ABCs of birds -T!

[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

[gayle]

Tundra Swans

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

Gayle

[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

[Patti from Kentucky]

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  .  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.

[dale]

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.

[gayle]

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

[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

[dale]

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

[gayle]

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

[dale]

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

[annieinelkhart]

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!

[Donna]

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 Speaking of TV's.

[Bobbie Ireland]

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 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

[Patti from Kentucky]

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.

dale

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

[MAK]

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 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

That's alot of tits Bobbie!!! I didn't know either.