Dr. Navtej Kohli Blog

Navtej Kohli shares the secret Mantra of identifying birds in their natural surrounding. All you need is some basic guidance, that your will find here on Navtej Kohli blog.

Bird watching is a great economical hobby that is pleasing and also a great way to appreciate natural habitat. Watching the beautiful feathered companions is one of my favorite pastimes. Initially when I was new to this hobby, I had hard time figuring out different species of birds. But now with experience I can easily make out between several species. Today I will you how to identify the birds…

If you get into birding, you will quickly realize you want to keep a list of the birds you see. In fact, this is a basic pillar of the hobby. The list you create is called a life list. As the years pass, the idea is to add and add to your list. Frankly, it can become a bit addictive. Regardless, you need to know how to identify the birds you see so you can keep your list up to date and make sure it is accurate. There are a number of ways to identify birds and the silhouette method is one.

The silhouette method is all about looking at shapes. You want to avoid focusing on colors or actions take by the bird. Instead, you want to picture the bird as a dark shape surrounded by light. If this is unclear, thing of the head silhouettes you did as a kid. It is the same idea, although you have to picture the silhouette in your mind since the bird in question probably isn’t going to let you do any actual one!

Most species of birds have common characteristics. If you can match the characteristics of the bird to others, you will be able to determine the group it lies within. As you get better at it, you will often be able to nail down the exact identity.

When picturing the silhouette, you need to focus on a couple key things. First and foremost is the body size. Is it large, small or medium? Next, look at the shape. Is there something unique about it, to wit, is it long and thin, stout or pear shaped?

Once you have the basic body characteristics down, it is time to look for a bit more detail. What type of beak are you seeing? Is it long or short? What about the tail? Is it short or long or are there other characteristics? Finally, take a look at the proportions of the body parts. One of the great give aways is a particular body part that is larger or smaller than one would expect with the body shape and size.

Once you have correlated this information, you should have a pretty good idea of what you are looking at. It may sound like a lot at first, but it will eventually become second hand.

Navtej Kohli can’t take hold of his love for birds. Here is another piece of information that he wishes to share with all you bird lovers.

What would you do if you ever spot a baby bird in your backyard, who can’t fly?

Obviously, help it to nest!

But I’m sorry dear, these are certain myths that you need to work upon!

Baby birds almost never need rescuing. No matter even if they have those stubby, short tails and down showing where feathers should be. Most birds come out of the nest early and learn to fly from the ground, up.

This is the way most birds learn to fly. If a baby bird is on the ground, its eyes are open, it has feathers, and it appears plump and healthy, its parents are most likely nearby and taking care of it.

A rule of thumb: If you have to chase it to rescue it, it does not need rescuing.

Birds do not abandon their babies if you touch them. You can move them a short distance and put them in a shrub for safety - but they will probably just hop back out. If you are worried about cats, keep the cats inside until the fledglings can fly, which is usually only a matter of a few days.

When should you rescue one of your backyard wildlife? If the baby’s eyes are closed and you can’t get it back to its nest; if it’s weak or cold; if there are insects near or on the animal; if it is in obvious danger; if it has been hit by a car; or if you know a parent has been killed, then it is time to intervene.

If you have taken a wild animal away from a dog or cat, take it to a veterinarian, even if it looks OK. Wounds from a cat’s claws, especially, are hard to see but they are deadly. Do not kid yourself. That innocent looking cat, playing with the bird, has already sunk its claws into the bird.

If a bird hits your window and is stunned, put it in a cardboard box or a paper bag, with air holes punched. Keep it out of the sun in a safe place for 10 minutes to a half hour. Give it time to recover. If there are no obvious injuries, let it go. Don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t fly off right away. It is most likely afraid it will run into something again. You might have to give it a nudge.

Stress can be a killer, so keep any wildling warm and quiet. Do not handle it any more than necessary. Do not talk to it. Do not try to force water or food into its mouth. Dropping water into a bird’s mouth is dangerous. It is often aspirated (breathed) into the lungs, causing pneumonia.

Always call veterinarians before you take a wild creature to them. If the veterinarian does not treat wildlife, he or she can tell you who will.

Do not try to care for a wild bird yourself. Federal laws protect all migratory birds. All wildlings take specialized diets and care. Experts should treat them so that they can fly wild and free.

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It might occus to one that stocking the Great Lakes with things like trout and salmon would be good for the herring gull. The birds usually eat from the water, so more fish would mean better dining. But a new report published in the April journal of Ecology by the Ecological Society of America says that the addition of species such as exotic salmon and trout to the area has not been good for the birds, proving that such actions can sometimes have very unexpected outcomes.

