Wandering Albatross

Wandering Albatrosses spend their entire lives in the air, and this is decisively true of all albatrosses. They would never land at all if they didn't have the built in need to spread their genes to future generations. Every two years they have a rendezvous with their mates (they mate for life) and start the circle of life over again. The process of rearing their young is an entire year long procedure from incubating to fledgling--suddenly the birds are free again to live in the air and feast on fish that are solely for their own consumption.

The Wandering Albatross has the largest wing span of the entire bird world, which ranges up to an average of 11 feet, but can exceed 13 feet. I try to picture two men who are six foot tall turning into one bird, and suddenly they could soar among the Wandering Albatrosses--their size would not be amiss and would fit in perfectly.

In my opinion, albatrosses are the most unique and beautiful birds of the world, but they are in real danger of being eradicated. One day our grandchildren will be taught that the world once held such wonders as the dodo bird, the passenger pigeon, and the albatross.
They can live over sixty years--though they have an enemy of commercial fisherman, who put out hooks that can drag for miles behind their boats. The birds get entangled or hooked when trying to fish, and an albatross dies every five minutes(that's what the reports say) from this need for greed.

There must be a better way for fishermen to fish that will not endanger so many animals, and why aren't there laws in place to protect our bird life.I don't lift my finger to make sure they are protected and I'm sure many people reading this aren't working for their preservation either.
I'll never understand the species called humans and I never will.

This is a link that tell more about the bird and how to help. There is a picture on the site of a hooked albatross--this is so sad that I can hardly think about it. Please read.

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/albatross/

http://www.environmentalaction.net/aa_albatross.htm

Andean Teal

I wonder if there's anything as boring as reading the Taxonomy of a bird. I know that it avails a necessary function of classifying into species and subspecies, and putting animals in their proper place, and is a commitment of immense importance. I love the fact that a duck will never be classified as a parrot, yet I feel callous indifference, and I frequently maneuver away when my eyes arrive on that portion of an article, .

The sad news often occurs that the entire bird article tells the taxonomy with a few scant tidbits thrown in. I'm trying to write my own article and find what information that I can gather up, and all I'm presented with is that Anas andium andium is a subspecies of the Andean Teal. As I've previous stated, this doesn't make for fun reading, unless you're an ornithologist.

Then the work starts, searching the web and watching videos, sifting through data, and sometimes I'm lucky, though many times I'm not. This time I found a site named beautyofbirds.com and though I didn't hit the mother lode, there's bird gold here.

One item I knew from Wikipedia shows their habitat in Northern South America around rivers and lakes or many other water sources.
After mating, the male duck swims (struts) around the female duck, and stays by her side. Both parents help with raising the chicks.
They feed by upending their heads in the water leaving their duckie butts hanging in the air.

I spoke before about a bird that was so plain that no one would let it enter a beauty contest, and the same can be said for the Andean Teal. There's nothing remarkable about this bird, it's beak, feet, wings, head and feathers are just a plain brown mix, and nothing points to beauty.
Though, I actually think its beauty is in its plainness as the feathers have small highlights of different browns, plus the angles of the feathers are very interesting.
This is a bird, people would walk past without giving a second glance, yet something tells me that's exactly the way Andean Teals desire it.

Please read this article about feeding ducks. We are hurting them by giving them bread.
http://beautyofbirds.com/swandiet.html

Great spotted kiwi

Kiwis are wonderfully strange animals that do not resemble any other type of bird, because a Kiwi's wings blend in perfectly and disappear. I laugh every time I see one walk as its so unusual--it seems that two legs are missing or at the least some part of the bird's anatomy is lacking.

Kiwis lay huge eggs, and only one at a time. The egg takes up more than a fourth of the females body weight, and the entire time it stays in her body (one month) she doesn't eat or move very often. Once laid, the chick takes up to three months to hatch. After all the hard work the parents endured I thought that they would stay with the chick for quite some months, so I was very surprised to find out they abandoned the baby as soon as it hatches. Most chicks die after they leave their nest, and they are threatened with a status of vulnerable. It's not the worst grade they could have, but still very worrisome.

What if aliens came to our world and every year took away one percent of our habitat called Earth--within fifty years we would only have fifty percent of our world left and that is exactly what has happened to the Great Spotted Kiwi.
Why can't we protect our wildlife? Greed is actually the reason for this disaster that is happening today in every part of our land and sea. People want to tear down trees or build houses or whatever the reason is--they are making money off their greed adventure without a care for anything that will outlast themselves.
I'm not sure how many animals will die before we stop, and people may never stop. After killing all the animals on our world they will move to different planets and start there. It's just another example of how humans lower their standards of integrity and how the rest of us stand around and let it happen.

http://www.wwf.org.nz/what_we_do/species_/kiwi/

https://www.kiwisforkiwi.org/about-kiwi/kiwi-species/great-spotted-kiwi/

Southern Cassowary

Think of a bird with the legs of an ostrich and a large body covered in black feathers which resembles a bad Beatles hair cut or toupee. It has a long blue wrinkled neck which tapers down into two long red wattles and to top it off there is a large growth on the top of the head called a casque which resembles a dinosaur's head plate. They can grow over six feet tall with a weight of sixty pounds. This is truly a strange yet lovely bird.


