which are poorly designed for walking. It makes a hammock-like nest, which is intricately woven and is suspended from a horizontal tree fork.

The bird is shy and likes to remain solitary. It spends considerable time high up in the trees amongst foliage and, therefore, it may be difficult to locate the bird easily.

The diet of the bird consists of fruits and insects.

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       Who would win if there was a beauty pageant contest among birds? Although there may be many contenders for the most colourful bird in the world, not many can claim the title of the most graceful, beating the peacock!

      The peacock is a gorgeous bird, familiar to many as a semi domesticated or feral species or even as a pest in some areas. It is native to parts of Asia where it is commonly found in deciduous tropical forests. A blue peafowl spends most of its time on the forest floor, in clearings or adjacent open ground where it forages for food.

       The males in the species have very long tails, which are usually around 1.2 metres in length, made of large green feathers with blue eyes on them. A peahen, on the other hand, is plain and ordinary.

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       Do you know that some birds can change colours with changing seasons? The plumage of the rock ptarmigan undergoes dramatic changes throughout the year; its feathers moult from white in winter to brown in spring or summer. The rock ptarmigan is a bird that comes in the order of Galliformes, which includes chicken, turkey and grouse. it is 34 to 36 centimetres long with a wingspan of 54 to 60 centimetres. These birds live primarily birds can change colours on the Arctic tundra and on alpine slopes where plant cover is minimal.

       The bird is simply known as ptarmigan in the UK and Canada. The rock ptarmigan is the official bird of the territory of Nunavut, Canada and the official game bird of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

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        If you are a bird lover, you would certainly love to be-friend a hyacinth macaw. Predominantly blue in colour, the bird is also known as the blue macaw, it is the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species, weighing about 1.2 to 1 .7 kilograms. The bird has a length of 100 centimetres and much of its length comes from its long tail.

       Native to Brazil, much of the hyacinth macaw’s diet consists of Brazilian nuts, from native palms such as arcuri and bocaiuve. These birds are intelligent. Limited tool use has been observed in both wild and captive hyacinth macaws. Although these beautiful birds could be seen throughout Brazil and parts of neighbouring regions, their population is declining. The reasons for the decline are habitat loss due to agriculture and poaching. The species is classified as vulnerable on the international Union Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

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      Who would not like to have a pet parrot? There are hundreds of kinds of parrots with varying colouration, kept as pets by human beings. Among them, the sun parakeet is a favourite of aviculturists.

      The bird is also known as sun conure. It derives its name from the vivid yellows, reds, and oranges of its plumage. In fact, the sun parakeet is one of the most brightly coloured of the small South American parrots.

       The sun parakeet is a medium-sized, vibrantly coloured parrot native to northeastern South America.

       Like most other species of parakeets, the sun parakeets announce their presence with loud screeching in flight. They chatter while eating and are quite sociable. They roost and feed in small groups. Their food consists of fruits, flowers, berries, nuts and insects. It is said that a sun parakeet kept in captivity may live up to 30 years! They weigh about 110 grams and have a length of about 30 centimetres.

       The wandering albatross has the greatest known wingspan that measure up to 3.5 metres. Sometimes, it cans some up to 4 metres! The bird is, in fact, one of the largest birds in the world.

       This bird loves to travel and gets its name from its wanderlust. It is one of the most far ranging birds in the world. Do you know that some of these birds are known to cover more than 1,20,000 km in a year? A bird of the open oceans, it feeds mainly on squid and fish taken from the water surface, usually at night.

      The wandering albatross is, in fact one of the best known and studied species of birds in the world.

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        The blue-faced honeyeater is a gorgeous bird; but it can be menacing and intimidating when it is not in the right mood!

       The blue-faced honeyeater is large and easily identifiable. They are known for the large patches of blue skin around their eyes, which give them their name. These birds are commonly found in northern Australia and New Guinea. The blue-faced honeyeaters usually do not make nests. Sometimes they use the nests of Austral-Papuan babblers and miners. At times, they forcibly evict the original occupants!

       However, they may construct their own nests occasionally by building a large cup-shaped structure using twigs and other vegetation. Very often, these birds become aggressive and intimidating if they perceive an intruder coming closer to their habitat. They are dangerous during breeding season as well.

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       Larks are known for their songs. Many poems and songs were written on the sad songs of larks.

       Apart from its song, the bird has an odd ability to stay alive for a long time without water. The bird prefers to live in hot and arid habitats; and in order to cope with the heat, it feeds in the early morning and just before sunset. The bird can sing while diving down.

       The greater hoopoe-lark is s song bird, which can be easily identified due to its distinct physical features. It has a long curved Hoopoe-like bill and a bi\old wing pattern. Its wing pattern is the most striking of any lark and mainly provides protection from predators. Its plumage makes it visible in flight and indistinguishable on land. The bird was formerly known as bifasciated lark and sometimes as the large desert lark.

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        The name ‘Iiwi’ sounds strange as it is pronounced ‘ee-ee-vee’. Its peculiar song consists of a couple of whistles, the sound of balls dropping in water, the rubbing of balloons together and the squeaking of a rusty hinge.

       The bird is also known as scarlet honeycreeper due to its colour. A Hawaiian finch, the liwi is probably the most recognizable symbol of Hawaii.

      The adult bird is mostly scar-let in colour with black wings and tail. It has a long, curved, salmon coloured bill. It uses the bill primarily to drink nectar. The bird can hover, much like a hummingbird.

       Many species in the family have gone extinct. The liwi too is classified as threatened by the United States Department of the Interior in 2017. There is a high demand in the market for the feathers of the bird. The liwi's feathers were highly prized by Hawaiian nobility.

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