Bird Call

Bird-nerd-word of the day: Ornithosis

How about a pop quiz to test your bird-word knowledge. :) It's tough. So cheat if you need to. I won't see you. :)

Ornithosis is:

1)    Fear of birds

2)    A paper machete bird used in plays

3)    Thinking you’re a bird

4)    Zoonosis

5)    Parrot Fever

6)    Psittacosis

Answers

1)    False.  That would be Ornithophobia. Lucille Ball had it. Tippi Hedren had it. Who’s she? The actress in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Best treatment for Ornithophobia? Stay away from birds.

2)    False. Red herring. I totally made that one up.

3)    False.  But I didn’t make it up. It’s called lycanthropy.

4)    True. See below 5 & 6

5)    True. See 4

6)    True. See 5

 

OK so here’s how 4, 5 & 6 work:

Zoonosis is a disease animals catch that can be passed on to humans.

Ornithosis is when a bird—usually caged-- has zoonosis.

Parrot Fever is when a Parrot has ornithosis.

And Psittacosis is when a human has Parrot Fever.

Note to bird owners: be careful. It’s a serious disease. If you suspect it or sometimes even if you don’t take these steps: first don't kiss it. Second follow CDC recommendations: “wear protective clothing, gloves, a paper surgical cap, and a respirator with an N95 rating or a higher-efficiency respirator when cleaning cages….”

Or plucking chickens.  : )

Wow. Scary. Really scary.

Does that make me Ornithophobic?

 

This beautiful Parrot is an African Grey. Smart. Healthy. Knows not to hang out with the wrong crowd.

Boring Fact: Ok. Maybe not so boring. It’s a quote from Wikipedia:

“African greys are also highly intelligent, having been shown to perform at the cognitive level of a 4– to 6-year-old child in some tasks. New experiments have shown that African greys can learn number sequences and can associate human voices with those humans' faces.[14] Most notably, Dr Irene Pepperberg's work with Alex the parrot showed his ability to learn over 100 words, differentiating between objects, colors, materials, and shapes. “

 

For more about African Greys: Good Bird

Arizona Cardinal Fans

I just got back from an Arizona road trip.

Buckeye AZ Sunrise

Got to bird with my brother. Big plus. Went to a niece’s wedding. Another big plus. Saw family. Another big plus. Beautiful country. Plus. Birds everywhere. Warblers,tanagers,night-hawks,woodpeckers,junkos. Tons of birds. Plus.

Pictures? Eah...didn’t do so well. Not even of the wedding. Big Minus.

Or my brother. But we sat on his back porch and took pictures of his bird feeder. Lots of Pine Siskins. That's love in our family. :)

I did get these shots near Sedona of some Arizona Cardinals. (Notice I didn’t say Northern Cardinals.) (See "E-Z-ID Friday" 6/24/14) They are not quite the same. (See "Northern Cardinal" 7/17/14). The AZ version is an isolated subspecies. Really the only one in the western half of the country. Birders know this.

But there are a lot of people who don’t. In Arizona! They don’t even believe it. In fact it causes a big controversy because of the football team. Some people don’t like the team named the Cardinals. They blog endlessly about it. Entertaining. But mostly silly. I’m not sure why they haven’t seen them. That red is hard to miss. Unless it’s because there aren’t as many of them right in phoenix where most people live. They’re not hard core desert rats. The birds I mean. They need a few trees and a little brush.

But they are not uncommon.  

Maybe those particular Zoners are just grumpy about having an angry bird as their mascot. Sure it’s not a bear. Or even a Seahawk. But they need to cut the Cardinal a little slack. It’s not a bad symbol. How’s this for example. Arizona Cardinals can have 8 broods in a single season. If one doesn’t work out, they start again. Immediately. There’s just no quit in them. That seems way better than, “Wait till next season.”

Another thing. They say the best clubs play as a team. Well male and female Cardinals stay together year round. They are very familiar with the sounds the other makes. They often feed out in the open. So they need to have each other’s tail. So to speak. They constantly check in with each other by “chitting.” That means it’s all good. Or something.

But all the chitting in the world wouldn’t help without a good defensive scheme. You see, their biggest enemies are Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks. Fast. Deadly. If one is spotted the chit changes to “chet” or whatever “ARhhhhhh!” is in cardinal, and they dart in two different directions to the bushes.

Sort of like a cover 2 defense. You know. Create confusion. Bend but don’t break. Keep your opponent in front of you. Try not to give up a big play through the air.

Young AZ Cardinal

Rookie AZ Cardinal staying home on defense.

And fierce? Angry bird doesn’t begin to do Arizona Cardinals justice. They’re ferocious protecting their home field. Especially during breeding season. They will attack anything.

Even their own reflection.... Hey! At least they win.

Usually.

Ok Cardinal fans. I admit there’s a bit of a weakness there. But listen.

I said they were persistent. Team players. Defense minded. And ferocious.

I never said they were smart.  : )

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Osprey-Sort of

A final word on the subject of Ospreys.

They sometimes go by other names. Like Seahawk. And the most famous one?  Taima. A mascot of the Seattle Seahawks

 It leads the team down the tunnel and flies around a bit before returning to its trainer. Cool.

Plus they have Blitz the Seahawk.

 And here's Talon from Stockton University in New Jersey. Big basketball fan. Loved locally. Not famous.

University of North Florida has this guy: Ozzie the Osprey.

He’s famous. His team made the NCAA tournament. He’s my favorite.

Why not the live bird? Taima. After all this is a bird blog. Not a cheerleader-in-bird-suit blog. Fair question. Let's take a thirty second time out.

Look at the hawk. Closely. It’s not an Osprey. So what is it? Well. It’s not a Sea hawk at all. It's not even from Seattle. It’s an Augur Buzzard. From Africa. A land lubber. Now with all the Osprey up there you would think they could at least find the right bird.

Instead they're trying to pass this one off as authentic.

And trying to keep it a big secret. Why?

Because with all the scandals the NFL is dealing with right now (like deflated footballs) the last thing they need is birdgate.

Seahawk

A few years back someone asked me if there was actually a bird called a Seahawk. I said nope. I was sure. And wrong.

There are several. All around the world.

Like this one.

Alias fish eagle, river hawk, fish hawk, Pandion haliaetus. And of course 吃鱼鹰 . Officially? It’s an Osprey.

All-about-birds says they’re “superb anglers.”  True.  As far as it goes. But more like angling with a blunt instrument. And meat hooks. They hit the water so hard they have built in nose plugs so they won’t drown their brains. And thanks to the BBC you can see it here Osprey Fishing:BBC. : )

Fascinating.

They always have been.

Clear back to Rome. Remember Pliny the Elder?  No not the beer.
The nominee for the Bird-Call Birding Hall of Fame.  

Here's more of his wisdom.

"There remains the Osprey, which has very keen eyesight, and which hovers at a great height and when it sees a fish in the sea drops on it with a swoop and cleaving the water with its breast catches it."

Nice description.

 

He should have stopped there. Perhaps he was drinking beer. He went on to say they make their young fly to the sun and back as a rite of passage. And if they fail? They kill them.

(I don’t see much way for the youngsters to win here do you?)

So. Now. I don’t mean to keep picking on the 2000 year old naturalist, but I’m sorry. That’s simply loony.

 

Pliny. : )

 

 

Here’s one more link. A nest cam. Real nature in real time. And so far so good. But if you watch just remember, sometimes mother nature isn’t nice.

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