Mindblowing Planet Earth

Thursday 5 September 2019

American Kestrel (falcons)

American Kestrel Facts

Order Falconiformes, Family Falconidae - Falcons are the more streamlined of the raptor species, with long pointed wings bent back at the wrists and large tails that taper at the tips. They consume numerous kinds of animals including insects, reptiles, small mammals, and birds. It is also called sparrow hawk, although birds are not the main prey item. Falcons, in general, have long, pointed wings and long tails, like mourning dove (Zenaida macroura).

Falcons are found in a variety of habitats, from cities to the most remote areas. Strong fliers that achieve high speeds, falcons’ range in size from the American kestrel 27 cm bill tip to tail tip to the peregrine falcon 41 to 51 cm. It is one of the smallest and most widely distributed falcons in North America. In the first sight, kestrels are often confused with other small birds such as mourning doves.

Nest of American Kestrel

The American Kestrel seek ready-made nests, such as wild woodpecker excavated holes or nest boxes provided by humans. Especially- ready-made nest boxes support kestrels throughout the areas where there are few natural cavities. They prefer cavities in large trees, crevices in rocks, nooks in structures.

Mainly surrounded by large open areas covered with short ground vegetation with adequate hunting perches close by. The Kestrel used nest boxes, but competition from non-native European Starlings is a real problem. Once the Kestrels pair select the site for nesting, then they use it for many years.

Selected species

The American kestrel (Falco sparverius), or sparrow hawk, is the most common falcon in open and semi-open areas throughout North America. There are three recognized subspecies.

1. F.s. paulus (This is a year-round resident from South Carolina to Florida and southern Alabama).

2. F.s. peninsularis (it is a year-round resident of southern Baja California).

3. F.s. sparverius (It is widespread and migratory).

The Predators of the kestrel include large raptors such as great horned owls, golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, coyotes, bobcats, skunks, raccoons, ravens, and crows.

Body size of American Kestrels

The bird weighing slightly over one-tenth of a kilogram, the kestrel is the smallest falcon native to the United States. As for most raptors, females are 10 to 20 percent larger than males. Kestrel body weights vary seasonally, with maximum weight (and fat deposits) being achieved in winter and minimum weights in summer.

American Kestrels Habitat

Kestrels inhabit open deserts, semi-open areas, the edges of groves and even cities. In several areas, investigators have found that male kestrels tend to use woodland openings and edges, while females tend to utilize more open areas characterized by short or sparse ground vegetation, particularly during the winter. In other areas, however, investigators have found no such differentiation.

In Florida, kestrels appear to prefer sandhill communities particularly pine/oak woodlands. These areas provide high-quality foraging habitat and most available nest sites. Kestrels are more likely to use habitats close to centers of human activities than are most other raptors.

Territory size of American Kestrels in relation to relatively small mammal abundance at the trap site probably reflects a reasonable estimate of prey availability at all nearby sites. American Kestrels may not alter territorial boundaries once established, particularly if the original territory maximizes rates of prey capture while minimizing costs associated with territorial defense.

American Kestrels Diet

Kestrels prey on a variety of small animals including invertebrates such as worms, spiders, scorpions, bats, and beetles. The other large insects, amphibians, and reptiles such as frogs, lizards, and snakes, and a wide variety of small-to-medium-sized birds and mammals.

Large insects, such as grasshoppers, are the kestrels' primary summer prey. Although in their absence kestrels will switch to small mammals and birds. In winter, small mammals and birds comprise most of the diet. Kestrels usually cache their vertebrate prey, often in clumps of grass or in tree limbs and holes, to be retrieved later.

Invertebrate prey usually is eaten immediately. In Florida, where small mammals are scarce, and reptiles are abundant, lizards are an important component of the diet. Kestrels forage by three different techniques: using open perches from which to spot and attack ground prey, hovering in the air to spot ground prey, and catching insects on the wing.

Also, some favorite prey, like voles and mice, leave urine trails that show up in ultra-violet light. They use these trails to track the hapless rodents. Hence, after a hearty meal, Kestrel stash leftovers in clumps of grass, bushes, fence posts, tree limbs or tree cavities.

