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Birding Inirida, Colombia, or river dolphins and hoatzins, part 2

10,000 Birds

Am I over-confident in my thinking that we were so interesting that they were investigating us for a good half an hour, until we moved further upriver? Because of that, the bird has a manure-like odour and is only hunted by humans for food in times of dire need” [ Source ]. Adult males reach an average length of 2.32 metres (7.6

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Licking Clay: the Macaws of Tambopata, Peru

10,000 Birds

UNLESS that is you get yourself down to the internationally-renowned Tambopata Research Centre in southern Peru where literally hundreds of macaws (and other parrots) congregate around a 50 meter high clay bank. At this hour I am a reluctant, under-caffeinated sherpa – and concentration must be given to the dangers of the footpath ahead.

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Great Tit Telomeres, Baby Talk, Brainy Birds

10,000 Birds

In humans, adults (probably mainly mothers) do this thing called “motherese” which is talking in a way one would normally not talk to another adult, to a baby. Jon Sakata, a professor of neurobiology at McGill, says that songbirds learn vocalizations like humans learn speech. Salmón, J. Nilsson, A. Nord, and S.

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Spotlight: Lisa Beth Acton, Raising Ravens

10,000 Birds

He meant well, but his research told him to feed them Exact parrot formula – which is NOT a diet for ravens. They immediately went to investigate it, and quickly learned to move when cars were coming. For a while I was afraid they were too friendly and might turn to humans if they needed food, but I’ve seen no sign of that.

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Bird Song and Parallel Evolution: learning from our feathered friends

10,000 Birds

The modal bird song is a song, but not all ‘songs’ are song-like, in the sense that we expect song to come out of the ‘mouth’ (bill) and to consist of modulated air currents (like human voice). Drawing of bower birds from Darwin’s 1871 volume on sexual selection.

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