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In the late 1980s a gosling was born in Harvard, Nebraska. Although this is a relatively common occurrence, this little hatchling was different, as he was born with stumps for feet. A local inventor named Gene Fleming heard of this and fitted the goose named Andy with specially made Nike baby shoes. Andy gained fame […]
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According to Maori legend New Zealanders were prey to giant eagles; Haast Eagles, which could catch prey up to 510 lbs and had a wingspan up to 9.8 ft, went extinct around 1400.
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A Spain photographer creates stunning photos of birds that, at first glance, don’t look like photos at all. Instead, they look like dynamic sculptures in the sky.
The photo project is titled “Ornitographies.” It’s the work of Xavi Bou, a Catalan photographer, whose goal was to draw attention to the natural beauty that many people take for granted.
“One of the topics that interests me is to make visible that in our near environment, we have more variety of fauna than most people imagine — we just have to pay attention,” Xavi told Insider. “It is not necessary to travel to distant places to enjoy nature.”
To create these images, Xavi takes timed photos from a distance. Thousands of birds combine into complex geometric shapes that appear to be moving. As Xavi says, the birds’ movement turns the sky into a canvas of sorts.
Xavi takes most of his photos in his home region of Catalonia, Spain. Most of the birds are common species that often live close to cities.
He’s been interested in the natural sciences since he was young; he used to go on bird walks with his grandfather as a child. He later went on to study both geology and photography as an adult. His work now combines his loves of nature and art into one.
“The first test was done in May of 2012,” Xavi explained. He began to work more deeply on the project in 2015. “Actually, it’s almost my full time dedication. I keep making new ones, working on the future book, and researching for my future projects.”
Check out some more of his photos:
Xavi hopes to inspire people to be “curious” about nature again: “We love
those we know and protect what we love.”
The post A Photographer Captured Images of Birds That Look like Stunning Sky Sculptures appeared first on UberFacts.
Sometimes, these two worlds collide mid-air, and planes fly straight into a bird, or even a flock of birds.
The results can look really disastrous, especially for the birds. The good news is that bird strikes don’t typically pose any risk to airplanes or passengers. The really good news is that they’re unlikely to bring down a plane.
“Aircraft are designed and built to withstand bird strikes, and pilots undergo rigorous training to enable them to deal with eventualities like a bird strike,” BALPA flight safety specialist, Stephen Landells, told The Telegraph.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Even if a bird gets sucked into the airplane’s engine, the plane can usually land just fine. “Losing one engine is not going to cause an aircraft to crash because they are designed to fly with one engine down,” Stephen explained.
That doesn’t mean fliers are completely in the clear, however. While a single bird rarely poses any danger to a plane, Stephen added that “multiple bird strikes – or hitting large birds such as Canada geese – can and have caused serious accidents.” Captain Sully’s landing of a US Airways plane on the Hudson River in 2009 is perhaps the most famous example of this.
Photo Credit: YouTube
This is quite rare, though.
There were 160,894 bird strikes between 1990 and 2015 in the U.S. Only 40 of those strikes resulted in an accident.
Unfortunately, these incidents are often fatal for the birds (though not always). They can die on impact if they run into a plane, and they usually disintegrate if they get sucked into an engine. The number of wildlife strikes has also increased drastically over the years, as flying gets more popular.
Sadly, there’s not much that planes can do to avoid birds in the sky.
The post What Happens When a Plane Flies into a Flock of Birds? appeared first on UberFacts.
Alex was a grey parrot with a vocabulary of over 100 words, the ability to identify over 50 different objects, and the ability to count quantities up to 6. Before he died in 2007, his last words were “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”
We’ve heard all about the plight of the bees that are disappearing at an alarming rate across the world, but the situation with birds doesn’t look too great, either.
“A staggering loss that suggests the very fabric of North America’s ecosystem is unraveling.”—Cornell Lab director John Fitzpatrick and study coauthor Peter Marra. Read more: https://t.co/xitIFJoNuL
— TNC in Illinois (@Nature_IL) September 24, 2019
A new article in the journal Science estimates that North America has lost a quarter of its bird population – roughly 3 billion birds – in the past 50 years. The researchers looked at populations of 529 different bird species since 1970 to reach their conclusion. They collected data from surveys with the help of volunteer bird spotters and combined that with ten years worth of data on flocks of migrating birds detected by 143 different weather radar installations.
North America has lost more than a quarter of its entire bird population since 1970, around 3 billion birds, according to a new study.https://t.co/AwntnO2GdN
— NPR (@NPR) September 19, 2019
Ken Rosenberg of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said, “We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community. By our estimates, it’s a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds. But we also knew that other bird populations were increasing. And what we didn’t know is whether there was a net change.”
