Dove

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HI...Friends
Activity Dove Bird

Feeding:

Spotted Doves feed on grains, seeds and scraps. The birds are seen alone or in small flocks, feeding mostly on the ground. Some seeds may be taken in trees and bushes, and birds often enter animal houses, such as chicken coops, to feed on the commercial food.

Breeding:

Spotted Doves breed at any time of the year, but most activity is from September to December. The male performs a display flight, which consists of a steep rising flight with loud wing-clapping. Once the bird reaches a height of about 30 or 40 m above the ground, he then spreads his tail and wings and glides down to a perch. Males also court by walking in front of the female with the black and white neck patch fluffed up while bowing the head up and down.

The nest is a loose platform of sticks, which may be placed in a variety of locations. Both sexes share the incubation of the eggs and the rearing of the chicks.

(Indian Dove Bird - Tamil Nadu).

Lovebirds(home)

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"love birds "  i have shoot the image in villupuram(tamil nadu).
that birds  pet of  MR.Saran raj S.
Owner of birds talk to me birds maintenance details .

Lovebirds are pint-sized bundles of joy. They have the full personality of parrots while being easy to house because of their size. Lovebirds are little clowns, playing for hours at a time. They love to hang from toys, spin them around, and dance on your shoulder. Watch out for your buttons! They love to pull them off your shirts! They love to snuggle and preen. Many people believe lovebirds must be kept in pairs. This is simply not true. A single lovebird makes a better pet because it bonds to you rather than to another lovebird.

Watch these young lovebirds play “The Mirror Game” – They fly up to their reflections in the mirror to watch themselves fly, then land, then the other one goes. They never hit the mirror and can play this game forever without getting tired.

Lovebirds are quite aggressive chewers, which must be kept in mind when choosing toys. Make sure there are no small parts that can be chewed off and ingested, and no clips, loose strings, or other parts in which your bird could get its beak, feet, or head trapped. Safe toys include wood, sisal, leather, acrylic, and rawhide toys (including hanging toys as long as they are not long enough to strangle your bird), bells, and ladders.

Cage-Free in Calcutta On the agenda

     
       The event opened with four short films on battery cages and the reasons to switch to cage-free eggs. The master of ceremonies, local celebrity Oindrilla Dutt, gave thoughtful commentary in between.

Next came a panel: HSI’s N. Jayasimha spoke about HSI and animal welfare. Dr. Naisargi Dave from the University of Toronto cited research showing that even the smallest increase in consumer knowledge about the conditions of hens leads to increases in demand for cage-free eggs. Finally, Chef Sharad Dewan of Park Hotels said that he had committed to cage-free eggs and was confident that profitability would naturally follow. It is obvious to him, he said, that the trend is toward humane food, health, and wellness, and that consumers understand that hens produce better products when they’re living healthier lives.

A second panel comprised of Chef Wafab from the Hyatt in Kolkata, Ms. Jhilam from the Hyatt, Mr. Sanjay Mitra from Keggs Farms, and Mr. Dibeyendu Banerjee, a local smaller-scale cage-free farmer, answered questions. Topics included how to increase consumer knowledge, how to help smaller-scale suppliers link up directly with consumers, how cage-free farming actually increases rural food security, and whether chefs detected any difference in the quality of cage-free eggs (to which they answered yes, the taste is superior).

Pest-Eating Birds

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hi friends,,,,,,,Sep-11,.

This is the first time scientists have assigned a monetary value to the pest-control benefits rainforest birds can provide to agriculture. Their study could provide the framework for pest management that helps both farmers and biodiversity.

The latest finding from these researchers suggests that the birds are returning the favor to farmers by eating an aggressive coffee bean pest, the borer beetle, thereby improving coffee bean yields by hundreds of dollars per hectare.

The study is the first to put a monetary value on the pest-control benefits rainforest can provide to agriculture, which the researchers hope can inform both farmers and conservationists.

"The benefits that we might get are huge," said Daniel Karp, a graduate student in biology and lead author of the study. "There's lots of unrealized value in these small patches of rainforest. This looks like a sustainable, win-win opportunity for pest management."

The researchers hope that the work will improve conservation efforts in heavily farmed areas by illustrating to farmers the financial benefits of leaving some land in its natural state, while also guiding governments toward the best conservation methods

COCK FIGHT IN INDIA (TAMIL NADU)

Hi it's your friend......!
today hot news for "cock fight" in india,

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Cock fighting,. is a favourite sport of people living in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh,
Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Tulu Nadu region of Karnataka,
and the state of Tamil nadu India. In Tamil Nadu, the winner is decided after three or four rounds.
People watch with intense interest surrounding the cocks. The sport has gradually become a gambling sport.

In Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Tanjore, Trichy and Salem Districts,
only naked heel sport is performed. In Erode, Thiruppur, Karur
and Coimbatore districts only bloody blade fights are conducted.
During festival seasons, this is the major game for men.
Women normally don't participate.

It is referred to as the favourite pastime for Maravars or the warriors of Tamil Country.
It is acknowledged as one of the 64 "arts" widely spoken
by the scholars and mastered by the ancestors/scholars of this part of the world.
In earlier days they were fighting with the jungle fowl and its variants later,
due to the naval expeditions to Java and Malay by the Pandian Rulers
the local poultry of that land might have found its way to Tamil Nadu and a new strain/breed
started its development in here which later spread to many places such as India.
The newer breeds which are known now are The "Reja"
(There are many rare breeds preserved by these cock fighters)
The sport has gradually become a gambling sport.

Forest-Interior Birds May Be Benefiting from Harvested Clearings

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Efforts to conserve declining populations of forest-interior birds have largely focused on preserving the mature forests where birds breed, but a U.S. Forest Service study suggests that in the weeks leading up to migration, younger forest habitat may be just as important.
 
In an article published recently in the American Ornithologist Union's publication The Auk, research wildlife biologist Scott Stoleson of the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station suggests that forest regrowth in clearcuts may be vital to birds as they prepare for fall migration.

The study suggests that declines in forest-interior species may be due in part to the increasing maturity and homogenization of forests. Openings created by timber harvesting may increase habitat for some forest interior birds, according to Stoleson. "Humans have really changed the nature of mature forests in the Northeast," Stoleson said. "Natural processes that once created open spaces even within mature forests, such as fire, are largely controlled, diminishing the availability of quality habitat."

On four sites on the Allegheny National Forest and private timber inholdings in northeastern Pennsylvania, Stoleson set out to learn where the birds spend time after breeding season and what kind of condition are they in leading up to migration. "After the breeding season, birds sing less, stop defending territory, and generally wander. Tracking them is challenging at this point in their life cycle," Stoleson said. Between 2005 and 2008, he used constant-effort mist netting to capture songbirds, band them, determine whether they were breeding or postbreeders, and assess their overall condition, including whether they were building fat deposits and the extent of parasites the birds carried

Great Tits Built to Survive Climate Change?

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Early birds get worms in the evolutionary race against climate change.

The great tit (Parus major), a small bird, depends on a boom in caterpillar numbers in the spring to feed their young. However, spring and the caterpillar buffet now arrive earlier due to a warming global climate. If the birds were hard-wired to lay their eggs at the same time every year, they would miss the spring insect surge. That caterpillar catastrophe would leave many young birds starving.

However, great tits in England now lay their eggs earlier in the year which allows the early birds to catch the caterpillar boom, according to a study published in PLOS Biology.

Great tits now lay their eggs an average of two weeks earlier than they did 50 years ago. The birds’ rate of change could allow them to adapt to global warming of 0.5 degrees Celsius per year, suggested the study’s authors from the University of Oxford.

Animals Benefiting from Climate Change: Photos

The key to the great tits’ survival comes from a biological ability known as phenotypic plasticity. Phenotype refers to the physical expression of a living thing’s genetic code along with the influence of environmental factors on the creature. The ability of species to adapt behaviors and physical characteristics to meet environmental needs is phenotypic plasticity.

Smaller birds with faster life cycles, such as the great tit, may have the phenotypic plasticity needed to keep up with climate change. However, other creatures that take longer to reproduce may face challenges.

ANALYSIS: Climate Change Challenges Circadian Clocks

“Our results show us under what conditions we can expect species to be able to cope with a changing environment, and under what conditions we should be more pessimistic,” lead author Ben Sheldon said in a press release. “We should be particularly concerned about slow-reproducing species, for which the need to show just the right response to the environment is particularly crucial. A key area for future work is to understand why some species respond by the right amount, and others show the wrong response.”

The intoxicated world of the spotted flycatcher

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Spotted flycatchers have commandeered the fence this year. Darting from shadows behind the hedge; landing on a post or wire; pausing to watch for a target; looping out into the field to land back on a further post; launching to snatch an insect on the wing with a blur and then back into the shadows. The spotted flycatchers have learned they have a speed and agility beyond the comprehension of walkers along the fence. They have the confidence now to hunt even while people and dogs are about. Sheep in the field bring more flies and the jackdaws are too slow and otherwise engaged to bother.

The flycatcher sprites appear flitting from post to post along the field's length as you walk beside the fence. They stay a couple of posts ahead, luring you closer and closer, until they flick to the next post or wire. When you get to the kissing gate at the end of the field they vanish. But if you look the way you've come, you'll see them on fence posts behind you going back to the far end. It's a game. However, with a 70% drop in population since the 1960s, climate change, farming changes, a lack of insects and problems crossing the drought-ridden Sahel on migration, the flycatchers' game is deadly serious.

