Birds: Hornbill

Range: Philippines, India, Africa, China, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia Habitat: forests, scrubland, and savanna

I feel pretty

With long eyelashes, dark eyes, and an almost comically large, curved bill, hornbills have many admirers (the eyelashes are modified feathers!). These birds range from the size of a pigeon to large birds with a 6-foot (1.8-meter) wingspan. You can easily pick out a hornbill from other birds by a special body part atop their bill called a casque. Hornbills have a long tail, broad wings, and white and black, brown, or gray feathers. This contrasts with the brightly colored neck, face, bill, and casque in many species. Females and males will often have different colored faces and eyes. Their closest relatives are kingfishers, rollers, and bee-eaters.

Hornbill buffet

Most hornbills are omnivorous and eat a combination of fruit, insects, and other small animals. The birds can use the tip of their bills as fingers to pluck fruit from trees or animals off of the ground. The edges of the bills are notched like a saw for grasping and tearing. The larger hornbill species tend to eat mostly fruit and travel from tree to tree in pairs or larges flocks.
There are two species of hornbill that are unique because they are carnivorous and spend most of their time on the ground: the Abyssinian (or northern) hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus and the southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri . These species patrol their territory on foot in groups of up to a dozen individuals. They will eat mice and other rodents, frogs, and even venomous snakes, which they catch by using their long bills as tongs to keep out of harm's way.

Hornbills at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park get a combination of fruit, yams, domestic cat and dog kibble, mice, crickets, and mealworms, with the carnivorous birds getting more meat items than the other species.

Task for a casque

In most hornbill species, the casque is a hollow or spongy structure made out of keratin. It is believed that this structure acts as a vibrating chamber to make the hornbill's voice louder. The calls made by the bird range from the deep booming sounds they make as they begin foraging to brays, toots, bellows, and cackles. The bill and casque of juvenile birds are underdeveloped, and females often have much smaller casques than males. This may be because males also use their casques to attract mates and display their health and strength to other males. The males of some species even compete by knocking their casques together in mid-flight.

The casque of the helmeted hornbill Rhinoplax vigil from Borneo is different from all other hornbill species: its dense, ivory-like casque makes up about 10 percent of the bird's body weight! Unfortunately, this has made it attractive to native islanders who kill the birds to use the heavy casques for ornamental carvings.

Hide and seek

Talk about a stay-at-home mom: the female hornbill will seal herself up in the hollow of a tree for up to four months while raising her chicks! But first, the hornbill pair will perform a courtship ritual that may include preening, feeding, wing and tail displays, and even beating their bills on the ground. Then the pair will spend several days choosing just the right tree hollow to line with leaves, grass, and feathers. After breeding, the female will use regurgitated food, droppings, and mud brought to her by the male to seal the opening of the tree hollow until only a small slit remains. This creates an almost predator-proof nest!
The female will lay her eggs and sit on them while the male flies back and forth bringing her whole or regurgitated food, which he feeds to her through the slit. The female keeps the nest clean by dropping all waste outside through the small opening. In some species, the female will molt most of her wing and tail feathers at this time, leaving her unable to fly for several weeks. In other species, the female will break out of the hollow when the chicks are half grown; the chicks will reseal themselves in the nest and are fed by both parents until they are ready to fledge.
Ground hornbills Bucorvus sp. are the exception to this style of chick rearing. They do not seal the entrance to their nest and both male and female take turns incubating the eggs and tending to the chicks.

Friends of a feather

Hornbills have developed some interesting relationships with other animals. Eastern yellow-billed hornbills Tockus flavirostris work with dwarf mongooses to gather food! The mongooses will wait for the hornbills to arrive before setting out; if the hornbills arrive before the mongooses are up and about, the birds call down the burrow to them. The hornbills benefit by eating all the insects stirred up by the foraging mongooses, and the mongooses gain extra eyes and ears to look out for danger.
The smallest hornbill, the red-billed dwarf hornbill Tockus camurus follows squirrels and swarms of driver ants to snatch up the insects that are disturbed. Even elephants in Africa and bears in Asia play a part in a hornbill's life by knocking down tree branches and creating perfect hollows for nesting sites.

