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Do birds avoid predators because of culture?

10,000 Birds

Plastic behaviors are not automatically unrelated to natural selection, but the way those behaviors vary across individuals or across groups may not be best explained by underlying genetic differences. In particular, birds that hang around with humans who don’t happen to hunt or eat them can become very tame.

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Birding the Kruger Park (5): Pafuri area part 1

10,000 Birds

One study found that birds living in Botswana had elevated levels of lead in their bloodstreams during hunting season, presumably coming from lead bullets used on animals killed by hunters. For example, this study showed that Malachite Kingfishers spent more time hunting in locations with more fish. ” (HBW).

Elephants 147
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The Storks of Africa

10,000 Birds

They are often found roosting in small groups along the edges of lakes and riverine sandbars. In the northern winter, the bulk of the European and North African population migrate down into Africa, as far as South Africa, where large numbers frequent fields where they hunt for insects and rodents.

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Dreaming of Congo rainforest: Gabon, Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic

10,000 Birds

The Congo is one of the deepest rivers in the world with depths sometimes exceeding 220 meters (720 feet). The Congo Basin is 300,000 square miles (777,000 square kilometres) in size and its forests store 25 per cent of tropical forest carbon. million hectares of forest cover each year.

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The Bee-eaters of Africa

10,000 Birds

These charismatic, colorful and finely formed birds are favorites amongst birders from experts to novices, and lie within the group of birds whose beauty even non-birders really appreciate. After breeding they also disperse over the rainforests and savannas of West and Central Africa, where they hunt for aerial insects.

Africa 265
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Ghana – Rainforest Birding on the Brink by Adam Riley

10,000 Birds

I was in contact with a group of birders for whom I arranged and guided an annual tour to Africa. Most importantly the Upper Guinea forests, one of Africa’s two major rainforest regions (the other being the far more extensive Lower Guinea forests of the Congo basin and surrounding areas). And wow, what a trip we had!

Ghana 199
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Africa’s Barbets

10,000 Birds

Barbets are a group of medium sized, chunky, generally colorful, frugivorous, hole-nesting near-passerines, that are popular targets for anyone birding in the tropics. The four Gymnobucco species are Africa’s least observed group of barbets as they are restricted to the less visited tropics of central and west Africa.

Ethiopia 240