Adelie Penguin

Today, I choose to write about the Adelie Penguin, and my knowledge of this bird consists of penguins that (appear) to wear tuxedos, plus comparable to all penguins, Adele Penguins captivate us with their intense cuteness.
One physical behavior they posses (which I desire) is the belly flop. As they run along the snow and ice on their little legs and big feet, they will undoubtedly fall, and this is where the belly flop comes into play. They fall with ease, and once on their bellies they slide for a short distance on the ice, as if to say I meant to do that, and I did it with style.
I recently fell on my knee, which caused a great deal of damage and pain. How wonderful if I could have fallen on my stomach and gracefully slid across the room, at which point I could have stood up and dusted myself off and moved on without pain or embarrassment.

Some of the earliest explorers in Antarctica wrote about these little birds, and how friendly and annoying they could be. They remind me of arctic squirrels in the way they loved to taunt the sled dogs and their curiosity of the entire expeditions. Many video's on Youtube show their feet running as hard as they can to a helicopter or people nearby.

The birds live in Antarctica all their lives, yet when it's time to breed, they travel up to ten thousand miles to arrive at their breeding grounds. Even though I can't find the information showing their means of  travel--I assume that they are underwater most of the way. They can swim close to 50 mph, and this rate would take them up to a month to arrive at their destination.
They create nests out of rocks, and will fight other parents who try to steal a rock for themselves. Both parents help to raise the young, though one odd action they implement, requires their chicks to run behind them at feeding time--shown in the video below.
I would love to have one as a pet, and hug and kiss it. Every night I would tuck it into it's little ice bed, and most likely it would be my best friend.
Though that is a wonderful daydream--alas it could never be my reality, and so I will just admire them from afar.

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.