Putting up mist nets to catch and census birds on Trinidad. Feb 2012.
Wandering Nature
A travelogue and podcast about nature, culture, science, and sustainability. And now grad school, too. All content original unless noted.
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The Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) is a singular tropical bird, and as such belongs to its own family, the Steatornithidae, which is most closely related to the nightjars (Order Caprimulgiformes). The oilbirds are found in the Amazon and other Neotropical regions, from eastern Panama to Colombia and Venezuela, south to Peru and Bolivia. I took the above photograph in Trinidad and Tobago, off the coast of Venezuela.
Oilbirds are so named because they eat large fruits that are high in oil and protein, especially palm fruits, Lauraceae (same family as avocados), and Burseraceae. The fruits are plucked in flight and swallowed whole, the pericarp is digested, and the seeds are regurgitated (probably they are important seed dispersers, though it is unclear what proportion of the seeds are regurgitated outside the cave). Many of these fruits are aromatic, and there is evidence that oilbirds find them at night using a well-developed sense of smell. Palm fruits are not aromatic but perhaps their shape is easy to recognize.
As you can see in the photo, oilbirds live and breed in caves, like bats. They are gregarious and forage in groups, and form lifelong pair bonds. Also like bats, they can echolocate—the unrelated swiftlets are the only other birds that can—and their echolocation clicks are actually audible to the human ear. Listen in the audio track for the clicking noises, not the screams. They use this to navigate caves and because they forage at night.
The nest is a 15”-wide mound made of paste of regurgitated fruit (home sweet home!). The young grow very slowly because of their high-fat diet and don’t fly until 3-4 months. In fact, the juvenile birds weigh 1.5 times as much as their parents when 10 weeks old! The genus name Steatornis means “fat bird.” I haven’t read any mention of how they lose the weight.
It has been reported that native Venezuelans captured these fat young birds and boiled them down to produce oil for cooking and lighting. Another version of this story said that natives would put the birds on a stick and use them for torches! Wow.
References:
Kenefick, Restall, and Hayes, Field Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (Yale University Press, 2008)
J. Kricher, A Neotropical Companion (Princeton University Press, Princeton, ed. 2, 1997)
Snow, D.W., The natural history of the Oilbird, Steatornis caripensis, in Trinidad, W. I. Part 2. Population, breeding ecology, and food. Zooligica, 1962. 47: p. 199-221.
Map of Life - “Echolocation in birds: oilbirds and swiftlets”
http://www.mapoflife.org/topics/topic_436_Echolocation-in-birds-oilbirds-and-swiftlets/
May 21, 2012
Some spring violets (Viola) in the woods near Lansing, MI. I was told on a wildflower walk that there are some 80 species of violet in Michigan! But that must be wrong because my Field Manual of Michigan Flora (Voss and Reznicek 2012) says there are only 25. They are hard to tell apart, so forgive me for not IDing these to species.
Violets are cleistogamous, which means “closed marriage;” some of their flowers are very small, never open, and pollinate themselves. Read more here. I didn’t make it clear in that post that it’s actually still a mystery how cleistogamy evolves, though the hypothesis listed at the end seems the most likely right now. It hasn’t been tested yet though.
Pawpaw flowers (Asimina triloba) at Fenner Nature Center in Lansing, MI. Pawpaws are the biggest edible native fruit in the US and are said to taste like banana and mango (I haven’t gotten the chance to try one!). They’re related to the custard apple/chirimoya(Annona cherimola) and soursop (Annona muricata); all are in the family Annonaceae.
Michigan woods in the spring. Here are some ostrich ferns next to a pretty log. The fiddlehead (the emerging leaf, you can see some unfurling on the left) is edible and DELICIOUS, raw in salad or cooked however you would cook asparagus. Be sure you get the ID correct, as other ferns will make you sick.
Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) at Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan in May 2010. A spring ephemeral whose name is prettier than the flower, in my opinion. It uses heat and smell to attract its fly pollinators.
I think this is a Phlox, near Lansing, Michigan, April 2012.
Trillium grandiflorum, a common spring ephemeral in Michigan. These pictures are from Sleeping Bear Dunes in 2010. I haven’t seen a blanket of them quite like this around Lansing, but since these flowers don’t last very long, I may have just not been in the woods at the right moment.
Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), another spring ephemeral in Michigan. Spring ephemerals are perennial plants that quickly grow and flower in the spring, after the snow but before the forest trees have grown all their leaves that block light on the forest floor. They then die back to their roots or rhizomes until the next spring.
This photo was taken in Sleeping Bear Dunes in 2010.
It’s springtime in Michigan, and that means flowers! Here’s a lilac bush from my backyard-to-be (the current tenants and the landlords are letting us start the garden early, yay!).
Two boys once decided to play a trick on Charles Darwin. They took the body of a centipede, the wings of a butterfly, the legs of a grasshopper, and the head of a beetle, and glued them together. Putting the strange creature into a box, they took it to Darwin.
“Please, sir,” said the older boy, “can you tell us what sort of a bug this is?”
The naturalist looked at the bug and then at the boys.
“Did it hum?” he asked.
“Oh, yes, sir!”
“In that case,” declared Darwin, “I would say it’s a humbug.”
—Thomas, Henry. The Complete Book of English. Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, NY, 1938
Quinoa mystery
I usually don’t post too much personal stuff on here, but I just have to ask: I don’t understand why eating quinoa consistently makes me hungry 1-2 hours later. It’s supposed to be one of those grains that doesn’t, because it’s so high in protein and good for you. In fact, a search for “why do I get hungry after eating quinoa?” only turns up results saying, “It’s so much better than all those other grains, because you won’t get hungry after you eat it!” But quinoa (and whole wheat pasta!) always makes me really hungry soon after getting stuffed, I don’t understand it. Any insights out there?
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Holga photo, Waterloo State Recreation Area in Michigan, early March 2012.
The Holga is a “toy” cameras, made all out of plastic, even the lens. It’s so cheap that it lets in weird light leaks. You can’t really focus it or be sure of what exactly is in the frame when you’re shooting. That element of surprise, especially because it’s a film camera, is what makes it so appealing.
Holga photo, Dave and Susan checking out Emerald Ash Borer damage on a dead ash tree. Waterloo State Recreation Area in Michigan, early March 2012.
The Holga is a “toy” cameras, made all out of plastic, even the lens. It’s so cheap that it lets in weird light leaks. You can’t really focus it or be sure of what exactly is in the frame when you’re shooting. That element of surprise, especially because it’s a film camera, is what makes it so appealing.
Holga photo, Waterloo State Recreation Area in Michigan, early March 2012.
The Holga is a “toy” cameras, made all out of plastic, even the lens. It’s so cheap that it lets in weird light leaks. You can’t really focus it or be sure of what exactly is in the frame when you’re shooting. That element of surprise, especially because it’s a film camera, is what makes it so appealing.
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