With their grey-browns and faint dotted lines, they are often described as dull-looking birds, as if that makes them less interesting. But like many of the insects they catch and the landscape they inhabit, subtlety has a greater beauty and their aerial hunting dance is astonishing to watch. We, the lumbering pedestrians along the fence path, are enchanted and find ourselves drawn into it. Spotted flycatcher world is intoxicated by the scent of honeysuckle and the flush of dog roses. We hope the insects they snip from the air with those pencil-sharp beaks are feeding a brood that will also return to the fence.

For Some Arctic Birds, Time of Day Is Irrelevant

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Arctic summers mean migrating animals, a bounty of breeding opportunities, and 24 hours of sunlight. Many plants and animals experience 24-hour cycles telling them when it's time to rest and when it's time to get up—called the circadian rhythm—that are often tied to light cues. So what happens when the sun never sets?

For four species of migrating birds that breed in the Arctic, new research shows that "anything goes," said Bart Kempenaers, a behavioral ecologist with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology near Munich.

Lapland longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) exhibit a 24-hour cycle, while semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) and pectoral sandpipers (Calidris melanotos) are active around the clock. Red phalaropes (Phalaropus fulicarius) shift from a roughly 21-hour cycle to a 29-hour cycle.

The type of cycle each displays depends on the species, an individual's sex, and their social circumstances.

Arctic residents like the reindeer and a bird called the ptarmigan don't really have a 24-hour cycle, said Kempenaers, co-author of a recent study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Scientists think this enables the permanent residents to take advantage of the midnight sun to feed around the clock. (Read about Scandinavians who walk with reindeer in National Geographic magazine.)

But Kempenaers and colleagues were curious to see what happened with Arctic migrants.

So the scientists studied the activity patterns of four bird species that migrated to the same area near Barrow, Alaska (map) to reproduce during the Arctic's five-week breeding season. (See pictures of other Arctic animals.)

They attached 0.03-ounce (one-gram) radio transmitters to 142 individuals of Lapland longspurs, semipalmated sandpipers, pectoral sandpipers, and red phalaropes.

The radio tags allowed researchers to continuously monitor individual activity levels, which the team then verified with behavioral observations in the field.

North American Birds Declining as Threats Mount

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Throughout the year, birders look forward to changing seasons and avian scenes as they explore woods, grasslands, and wetlands: the spectacle of spring migration, the songs of breeding birds, the autumn southward flight of wintering species from northern nesting grounds.

Increasingly, though, both casual bird-watchers and ornithologists note a steady decline in numbers—not just of endangered species, but also of common birds not usually considered to be at risk. Study after study, survey after survey show a worrisome downward trend in populations.

A National Audubon Society report called "Common Birds in Decline," for instance, shows that some widespread species generally thought to be secure have decreased in number as much as 80 percent since 1967, and the 19 others in the report have lost half their populations. The figures reflect an array of threats faced by birds throughout North America. (Read about the decline of European songbirds in National Geographic magazine.)

Migrants return from Central America to find that the brushy field where they nested the previous year is now a strip mall.

Millions of songbirds annually suffer bloody death in the claws of domestic cats. Millions more collide with city skyscrapers or communications towers, or fly into the glass windows of suburban houses.

And climate change could degrade or even eliminate habitats in ways that scientists have only recently begun to study and try to forecast.

Threats to songbirds occasionally make splashy headlines, as when Smithsonian scientists released a report in January indicating that free-ranging domestic cats kill far more birds than previously believed: between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds annually in the lower 48 states.

Loud, Red-Headed Bird Species Discovered

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A redheaded bird with a loud call would hardly seem to be hiding from the world, but researchers only recently discovered it singing away in a Cambodian jungle.

Called the Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), it’s one of only two avian species found solely in Cambodia. The other one sounds equally distinctive. It’s called the Cambodian laughingthrush, and it is restricted to the remote Cardamom Mountains.

Aside from its red head, the Cambodian tailorbird sports a black throat. It lives in a dense, humid lowland jungle just outside of Cambodia’s urbanized capitol of Phnom Penh. It’s described in the Oriental Bird Club’s journal Forktail.

PHOTOS: Animals’ Mating Strategies Revealed

“The modern discovery of an un-described bird species within the limits of a large populous city – not to mention 30 minutes from my home – is extraordinary,” lead author Simon Mahood of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said in a press release. “The discovery indicates that new species of birds may still be found in familiar and unexpected locations.”

The bird’s scientific name (chaktomuk) is an old Khmer word meaning four-faces. It describes where the bird is found: the area centered in Phnom Penh where the Tonle Sap, Mekong and Bassac Rivers come together.

Unfortunately this bucolic-sounding area is under threat from human encroachment. Our agriculture and urban activities keep pushing into such areas, pushing the native wildlife out.

