Rfalconcam Forum

I've been waiting for this one!

TUI !!!!
THE hands-DOWN COOLEST bird I've EVER HEARD!
The cotton-ball thing they wear for a bowtie is awfully slick, too..

I listened to them for hours and hours while hiking through the rain forest in NZ.
 
They rearrange the song elements as they see fit, it seems; this is some of the elements I was listening to (not all):
http://www.xeno-canto.org/sounds/uploaded/BPSDQEOJWG/Tui_song_Ulva_Island_2004-12-18.mp3

this one has visuals too (Listen long enough for him to get warmed up):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8diWFGM6sQ

Matt Binns photo - wikipedia

and (!!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT-FJHWwRnA&feature=related

…AND… THIS is what they can do when they MIMIC!!!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt8dpQSS1QM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqF33vc_q68&NR=1

Dale

I like the way their neck baubles bounce when they sing!

Patti

T is for Turkey.  I photographed this Wild Turkey in southeastern Arizona, at a roadside inn that didn't look very much like turkey habitat to me.

Turkey again.

Carmel Valley.

dale

TAKAHE

From 1898 to 1948 the TAKAHE was thought to be extinct; but they aren't quite… there are 225 left:
 
"We returned to where we had found the tracks on our last trip. Suddenly, quite near this spot, a large blue-green bird stepped out from among the snow tussock. And there, no more than twenty metres away from us stood a living Notornis, the bird that was supposed to be extinct."   Dr Geoffrey Orbell, November 20, 1948.

It's a flightless blue NZ bird, a relative of the Pukeko - Purple Swamp Hen I posted about in "P" -

I took this silly photo in Te Anau, NZ, where Orbell rediscovered the TAKAHE and where the few existing ones hang out.

Dale

Patti - why is your wild turkey so different from my wild turkey?
Is it the light or that pesky genetic business?

T is for Townsend's Solitaire.  This bird is in the thrush family (along with robins, bluebirds, and the birds who actually have "thrush" in their last name).  I took this photograph in Yellowstone on a dreary, blustery day; this pose is very typical; when I've seen them, they're always perched on the top-most branch of a tree, usually a conical pine.  This often leads to photographs that are nothing but silhouettes against a light sky; the quality of this photo suffers because I lightened the silhouette to actually see the bird.

I read in Wikipedia that they are very specialized in that in winter they feed almost exclusively on juniper.

It looks like a Bird. Like, if you'd ask me, what does a Bird look like, I'd describe it pretty much exactly like that.
OK, Maybe bluer.   
Maybe with looooonnngggg fabulous feathers coming out of every part of his anatomy.
But he'd sing just like that.
And look just like that.

song:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Townsends_Solitaire/sounds

Another bird from my Kepler Track hike in NZ:

TOMTIT

I found this tiny little itty bitty thing (what, 10 grams or so) stuck tenaciously and fearlessly (They are known for not fearing Us) to the screen door of the "hut" in the morning - on the mountain.

dale

OK...I am stumped.  Browsing through Sibley, wikipedia, and several other sources, I discovered that turkeys are sexually dimorphic, so it's possible that we've got two different genders.  There are also multiple subspecies that are somewhat different, but it's not very clear to me whether it's likely ours would be different subspecies or not.  Oh well...it will remain a mystery unless a real expert is around to weigh in.

Patti

a real Takahe parent and juvenal (wikipedia, photographer "Avenue")
I find their feathers just breathtakingly beautiful

I loved those little guys in New Zealand!  I found that not only did they not fear us, but that "pishing" brought them right up in our faces, along with the fantails.  They wouldn't hold still for the fractions of a second it would take to get a good photo however.  The first time I saw one of those New Zealand birds somewhat off in the distance, and "pished" to bring it closer, I about jumped out of my skin as it made a fast beeline straight at me, landed about a foot from my face, and proceeded to flit around curiously.

Patti

I'm always fascinated by wild mimicking birds.  These Tui are quite remarkable -- their "songs" very diverse!  No wonder you liked to listen to them on your hikes, Dale!  And their appearance -- quite "dressed up" for the occasion!!  Cool!  A in T

well, they're both total dinosaurs, in any case.

aha. so it's true. This one on the screen just did not FEAR me at ALL. I thought maybe he was sick or crypto-DEAD, since I had never met a bird (with whom I was not previously acquainted) that didn't fear me like that.

T is for Trumpeter Swan -- I took the photo in Yellowstone (the last week of September before the serious snow started to fall there).

Patti

What I liked in the rainforest was that peculiar metallic, echoing bell-like sound that repeats and repeats, like a punctuation mark. But what amazes me in the mimicking ones is that low, rough, very human and very un-parrotlike voice.

very beautiful, lyrical image. They're awfully pretty before they run up and bite your ass, aren't they?

T is for Tern, in this case, Royal Terns.  We took both photos in Florida in winter.  In the first photo, a single Royal Tern is fraternizing with some Laughing Gulls, and the second photo just shows a whole batch of Royal Terns.

