Cockatiel’s Song with Piano Accompaniment Is the Cutest Yet – Mashable 17June13
Cockatiel’s Song with Piano Accompaniment Is the Cutest Yet
It’s especially amusing the way the wee bird and his piano-playing accompanist work together to get ‘er done. We’ve seen plenty of singing, talking and even driving birds of various species before, but this one has to rank among the cutest ever.
A Lame Duck Is Walking Again Thanks to a 3D Printed Foot – Gizmodo 1July13
A Lame Duck Is Walking Again Thanks to a 3D Printed Foot
Buttercup the duck was born with his left foot turned backwards, making it nearly impossible and extremely painful to walk. But now he’s waddling again with a 3D-printed foot.
Buttercup was born in a high school biology lab in November. Because of his bum foot he was given to Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary in Arlington, Tennessee. The organization’s Mike Garey, a software engineer, adopted Buttercup, and began searching out solutions to get Buttercup walking again. He landed on 3D modeling company, NovaCopy, which 3D printed Buttercup a brand new webbed foot, based on photos of Buttercup’s sister Minnie’s left foot.
NovaCopy knew that traditional plastic used in a lot of 3D printers wouldn’t work because the material is too stiff. Instead, it created a mould that was used to cast a more malleable silicone foot for Buttercup. The cast is attached to Buttercup’s leg with a sheath, sort of like a flexible silicone sock. And last night, Buttercup’s adopted dad finally finished attaching the prosthetic, and Buttercup is waddling like a happy, normal duck. You can see a first look of the new foot in action in this video Garey shot last night:
Little penguins on Phillip Island experience baby boom – ABC News 2 July 13
Little penguins on Phillip Island experience baby boom
By Emily Bourke
Updated Tue Jul 2, 2013 11:35am AEST
The little penguins of Phillip Island are experiencing a baby boom.
Last summer’s breeding season was the best in a generation, a dramatic turnaround from the 1990s when either foxes were snatching the flightless birds or they were starving to death.
Research manager of the Phillip Island Nature Parks Dr Peter Dann says the rise in population is “about food”.
“These chicks are fatter, they’ve grown faster, the parents have brought back more food. The parents have been heavier than normal right through the breading seasons,” he said.
Dr Dann says it is a far cry from the 1990s, when food was scarce.
“It was even worse in 1995, when the main food they were eating during that breeding time was pilchard, and the pilchard had a huge die-off right across southern Australia to New Zealand,” he said.
Guillemot eggs are self-cleaning – BBC Nature 5 July 13
Guillemot eggs are self-cleaning
By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News, Valencia, Spain
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Guillemot eggs have special structures on their shells that make them self-cleaning, according to new research.
The study began after scientists noticed the liquid-repelling properties of a batch of eggs that had water spilled onto them.
Further analysis revealed tiny cone-shaped structures on the eggs’ shells were responsible for this property.
The findings were presented at the Society for Experimental Biology conference in Valencia, Spain.
Dr Steven Portugal from the Royal Veterinary College in London who conducted the research told BBC Nature that the project started with a “minor spillage” in the lab.
“I accidentally spilled distilled water over a batch of eggs,” Dr Portugal recalled.
“And I noticed that the eggs from the guillemots stood out in terms of how the water droplets reacted on the surface.
“They formed little droplets – they didn’t run down the egg.”
The formation of water drops into perfect spheres is typical of hydrophobic or water-hating surfaces.
The best-known example of this in nature is a lotus leaf.
“It’s been copied in engineering, because it’s self-cleaning” said Dr Portugal.
Defra awards Gloucestershire bird park £171,000 for new centre – BBC News 13 Jun 13
Defra awards Gloucestershire bird park £171,000 for new centre
Continue reading the main story
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A Gloucestershire bird park has been awarded £171,000 towards a new visitor and animal welfare building.
Prinknash Bird and Deer Park owner, Melanie Meigh, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic – we’ve been working towards this since 2008.”
She said the process of applying for the grant had taken nearly three years.
Work is due to begin next month. The money has come from the department for the environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA).
Ms Meigh added: “It’s a bit like an endurance test and an awful lot of paperwork. Our first submission was just over 1,800 pages.
