Look up if you hear music overhead! Birds such as sandpipers and larks sing on the wing— their high-flying concerts are sure to impress.
BIRDSONGS may simply be pretty outdoor melodies to humans, but for birds, there are practical uses behind the music. Male birds mainly sing to announce their claim to a territory and to attract a mate. They need to be heard, so they often sit up on a prominent, high perch to deliver their serenades. For example, a male cardinal may take to the top of a tall tree to sing his song, and a male song sparrow may fly up to the tallest nearby bush to sing after hunting for food on the ground.
But if there aren’t any towering shrubs or trees nearby, there’s always the highest perch of all: the sky. Many birds that live in wide-open country make that choice, pouring out their songs while fluttering through the heavens above their patch of territory on the ground.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August - September 2017-Ausgabe von Birds & Bloom.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August - September 2017-Ausgabe von Birds & Bloom.
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Sense or Nonsense? - Why some birds can taste and smell - but others can't
Does a porcelain berry taste like a blueberry to a gray catbird? Does a block of lard smell like frying bacon to a northern flicker? The short answer is no. While some avian species do have a well-adapted sense of taste or smell, they can't distinguish between flavors and odors the way humans can. They're not picking up every ingredient in the suet you put out, says José Ramírez-Garofalo, an ornithology researcher at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the director of Freshkills Biological Station in Staten Island, New York.
Maple Mania - Amazing facts about this fall foliage mainstay
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Food-Focused and Fierce - Meet Canada jays and learn why they eat almost anything they can find
Even if you haven't heard of Canada jays, you've heard of their relatives. Members of the corvid family, they belong to the same group as American crows, blackbilled magpies, and jays including blue, Steller's and scrub. "Unlike many of the other jays, a Canada jay doesn't have a crest of any kind; it just has a rounded head," says Dale Gentry, director of conservation for Audubon Upper Mississippi River.In 2018, the Canada jay's name was changed from gray jay, but Dale thinks the former adjective was fitting. "Most of its body is shades of gray with some white," he says. "There are different subspecies that have different physical traits, but most of them have some lighter coloring on their foreheads, upper breasts and throats, each with a darker streak that starts at each eye and goes back."
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