NEWS: World’s Earliest Bird Discovered

The WCS has already recommended that the new species be classified as Near Threatened under the IUCN’s Red List. Fortunately, the bird is found in the Baray Bengal Florican Conservation Area, where WCS is now working with local communities and the Forestry Administration to protect the Bengal florican and other threatened birds.

The last two decades have seen a sharp increase in the number of new bird species emerging from this and nearby regions, mostly due to exploration of remote areas. Newly described birds include various babbler species from isolated mountains in Vietnam, the bizarre bare-faced bulbul from Laos and the Mekong wagtail, first described in 2001 by WCS and other partners.

As Colin Poole, director of WCS Singapore and a co-author of the study on the new bird, said, “This discovery is one of several from Indochina in recent years, underscoring the region’s global importance for bird conservation.”

Co-author Jonathan C. Eames of BirdLife International’s OBE added, “Most newly discovered bird species in recent years have proved to be threatened with extinction or of conservation concern, highlighting the crisis facing the planet’s biodiversity.”

Steve Zack, WCS coordinator of bird conservation, concluded, “Asia contains a spectacular concentration of bird life, but is also under sharply increasing threats ranging from large scale development projects to illegal hunting. Further work is needed to better understand the distribution and ecology of this exciting newly described species to determine its conservation needs.”

Some 1.5 million people live in Phnom Penh, so maybe on quiet mornings people there have actually heard the bird singing, but didn’t consider the species. The bird has different songs. Here’s one that sounds a bit like a cell phone ring.

Image credit: Ashish John/WCS

'Bubble-Pop' Bird May Be Rarest in U.S.

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The Gunnison sage-grouse, a bird with an unusual “bubble pop” mating call and display, could be America’s rarest bird, according to avian experts.

The bird was only discovered 13 years ago, and yet it’s already nearly a goner. Today, fewer than 5,000 of these birds remain in the wild, and they are rapidly dwindling.

PHOTOS: Animals Back From the Brink

“In my view, the Gunnison sage-grouse is the most biologically endangered bird species in all of continental North America,” Cornell Lab of Ornithology director John Fitzpatrick said in a statement sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The chicken-sized bird has an amazingly unusual mating ritual. To court females, the males strut about while wagging their spiky tails and making a popping-like noise as they inflate yellow air sacs from their white chests.

Fitzpatrick and others are paying attention to this bird now, as it’s a candidate for listing as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The Gunnison sage-grouse only lives in eastern Utah and Colorado.

“The Gunnison sage-grouse is now in imminent danger of a series of local population collapses, which — when they occur — will result in extinction of the species,” Fitzpatrick explained.

PHOTOS: Birds-of-Paradise Evolved in Lost Worlds

Efforts by public agencies and private landowners to help stabilize the bird’s populations through private land easements, conservation plans and community education have not halted its decline, says Fitzpatrick.

Despite the bird’s precarious status, getting a species endangered classification can be a long, laborious process.

For example the Dakota skipper butterfly, on the candidate’s list since 1975, is now extinct in Indiana and Iowa. The Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake has been a candidate since 1982. And the Kittlitz’s murrelet, a small bird, has been on the candidate’s list for nearly 20 years.

“It is now urgent that the Gunnison sage-grouse be listed as an endangered species, and that a recovery team be assembled to fast-track recommended steps for halting the decline and imminent extinction of this remarkable bird,” said Fitzpatrick.

Bird Apps May Confuse Real Birds

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Some experts are warning that cell phone apps that mimic bird calls are too real.

Concerned that birds may misinterpret the sounds as coming from their feathered friends, rather than phones, and responding to them instead of, say, feeding their babies, experts in the United Kingdom are calling the apps “harmful.”

“Repeatedly playing a recording of birdsong or calls to encourage a bird to respond in order to see it or photograph it can divert a territorial bird from other important duties, such as feeding its young…It is selfish and shows no respect to the bird.

“People should never use playback to attract a species during its breeding season,” Tony Whitehead, public affairs officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, told the BBC.

BLOG: Apes Get iPads at National Zoo

Meanwhile, developers of the apps say the sounds are educational and not a cause for concern.

“Just keep the volume low,” Dr. Hilary Wilson, a developer for the Chirp! app, told the BBC, although she admitted it is possible to misuse them. “We urge great caution — birdsong is simply a pleasant sound to human ears, but to birds it is a powerful means of communication.”

NEWS: Birds’ Emergency Calls Signal Friends, Foes

In England, The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 made it an offense to intentionally disturb nesting birds. Brownsea Island, in the county of Dorset, has put up signs warning visitors about using the apps.

Photo: A yellow oriole sits on a branch. Some ornithologists are concerned that sounds from bird call phone apps may be confusing birds in the wild. Credit: iStockPhoto