Craig Hebert (National Wildlife Research Center in Ottawa, Canada) and his team analyzed 25 years of data on the gulls and found that throughout the Great Lakes region, the birds were in poor health in many areas. Tests of their fatty acids showed an increase in the type of transfat that mostly comes from food produced by humans.

“It seems that the birds are being forced to make a dietary shift from fish to terrestrial food, including garbage,” says Hebert.

Although no one is certain why the birds are eating more garbage, evidence points to fish stocking. When exotic salmon and trout have been added to the waters, the birds seem to be out competed for their favorite prey of smaller fish, such as alewifes.

Herring gulls, which differ from the ring necked gulls that often populate American beaches and parking lots, are by no means endangered.

But the birds have long been used as monitors of environmental conditions on the Laurentian Great Lakes. Their eggs are collected annually and analyzed for insights into how the region’s food webs are changing.

Gulls are top predators in this system. When fish are unavailable, the birds turn to land instead for their foraging. When given a choice between prey fish and garbage, the birds readily chose the fish. Thus scientists assume that they only eat garbage when the prey fish numbers are low.

Prey fish in the Lake have been declining since 1980. Although multiple factors may be at play, predation by piscivorous fish appears to be the one factor that was universally important across all five Great Lakes because of massive fish stocking. The stocking was done to create recreational activities, and to reduce populations of exotic prey fish in the hope of restoring populations of native fishes.

“The effects on other species that are more closely tied to the water, such as terns, may be more severe,” says Hebert. “Those kinds of birds can only eat fish, so their diet may be affected by this, too. They don’t have the option of eating food found on land.”

Compiled by Navtej Kohli. Also more interesting articles are available by Navtej Kohli at associated content.

The most attractive male birds attract more females and as a result are most successful in terms of reproduction. This is the starting point for many studies that look for factors that influence sexual selection in birds. However, is it reasonable to assume that birds see what we see? In a study published in the latest issue of American Naturalist, Uppsala researchers show that our human vision is not an adequate instrument.

“The results mean that many studies on sexual selection may need to be re-evaluated,” says Anders Odeen, research assistant at the Department of Animal Ecology at Uppsala University, who carried out this study with his colleague Olle Håstad.

The significance of birds’ plumage, both in terms of richness of colour and particular signals, has been shown to be a major factor in birds’ choice of partner. In order to assess the colours of birds, everything from binoculars to RGB image analyses are used. However, most studies are based on the hypothesis that human colour vision can be used to assess what birds see.

“It’s a bit like a colour blind person describing the colours of clothes — it’s often quite accurate but sometimes it can go badly wrong.”

This problem has been discussed in the research arena, but so far no study has been able to show its extent. The Uppsala researchers used a mathematical model to investigate how bird and human retina work. Using the model combined with information on differences in the colour-sensitive cones of the eye, they have been able to figure out how colour contrasts are perceived. Greater colour contrast can be translated as ‘richness of colour’ or more ‘brightly coloured’.

“We show that the colours are perceived differently in over 39 percent of cases, which means that it is possible that more than one third of previous studies have been based on inaccurate information.´

The differences were partly due to the fact that human vision cannot perceive UV light, while avian vision can. There are several differences between human and avian perception of colour, which show that certain shades that can be seen clearly by birds are not perceived at all by humans. Through evolution, our colour vision has developed from a more primitive version. This means that we have gone from having two types of colour sensitive cones in our eyes to having three. Birds have four.

“Most other animal species only have two, which means that their colour vision is rudimentary. It is human colour vision that differs from the norm, so in reality it’s ridiculous to use our colour vision to assess the colours of other animals.

The results are not only significant for basic research on sexual selection. They also illustrate the risks of making certain decisions on the basis of human vision, for example, in designing and legislating on lighting systems for domestic fowl.

Compiled by Navtej Kohli
Source: sciencedaily.com

Navtej Kohli found this really interesting article on internet, written by Jon O’bergh. If you have a fetish for bird watching, then this might interest you as well…

Researchers who study birds know that the quality of the birdsong is a good indicator of fitness. Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk describes how disease and parasites drive the evolution of showy colors, structures and behavior. She and a colleague theorized that female birds use these features to select males who are more parasite-free, and thus species with more parasites should have evolved flashier colors and songs to distinguish the fittest males.

Indeed, their research showed that brighter bird species had more parasites, as did those that sang more musically complex songs. In another study, researchers discovered that the type of immunity exerted an influence on birdsong: the number of song bouts was higher in birds with better cell-mediated immunity (general immunity that aids wound healing) and the length of the bouts greater in birds with better humoral (i.e., antibody) immunity.