Help the hornbills

Despite their quirky and comical nature, hornbills are in trouble. Habitat destruction and hunting are the biggest threats to hornbills, and it is believed that there are only 120 pairs of Visayan wrinkled hornbills Aceros waldeni and fewer than 20 pairs of the Sulu hornbills Anthracoceros montari. The Sulu hornbill's tiny population is limited to one island in the Philippines (Tawitawi), and military activity makes conservation difficult. Other threats for hornbills include introduced species such as feral goats, which are preventing forest regeneration by eating new growth.
Some hornbill species are in danger of becoming target practice for hunters or being captured for the exotic pet trade. Many hornbills are killed for their casques, which are used for carvings and traditional medicines. In Sarawak, Malaysia, local people were hunting hornbills for the feathers, which are used for headdresses and ceremonies. Then the Wildlife Conservation Society came up with a plan: they asked ceremonial leaders and dancers if they'd be willing to use donated feathers so they wouldn't have to kill so many native hornbills. The leaders said yes! Now, zoos with hornbill collections, including the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, collect their hornbills' shed feathers for regular shipments to Sarawak.
The Zoo and Wild Animal Park have the most comprehensive collection of hornbills in the United States at nearly 30 species. We have hatched more than 520 hornbill chicks, which is among the highest number of hornbill hatchings in the world.
Hornbills are symbols of luck, purity, and fidelity in many cultures, and this may help the hornbill's human neighbors join in the fight to conserve these fabulous birds.


http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-hornbill.html

Reptiles: Alligator & Crocodile

Alligator and Caiman Range: alligators are found in the southern United States and eastern China; caimans are found in Central America and South America Habitat: grassy swamps and slow-moving rivers Crocodile Range: North, Central, and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia Habitat: grassy swamps and slow-moving rivers Gharial Range: India Habitat: rivers with deep pools and sand or mud banks

Is it an alligator or a crocodile?

All the species of alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharial together are known as “crocodilians.” That is sometimes shortened to “crocs” and still refers to all the species as a group.
But many people want to know what the difference is between an alligator and a crocodile. If you really want to know for sure, you need to know the particular characteristics of each species. But don't worry—there are a few general ways to tell the two apart:
Shape of the jaw— Alligators tend to have wide, U-shaped, rounded snouts, while crocodiles tend to have longer, more pointed, V-shaped snouts.
Teeth— The fourth tooth on the lower jaw sticks up over the upper lip on crocodiles, so you can see it when their mouths are closed. In alligators, this fourth tooth is covered up.
Habitat— Crocodiles also have special glands in their tongues that can get rid of excess salt, so they tend to live in saltwater habitats. Alligators have these glands, too, but they don't work as well as the crocodiles', so alligators prefer to live in freshwater habitats.
With 23 species of crocodilians, though, these general rules don't always apply—there are exceptions!

Coming to their senses

Crocodilians are efficient hunters, and their senses are more powerful than those of most other reptiles. You may not be able to see a croc's ears, but they have excellent hearing. They have slits on their heads that lead to a well-developed inner ear, and the slits close up when they dive to keep water out.
Crocs can even hear their young calling from inside their eggshells! They also have keen eyesight above water, similar to an owl's. Their eyes are placed on top of their heads so they can see well as they cruise the water looking for prey. They can probably see some color, and they have good vision at night because their vertical pupils can open wider than our round ones to let in more light. Crocs have taste buds to taste their food, and special organs in their snouts give them a great sense of smell.

Dinnertime

Crocs are carnivores and eat whatever they can catch in the water or along the banks. That includes fish, turtles, frogs, birds, pigs, deer, buffalo, and monkeys, depending on the size of the croc. Gharials and false gharials are specialists, though—with their slender snouts, all they can catch are fish. Crocs don't chew their food. They either tear off large pieces and swallow them or swallow the prey whole if it's small enough. That means that the croc has to juggle the food around until it's in the right position, then toss its head back so the food falls down its throat. Some croc species can eat up to half their body weight in one meal. At the San Diego Zoo, the gharials get trout and giant goldfish.

Mama crocs

For such ancient, ferocious-looking animals, crocodilian moms take really good care of their hatchlings! Crocs are one of the few reptiles that watch out for and protect their young until they are old enough to be on their own. The cow (female croc) looks for just the right place to build a nest to lay her eggs.
Some species make a mound nest out of soil and vegetable material; others dig a hole in the sandy beach for their nest. The mama croc then settles in nearby to guard the eggs from predators that might try to dig them up and eat them. When the babies are ready to hatch, they make grunting or barking noises from inside the egg, and use a short little tooth on the end of their snouts called an “egg tooth” to start breaking out of the leathery shell. Some croc moms even help by gently biting the egg to open it up more easily.
After the young have hatched, the mom carries them to the water in her mouth (except for gharials, which have mouths that are too narrow), then guards them for most of the first year of their lives. Sometimes the hatchlings get to ride on her back, too. She will threaten or attack any predator that lurks too close, and in some species she will call the hatchlings to swim into her mouth for protection—making it look like she's swallowed them!

Come on in, the water's great!