Molt

Females begin their molt during incubation and complete it by the end of the breeding season. Males, who are responsible for capturing most of the prey for the family, do not begin their molt until near the end of the breeding season.

Migration

The American kestrel is a year-round resident over most of the United States but is migratory over the northern-most portions of its range (National Geographic Society. Because of their late molt, males migrate and arrive at the wintering grounds later than females or immatures.

Breeding activities and social organization

Adult kestrels are solitary, except during the breeding season, and maintain territories even in winter. Kestrels typically build their nests in tree cavities but have used holes in telephone poles, buildings, or stream banks when tree cavities are not available.

Both parents participate in incubation, but the female performs most of the incubation, while the male provides her with food. Following hatching, the male brings most of the prey to the nestlings. After fledging, young kestrels remain dependent on their parents for food for at least 2 to 4 additional weeks.

Fledglings often perch and socialize with their siblings prior to dispersal. In Florida, resident kestrels (Paulus subspecies) maintain year-round pair bonds and joint territories. The resident pairs have a competitive advantage over winter migrants (sparverius subspecies) in their territories.

Home range and resources

Although some investigators have not noted territorial defense demonstrated that kestrels defend territories by introducing captured birds into other birds' territories. Winter foraging territories range from a few hectares in productive areas to hundreds of hectares in less productive areas.

Summer breeding territories probably follow the same pattern. Population density although much smaller than red-tailed hawks and bald eagles, reported kestrel breeding population densities can be similarly low 0.0003 to 0.004 nests per hectare.

Population Dynamics

Kestrels are sexually mature in the first breeding season after their birth. Scarcity of suitable nesting cavities probably limits the size of kestrel populations in parts of the United States. Three to four young may fledge per nest per year, but the mortality of juveniles in the first year is high (60 to 90 percent). Adult mortality can below 12 % per year.

Similar species

from general references, the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), a rare resident of woods, mountains, and coasts, preys almost exclusively on birds. Though uncommon, they can be found wintering in most states, but rarely breeding. These large falcons are 38 cm) have been reintroduced in some areas in the United States and have nested in urban environments.

The merlin (Falco columbarius), larger (30 cm) than the kestrel, can be found in a variety of habitats but nests in open woods or wooded prairies. Wintering along coasts and near cities of the Great Plains, it primarily eats birds.

The prairie falcon (Falco mexicanus) also is a larger bird 39 to 50 cm than the kestrel and inhabits dry, open country and prairies. A year-round resident of the western United States, prairie falcons prey chiefly on birds and small mammals.

American Kestrels Call

American Kestrel (falcons) are quite vocal and have a limited set of calls. However, the familiar one is a repeated loud, thrilled series of 3-6 klee or killy lasting just over a second. The Kestrels call is distinctive and an excellent way to find these birds. Moreover, they do not need to drink free-standing water, as they need from the moisture of their prey.

Kestrel Take-Off and Landing

During take-off, the forward speed of the bird being low, the primary requirement of lift to overcome gravity is essentially provided by a fast flapping rate which is higher than in normal forward flight. The amplitude of flapping is also greater.

Similarly, during landing, the speed being low, the bird's wings must generate the required lift to uphold the weight and break the forward motion. Therefore, the wings are spread wide and the flapping motion adjusted. Kestrel also used "reduced span" upstroke in fast flight. The bird is having the habit of pumping their tail feathers up and down when perched, particularly after landing.

Sexes

The male kestrel has a rusty back, blue-gray wings and crown with a rusty cap, and distinguishing black facial stripes, and lightly spotted underparts. However, the female is alike, with a rusty back, wings, and breast streaking, but it does not have the blue-gray markings of the male. Source: CP

Breeding activities and social organization of American Kestrel

Home range and resources of American Kestrel

American Kestrel (falcons) are quite vocal and have a limited set of calls.

The American kestrel is a year-round resident over most of the United

Read More – The Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) / The Himalayan Cutia / The fire-tailed myzornis / Pando – The One Tree Forest

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Tuesday 27 August 2019

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

American Goldfinch Identification

The American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) is a favorite visitor of many backyard birdwatchers. The American Goldfinch is about five inches in length tail tip to bill tip. The American Goldfinch is a bird of edge and brush, preferring naturally open swamp and marsh vegetation, man-made clearing, road edges, orchards, and pasture forest, fringes and open uplands with their scattered shrubs and saplings.

