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- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Yellow-billed Cuckoo This slim, long-tailed bird is far more common than people suspect for he seldom is seen. He prefers to move slowly thru the heavy foliage, peering under each branch and leaf for the leaf-eating worms which form his diet. Wooly worms, which other birds seem to shun, are relished by him. His long bill is a perfect tool for breaking into webs where he creates havoc with the wiggly inhabitants. Cuckoos are larger than Robins and their long tails make them look even longer than the 12¼ inches which they measure. They fly directly from the center of one tree to the next, thus giving us a chance to check the rufous coloring of the wings and the large white spots on the ends of their black tails. The back is dark gray while the breast and belly are white. The yellow lower bill, the rufous wings and larger white spots on the tail are the main difference between this and the slightly smaller Black-billed Cuckoo. Both have a series of clucking notes but the Yellow-billed Cuckoo song gets slower, then runs down the scale, different from his relative’s long efforts. - Yellowthroat
Yellowthroat The adult male of this species wears a black mask over his eyes and is only 5¼ inches long. The female lacks the mask but has a yellow throat, white belly and olive-brown head, back, wings and tail which identify the birds. They nest over a wide area, favorite habitat being bushy thickets near water. He is quick to resent any invasion of his privacy and uses a variety of scolding notes to let you know how unhappy he is. His movements are wren-like and hurried and his black eyes fairly sparkle to show his excitement. He soon vanishes into the undergrowth but you will have a chance to learn his call which sounds like “witchity, witchity, witchity,” or “witcheree, witcheree, witcheree,” usually repeated 3 times. - American Coot
American Coot This slate-gray bird with white bill and white patch under the tail, belongs to the rail family but spends more time with ducks. He swims with a jerky motion of the head, dives like a grebe, walks out on the shore and eats grass like a goose. Yes, the “mudhen,” for that is what he is commonly called, is quite versatile. When taking flight, he either runs into the breeze or skitters across the water for a short distance until he can gain sufficient speed to gain altitude, then away to safety. Coots feed largely on underwater vegetation and prefer algae or musk grass. Small fish or other aquatic animals are eaten on occasion while grass, grain or weeds are not overlooked. When diving for food, these birds often are robbed by the American Widgeon, or Baldpate, which relishes such juicy morsels but does not dive. Coots take such invasions as a matter of course. - American Goldfinch
American Goldfinch The American or Common Goldfinch often is called “wild canary.” Altho he is not a canary, his small size, color and twittering notes remind people of their pets. While smaller than sparrows, these birds are rugged and winter over much of their nesting range. Their habit of flocking and tendency to feed on weed seeds makes them easily found. The male of this species is a rich lemon yellow with a small black mark above the bill, black wings and tail. The wings show distinct white bars especially in winter when the yellow has faded to the more somber hue of the female. The tail is forked with white tips on the outer feathers and coverts. The bill is yellow. Goldfinches are noted for their cheerful dispositions. A feeding flock can be heard uttering twittering conversational notes even in winter. Spring brings the notes of their beautiful but varied song which usually can be identified as “tzee,” or “per-chic-o-ree,” which is the song heard when the birds pass overhead. - Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron Altho protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty, this heron often finds himself the target for thoughtless hunters. Not that he would make a tasty dish, but any bird which stands 4 feet high with a wing spread of almost 70 inches is in constant danger. His favorite feeding grounds are wet meadows or pastures, ponds, lakes or streams. Most of his food consists of rough fish which he catches expertly, either standing patiently in shallow water until a fish appears, or walking slowly along the edge of some shallow pond until he discovers his prey. Snakes, frogs, insects, mice, eels, or even small birds are not safe from a hungry heron. - Baby and Blackbird
Little toddler pointing to a blackbird - The Archæopteryx