Patti

Tawny Eagle

http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/accipitridae/aquila_rapax.htm (http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/accipitridae/aquila_rapax.htm)

Treecreeper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treecreeper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treecreeper)

T is for Tooken! I woke up and all the T's were Tooken!  ;)

Question:2 of my roommates are debating this question. The sentance used was " I have tooken many college courses". I just wanted the debate to end, so I can study again. (Wow, this is a real question)

Answers:
If your roommates are native English speakers and seriously can't figure this out, they don't deserve to be in college.

OK, I'll be serious now, T is for Toucan, sounds like Tooken:

The colorful, giant bill, which in some large species measure more than half the length of the body, is the hallmark of toucans. Despite its size it is very light, being composed of bone struts filled with spongy tissue of keratin[1] between them. The bill has forward-facing serrations resembling teeth, which historically led naturalists to believe that toucans captured fish and were primarily carnivorous; today it is known that they eat mostly fruit.

OMG! I truly despair!!

 :goodone:    :gum:

They SO are NOT tooken. Is this little guy lookin' tooken?

(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TawnyFrogmouthEatingMouse.JPG)

LOL....NOPE! Funny

Yikes!  What the h*ll is that peculiar creature?

I finally found out from the The Society for the Preservation of Raptors (Inc.): Western Australia

"Tawny Frogmouths are often mistaken for Southern Boobooks [well, gee! That was my problem!!], but are not owls. Frogmouths are members of the nightjar family, and are more closely related to kookaburras and kingfishers than to owls."

And their call?  Why "Oom-oom-oom-oom-oom-oom.", of course!

Isn't that something!!  Well, thanks Dale, for introducing us to yet another creature, which shows the fun Mother Nature has!!  Of course, the Tawny Frogmouths might well have the same opinion of humans!!  :hysterical:

Anne in Toronto

Dale - That is the most beautiful little bird!   :clap:

Tern, Arctic Tern

The Arctic Tern makes the world's longest migration as it flies between summers in the Arctic and Antarctia, a distance of 45,000 miles.  This photograph was made in Tracy Arm, Alaska of a berg calved from the Sayer Glacier.

Gayle

Tundra Swans

Tundra swans are again plentiful after population plunges in the early 20th century.  They breed on tundra in Alaska and Canada.  The two migration routes are roughly down the mountain states and then west to northern California and down the Mississippi Flyway.  In the latter case, the birds congregate in the back waters of the Mississippi in the general area where Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa meet.  For years, I have timed my fall visits to Wisconsin to see them at Riekes Pond at Alma. WI.  There, they feed on arrowroot.  They linger until freeze up and depart en masse to the Chesapeake Bay area.  These photos are from there.

Gayle

Tundra Swans


Vast numbers of tundra swans winter in the Klamath Basin near the Oregon border.  The birds migrate in family groups.  Of course, these birds also are prey for the eagles that congregate in the Basin.  Tundra swans were once known as whistling swans.

These are the California swans!

Gayle

Tundra Swans

You have already seen tundra swans in my avatar, but here more images of them in flight.

Gayle

Trumpeter Swans

Trumpeter Swans were pushed to the brink of extinction near the beginning of the 20th century.  Their feathers made what was considered to be the finest quill pens.  Conservation measures and breeding programs have been successful and now trumpeters are fairly common.  These photographs were made at Crex Meadows in northern Wisconsin,

Gayle

I think this is the last bird photo I can dredge up that I can attempt to classify as a T bird...the Canyon Towhee.

The first photo is a Canyon Towhee behaving appropriately...picking up the dregs from someone's bird feeders in southeastern Arizona.

Here's the story behind the second photo: while on my birding tour in Arizona, taking a short bird walk, we left the windows open in the van since it was warm out and we were within sight of the van.  This lovely Canyon Towhee flew into the van but couldn't figure out how to get out (I'm tempted to say "bird brain", but we know that's an over-generalization  :happy:.  Our birding guide was Gary Rosenberg (his brother is a director of conversation science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so birding runs in the family), who carefully snagged the bird and gave us photo opportunities before he released it.

Gayle - love "tundras in flight Treampeleau".  Seems like I'd have heard of that place - but I hadn't!!
Or at least couldn't remember it. Beautiful photograph.

California Towhee

I found another towhee among my feeder birds.  The California Towhee's range is in the coastal areas from Oregon through Baja.  It prefers chaparral and, obviously, feeders

Gayle

Patti, we were posting at the same time.  The canyon and California towhees were long thought to be the same species.  DNA has proven them to be separate ones.

Gayle

Hahaha. I was just typing that Patti's Canyon and Gayle's California look really similar to me. Really really cute and really really similar. Because their DNA is under their feathers

I finally had time to review the "T" postings.  Dale, the tui is wonderful!  What a delightful companion on your trek!  And the takahe in your photograph does look like it belongs atop a gas station!