The American Goldfinch is a common migrant resident in various states of United States, however variable in numbers from season to season. The American goldfinch is the state bird of “Iowa” and “New Jersey”, where it is known as "Eastern Goldfinch", and in Washington, it is called the "Willow Goldfinch". The bird is often victim to brood parasites, mainly brown-headed cowbirds. The lifespan of the American Goldfinch is around three to six years in the wild. So far, the oldest known American goldfinch was 10 years and 5 months old.

American Goldfinch Male and Female

The male bird has bright yellow body feathers with black wing and tail feathers are having black forehead patch. Also, a white rump patch and two white wings bars are also present. Hence, the female American Goldfinch has olive yellow body feathers with black wing feathers and two white wings bars. This is a diurnal bird, meaning it's most agile during the day.

American Goldfinch Habitats

It breeds in blue oak savannahs, digger pine-oak wood-lands, and particularly in low elevation riparian groves. In late summer and fall, some upslope movement, especially in chaparral type and along riparian corridors. The most amazing part of American goldfinch is displaying sexual dimorphism in its coloration.

The male bird is a vibrant yellow in the summer and an olive color during the winter. Thus, the female bird is a dull yellow-brown shade which brightens only slightly during the summer. The American Goldfinch is one of the most common and widespread birds, but it can seem to disappear during the winter.

During the fall, the bright yellow males molt into the same muted brown as the females and juveniles. While these “brown-finches” will remain all winter, casual observers don’t notice them, searching instead for the summer-attired male. As goldfinches are gregarious during all parts of the year, even feeding together during the breeding season, it’s easiest to find the flock.

The American Goldfinch truly deserves its name. It can be found in all the 48 contiguous states during some portion of the year. The population retreats from the southern third of Canada and expands into the southern U.S. and Mexico during the winter. The bird is also well-known for its susceptibility to mycoplasmal conjunctivitis, that has infected and killed many House Finches.

American Goldfinch Song

Normally male bird sings a long and different series of twitters and musical warbles lasted for several seconds long. The phrases and notes inconstant and repeated in a seemingly random order. The finch perpetually to learn song patterns throughout life.

American Goldfinch Sound

The bird most common call is its contact call, repeatedly given tsee-tsi-tsi-tsit in flight. It sounds just like saying po-ta-to-chip with a very even cadence, but sometimes give severe threat calls when in feeding flocks or at the nest. The male bird makes a tee-yee courtship call upon landing near a female followed by a burst of song.

Females brooding nestlings make a rapid sequence of high notes when they hear their mate approaching with food. Further, at nest both make a loud defense call, two-parted bay-bee when they feel threatened. The most common predators are snakes, squirrels, weasels, cats, hawks, and blue jays, normally destroy eggs or kill young, also pose a threat to both young and adults.

American Goldfinch Courtship Behavior.

In contrast to most songbirds the American Goldfinch may delay establishing territory up to two months following pair formation in May and June. Two distinctive courtship behavior of the American Goldfinch are the extended, canarylike warbling given by the male from prominent perches and the prolonged pursuit of a single female by several males.

American Goldfinch Breeding

Breeding Biology of American Goldfinch is unusual. Unlike more than 95% of other terrestrial birds, the goldfinch feeds its nestlings only seeds. Brown-headed Cowbird chicks, which thrive in the nests of insect-eating warblers, rarely survive past three days and never fledge from goldfinch nests. The goldfinch is also one of the latest nesting songbirds. The female bird chooses to mate with males that exhibit the brightest colors, and therefore, may obtain the most skilled foragers in doing so.

American Goldfinch Nest

The birds may pair up during the winter flock, but most nesting occurs July through September. Nests are placed in open areas with shrubs, fibrous matter from the bark of vines and the stems of milkweed that the female gathers and form into a supporting basket. Such as residential areas and old fields. The basket is cradled in the crotch of 3 to 4 upright slender branches of a tree shrub or herbaceous plant.