(After William Leche of Stockholm.) A good restoration of the oldest known bird, Archæopteryx (Jurassic Era). It was about the size of a crow; it had teeth on both jaws; it had claws on the thumb and two fingers; and it had a long lizard-like tail. But it had feathers, proving itself a true bird. - Skeleton of an Extinct Flightless Toothed Bird, Hesperornis
The bird was five or six feet high, something like a swimming ostrich, with a very powerful leg but only a vestige of a wing. There were sharp teeth in a groove. The modern divers come nearest to this ancient type. - Wing of a Bird, Showing the Arrangement of the Feathers
The longest feathers or primaries (PR) are borne by the two fingers (2 and 3), and their palm-bones (CMC); the second longest or secondaries are borne by the ulna bone (U) of the fore-arm; there is a separate tuft (AS) on the thumb (TH). - Osprey and Grakles
Osprey landing in its nest with food for its young - The cat which died of grief
A lady in France possessed a cat which exhibited great affection for her. She accompanied her everywhere, and when she sat down always lay at her feet. From no other hands than those of her mistress would she take food, nor would she allow any one else to fondle her. The lady kept a number of tame birds; but the cat, though she would willingly have caught and eaten strange birds, never injured one of them. At last the lady fell ill, when nothing could induce the cat to leave her chamber; and on her death, the attendants had to carry away the poor animal by force. The next morning, however, she was found in the room of death, creeping slowly about, and mewing piteously. After the funeral, the faithful cat made her escape from the house, and was at length discovered stretched out lifeless above the grave of her mistress, having evidently died of a broken heart. - The Cat and the Pigeon
Affection for one of the feathered race was shown by a cat which was rearing several kittens. In another part of the loft a pigeon had built her nest; but her eggs and young having been frequently destroyed by rats, it seemed to occur to her that she should be in safer quarters near the cat. Puss, pleased with the confidence placed in her, invited the pigeon to remain near her, and a strong friendship was established between the two. They fed out of the same dish; and when Puss was absent, the pigeon, in return for the protection afforded her against the rats, constituted herself the defender of the kittens—and on any person approaching nearer than she liked, she would fly out and attack them with beak and wings, in the hope of driving them away from her young charges. Frequently, too, after this, when neither the kittens nor her own brood required her care, and the cat went out about the garden or fields, the pigeon might be seen fluttering close by her, for the sake of her society. - The Ash-Coloured Buzzard
I have given this Bird the above Name, because it comes pretty near the Bird we call a Buzzard, or Pottock, in its Shape, Magnitude, and partly in its Colour, tho' it differs in many Respects, which shews it to be specifically different from our's in Eng-land, which see described in Willoughby's Ornithology, p. 70. Tab. 6. It seemed to me of the Bigness of a middle-sized Hen or Cock; its Shape and due Proportions I have, as well as I could, expressed in the Figure. The Bill is of a blueish Lead-Colour, cover'd with a Skin of the same Colour, from the Nostrils to the Point an Inch and a Quarter, from the Angles of the Mouth to the Point of the Bill two Inches ; The Head, and Fore-part of the Neck, are covered with Feathers, having dark brown Spots in the Middle, the rest of the Feathers being white, which make a pretty Appearance of White spotted with dark Brown ; from the Angles of the Mouth is drawn on each Side under the Eyes a dusky Line; the dark Spots on the Breast are larger than those on the Head, the Sides and Belly are covered with dark brown Feathers, spotted with round or oval Spots of White; the Thighs are covered with soft, loose, white Feathers, with long irregular Dashes of dark Brown down their Shafts ; the covert Feathers on the under Side of the Tail are barr'd transversly with Black and White ; the whole upper Side, Neck, Back, Wings, and Tail, are covered with brownish ash-coloured Feathers, darker in their middle Parts, their Edges becoming gradually lighter, which is most manifest in the smaller covert Feathers of the Wings, their very Edges being almost white. The outer Webb of the first Quill is spotted with a light Colour : the inner Webb on the under Side is Ash-colour, indented with White very distinctly, which Indenture becomes more and more confused and broken till the twelfth Quill, where it wholly disappears, the rest of the Quills within being Ash-colour: The covert Feathers, within-side of the Wings, are of a dark, dirty Brown, sprinkled with round Spots of White: The upper Side of the 'Tail is barr'd a-cross with narrow Bars of Clay-Colour ; as are the Feathers that cover the upper Side of the Tail : The under Side of the Tail is Ash-colour, barr'd accross with White: The Legs and Feet are of a blueish ash-colour; the Claws black: the fore Part of the Legs are cover'd half Way to the Feet with dusky Feathers. [I kept the caption much as it was in 1747 English, keeping the capitalization, just changing the funny S character to a regular s] - Eagle