Crocodilians are most at home in or near the water. They even look like they belong there, appearing like logs floating in a swamp or washed up on shore. Crocs can hold their breath underwater for more than an hour. But don't be fooled by their seeming lack of activity—crocs can swim up to 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per hour), and run on land as fast as 11 miles per hour (17.6 kilometers per hour) for short distances if they need to!

What's their status?

Of the 23 crocodilian species, 12 are in need of conservation help. Many croc species were hunted by people for their skins to make shoes and luggage, and some have suffered from a loss of habitat. But there are conservation success stories, too. The American alligator Alligator mississippiensis was once considered endangered, but through protection plans, management, and captive propagation it has made a remarkable comeback. Efforts by the Crocodile Specialist Group, affiliated with the International Union of Conservation of Nature, are now under way to help other crocs that are still in trouble.


http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-crocodile.html

Mammals: Guenon

Range: sub-Saharan equatorial Africa Habitat: wetlands, bamboo, montane, and rain forests from sea level to mountains

Cheeky fellows

Guenons (GWEN nons) are medium-sized African monkeys with long tails and large cheek pouches. They are some of the most colorful, graceful, and lively monkeys. Unlike other tree-dwelling and leaf-eating monkeys, guenons have more varied diets including fruits, seeds, and young leaves. They use their cheek pouches to store extra food in as they forage. The pouches can hold almost as much as their stomachs!
Guenons also prey on insects, some reptiles, and occasionally small mammals. At the San Diego Zoo the guenons are offered nutritionally complete primate biscuits, assorted fruits (such as apples, grapes, melons), vegetables (green beans, corn, eggplant), and greens (cabbage, lettuce, kale). Enrichment treats can include raisins, popcorn, and peanuts.

Plays well with others

Many guenon species are often found hanging out with other guenon species and other kinds of monkeys such as mangabeys, colobus monkeys, and Allen’s swamp monkeys. This may help all the monkeys improve their diets and be better able to spot predators—safety in numbers! While guenons make a variety of sounds, they also communicate with several gestures and facial expressions: an open mouth showing sharp teeth, closed eyelids, or a movement of the head or tail can get different messages across to other monkeys loud and clear!

The goods on guenons

A few guenon species spend their time on the ground, but most guenons live in large groups, traveling and foraging in the forest canopy. Different guenon species often mix together. They understand each other's alarm calls and know how to react. Danger for guenons can come from chimpanzees, leopards, or eagles. And as logging roads open a way into the forests of equatorial Africa, guenons are one of the primary targets being hunted by humans for the illegal bushmeat trade. A number of species of guenons are critically endangered.
Most guenon species live in large groups of females and at least one resident male, with groups of "outsider" males drifting in and out of the territory. Sometimes males live separately or in small bachelor groups. And some, such as the De Brazza's guenon Cercopithecus neglectus, live in male/female pairs.

Schmidt's spot-nosed guenon: friendly neighbors

Known to scientists as Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti, this guenon is known by several common names: red-tailed monkey, white spot-nosed monkey, and Schmidt's spot-nosed guenon. All together they give a pretty good description of this charming, sociable monkey. They have white noses and long red tails. Their tails help them balance as they move through the trees where they spend most of their time looking for fruits, leaves, and insects. Schmidt's spot-nosed guenons can live in large groups of up to 50 monkeys, but when things get too crowded for the amount of food available, the troop may split into smaller groups.

Wolf's guenons: tufted ears and much to hear!

Wolf's guenons Cercopithecus wolfi are tree dwellers found south of Africa's Congo River. This colorful species of monkey has nothing to do with a wolf: it was named after the last name of the person who first described it for science. They have pale foreheads and a black stripe above their eyes, stretching from tufted ear to tufted ear. This gives them a rather grim appearance, but they are social and make a lot of sounds! Scientists have recorded seven different sounds the Wolf's guenons make, including a grunting call they use to keep in contact while foraging. It appears that this grunting increases when they're foraging for insects: could this be their favorite food? Because they also feed on nectar, Wolf's guenons are pollinators of certain rain forest trees.

L'Hoest's guenon: togetherness...

...is a lifestyle for the L'Hoest's (le WESTS) guenon Cercopithecus lhoesti. These monkeys travel in family groups of several females and youngsters with one male, who is in charge. But if the group is threatened, it's often the females who are the most aggressive! L'Hoest's guenons rarely hang out with other monkey species. That's fine with them, though, because they have each other and will curl up together for security. They are dark gray in color with "bibs" of white fur under their chins. Young L'Hoest's guenons have semiprehensile tails that are strong enough to support their weight when they are small: this is very rare in Old World (Asian and African) monkeys. They lose this ability as they grow up, using their tails only for balance as adults.

