Collimatrix Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 We'll start this one off with the recent discovery that Australian brown falcons deliberately spread fires in order to flush out prey. Lord_James 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted February 22, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2016 I have taken the (legally dubious) liberty of stitching together the phylo trees from the October 2015 mega study of molecular phylogeny: Toxn and Lord_James 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priory_of_Sion Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Aerodynamic Properties of Bird Tails Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogensthegreat Posted March 11, 2016 Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Give the Corvids some love. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donward Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Speaking of Ravens. It seems they are already gathering in Washington DC for the first time in a century. http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ravens-Spotted-in-DC-for-First-Time-in-100-Years-372040182.html The carrion birds are gathering... *Ominous music* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belesarius Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 Speaking of Ravens. It seems they are already gathering in Washington DC for the first time in a century. http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ravens-Spotted-in-DC-for-First-Time-in-100-Years-372040182.html The carrion birds are gathering... *Ominous music* That's actually pretty cool, in a E.A.P. kinda way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priory_of_Sion Posted April 28, 2016 Report Share Posted April 28, 2016 Australia's Fossil Penguins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scolopax Posted April 28, 2016 Report Share Posted April 28, 2016 Red Capped Manakins possess the fastest limb muscles of any vertebrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priory_of_Sion Posted December 22, 2016 Report Share Posted December 22, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect Posted December 23, 2016 Report Share Posted December 23, 2016 Coolest kratos cosplay ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belesarius Posted January 29, 2017 Report Share Posted January 29, 2017 I guess I'll put this here. Decorative dinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect Posted February 2, 2017 Report Share Posted February 2, 2017 Related. LoooSeR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted March 3, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2017 OMNOMNOMNOM: LoooSeR and Priory_of_Sion 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect Posted March 23, 2017 Report Share Posted March 23, 2017 Donward 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xlucine Posted January 24, 2018 Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 Little old ladies are giving great tits huge peckers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted February 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted February 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2018 Cat woodpecker got your tongue? In other woodpecker news, a new study of preserved woodpecker brains suggests that all that hammering may do strange things to their noggins after all. Scolopax and Toxn 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted February 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2018 A fossilized bird's eye is giving new insight into the evolution of avian vision. Toxn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scolopax Posted March 5, 2018 Report Share Posted March 5, 2018 A rather complete 99 million-year-old bird in amber found in Myanmar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted March 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 A number of birds have salt glands located near their eyes. These glands function something like kidneys, except that instead of filtering out a large assortment of waste products from the bloodstream they filter out excess salt only, and being so specialized eliminate salt about an order of magnitude more efficiently than kidneys. Birds so equipped fulfill their water requirements by drinking seawater, which would be lethal to any animal without specialized salt-eliminating anatomy. For the most part these specialized salt glands are seen in seabirds, but the flightless dromornithids of Australia's miocene-pleistocene also had these glands, suggesting there was a lot of brackish inland water that they could exploit and mammals could not. A fossil ornithurine bird from the Early Cretaceous of China's Jehol biota has the first evidence of these salt glands, suggesting that their presence is quite basal for birds. Scolopax and Alzoc 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alzoc Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 Do you know on what principles those organs works? The question being, is it something we can take inspiration from to improve the desalination of sea water (energetically and environmentally wise)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted March 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2018 4 hours ago, Alzoc said: Do you know on what principles those organs works? The question being, is it something we can take inspiration from to improve the desalination of sea water (energetically and environmentally wise)? Interesting idea. As far as I can tell, avian salt glands use potassium/sodium ion pumps, which are ubiquitous in higher animals and also used in neuron function. There are potassium/sodium ion pumps in the kidney too, so my guess is that the salt glands are just more efficient at excreting salt per cubic centimeter of organ because they only contain the enzyme for excreting salt, and lack the other enzymes for excreting all the other waste products that kidneys excrete. I don't think that the fundamental biochemical mechanism for excreting salt in the salt glands in particularly more efficient, it's just more concentrated and the organ does not waste energy by supporting any other functions besides salt elimination. The current best technology for mass desalination of water is reverse osmosis, although forward osmosis has some proponents as well. In either case, the technology is getting surprisingly close to the thermodynamic limits for efficiency of the process. Alzoc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogensthegreat Posted August 2, 2018 Report Share Posted August 2, 2018 Hummingbirds are total goddamn bastards. So, due to the drought here in Colorado, my dad has set out some hummingbird feeders on the front and back porch. The hummingbirds, wasps, and chipmunks flock to it, because there is nothing else in like 12 miles for them to get delicious, delicious sugar from. Now, there are two kinds of hummingbirds in the area: rufous hummingbirds and broad-tailed hummingbirds. Rufouses have orange coloring and a flourescent red/orange throat and broad-tails are bright green with red throats. Both are attracted to the feeder, but there is one key difference: RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS ARE COMPLETE ASSHOLES. There are two rufouses and about a dozen broad-tails that gather at the feeders, and whenever a broad-tail goes to the feeder, the rufous (one of them stays at each feeder) comes and chases his ass away. If there are two, he chases both away. if there are six broad-tailed hummingbirds, the rufous will chase every single one of them off one after another, stopping only to eat for himself. I have seen this occur at least once at each feeder. I knew rufous hummingbirds were more aggressive, but jesus... This is why the Aztec war god Huitzilopotchli's name means "hummingbird of the south". This is why the rufous hummingbird is my new avatar. Scolopax, Belesarius, Lord_James and 1 other 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krieger22 Posted August 5, 2018 Report Share Posted August 5, 2018 Presented without comment: LoooSeR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collimatrix Posted September 26, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2018 New genus of elephant bird named. Belesarius 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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