Gayle

Tui have a dual voicebox - the secret to how they can get such human-sounding voice qualities (parrots only have one voicebox, thus the "parrot voice") ...they're doing two things at once, like Tuvan throat-singers do; a sort of harmonizing with yourself.

For anyone who has never heard Tuvan (Altai - Siberian) throat singing, here is a video of the most well-known Tuvan group. If you go to around 0:30, the throat singing begins. That is not an instrument; that's all him. It's really really hard to learn to do. That's just the whistle sound. They have others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxK4pQgVvfg&feature=related

here's another, wonderful group, performing (in Austin TX I think):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9gBb1FzO2k&feature=related

if you listen to that for awhile and then listen to Woof-Woof the Tui:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqF33vc_q68&NR=1  

you can better hear how it's using two sounds at once. They use the second "voice" to make overtones - so they can sound like people when they mimic human voices.

Apparently Woof-Woof sounds VERY much like his keeper there -

dale

How about Tufted Tit Mouse.  Have those up home but we aren't there!  Miss all the birds we see in the winter up North.    See lots of Turkey Vultures down here too!

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2010/12/the-buzzards-are-back.html (http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2010/12/the-buzzards-are-back.html) Speaking of TV's.

Just found this site with who knows how many tits... who knew!? Not me!

http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/list.php?qry=Tufted%20tit-tyrant

Dale is right, but all birds have a dual voicebox; it's not unique to the Tui.  They just don't necessarily all choose to harmonize with themselves.  I'm saving up another spectacular example (my favorite birdsong) for when we get around to the Vs.  Here's a nice article about birds and singing:  http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/songs/index.html

That's alot of tits Bobbie!!! ;D I didn't know either.  :blindfold:

that's a great article!
"Another performance ploy is to transmit the signal from above the vegetation by leaping up and calling from mid-air. The blue-black grassquit, a tropical grassland bird of South America, leaps clear of the grass during displays."  coool.

 :scaredblue: :scaredblue: :o :o

 :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

I've got LOTS of them-I'll share!  I've posted this guy before, but he's the only one I have handy...



Ei

OOPS!  Misspoke!  Found another one

Temminck's Stint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temminck%27s_Stint (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temminck%27s_Stint)

Thanks Ei . I love these little guys!!!  ;D

Cute lil birds.

OK, so should Turkey Vulture be under "T" or "V"?  I have some I'd like to share.

I'd say they go wherever you'd like!  Some today & some under V!

Ei

I hope that all of you have seen the whole series by Sir David Attenborough, called "Life of Birds"!!  It's really amazing and really a "do not miss"!!  If you haven't caught it on PBS, you can rent it!
The grassquit sounds very energetic!  Perhaps it's jumping, not so much from the need to be heard and seen, but the need to avoid creepy crawly, biting things in the S. Africa grasses!  That's why Canadian birds don't do that leaping about -- there's nothing here that's "to be avoided"!  Makes our birds look lazy!! *grin*
Anne in Toronto

OK, under the "T"'s I'll put Mariah and the Turkey Vulture pics.  Kaver and the Turkey Vulture will go under "V"! 

I remember and love both these and the Kaver ones, Carol!!! Thanks!
Kaver is one brave tiercel in those photos!  dale

Dale - Thanks for reminding me about them.  Should I post the Kaver and the TV pic now?  You know me, I have a hard time waiting.   :laugh:

the prize for best tit name, as far as I'm concerned, goes not Great Tits but to the critter I posted back in "M" -

MOUSE-COLORED PENDULINE TIT

wonderful photo at: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gXoJNsSObeuZvTkR77FxYA

Dale

why one earth should you wait?
in THIS game we have been showing very little restraint. GO for it!

Twist my arm Dale!  Here's brave Kaver going after a Turkey Vulture that got way to close to his babies on the Kodak Tower.  You can actually see the dander falling off of the TV after Kaver hits him/her.

oooh. eewwwww.  Head and Shoulders ad in the making!

I have only been waiting when it helps me balance the load between letters...for example, I had a lot of T birds and only a couple of V birds...so my turkey vultures are waiting for the V's!

Patti

My turkey vultures are waiting for Patti's turkey vultures...at the TV Tap. They're going to have a brewski and go pound on the door to see if Carol's turkey vultures want to come out and play.
Darn those vultures when they get all likkered up.

Alright!  I'll bring some more of my TV's to the "V" party to have a good time with Patti and Dale's TV's!   :laugh:

.

Gayle's vultures and Paul's vultures came too. My vultures are all underage, unfortunately. These two vultures Patti met on the road offered to make them fake IDs, but I'm not sure. Even without them, it's a TV party, if you will (Don't click this unless you can tolerate hardcore punk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9KmZRN6j_o).

Hey Dale - My TV's, which will be coming to the party late, will bring along some Shirley Temples for your young ones.  Surely they can drink a couple Shirleys.  Hahahaha!   :laugh:

My vultures called to say they had a great time with Patti's, Carol's, Gayle's and Dale's vultures.  They want to thank Dale for inviting all of them.

Paul