Females choose their mates based on the brightness of their plumage, using that as a signal of their overall health. First-time nesters raise a single brood; experienced females leave their first brood with their mate and attempt a second nest with a new male. Moreover, nest height above the ground varies according to the chosen habitats.

Whereas nest building in July may average 13 days, it requires less than half this time by late August. Incubation by the female bird of the 4 to 6 smooth shelled pale bullish, white eggs lasts from 12 to 14 days. During incubation the male is most attentive feeding the begging female a regurgitated supply of while milky seed cereal.

By the 8^th day after hatchling the nestlings are very active calling loudly and standing upright in anticipation of the parents’ arrivals. At this time juvenile begin defecating on the nest edge, where their excreta may cling and harden. Earlier the parents removed the fecal sacs.

American Goldfinch Population

American Goldfinch breeding populations have remained stable nationally and increased. Winter populations are also widespread and apparently stable with goldfinches consistently among the “top five” Winter Feeder Survey birds in both total numbers and percent of feeders visited.

Fewer breeding attempts were confirmed in part due to the late nesting season (many observers had turned in their records before young goldfinches left the nest). Furthermore, less emphasis was placed on “confirming” a species needs European settlement was beneficial for the American Goldfinch, increasing both edge habitat for nesting and “weedy” food sources. In the winter these finches make a group of up 40 or 50 birds, occasionally more. The flock of Goldfinches is called a real “charm”.

What Do American Goldfinch Eat?

The bird eats mainly Thistle or Nyjer seeds of trees, maple sap, alder & birch, forbs, especially of composites; sunflower seeds, bark of young twigs, and, some insects. Generally, feeds in flocks, picking and gleaning food from flower heads and foliage of forbs, shrubs, and trees. A peculiar behavior of goldfinches is that they feed upside-down to obtain seeds from thistles, and sunflowers.

The American Goldfinch is an agile species and may also be one reason this species will readily come to birdfeeders whether they must feed right-side up or upside-down. Though the Goldfinch will eat at both types of feeders, results show that feeding right-side up increases the number of feeding attempts and the amount of seed consumed by gold-finches.

The farm management plan that sets aside land for grassland-nesting species, has also benefitted goldfinches. While forest succession and the move towards “clean” farming both work to decrease appropriate habitat and food availability, this can be easily countered by thoughtful landscaping of urban and suburban yards.

Natural landscapes should be allowed to experience disturbances that produce the desired habitat. The American Goldfinch is a species that fits easily into the human-dominated landscape. The only subspecies of the American Goldfinch known from southern California is the one breeding locally, the Willow Goldfinch.

Backyard birders are not always able to watch the goldfinch because the larger House Finch usually crowds the goldfinch off the perches of conventional feeders. Some backyard birders do not like this competition and would like to have a feeder that can only be used by the goldfinch.

Trees Attract American Goldfinches

The Goldfinches attract with colorful flowers such as asters, Bolivian sunflower, , daisies, cosmos, marigolds, Mexican sunflower, poppies, purple coneflowers and zinnias. The seed heads of above plants are enjoyed by birds throughout their growing seasons. A special blooming favorite is the black oil sunflower.

Read More - The Lesser Goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) / The Himalayan Cutia / The fire-tailed myzornis

Monday 26 August 2019

The lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria)

Lesser Goldfinch Identification

The lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) is a very small songbird of United States. The bird has crown, nape, back and upper tail converts a uniform greenish grey to olive green in color. The bird displayed black primaries and secondaries with two indistinct buff white wing-bars. The tail is black except for two distinctive white crescents on the inner webs of the outer rectrices. These white crescents did not extend to the entire underparts from the base of the bill to the undertail convert a uniform canary yellow tinted with an olive wash on the flanks. The bills and legs are dark pink and iris black.

The Lesser Goldfinch diet consists mainly of buds, weed seeds, coffeeberry, sunflower seeds, elder berry, and developing fruits. The bird apparently requires large amount of water to facilitate the ingestion of seeds. As they are concentrating on the streams and spring. The bird often occurs in flocks at least of six birds and mix with other birds, i.e., American Goldfinches, Lawrence’s, Pine Siskins, House Finches, Lark Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, and Western Bluebirds. This petite species may be smallest true finch in the world. The finch is just 3.5 to 4.7 in length and weigh from 8 to 11.5 g.

