Instead of an Attenborough nature show clip this Saturday, here’s another homemade YouTube clip of an excellent mimic:

weewoo the talking starling

People consider starlings pests, but I don’t. The avifauna around here would be poorer for having no enormous roadside flocks of shimmery black beauties swarming in the evening. (See this previous post for an [...]

Read Full Post »

Here’s another example of crows doing some problem-solving, this time in Japan:
 

Ornithology – David Attenborough – “Japanese Crow”

 
Corvids are known from other observations and experiments to be smart, so this level of problem-solving wouldn’t seem to be beyond them, but it’s always good to maintain a bit of skepticism. There may be confirmation bias at [...]

Read Full Post »

We already saw some remarkable courtship displays in the Vogelkop Bowerbird. Here are some more, mainly pheasants:
 

Ornithology – David Attenborough – “Impressing the Females”

 
As in the bowerbirds, these are examples of sexual selection run wild.

Read Full Post »

We’ve already seen an instance of tool use in birds with Betty the New Caledonian Crow. Here’s another example of a bird improvising with a nearby object in a successful attempt to get food (the amateur narrator is a little… odd and, as one of the YouTube commentors pointed out, kind of Poohish, but [...]

Read Full Post »

Last week I mentioned briefly the European starling’s ability to mimic. But among mimics, the Superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) of Australia, named for its tail, reigns supreme when it comes to detail and precision. In this clip, David Attenborough spies on one in his display area in the woods, and as usual, provides just enough [...]

Read Full Post »

You probably know that starlings can form huge flocks (I’ve had a few moderately sized ones descend on my backyard before), but the spectacle of some of the larger ones is otherworldly:

The phenomenon is so impressive and seasonably reliable in southwestern Denmark that they have a name for it: sorta sol, or “black sun”. It’s [...]

Read Full Post »

Is living in sin or being a lesbian an Amazing Thing? I think so, if you’re a Greylag goose or a Roseate tern:

Same-sex parenting in birds

I don’t know the precise word for what Greylags do; polyandry usually means that the female mates with both males, which isn’t the case here. And I’m a [...]

Read Full Post »

Last week we had a bird that can dance. This week, how about one that’s mastered interior decoration and landscaping?
Ornithology – David Attenborough – “The Bowerbird”

I really, really love bowerbirds. Their display behavior is a fascinating example of sexual selection, and their capacity to make individual aesthetic choices raises intriguing philosophical questions. [...]

Read Full Post »

Here’s this week’s Bird Doing an Amazing Thing:
calopsita bate o pé

Now, there are some particular things about his performance that merit attention, although it’s vital to add the caveat that we have no information on what sort of training or conditioning led to this behavior. First is the impeccable sense of rhythm, and second is [...]

Read Full Post »

So Waffles has LOLCat Fridays, but I’m claiming Birds-Doing-Amazing-Things Saturdays:
One Clever Crow

This is Betty, a New Caledonian crow who figured out how to use and improve tools.

Read Full Post »