“The building is going to cost just under £500,000 but thankfully the park is open as a lot of the funds come from the public and we already have planning permission so everything is in place to build.”
Ducklings OK After Dangerous Journey Across IndyCar Racetrack – Mashable 03June13
Ducklings OK After Dangerous Journey Across IndyCar Racetrack
Why did the mother duck and four ducklings cross the IndyCar racetrack full of giant hunks of metal traveling at tremendous velocity? We have no idea, but we’re glad they came out alright.
Why did the mother duck and four ducklings cross the IndyCar racetrack full of giant hunks of metal traveling at tremendous velocity? We have no idea, but we’re glad they came out alright.
The video above was taken during practice rounds for this weekend’s IndyCar race at Belle Isle. As you’ll see, there were some pretty narrow misses between duckling and racecar. Eventually, however, race officials were able to stop the cars, and the family of ducks was escorted from the premises.
What could have been a very sad moment indeed instead becomes an incredibly cute sportsvideo. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.
Homepage image courtesy Flickr, Tristan Schmurr
Derbyshire villagers search for peacock’s owner – BBC News 3June13
Derbyshire villagers search for peacock’s owner
Residents are trying to trace the owners of a peacock that arrived in a Derbyshire village a year ago.
The peacock, which villagers have named Kevin, has become a talking point in Breadsall parish council meetings since it appeared in the village last summer.
Villagers have placed adverts online to try to find the bird’s owners, so far without success.
While some have welcomed the bird into their gardens, others have accused him of making “mischief”.
Earliest Bird Claim Ruffles Feathers – Wired 30May13
Earliest Bird Claim Ruffles Feathers
- BY MICHAEL BALTER, SCIENCENOW (WIRED)
- 05.30.13
- 1:30 PM
Artist reconstruction of Aurornis xui. Image: Masato Hattori
During the Jurassic period, between about 200 million and 145 million years ago, some meat-eating dinosaurs began evolving birdlike skeletons and sprouting feathers on their bodies. One group of these creatures eventually split off to become birds, although researchers have long debated which one it was and when it actually happened. Now, a team of scientists claims to have found the earliest known bird, a discovery that could finally put these questions to rest. But critics question whether it really is a bird, and some are not entirely convinced that it’s an authentic specimen.
About30 species of feathered dinosaurs have been discovered in the past dozen years or so, mostly from geological formations in China’s northeastern Liaoning province. But up until now, few paleontologists have argued that any of them qualified as the earliest known bird. That honor has been held for 150 years by Archaeopteryx, a 150-million-year-old creature discovered in Germany, several well-preserved specimens of which have been found over the past century and a half. Nevertheless, two years ago, China’s most famous fossil hunter, Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, argued in a paper in Science thatArchaeopteryx was not really a bird, although many researchers did not agree.
Slo-Mo Footage Reveals How Pigeons Make That Clapping Sound At Takeoff – Gizmodo 30May13
Slo-Mo Footage Reveals How Pigeons Make That Clapping Sound At Takeoff
As BBC Earth Productions discovered by studying a pigeon’s takeoff with a high-speed camera, the noise seems to be generated as the bird’s muscular wings and stiff feathers clap together on the upswing. The footage also reveals how graceful a pigeon and almost makes you want to like them, until you remember the mountain of crap on your air conditioner and reach for a broom.
(Click link in title for full story)
Pigeons Are Smarter Than You Might Think And Can Use Touchscreens – Gizmodo 2June13
Pigeons Are Smarter Than You Might Think And Can Use Touchscreens
Researchers at the University of Iowa found that pigeons do well on task-based intelligence tests, even when the assessments are digitized and conducted on a touchscreen. In this case, pigeons were presented with the “string task,” in which there are two strings to choose from but pulling the one with food attached to it has a greater benefit. But the pigeons took a digital version, where they got actual food if they consistently pecked the “string” attached to a square that looked like it was full of food. The pigeons performed well on different versions of the test and you can see them following the strings with their eyes to figure out which one is attached to the dish full of “food.” Pigeons are apparently smart enough to figure out what they were supposed to peck because those depictions of food kind of don’t look like food at all. Pattern recognition probably explains it, but seriously good job pigeons. Didn’t know you had it in you. [PhysOrg via DVICE]
indian runner duck 