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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Posts tagged bird:
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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
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Another cool video of a hermit hummingbird pollinating Costus scaber. Again, if you look really closely, you can see tiny mites trying run down the bill of the hummingbird and into the flower!!! Amazing. Grace Chen took this video while studying adaptation in tropical gingers.
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Sweet video of a hermit hummingbird pollinating Costus scaber. If you look really closely, you can actually see two tiny mites trying run down the bill of the hummingbird and into the flower!!! Amazing. Grace Chen took this video while studying adaptation in tropical gingers.
Series conclusion: common birds of Chiloé
This is possibly my favorite project that I did throughout my entire year abroad on my Watson Fellowship. In the national park in Chiloé (Parque Nacional Chiloé), I did a couple of environmental education projects: a handout about trees, a poster about trash and recycling, the design for a kids’ trail, and this poster of the common birds on the island:
It’s bilingual, with the Spanish name in black ink and the English name in blue. I also left my copy of Birds of Chile at the campground reception, so people can look up scientific names and more details.
Each background represents a different habitat. This is forest and meadows…
Beach, shoreline…
and freshwater wetlands…
Hope you enjoyed the series! Any critiques on the poster would be appreciated, I’m always trying to improve my scientific communication/outreach skills. And visual design skills. If you click on the date of this post it takes you to its own page, where you can comment below (an account is not required).
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 15
Part 15: Chucao. This little forest bird is commonly used as a symbol of Chiloé, but unfortunately I never did get a picture, it’s so elusive! Usually you will hear a chucao rather than see one. Their call is quite loud and you’d picture a fairly big bird, so everyone is always surprised to find out that this little thing is the source. Here’s the call. Chilotes say that if you hear it on your right, it’s good luck, and from the left, it’s bad. Or perhaps the other way around, I forget :p
Spanish name: Chucao. Scientific name: Scelorchilus rubecula.
Photo from Niquinho on flickr.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 14
Part 14: grab bag of wetland birds. Here are some of the other common birds that I saw in freshwater in Chiloé.
(Not sure about this one) Greater yellowlegs, Pitotoy grande, Tringa melanoleuca. Breed in boreal North America and migrate south for winter.
Plumbeous rail, Pidén, Pardirallus sanguinolentus. A pretty South American swamp bird.
Ringed kingfisher, Martín pescador, Megaceryle torquata. Ranges from southern US to Chile.
Photos in the series are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 13
Part 13: grab bag of shore birds. Here are some other common birds that I saw on the beaches of Chiloé.
Turkey vulture, Jote de cabeza colorada, Cathartes aura. Ranges all the way from southern Canada to the southern tip of South America.
Kelp gull, Gaviota dominicana, Larus dominicanus. Common throughout the southern hemisphere.
Neotropic cormorant, Yeco, Phalacrocorax brasilianus. Ranges from the southern US to southern South America. Notice the penguin…I’ll put up a bunch of penguin pictures separately from this series (:
Not sure about this one, but I think it’s a Snowy plover, Chorlo nevado, Charadrius nivosus. Ranges from southern US to Chile.
Photos in the series are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 12
Part 12. Green-backed firecrown. Notice the distinctive white spot behind the eye in the first picture and the red crown in the second. This pretty little hummingbird was quite common around the campground of the national park in Chiloé, where there were lots of fuschias to drink nectar from. (By the way, I often saw these fuschias being robbed by carpenter bees—see December posts for a series on nectar robbing.)
Spanish name: Picaflor chico. Scientific name: Sephanoides sephanoides.
Photos in the series are my own unless noted, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 11
Part 11: Austral thrush. This bird was like the Chilean equivalent of the American Robin (same genus), by the way it moved and acted.
Spanish name: Zorzal. Scientific name: Turdus falcklandii.
Photos in the series are my own unless noted, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 10
Part 10: Southern Lapwing. This wader is very strikingly colored, and I never got my own picture that showed those beautiful marks; see more pictures here. The calls are loud and distinct; hear them here. I actually saw the same species recently in Tobago in the Caribbean; quite the range!
Spanish name: Queltehue. Scientific name: Vanellus chilensis.
This photo is from Flickr user Frank Shufelt.
The first two photos are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 9
Part 9: Yellow-billed pintail. A widespread South American dabbling duck. Dabbling ducks feed at the surface rather than diving down.
Spanish name: Pato jergón grande. Scientific name: Anas georgica.
Photos in the series are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 8
Part 9: Great egret. A very widespread migratory wetland bird, you’ve probably seen it gracefully stalking its prey in a pond, lake, or swamp.
Spanish name: Garza grande. Scientific name: Ardea alba.
Photos in the series are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 7
Part 7: Chilean seaside cinclodes. This pretty little bird likes the rocky shoreline.
Spanish name: Churrete costero. Scientific name: Cinclodes nigrofumosus.
Photos in the series are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
Series: common birds of Chiloé, pt 6
Part 6: Black-faced ibis. This strikingly-colored bird is common in fields, dunes, and beaches in Chiloé. It’s another noisy bird with a very distinct call (click here to listen).
Spanish common name: Bandurria. Scientific name: Theristicus melanopis.
Photos in the series are my own, taken in Jan-Feb 2011 in Chiloé, Chile.
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