In addition to the role of birdsong in the mating ritual, many birds have unique songs that they sing under special circumstances: flight, aggression, dawn, nightfall. Recently, while walking in a park at dusk, I heard emanating from one dense tree an almost deafening cacophony like a hundred teenagers on the phone. As I passed close to the avian highrise, the twittering abruptly stopped: “Shh! My parents are listening.” Once I’d passed underneath, it started up again. Some researchers theorize that these peak activities at dusk and dawn occur because acoustic factors make these the best times for sound transmission over distance.

Birds use calls to warn other birds of predators. Domestic chickens have distinct alarm calls for aerial and ground predators, a practice observed in some mammalian species as well. Individual birds also seem to be able to identify each other through their calls: mothers and chicks, mates, members of a flock.

Many birds engage in duet calls, where the male’s call is answered antiphonally by the female in a call and response, but the significance of this is unclear. Some birds, such as starlings and mockingbirds, creatively incorporate arbitrary musical bits learned during the individual’s lifetime. In many species, although the basic song is the same for all members of the species, young birds learn some details of their songs from their fathers, which get passed down through generations.

Composers have long been interested in representing birdsong in music. One of the earliest surviving pieces is the 13th century “Sumer is icumen in,” which imitates the cuckoo. Beethoven and Mahler each imitated birdsong in a symphony, as did Bartok in the third piano concerto. Birdsong features prominently in the music of 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen. Jazz clarinetist David Rothenberg has written an informative book, Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song, and recorded a CD of music based on the sounds of birds.

Welcome back! I’m back again with one more interesting post on Navtej Kohli Blog.

Ornithology has come a long way from forests to our backyards. Observing birds and their amusing antics is my favorite pastime. As a kid, I had fun tossing out bread crumbs and some cracked corn onto the snow covered ground. I had one simple feeder which was good enough. However, today we have a plethora of feeders and gadgets to choose from and we are creating backyard habitats. Bird feeders are a great way of drawing various species of birds to your little yard.

I vaguely recall from my childhood, I was grinding Indian corn with my mom’s hand crank meat grinder. I placed the cracked corn on a crude platform feeder I had made from a piece of plywood and some old floor molding. Feeding birds seemed to be a winter-only thing. Now I care for birds year round. I have several feeders, squirrel baffles, water sources and my own little backyard habitat.

Except to feeders, food itself has evolved. The premium food has turned wild birds into backyard pets. Avid birders are on a constant look out for new ways to attract wild birds.

Out of my own experience and what I have learned from my ornithologist friends, there are four basics of attracting birds to your yard.

1. Food sources: It can be as simple as a feeder or two. Black oil sunflower seed will attract the greatest variety of desirable birds to your yard. Feed can be custom blended to help attract certain species of birds in your area. Plant native flowers, shrubs and trees that offer seed, nuts, berries nectar.

2. Feeders are now designed for specific birds and to keep squirrels and larger birds at bay. There are finch feeders, woodpecker feeders, nectar feeders and suet feeders. Feeders can be tubes, platforms or hoppers.

3. Fresh water: It will attract some birds quicker than what feeder might. A birdbath, old pie pan or saucer to a flower pot will work.

4. Protection: this is a must, if you want birds to feed and bathe in your yard. Birds need to feel safe from predators. It is important to place food and water in the open, yet close to trees and shrubs for that quick get away when needed.

5. Nesting sites: it can be a simple nest box properly located, to several trees and shrubs birds find to their liking.

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Navtej Kohli is an avid birder. Below are some useful birding slang complied by Navtej Kohli for those who have just started to gain their birding wings.

Bird watching as a hobby is taking a flight amid nature lovers. Avid birders are acquainted with the intricate terminology of bird watching, better known as birding slang, but beginners usually get confused on hearing these unfamiliar words. So, if you are about to take bird watching as a hobby, you must at least know some basic terms and their meanings:
1. Tick: any species that you spot should wind up on your birding list, and those species that you have never seen before will wind up on your “tick list.” There are various types of tick lists ranging from “garden ticks” to “trip ticks,” but the idea here is to note anything new.

2. Lifer: if you spot a lifer, you are truly blessed. A “lifer” is a bird that you have never laid eyes on before. Lifers cannot include birds that you have seen while traveling, and they must be birds that you never thought you would lay eyes upon.

3. Sibe: a “sibe” is a bird that usually resides in Siberia, but during a flight this type of bird became lost and wound up near your home. The interesting thing is that sibes usually go unnoticed, since these birds are usually rather plain to look at.

