Best For Birds

From the popular Hinterland Who’s Who (www.hww.ca) TV series, here is a video on the burrowing owl, a species at risk. The Burrowing Owl Athene cunicularia gained its name from a particular behaviour: it nests underground. But contrary to the impression given by the bird’s scientific name, which means “little digger,” this owl rarely digs its own burrow. Instead, it constructs its nest in burrows vacated by small mammals like ground squirrels, badgers, and prairie dogs.

Duration : 0:0:30

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Technorati Tags: bird, burrowing, canada, canadian, hinterland, hww, owl, species, threatened, who, who's

On Jan 15, 2009 a US Airways plane took off from New Yorks LaGuardia Airport, colliding with a flock of geese approximately 2,900 feet above the ground, extensively damaging both engines five miles from the airport. The pilot was able to conduct an emergency landing in the Hudson River—all 155 people on board survived with few serious injuries. Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board later sent feathers and tissue extracted from the planes engines to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., for analysis. Carla Dove, scientist at the Smithsonian Feather Identification Lab at the National Museum of Natural History and Peter Marra, scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo, worked together to determine that it was Canada geese that caused the crash and that the geese were migratory and not resident.
More at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
http://sn.im/jq6vl &
Feather Identification Lab
http://sn.im/jq6ws

Duration : 0:3:12

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Extreme slo-mo film footage of eagles, owls, hawks & falcons hunting and soaring. Features S16mm film & 500fps high-speed photography. Andrew Manske’s “Birds of Prey” Cinematography Demo Video.

Duration : 0:4:5

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Transcript: “The American Robin is a symbol of spring. It is among the first North American Birds to breed and lay eggs each year. And, the Robins song is one of the first heard early each morning.

Its orangish-red belly is a familiar site in North America. The robin is active during the day, hopping across lawns searching for worms, which it hunts visually pouncing on them and then pulling them up.

The Robin eats other invertebrates, such as beetles, grubs and caterpillars, but fruits and berries also make a significant portion of its diet.

It is named after the European Robin because of its bright red chest, but the two birds are not closely related. The American Robins habitat crosses North America from Canada to Mexico with most robins migrating south during the winter.

Young chicks are altricial which means they are very dependent on their parents. Only 25% will survive their first year. The average lifespan is two years.

The American Robin is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin.”

Duration : 0:1:21

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Technorati Tags: america, american, birds, canada, documentary, eggs, european, mexico, migrate, nature, nest, north, robin, wildlife, worm