The data showed that more than 90% of the losses came from only a dozen bird families, including warblers, blackbirds, finches, and sparrows. Meadowlarks and red-winged blackbirds are two examples of common birds that have seen their numbers decrease.
"As habitats diminish, birds have nowhere to go." https://t.co/WPOaNe3oWt
— Science News (@ScienceNews) September 25, 2019
The news isn’t entirely bad, though; some bird populations have increased, such as raptors (influding bald eagles), and waterfowl. Rosenberg continued, “The numbers of ducks and geese are larger than they’ve ever been, and that’s not an accident. It’s because hunters who primarily want to see healthy waterfowl populations for recreational hunting have raised their voices.”
One study estimates North America has lost 3 billion birds in the last 50 years. A new study suggests why so many are disappearing in the desert: they're dying of thirst https://t.co/683jbQBn5Q
— LAist (@LAist) September 30, 2019
Mike Parr, another one of the study’s authors, said, “We’re making the wrong moves now to sustain nature for the future, and this is an indication that nature is unraveling and that ecosystems are highly stressed. Our generation is going survive it, and probably the next generation will, but who knows where the tipping point is.”
The researchers say that climate change played only a small role in the overall loss of the birds so far, but it is likely to become more of a threat in the future because of rising seas, draughts and wildfires.
The post Scientists Say That North America Has Lost 3 Billion Birds in the Last 50 Years appeared first on UberFacts.
Some folks recently brought what they believed to be an exotic, orange bird to the Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in England because they saw it stranded on the side of the road looking like it couldn’t fly.
Looks pretty exotic to me.
Posted by Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital on Monday, July 1, 2019
Ooohhhhh, I wonder what species it could be…
So the vets got to work treating the bird.
Posted by Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital on Monday, July 1, 2019
Posted by Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital on Monday, July 1, 2019
And what did they discover? The bird was actually a seagull covered in curry.
The Facebook post from the animal hospital read:
“This is one of the strangest casualty circumstances we have seen in a while! This bright-orange herring gull was rescued by kind members of the public who spotted him at the side of the A41. When they called to say they had picked up an orange bird, we had no idea what to expect – and would never have guessed at this!
He had somehow gotten himself covered in curry or turmeric! It was all over his feathers, preventing him from flying properly. We have no idea how he got into this predicament but thankfully, apart from the vibrant colour and pungent smell, he was healthy.
Our veterinary team bravely bathed the gull (now named Vinny after a Vindaloo curry) to clean off his feathers. He managed to cover them in curry water, but eventually did let us scrub him clean.
He is now looking much better and should be able to go for release very soon! As we say, we never know what will come through our doors next!
Huge thanks to the lovely finders who stopped to rescue him.”
Posted by Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital on Monday, July 1, 2019
Vindaloo, I mean Vinny, is now doing just fine. But he needs to avoid all Indian food for the time being…
The post A Vet’s Office Thought They Were Treating an Exotic Bird, but It Was Just Covered in Curry appeared first on UberFacts.
Birdhouses shouldn’t have a perch. – “Stay away from any birdhouse with a perch. Birds don’t need them and they only make it easier for predators or unwanted birds to get in.”
3 Australian bird species deliberately help spread wildfires so they can find prey more easily.
Theme parks all tend to have a few elements in common – plenty of rides, souvenir shops, food stalls, and, of course, an abundance of birds hopping around trying to pick up any food that falls to the ground.
Now, Puy du Fou, a theme park in Les Epesses, France, has decided that if birds are going to be hanging around begging for leftover popcorn and discarded funnel cakes, they might as well earn their keep. To that end, they’ve trained a small contingent of rooks as staff – they get paid in treats to clean up garbage and cigarette butts from the grounds.
Image Credit: Puy du Fou
Rooks are in the same family of birds as ravens and crows, highly intelligent and trainable animals. The ones at Puy du Fou pick up litter and place it in a bin in exchange for a treat – the team of 6 birds have been working hard since August 13.
Image Credit: Pixabay
It sounds a bit out there, but the amusement park is far from the first company to give it a go. Dutch startup Crowded Cities started training crows to gather cigarette butts using a vending machine-like device that offers peanuts in exchange for trash, and the experiment is going well.
Image Credit: Pixabay
If it continues to work with no detrimental effects to the crows (from handling tobacco), we could see a broader implementation of the idea worldwide – maybe nature can help us clean up nature, even though we’re the ones who soiled it in the first place.
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