I had a very emotional experience holding this bird today. It was such a remarkable privilege to be deep in the forest, sharing a moment with this stunning animal. I was simply overcome with appreciation for the beauty and splendor of the natural world.
(Blackburnian Warbler)
Just a quick reminder that the Flame Bowerbird exists. Found in the rainforests of New Guinea, it's widely considered to be the bird that most looks like it's on fire.
📷 Dubi Shapiro, eBird
And lo, on the fourth day God said, "I shall create a bird with a giant red sack on its throat that it can inflate when it is aroused." And so it was done.
Great Frigatebird, Wolf Island, Galápagos (2015)
Her: I’m coming over. You better not be using your super-absorbent belly feathers to soak up and transport water to your nestlings.
Me, a Namaqua Sandgrouse:
Convergent evolution at work! Australia doesn't have any hummingbirds, but it has plenty of honeyeaters like this Eastern Spinebill that also evolved to feed on nectar. These guys target mainly flowering trees and shrubs and also eat a lot of insects.
Queensland (2009)
This really is an astonishing photo by @chavecito.bsky.social. A pack of bloodthirsty Vampire Finches attacking a booby on Wolf Island in the Galápagos. A few thousand years of convergent evolution managed to produce avian mosquitos!
🚨 NEW PREPRINT ALERT! 🚨
With talented SUNY Oswego undergrad Kristina Davis and Black Tern Whisperer Dave Shealer, we used reflectance spectrometry to see if Black Terns might use plumage color as a sexual signal. 1/5
📷 Ian K. Barker
If you've ever watched Black Terns, you know that males and females are nearly impossible to tell apart. But our quantitative analyses showed a subtle, but significant difference: males are darker than females. 2/5
Even though the difference is minor, avian visual models suggest it is perceptible to the signal receiver. Especially since Black Terns occur in wide open habitat conducive to visual signaling, we're pretty confident they can use plumage to distinguish the sexes. 3/5
We also compared plumage color between mated individuals and found an unexpected pattern of disassortative mating: more black and saturated birds pair with more gray and unsaturated birds. Plumage may be a signal allowing individuals to choose a genetically dissimilar mate. 4/5
🚨 NEW SPECIES ACCOUNT! 🚨
With Emma Greig & Mike Webster: the @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social Red-backed Fairywren species account! Turns out we know a lot about this cute little puffball. Read up and amaze your friends with fairywren trivia! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/...
📷 Ian Davies, eBird
“Get a load of these dingbats.” -me, probably
Stumbling upon a family of roosting Tawny Frogmouths in Queensland, ca 2010. Their camouflage is incredible and they remain completely still all day long. How many do you see?
Is this photo of Richard Owen and a moa skeleton the most unintentionally terrifying image in the history of science? Ol buddy looks like he's about to cast a fucking spell and turn us all into flightless birds.
Back in my PhD days when I was down at my fighting weight. We had an epic swimming hole behind our field house. There was an Azure Kingfisher that lived there.
Samford Valley, QLD, Australia; ca 2011