The nesting season is in summer, lays 3 to 4 bluish white eggs in a cup shape nest made of fine plant materials. The bird nest often found at cottonwoods and willows along rivers, made of rootlets, lichens, and strips of bark, placed in a bush or at low or middle levels in a tree. It is a quick little bird, continuously hovering and jerking its tail while feeding. The male bird also feeds the female bird when she’s on the nest during incubation.

Geographic Variation

The Lesser Goldfinch is a full year resident from northern South America to the Southwestern United States and most common from the southern Gulf Coast of Texas to California and up the West Coast into Washington. The species also breeds in northern Texas, Utah, Colorado, and Northern Nevada. Lesser Goldfinch breeds all year round, may be less often in Sep/Oct. This is least concern bird on the ICUN list due to its vast range.

Lesser Goldfinch vs American Goldfinch

The American goldfinches can be illustrious by the males having a black rarely green forehead, and latter is red or yellow in the European goldfinch and its relatives. However, the North American males are markedly polymorphic, and 5 subspecies are often named; at least 2 of them seem to represent a less-progressed stage in evolution. The lesser goldfinch on the wing, has the same dipping, bouncy flight of the American Goldfinch. The lesser goldfinch often come to feeders along with other finches such as American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins.

Lesser Goldfinch Song

The Lesser Goldfinch is a small, social songbird, inhabits a wide variety of habitats. The vocalization of lesser goldfinch and American goldfinch are probably among the longest and most varied of passerine birds. The vocalization is usually prominent sounds in goldfinch habitats. Hence, listen closely to their wheezy songs, habitually include snippets from the songs of other birds. The lesser goldfinch call includes a plaintive, kittenlike tee-yee, very complex jumble of musical phrases, often mimicking other species.

Also Read: The Himalayan Cutia / The fire-tailed myzornis

Saturday 17 August 2019

What is Shingle Beach?

When the word “Beach” comes, the first notion comes in mind is sand and water. People do not want to rest upon a thousand uneven stones. But the Shingle Beach is unique as referred to pebble beach or rocky beach. This beach is armoured with beautiful pebbles and medium sized cobbles. One example of Shingle Beach is located at Torrisdale Bay, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Moreover, many beaches found in north America, United Kingdom, Japan, Bahrain, and many other parts of the world.

New Zealand South Island beach is associated with the shingle fans of braided rivers. The unique ecosystems associated with rock and sand allow colonization by several rare and endangered species. Shingle Beaches are normally higher latitudes, as waves easily flow through the coarse, porous surfaces of the beach. Which in result lessening the effect of backwash erosion and cumulative the formation of sediment into a steeply sloping beach.

However, typically, the stone composition may grade from characteristic sizes ranging from 2 to 200 millimeters in diameter. Normally, people like sandy beaches, as it is more comfortable to walk. On the other side, walk on shingle beach becomes tough for many peoples. Therefore, shingle beaches are more popular among rock collectors for the varying the rock types that can be found on such beaches.

The biggest threat to Shingle Beaches is increasing sea level and stronger waves allowing sea water to move further inland. Shingle Beach does not support any plant growth. The lack of Topsoil is not supported to seeds to root on. Only few shrub plant species sea Kale, lichens, sea campion, and sea beet found in shingle beaches. Lichens, support to small animal species, i.e., Ant, bee and moth tend to be most commonly found in the challenging environment. Some shingle beaches are dominated by only one type of rocks have ridges at different points.

The Black Pebble Beach at Yaquina Head in Oregon is made entirely of basalt. The shingle beaches and sand mixed become imperative to global warming and rising sea levels. They are too good for dissipating wave energy up to 90%. Shingle beaches are predominantly vulnerable to long- term damage from marine oil spills since they capture and hold oil for longer than sandy beaches. Source: CP

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Friday 2 August 2019

Cumberland Plateau

The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the U.S. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the dissected plateau lands lying west of the main Appalachian Mountains. The terms stem from historical usage rather than geological difference, so there is no strict dividing line between the two. Two major rivers share the names of the plateaus, with the Allegheny River rising in the Allegheny Plateau and the Cumberland River rising in the Cumberland Plateau in Harlan County, Kentucky.

