The bushtits or long-tailed tits, Aegithalidae, are a family of small, drab passerine birds with moderately long tails. The family contains 11 species in four genera, all but one of which are found in Eurasia. Bushtits are active birds, moving almost constantly while they forage for insects in shrubs and trees. During non-breeding season, birds live in flocks of up to 50 individuals. Several bushtit species display cooperative breeding behavior, also called helpers at the nest. They are small birds, measuring 9 to 14 cm (3.5–5.5 in) in length, including the relatively long tail, and weighing just 4.5 to 9 […]
The Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Eurasia. It is sometimes called the European eagle-owl and is, in Europe, where it is the only member of its genus besides the snowy owl, occasionally abbreviated to just eagle-owl. It is one of the largest species of owl, and females can grow to a total length of 75 cm (30 in), with a wingspan of 188 cm (6 ft 2 in), males being slightly smaller. This bird has distinctive ear tufts, with upper parts that are mottled with darker blackish coloring and tawny and […]
The Spectacled Laughingthrush is a species of bird in the Leiothrichidae family. It is found in Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal. The silver-eared laughingthrush, formerly included as a subspecies, is now usually regarded as a separate species. The Laughingthrushes is 24 cm long originates from Sumatra and a very common resident of the Malaysian sub-montane forest. A new genus “Rhinocichla” would be started for this bird and the designation of Rhinocichla mitrata or Spectacled Laughingthrush would be used. One point very special about the bird is its continuous and reassuring calls that there are birds around and hidden within the […]
Unlike most owls, Snowy Owls are diurnal, extremely so. They’ll hunt at all hours during the continuous daylight of an Arctic summer. And they may eat more than 1,600 lemmings in a single year. Snowy owls are native to Arctic regions in North America and Eurasia. Younger snowy owls start with darker plumage, which turns lighter as they get older. Males are almost all white, while females have more flecks of gray plumage. The snowy owl was one of the many bird species originally described by Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, where it was […]
The Spotted Wood Owl is a richly colored medium-sized owl with a large rounded head, no ear-tufts and dark eyes. Its range is strangely disjunct; it occurs in many regions surrounding Borneo, but not on that island itself. The facial disc is orange-buff. Eyes are dark brown, bill is greyish to greenish-black, and cere is greenish-black. The head is chocolate-brown with feathers that have golden bases and white spots with black edges that become bar-shaped on the nape. The upperparts are overall rufous chocolate-brown, profusely spotted with black-edged white spots. The mantle, back and uppertail-coverts are paler chocolate-brown, with black-margined white […]
Screech owls or screech-owls are typical owls (Strigidae) belonging to the genus Megascops. Twenty-one living species are known at present, but new ones are frequently recognized and unknown ones are still being discovered on a regular basis, especially in the Andes. For most of the 20th century, this genus was merged with the Old World scops owls in Otus, but nowadays it is again considered separate based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological and DNA sequence data. Screech owls are restricted to the Americas. Some species formerly placed with them are nowadays considered more distinct (see below for details). […]
The Northern Saw-whet Owl may have been named for giving a call that sounds like a saw being sharpened on a whetting stone, but there is no consensus as to which of its several calls gave rise to the name. The northern saw-whet owl makes a repeated tooting whistle sound. Some say they sound like a saw being sharpened on a whetstone. They usually make these sounds to find a mate, so they can be heard more often April through June when they are looking for mates. Despite being more common in spring, they do vocalize year round. Their habitat […]