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Author Topic:   Corvid ecologists
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 4 of 29 (777925)
02-12-2016 11:27 AM
Reply to: Message 3 by Blue Jay
02-12-2016 11:14 AM


I thought this was probably meant to be a nondebate thread since it got put in links and information.
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 from the feeder, the chickadees and the finches, the huge raucous bird straddling the thing until it's eaten all the seed or knocked it all to the ground.
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., -- correction, no, no evolution of any sort, just the natural habits of the birds favoring the spreading of forests. Nice little fact of life, courtesy of the God who made 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.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 3 by Blue Jay, posted 02-12-2016 11:14 AM Blue Jay has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 5 by RAZD, posted 02-12-2016 11:51 AM Faith has replied
 Message 8 by Blue Jay, posted 02-12-2016 2:26 PM Faith has replied

  
Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 6 of 29 (777929)
02-12-2016 12:02 PM
Reply to: Message 5 by RAZD
02-12-2016 11:51 AM


I don't live where I could have bird feeders but that sounds like a good solution. I rented a room in a friend's house some years ago, and she had one feeder by the window next to the table where we could eat and watch the birds. The feeder was shaped like a gazebo the blue jay could straddle. She obviously needed more feeders.
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.
That I can appreciate. Evolution isn't necessary to any of that.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.
Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 5 by RAZD, posted 02-12-2016 11:51 AM RAZD has replied

Replies to this message:
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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


Message 9 of 29 (777942)
02-12-2016 3:09 PM
Reply to: Message 8 by Blue Jay
02-12-2016 2:26 PM


We have a plague of starlings here too. Not familiar with the house sparrow and its problems.

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Faith 
Suspended Member (Idle past 1444 days)
Posts: 35298
From: Nevada, USA
Joined: 10-06-2001


(1)
Message 14 of 29 (778104)
02-16-2016 4:07 PM


I have no bird in this fight as it were but I got curious. According to Google, RAZD is right, the house sparrow is really the weaver finch:
*Controlling House Sparrows. The English sparrow, commonly referred to as the house sparrow, is a species introduced into the United States in the mid 1800s. Brought over to this continent from England, this non-native bird is not actually a sparrow but a Weaver Finch, a sub-species of the more familiar Finch family.

Replies to this message:
 Message 15 by caffeine, posted 02-16-2016 4:25 PM Faith has not replied
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