The Cumberland Plateau is a deeply dissected plateau, with topographic relief commonly of about 400 feet, and frequent sandstone outcroppings and bluffs. At Kentucky's Pottsville Escarpment, which is the transition from the Cumberland Plateau to the Bluegrass in the north and the Pennyrile in the south, there are many spectacular cliffs, gorges, rock houses, natural bridges, and waterfalls. In Tennessee, the Cumberland Plateau's western border is the Highland Rim east of the Nashville Basin, and its eastern edge is marked by Walden Ridge, which continues south into Alabama as Sand Mountain.

Walden Ridge and Sand Mountain are separated from the main portion of the Cumberland Plateau by the Sequatchie Valley, which extends into central Alabama under other names. Moreover, in Kentucky, the height of the plateau's hills increases from northwest to southeast, with the westernmost areas of the plateau having a relief of around 200 feet and an appearance like the knobs region, whereas areas near Black Mountain have a relief exceeding 2,500 feet.

The Cumberland Plateau is a physiographic section of the larger Appalachian Plateau province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division. The Cumberland Plateau is a physiographic province in the Appalachian region that rises about 1000 feet above the surrounding areas in the region. The rough topography that makes up the Cumberland Plateau has caused a development of isolated settlements and the local economies based on subsistence agriculture.

The Cumberland Plateau is adjoining with the Allegheny Plateau on the northern side, the main difference being local naming. The sedimentary rocks that compose both plateaus are of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian geological age, composed of near-shore sediments washed westward from the old Appalachian Mountains. Some rock layers were laid down in shallow coastal waters, some, including bituminous coal seams were laid onshore in swampy environments. These are interlaced with delta formations of cross-bedded sandstones and occasionally conglomerate.

There are numerous discontinuities in the beds, where they were raised high enough to be eroded, then lowered to have more sediments added on top. Near the Cumberland Falls, 400 feet below the top of the formation, going by the age of the bedrock which has moved less than a tenth of an inch for the last 300 million years caused mainly by lateral erosion of the plateau.

The plateau comprises some of the largest stretches of contiguous forest in the eastern U.S. Regionally, forests are intermediate between oak and hickory forest types with pines occurring on dry, upland sites and mesophytic species occurring in protected coves. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is involved with the conservation of the mixed mesophytic forests within the Northern Cumberland Plateau. The conservation organizations active on the Cumberland Plateau include The Nature Conservancy, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Tuesday 30 July 2019

The Threatened Saffron Toucanet

The saffron toucanet (Pteroglossus bailloni) is a South American Toucan belongs to the family Ramphastidae. This bird can find in the Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. It is also called Baillon's toucan, banana toucan, saffron-colored Araçari-banana, and yellow toucanet. Despite its distinctive appearance, the bird has not been well studied and very little known about its natural history. The bird is usually seen in the canopy of humid and second growth forests in small groups, occasionally descending to visit feeding stations.

They are habitually quiet, secretive. It has long-tailed toucan with a length of 35 to 40cm. This is uniquely among toucans, overall saffron yellow. The tail is bit olive or darker, but rump, ocular skin. The patches on the basal half of the greenish horn bill are red with iris is pale yellowish. In Brazil, they mostly occur in lowland and montane regions mostly on slopes and besides streams.

Both, male and female have distinguished appearance. The appearance is so distinctive that traditionally classified in the monotypic genus Baillonius. An adult male bird has golden head and breast, olive mantle with red rump. The male is also modestly sized toucan, with green, blue grey, and yellow grey color. Whereas, a female adult bird is same to male but have dark olive and less gold coloration with short bill.

Saffron Toucanet found in the Atlantic Forest of Argentina. It is believed the bird is part of an ancient stock that became isolated in the present Atlantic Forest from marine transgression, which couldn’t adapt and invade the Brazilian Savanna. The bird was found to be endemic and high sensitivity to the fragmentation. It is also observed that Saffron usually nest in abandoned woodpecker holes or other tree cavities.

Saffron Toucanet is a large gape frugivore, hence it has greater ability to carry larger seeds to new locations. This bird normally building nests in October had a cavity depth of 20 to 68cm at a 7 to 24 meters height. They like to build nests on Garapa and Aspidosperma australe. The male bird courtship display is to involve singing and feeding the female and preen to each other.