Eagle - Owl
Owl - The Albatross swooping over the ocean waves
The albatross is a wonderful flyer. It is the largest of the web-footed birds, being four feet long and with a wing spread of from ten to seventeen feet. It seems to float or glide on the air rather than fly, hardly moving its long wings except when rising from the water. It often follows ships for a long time; day after day, some people say, but this is doubtful. No ship can outsail it and it is said to be able to fly as much as eight hundred miles in a day. Sailors often fish for it with a baited hook, but find it hard to haul in, as it often draws out the hook or breaks the line. But a bait of blubber is very attractive and in a few minutes the same bird will take the hook again. Only by catching a fish in some such way as this could a message tied to its legs by shipwrecked sailors be found. - The Cormorant, the Fishing Bird of China
The cormorants are great fish-eaters, so much so that it is common to call any large eater a cormorant. There are many species, some small, some large, living on the shores of islands and in some cases along rivers. The way in which this bird is of service to man is in its being tamed and trained to catch fish for him. This used to be done in England and is still done in China. How it is done may be told in a few words. The bird is easily tamed by the Chinese fishermen and is trained by them for its new duty. While being trained a string is tied to its leg so as to control its movements. Then small fish are thrown out and it springs after them. In time it learns to go into the water when a whistle is given and to come back when it hears a different whistle. After three or four weeks of this training the bird is ready for duty and no longer needs a string to hold it. - A Hooded Peregrine Falcon. Its eyes are covered by the hood until the game is in sight
It is called Hawking or Falconry, and is a very old sport in which the falcon or the hawk was used to take game. It is still in use in some countries, but in old times falconry was the favorite sport of kings and nobles, many of whom spent much of their time in the field, hunting smaller or weaker birds by aid of the strong and swift falcon or hawk. This kind of sport began very long ago, no one can say how long, it being common in Asia long before it was known in Europe. And it is common in some parts of Asia still. - The Starling. One of the Talking Birds
Have you ever seen a Starling and heard one talk? If not you have missed a treat, for this bird has fine powers of speech. He can whistle, croak and talk and is one of the choice delights of many a cottage home in Europe. He has lately been imported into this country. The common starling is a very pretty creature, clad in brown, with purple and green hues, and a buff-colored tip to each feather which gives the bird a fine speckled appearance. In its wild state it has a soft and sweet song, and in a cage is a pert and friendly house pet, one that mocks the songs of others, learns to whistle tunes, and can talk as clearly as many of its keepers. I must tell the story of a pair of very cute and lively starlings, as it is told us by the gentleman in whose house these birds were born and brought up - A Gray Parrot on His Perch. Waiting to Speak His Piece
Best known among them as a cage-bird is the Gray-parrot, the ablest talker of the family, the amusing Poll-parrot seen in so many homes. Though a cage is provided, they become such home-bodies as to be given all the liberty they want, being often free to go about the house, though they look upon the cage as their special dwelling place. - The Mocking Bird. No other Bird has such Versatile Vocal Powers
For an American nightingale we have the mocking-bird, a sweet night singer which, as I have said, is given that name in the West Indies. Another is a variety of the Grosbeak, called the Cardinal Bird from its red color. This is called the Virginia Nightingale in England and is one of the finest American song-birds. Its loud, clear, sweet song is heard chiefly in the mornings and evenings and the beauty of its plumage adds to its attraction. - The Black Swan of Australia
