numeniusborealis-blog

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http://people.duke.edu/~ns137/images.html

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Confuciusornis by Sammy

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Glossy Ibis on Flickr.

Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) Sekendi Kilat (Malay) Found this one harassing a group of whistling ducks :)

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Hesperornis regalis restoration by ~Green-Mamba

From the artist’s comment:

Hesperornis and its close relatives may have been the birds most completely adapted to aquatic life—not only were their wings practically nonexistant, but the structure of their pelvis and legs prevented them from being able to walk upright on land, allowing them to, at best, push their bodies along like seals.

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Why 2 Birds in the Hand May Be Better Than a “Hobbit” Skull (in a Cave Deposit, at Least)

by Hanneke J.M. Meijer

“The discovery in 2003 of Homo floresiensis,affectionately referred to as a ‘hobbit’, took scientists worldwide by surprise, and challenged many things thought to be understood about human evolution.Intense scientific debates followed about the validity of Homo floresiensis and its status as a separate species, and many of these debates continue to this day. Behind the black velvet covered table, however, stacked up high against the walls, are hundreds of boxes and plastic containers, each of which contains evidence of the other animals that lived and died among Homo floresiensis. I can’t help but think that these boxes and containers, not the skeleton on the table, will help us to better understand the rise and fall of Homo floresiensis.

Liang Bua is a limestone cave in western Flores, located on the southern slope of a lush green valley that over time has been cut down by the Wae Racang river. Its sediments have yielded an enormous number of animal bones, and despite its star status, ‘hobbit’ remains are hugely outnumbered by the remains of other animals, such as rats, pygmy elephants, Komodo dragons, bats, and most importantly in my case, birds. My first encounter with the ancient birds of Liang Bua was in 2006, when I made my first trip to Jakarta. Coping as best as I could with the heat (I’m northern European after all), I spent my days carefully unwrapping tissue paper only to find bird bones, some very large, most of them small, tucked inside. I couldn’t help but feeling a bit overwhelmed when I left Jakarta” (read more).

(Source: Scientific American)

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Bird by ►CubaGallery on Flickr.

Gull

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oh my god!!

this is a video of a wild new caledonian crow intentionally and unambiguously sculpting a hook tool out of a twig after taking it off the branch and immediately using it very carefully to pull food out of a log

if you’ve never completely “bought” claims of corvid intelligence from the videos i’ve posted of advanced communication and play in crows and ravens, how about great-ape-caliber tool creation and use? that do it for you?

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http://mag.audubon.org/articles/birds/quail-use-camouflage-protect-their-eggs

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Merci Loic

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Rui Palha

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Red Crested Cardinal. Photo by FriendFrog

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White Faced Owl

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Northern Red Bishop. Photo by FriendFrog

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Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelanidae)

Also known as the New Zealand Tui or Parson Bird, the tui is a species of honeyeater endemic to New Zealand. Like other honeyeaters the tui feeds primarily on nectar but will feed on fruit and insects as well, the most popular of food items is the New Zealand flax (which sometimes ferments causing the bird to get ‘drunk’) which the tui is a chief pollinator of. Tuis have also shown themselves to be highly intelligent and have been trained to imitate complex human speech (like a parrot), they also can produce a myriad of other vocalizations as-well.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Aves-Passeriformes-Meliphagidae-Prosthemadera-novaeseelandiae

Image Source(s)

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Kori Bustard, Ngorongoro Crater (by Terathopius)