The female bird normally lay 2 to 3 eggs that are incubated by both parents for at least 16 to 17 days. Both parents feed the chicks, and the young fledge after about 6 weeks. The adults continue to feed them for several weeks after fledging. Saffron Toucanet prefers to eat fruit (palmito fruit), figs, and palm fruits, small animals (including smaller birds and their nestlings). The bird is higher risk of extinction due to habitat loss, degradation, hunting and being captured.

Sadly, Toucanet is presently on the threshold of extinction by Birdlife International. Moreover, they are famous bird for illegal bird trade and in danger from hunted by humans. It is imperative to focus on increasing the bird populations as 46 species are under threat of global extinction. Saffron Toucanet beauty is habitually its undoing, as it is captured illegally for the cage-bird trade.

Sunday 7 July 2019

The Blue Hole of Dwerja, Gozo

The Dwejra Gozo Blue Hole is another most popular diving site in Maltese archipelago, in the Mediterranean Sea. This site overlooks the beautiful Azure Window and starts in a fantastic 10m wide inland sea pool which leads into a large crevice and through to the open sea.

One can see a natural rock arch with crystal clear blue waters that is your doorway leading to the open sea. Gozo Blue Hole is a 15 meters deep and 10 meters wide underwater hole connected by a tunnel to the open sea.

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Bromeliad – The Most Exotic Houseplant

Bromeliad fascinating plants are among the most exotic houseplants a gardener can grow and also among the easiest. Not a genus in themselves, but a large group of genera they include Aechmea, Billbergia, Cryptanthus, Dyckia, Guzmania, Neoregelia, Nidularium, Tillandsia and a number of others. Bromeliads come from the jungles of South America.

Some are terrestrial, but many are air plants (epiphytes) living high up in the trees without any soil and taking nourishment only from whatever organic matter washes their way. They are not parasitic and do not draw nourishment from the trees themselves. Tree growing bromeliads catch rainwater in cuplike urns of leaves.

Bromeliads are grown mainly for their spectacular flowers, but the leaves are often particularly handsome too. A typical bromeliad has a rosette of leaves, sometimes soft and green, sometimes stiff and spiky with variegated markings. A flower stalk usually emerges from the center of the rosette. The showiness of these flowers really lies in the brilliantly colored bracts that surround them, though the tinier flowers are also beautiful.

A plant blooms only once, but the flower is often extraordinarily long lasting, and bromeliad plants readily produce offshoots. You may remove these from the mother plant and report them or cut out the spent mother plant and let the cluster of new ones bloom together.

If you are looking for a bromeliad to start with try Aechmea fasciata. You might find itmarketed under various names such as “urn plant” or “silver vase”, but you will recognize it by its vase of stiff, tooth-edged green leaves, marked horizontally with silver bands. The flower spike has toothed bracts of a bright pink color; little blue-purple flowers nestle among pink spikes.

Best of all, this colorful spectacle lasts about six months. The plant grows 1 to 2 feet tall. Another gorgeous long blooming bromeliad is Guzmania lingulata, which is about the same size, with long green, strap like leaves sometimes striped with purple and a red-orange cluster of bracts enclosing white flowers from late winter or summer. Bromeliads with stiff, variegated leaves like good, bright light and often will take some direct sun but don’t expose them to strong midday sun in summer those with softer, green leaves are fairly shade tolerant.

They do well under artificial lights. They are happiest in warm rooms 65-75 degrees at night even lower from Aechmea fasciata. Give them humid air and a very light, porous organic soil or soilless mix remembers that May bromeliads are air plants and their roots don’t normally grow in soil. Some gardeners grow the ephiphytic types on pieces of tree branch wrapped in moistened sphagnum moss, but a shallow clay pot will do fine.

You can allow the top inch or so of the pot to dry out between watering (over watering can lead to fungus diseases), but always keep the cup inside the leaves filled with water. Feed lightly a balanced liquid fertilizer at half the suggested strength added to the soil and cup once a month in spring and summer is about right. Propagate by dividing offsets with a knife and re potting them.