Let's say your a nice looking male Cassowary, and you feel that the ladies are checking you out. You build a nice home for the children and suddenly the day comes, that day you have anticipated all year, and not one but two beauties come your way for a good time.
Next thing you know, they're gone and you're stuck on the nest sitting on the eggs for the next two months wondering what happened.
After the chicks are born, the male Cassowary raises them for a year or longer, and they are quite the protective father until that fateful day they leave the nest.
At this point, they start looking for some more ladies and the cycle starts all over again.



As the video shows below, these are not animals that people tend to go near. They will injure and kill humans, and I for one would stay clear, though I've read they are normally timid and are not out to destroy all humans they encounter. 

The sad news is this bird is in great danger of  extinction, as it's habitat is shrinking and if they are not looked after will go the same way as the Dodo bird. 
Right now their status is vulnerable and that's a threat that we should all care about.

Chukar partridge

I want to start off by saying this is the most criminal looking bird that I've seen. I love the little black around the eyes as if a hold up is in everyone's imminent future. Then below his wings is the black and white stripes that came out of an old prison movie. It's perfect!

The Chukar is not native to the America, but comes from the Middle East and Asia. In fact, it is the National Bird of Pakistan. Someone brought it to the US so men with guns could hunt even more than they do now. Though I eat chicken, and this bird clucks like a chicken, I don't want it to be killed, but to live free and happy. I know that is so hypocritical of me.

One amazing aspect of their behavior is the amount of eggs they brood in each nest. Some reports state 7 to 20, and others 7 to 14, which is a lot of eggs. Sometimes they will have two nests going simultaneously. That may be the reason they aren't endangered--because of all the babies they have. When adults have this many babies they appear on their own  TV shows.

I would love to see one, but they live in the US in the great rocky mountains, and that isn't close at all. I've watched many videos on YouTube, and they are very unique birds.
Some people keep them as pets, and that would be very interesting.

Red-tailed Hawk

The Red-tail Hawk is the first bird featured on a wonderful series called The Life Of Birds.

This is an excellent Mini-series with ten episodes. The first episode is called To Fly Or Not To Fly and features flying and nonflying birds.

On the show the Hawk is shown hunting bats, and nothing more is revealed about the bird, only what a spectacular hunter it is. They will hunt any type of small animal, including pets. Dogs and cats under 15 pounds are at risk when these Raptors are around.

These are very common in the DFW area where I live, and once I found  dove feathers that the Hawk had left in my backyard, because Hawks need land before eating. The feathers and head where all I could find. Of course, I don't have proof that it was a hawk except there were dozens of them flying over our neighborhood that day.

One I saw  hundreds in the air, and recently found out the reason. The hawks were migrating through our area, or from what I've read and the footage I've seen I believe this to be true-- it's a beautiful sight.

It can be very difficult to watch birds of prey on documentaries, since I feel such compassion for their prey, especially when they are crying out in fear and pain. It's especially hard when they capture little defenseless babies (usually other birds), and the parents are upset, but they can't fight a bird so much larger than they are.
No one can help the way they were born, and they're hungry or they're trying to feed their hungry babies.

This bird lives all over North America, and is gaining strength in numbers, and is least concern on the Bird conservation Status.
The video shows wonderful coverage of these beautiful birds growing up--they are extremely cute when they're little.

Plain Chachalaca

I try hard not to be biased about birds, but I can't help to love colorful birds more. I think we are all born with liking the more beautiful of animals. Which would you rather look at--the lion or the hyena? The lion is beautiful and proud, and it would appear that hyenas show their weaselly little personalities on their faces. Of course, what I know about lions and weasels could fit in a few sentences, so sometimes looks can be deceiving.

Today I'm writing about the Plain Chachalaca, and I'm not sure how to sound out chachalaca, but it's a fun word to play around with. I've decided to sound it out as Chewbacca , since Chewbacca is one of my favorite characters in Star Wars. In my last home, one of my doors sounded just like him every time I opened it. I miss that door.

Back to the Plain Chachalaca, how sad to have the word plain to start off your name. I know humans wouldn't care for it at all--such as "Oh, look there comes Plain Rhonda," nope not fun at all.
Though I'm sure this bird doesn't care what we call it, though I've often wondered if birds have names for each other. Especially birds that mate for life! Do they chirp "hey you" or do they have a little chirp that is always used as a name?

I continually try to write about this bird, but my brain keeps getting in the way, so now I promise to say a few words about this plain being.
The first thing I noticed when looking at the few videos available on YouTube is that these birds are loud, and they sound as if a locust (cicada in other states) had a extremely loud microphone.

I'm writing about birds in the USA for right now, and this bird barely made it as a resident, since it's only lives in the very, very southeastern tip of Texas. The rest of the birds can be found in Mexico and Central America.

The diet it strives for is fruit, but will eat many other foods including people's junk food. We humans love to spread our bad habits.
The bird is least concern on the bird conservation status, which mean it's not endangered at all. I wish that was true for all birds.