There is also a black swan found in Australia, and now to be seen in a tame state. It is deep black in color, except the main feathers of the wings, which are white. It is not nearly so pretty as the white swan, but when black and white are kept in the same pond the contrast is very fine. - Nests of the Bottle bird
Nests of the Bottle bird - Woodpecker drilling a hole for a nest
The woodpeckers are carpenters; they not only bore holes in trees in search of food, but they also chisel out deep holes in which to deposit their eggs and rear their young. They generally build their nest in May, selecting an old apple tree in the orchard; the boring is first done by the male, who pecks out a circular hole; as the work progresses, he is occasionally relieved by the female. They both work with great diligence, and as the hole deepens they carry out the chips, sometimes taking them some distance to prevent discovery or suspicion. The nest usually requires a week to build, and when the female is quite satisfied she deposits her eggs, generally six in number and of a pure white color. - Nests of Social Weavers
The social weaver is found in the south of Africa. Hundreds of these birds, in one community, join to form a structure of interwoven grass containing various apartments, all covered by a sloping roof impenetrable to the heaviest rain, and increased year after year as the population of the little community may require. - Ruffs ( Machetes pugnax )
The Ruff ( Machetes or Pavoncella pugnax ) may be regarded as a long-legged Strandlooper, the only representative of his family. The beak is as long as the head (but shorter than the barrel), straight, at the tip slightly lowered and not broadened, soft all along its length, the foot is high and slender, the lower leg naked well above the hocks; of the three fronts, the middle one is connected to the outer by a tension fleece; the short, high back toe does not touch the ground; the wings are of medium length and pointed; the tail is short, composed of 12 feathers, slightly rounded at the tip. - Curlew ( Numenius arquatus )
Numenius are slender-built Birds with very long, weakly curved downward, high at the root, gradually thinning beak forward; with the exception of the horn-like spire, it is covered with a soft skin; the upper jaw is slightly longer than the lower jaw and slightly curved over it. The legs are slender and high, without feathering well above the hock; all three prongs are joined together by clear webbing. In the large, pointed wings the first flight is the longest; the medium-long tail composed of twelve feathers is rounded at the tip. The hard, close-fitting plumage is reminiscent of that of the Lark by its color, and is similar in males and females to each other and in the different seasons. [Translated from the Dutch by online translator ] - Avocet( Recurvirostra avocetta )
The Avocet is drawn in a simple but very graceful way. The upper head, the neck and the back neck, the shoulders and most of the wings are black, two large patches on the wings, and all the rest of the plumage are white. The eye is reddish brown, the beak black, the foot dark blue-gray. Total length 43, tail length 7 cm. - Lapwing ( Vanellus cristatus )
The Lapwing is recognizable by the weakly flask-shaped swollen bill, on the four-toed feet, on the blunt wings, whose point is formed by the third pin and by the crest that adorns the head. The upper head, the front neck, the upper breast and the rear half of the tail are glossy dark black, the feathers of the mantle dark green with blue or purple highlights, the sides of the neck, the under breast, the belly and the root half of the tail feathers white, some upper and all lower cover feathers of the tail dark rusty yellow; the crest consists of long, narrow feathers, which form a double point. The eye is brown, the beak black, the foot dirty dark red. Total length 34, tail length 10 cm. [Translaed from the Dutch by online translator] - ) Eurasian dotterel ( Charadrius morinellus ) - 2) Plover ( Charadrius pluvialis )
) Eurasian dotterel ( Charadrius morinellus ) - 2) Plover ( Charadrius pluvialis ) - Egyptian Plover (Crocodile Keeper or Crocodile Watcher)
The Crocodile Keeper, whose image often appears in Ancient Egyptian memorials, as it represents the sound in the hieroglyphic alphabet, is manifold throughout the Nile region. From Cairo upstream, he is not missing in any place suitable for him on the River Nile. Preferably, he selects a sandbank as his base for the purpose of staying there until the washing of the current drives him away. - Rooster
- Nest of the Chicadee
- Baltimore Oriole and Nest
- Nest of Red-eyed Vireo
- Nest of Phœbe
- A Clever Humming-bird
- Birds-eye View of the Louvre
- Partridges
Partridges - The Albatross
The Albatross - Nature's Four Methods of Making a Wing - Bat, Pteryodactyl, Archæopteryx, and Modern Bird