4. BOP: a BOP is easily identifiable as a “bird of prey,” but many people hardly notice them at all when they are soaring hundreds of feet in the air. Birds of prey are truly magnificent animals, so keep your eyes towards the sky for your next BOP sighting.

5. Seawatching: this type of birding really takes a lot of patience. Seawatching is, exactly, as it sounds - watching for birds while sitting near the sea. Seawatchers spend hours perched upon a rocky cliff in order to spot rare birds, and most of the time seawatchers usually wind up spend the day alongside a seagull or two.

However, you don’t need to learn these terms by heart, but it’s just that you should know some most common words. Though the words mentioned above are some of the more common terms, there are literally hundreds of other bird watching terms out there, so don’t worry about memorizing all of them. As with any other sport, birders are rather proud of their exclusive world, so it only makes sense that there are numerous words to go along with the many magnificent birds that exist on the planet.

Navtej Kohli personal blog shows concern about some bird species standing on the verge of extinction. Adobe of some of the most endangered species of birds, Indian subcontinent has observed a massive influx of migratory birds. In fact, over the last one year some of these birds are living on the verge of extinction. Citing some apparent reasons for this alarming fall in the number of these already rare species are deforestation, global warming, poaching and other human interferences in the nature’s normal course.

Facts state that from a whole of 1, 228 species found in India, almost 82 species have been tagged endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Mentioned below are some the bird’s species that possess maximum threat of extinction:
• Pink-headed Duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea)
• Himalayan Quail (Ophrysia superciliosa)
• Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus)
• Sarus Crane (Grus antigone)
• Jerdon’s Courser (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus)
• Forest Owlet (Athene blewitti)
• White-bellied Heron (Ardea insignis)
• Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana)
• Greater Adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius)
• White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala)
• White-winged Duck (Cairina scutulata)
• Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps)
• Bengal Florican (Houbaropsis bengalensis)
• Lesser Florican (Sypheotides indica)
• Nordmann’s Greenshank (Tringa guttifer)
• Rufous-breasted Laughingthr (Garrulax cachinnans)
• Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus)
• White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)
• Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus)

There is an immediate need of spreading mass-awareness for encouraging people to come forward and take part in this cause. Also, stringent rules shall be enforced to put a check on all the activities posing threat on the existence of these already dying out species.

Navtej Kohli personal blog writes on the passion of Navtej Kohli for Ornithology. The search for the Woodpecker continues in America….. Away down in the swampy bottomlands of Dixie in Arkansas, the most intensive search ever for a bird is gearing up for a make-or-break season. Big reputations are riding on the controversial quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker, the most magnificent and most elusive of America’s tree-knockers.

Here in the vast White River National Wildlife Refuge, naturalists across the globe are trying to confirm the most prolonged debate over the sightings of a bird written off as extinct until four years ago.

The camouflage-clad scientists, venturing into what one described as the “most woodpeckeriest” woods to be found from South Carolina to East Texas, have an array of high-tech tools, from GPS coordinate monitors to satellite imagery. Automatic cameras catch digital images, their infrared flash strobes blinking near rotted trees and other likely roosting sites. Sensitive audio recorders strain “ivory-billed-like” sound from the constant clamor of other birds.

This month, for the first time, US Fish and Wildlife Service helicopters were enlisted in the chase, flying low-level “flush” missions meant to spook birds into breaking from the treetops. The idea is that airborne scientists might catch a glimpse of an ivory-billed and supply coordinates to help ground teams hone searches ongoing across hundreds of thousands of wilderness acres.

The last ivory-billed sighting claimed by a bird scientist occurred on Valentine’s Day 2005, in Arkansas, when a researcher from Cornell’s famed Laboratory of Ornithology, Casey Taylor, spied what she is convinced was one of the huge woodpeckers being harried by a mob of crows.

But skeptics scoff at that sighting almost as loudly as they jeer at a fuzzy 2004 videotape purporting to show an ivory-billed. Such critics say the woodpecker has almost certainly been extinct since the 1940s and that the search is a colossal waste of money and scientific energy. They maintain ivory-billed scientists, however expert, are simply fooled by glimpses of similar-looking - but commonplace - pileated woodpeckers.

The rancorous dispute has shaken the usually-collegial bird community, with mud-slinging between prominent biologists. Doubters last year used a professional journal to accuse the ivory-billed scientists of practicing “faith-based ornithology.”

Meanwhile, in the real muck of the bottomlands, the search continues.

Navtej Kohli shares a few good reading resources on the Indian Birds.

Common Birds of India
Asad R. Rahmani

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of India
Amano Samarpan

Birds of Himalaya and Kashmir
Douglas Dewar

Birds of Prey of the Indian Subcontinent
Rishad Naoroji