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Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
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Author | Topic: Corvid ecologists | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
Interesting news on corvid (crow, jay, raven, nutcracker) behavior and the forests they tend.
Corvids could save forests from the effects of climate changeCrows, jays, and nutcrackers have co-evolved with trees for good reason. quote: So once we understand this behavior we can work with it, provide seeds and let the corvids plant them, saving on labor and benefiting the existing ecological process. This gives me hope that some of the impending doom of global climate change can be ameliorated. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
But I'd like to respond to your comment about blue jays that it's hard to like a bird that will bully out all the little birds, the chickadees and the finches, from the feeder, the huge raucous bird straddling the thing until it's eaten or knocked all the seed to the ground. And that's why I have 3 types of feeders, the tall cylinders with small perches that suit the little birds, purple finches, chickadees, goldfinches and the like, plus flat open feeders for birds like bluejays, cardinals and morning doves, and then suet for nuthatches, sapsuckers and woodpeckers. The "problem" birds I have are (1) starlings that mob the other birds and try to empty all my feeders in a day, and (2) european house "sparrows" (actually weaver finches) that overwhelm the feeders and drive the shyer birds away, again with large numbers in their flocks. Both these birds are not native introduced species that have spread across the continent. They also steal cavity nests from bluebirds and swifts and the like.
Second point I wanted to write when RAZD first put up the subject is that the evolution scenario is of course completely assumed, there is no reason whatever to think the behavior of these birds "evolved" to favor forests. However microevolution must be involved if their behavior does in fact favor them. Just have to make this comment because believers in evolution always assume it's the explanation for everything without the slightest evidence in any particular case. Actually it is an evidence based hypothesis that has been and is currently being tested. Corvids are not the only vectors that the trees use, as squirrels and other animals also spread seeds. Bears that raid squirrel hoards also plant seeds along with a dose of fertilizer ... But the corvids take the seeds the furthest distance, and thus are a much larger vector for spreading the trees to new areas. This isn't some much an evolution issue, as it an ecological one -- the interaction of species in habitats and how the behavior of one affects the behavior of the others, and the balance of the whole ecology. So sit back and marvel at the quiet spread of forests by tireless workers while we argue about what needs to be done. Nature will survive global climate change, the question is what species will survive, which species will change, which will perish, and which one of them will we be. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
I don't live where I could have bird feeders but that sounds like a good solution. There are several types of stick-on window feeders:
Put low on an upper window frame you can open the lower one to fill it, or two windows side by side work. A friend of mine has one with a stool inside for the cat ... Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
House sparrows are real sparrows (genus passer). ... Curiously, in my book (NatGeo Field Guide to Birds of N. America) American sparrow species are on pages 386-407 in the "Grosbeaks, Buntings and Sparrows" section, and none of them are Family Passidae, while the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) and the European House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) are on page 432-433 under "weavers" between "weaver finches" and "finches" ... in the finch section of my book, with Tanagers and Orioles in between them: not closely related to American sparrows. Both of them are introduced species and thus are not native, and certainly not American sparrows. So I'll give you "weaver" as opposed to "weaver finches" (like the Java sparrow (Padda oryzivora), another introduced species). One need only look at the nesting behavior (communal nests all woven together) to see that they are distinctly different from American sparrows. They are invasive, opportunistic, and mob bullies chasing away other birds, and taking over cavity nests from other American birds (blue birds, tree swallow, etc). They are destructive and worm their way into small opening in houses. So I have little love for them. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
I think you've got muddled. Sparrow weavers are African birds closely related neither to sparrows nor to the birds you call sparrows in America. My book calls them all "sparrows" and there are lots of native families and geni, all different from the introduced european and eurasian ones that are in the Weaver Finch\Weaver\Finch section as opposed to the Grosbeak\Bunting\Sparrow section for all the "birds you call sparrows in America." With Blackbirds, Orioles and Tanagers between them. If this is muddled, it is so in my book "The National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of N. America" which I find difficult to accept. But this is all aside form the Corvid ecologist issue. by our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
The explanation is simple. American "sparrows" are not sparrows. They were likely called sparrows for their resemblance to the true sparrows, but that hardly gives them an exclusive claim to the name over the European birds. Or to true Scotsman ... So "sparrow" is just a general nomenclature for small seed eating birds and has no real taxonomic basis. Like "warbler" ... or "seagull" ... The point remains that they are not welcome at my feeders ... neither are starlings, another greedy pest introduced from England, because they chase off and displace native species. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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RAZD Member (Idle past 1431 days) Posts: 20714 From: the other end of the sidewalk Joined: |
One of my favorite members of the Corvid family are the Florida Scrub Jays. The are extremely friendly and curious, landing near or on you to check you out if you wander into their territory. I've seem them hide acorns or pine nuts in a shallow hole then carefully covering them up and pulling leaves and other material over their stash. Exactly the behavior in the article that spreads forests into new areas. I've seen similar with Canadian/Gray Jays (Perisoreus canadensis) and Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri), the latter taking bits of cheese from my hand and burying them in sand. Enjoyby our ability to understand Rebel☮American☆Zen☯Deist ... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ... to share. Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)
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