Nature's Four Methods of Making a Wing - Bat, Pteryodactyl, Archæopteryx, and Modern Bird - Where a Dinosaur Sat Down
In the light of our present knowledge we are able to read many things in these tracks that were formerly more or less obscure, and to see in them a complete verification of Dr. Deane's suspicion that they were not made by birds. We see clearly that the long tracks called Anomœpus, with their accompanying short fore feet, mark where some Dinosaur squatted down to rest or progressed slowly on all-fours, as does the kangaroo when feeding quietly;[3] and we interpret the curious heart-shaped depression sometimes seen back of the feet, not as the mark of a stubby tail, but as made by the ends of the slender pubes, bones that help form the hip-joints. Then, too, the mark of the inner, or short first, toe, is often very evident, although it was a long time before the bones of this toe were actually found, and many of the Dinosaurs now known to have four toes were supposed to have but three. - Phororhacos, a Patagonian Giant of the Miocene
Phororhacos, a Patagonian Giant of the Miocene From a Drawing by Charles R. Knight Most recent in point of discovery, but oldest in point of time, are the giant birds from Patagonia, which are burdened with the name of Phororhacidæ, a name that originated in an error, although the error may well be excused. The first fragment of one of these great birds to come to light was a portion of the lower jaw, and this was so massive, so un-bird-like, [149]that the finder dubbed it Phororhacos, and so it must remain. - Horse and chickens
Horse and chickens - Birds waiting for feeding time
Birds waiting for feeding time - Mother hen with her chicks
Mother hen with her chicks - Of Peacocks, Ducks, and other Feathers of changeable colours
The parts of the Feathers of this glorious Bird appear, through the Microscope, no less gaudy then do the whole Feathers; for, as to the naked eye 'tis evident that the stem or quill of each Feather in the tail sends out multitudes of Lateral branches, such as AB in the Schem. 22. Fig. 3.third Figure of the 22. Scheme represents a small part of about 1/32 part of an Inch long, and each of the lateral branches emit multitudes of little sprigs, threads or hairs on either side of them, such as CD, CD, CD, so each of those threads in the Microscope appears a large long body, consisting of a multitude of bright reflecting parts, whose Figure 'tis no easie matter to determine, as he that examines it shall find; for every new position of it to the light makes it perfectly seem of another form and shape, and nothing what it appear'd a little before; nay, it appear'd very differing ofttimes from so seemingly inconsiderable a circumstance, that the interposing of ones hand between the light and it, makes a very great change, and the opening or shutting a Casement and the like, very much diversifies the appearance. And though, by examining the form of it very many ways, which would be tedious here to enumerate, I suppose I have discover'd the true Figure of it, yet oftentimes, upon looking on it in another posture, I have almost thought my former observations deficient, though indeed, upon further examination, I have found even those also to confirm them. - Continental Bank Eagle
Continental Bank Eagle - Eagle Hunting
Eagle Hunting - Eagle Head
Eagle Head - Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle - eagle
Eagle - Eagle
Eagle - Birds frame
Birds frame - Birds
Birds - Bird in tree frame
Bird in tree frame - The Great Auk
It is probable that the famous Great Auk (Alca impennis) also was a typical Arctic species. Its range extended to both sides of the Atlantic. In Newfoundland and on the coast of Iceland it is known to have been met with in considerable numbers within historic times; and no doubt, like all Arctic species, it extended farther southwards at a more remote period. - Central Asiatic Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus)
his migration must have been an unusually large one. It has been suggested that the Glacial period had some connection with it, and there can be little doubt, as we shall see later on, that a change of climate probably brought about this great Siberian invasion of Europe. But other causes might tend in the same direction, such as want of sufficient food after a few years of great increase of any particular species. It is not known to what we owe the periodic visits of the Central Asiatic Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus), but certain it is that immense flocks of these birds invade Europe from time to time at the present day, just as those mammals may have done in past ages. - Japanese Birds
- Egyptian treatment of birds. from hieroglyphics of the 18th Dynasty