Lesser spot-nosed guenons: talking with tails

Furry white beards and a bright white mark on the nose make the lesser spot-nosed guenon Cercopithecus petaurista easy to identify. These energetic and curious monkeys use their expressive tails to "talk" to others and indicate their mood. Spot-nosed guenons also communicate by jerking their heads in different positions, each of which means something specific. That may be why they have those white whiskers and nose spots: the white can be seen shining in the dark rain forests of western Africa where they live.

De Brazza's guenons: colorful loners

De Brazza's guenons are a little bit different than most other guenon species. They are often paired for life, or may live in one-male troops. They have never been seen around other primate species, even other guenons in the wild. Among the largest of the guenons, De Brazza's guenons have a distinctive, beautiful coloration. Their bodies are grayish, with a reddish brown back and black arms, legs, and tail. Their rumps are white and they have a white stripe on their thighs. The rumps of young De Brazza's guenons are yellow, and adult males have a bright blue display during mating season!
De Brazza's guenons have a large "boom" call, made even louder by inflating a vocal sac, which they use as a warning. They also use their lush, white beards for visual displays. Groups of De Brazza's have been known to sit completely still for up to five hours and then creep silently away into the forest.


http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-guenon.html

Mammals: Hippopotamus

Range: West, Central, East, and South Africa Habitat: rivers, lakes, and their surrounding grasslands

What’s in a name?

“Hippopotamus” comes from a Greek word meaning “water or river horse.” But hippos are not related to horses at all—in fact, their closest living relatives may be pigs or whales and dolphins! There are two species of hippopotamus: the river, or common, hippo Hippopotamus amphibius (featured on this fact sheet) and the much smaller pygmy hippo Hexaprotodon liberiensis. The hippo is heaviest land mammal (after the elephant).

Come on in, the water’s fine!

Hippos are definitely adapted for life in the water and are found living in slow-moving rivers and lakes in Africa. With their eyes, ears, and nostrils on the top of the head, hippos can hear, see, and breathe while most of their body is underwater. Hippos also have a set of built-in goggles: a clear membrane covers their eyes for protection while still allowing them to see when underwater. Their nostrils close and they can hold their breath for five minutes or longer when submerged. Yet despite all these adaptations for life in the water, hippos can't swim! They can't even float! Their bodies are far too dense to float, so they move around by pushing off from the bottom of the river or simply walking along the riverbed in a slow-motion gallop, lightly touching the bottom with their toes like aquatic ballet dancers.

Blood sweat

Hippos have unique skin that needs to be kept wet for a good part of the day. Staying out of the water for too long can lead to dehydration, so hippos try to stay in the water during the day. They don’t have true sweat glands; instead, hippos secrete a thick, red substance from their pores known as "blood sweat" because it looks like the animal is sweating blood. But not to worry! The blood sweat creates a layer of mucous that protects hippo skin from sunburn and keeps it moist. It is thought that this mucous may also prevent infections because even large wounds don't get infected despite the filthy water hippos sometimes live in.

A little goes a long way

During daylight hours, the hippo spends almost all its time wallowing in shallow water. In the evenings, after the hot sun has set, hippos come out of the water for a night of grazing—in fact, this goes on for about six hours! Despite their enormous weight, hippos eat an average of only 88 pounds (40 kilograms) of food a night. This amount is about 1 to 1.5 percent of their body weight. By comparison, the largest cattle eat 2.5 percent of their body weight each day. While hippos like to feed on patches of short grasses (called “hippo lawns”) close to water, they must sometimes travel several miles (kilometers) to find food, making long trips on land to new lakes or rivers. Their ears help them hear the sounds of falling fruit and their keen sense of smell helps them sniff out the tasty treats. Hippos are mostly inactive unless eating and this helps them conserve energy. At the San Diego Zoo, the hippos are fed herbivore pellets, alfalfa and Bermuda hay, lettuce, and on special occasions, melons.

Rub-a-dub-dub, baby hippo in a tub

The breeding season for hippos is linked to the dry season so that most births happen during the wettest time of the year. Hippos prefer to breed in the water but can also do so on land. Amazingly, the hippo gestation period is just 8 months—slightly shorter than the human gestation period—yet the hippo calf is about 10 times larger than a human baby! When the female, called a cow, nears the time to give birth, she will leave the herd for one or two weeks to give birth to her young and create a bond with her calf. She is comfortable giving birth in water or on land. If the calf is born underwater, the mother needs to push it to the surface to breathe. Newborn hippos are only able to hold their breath for about 40 seconds at a time. The mother stays in the water with her newborn for several days without eating, and she waits until her baby is strong enough before they dare to go out at night to graze. Mothers will nurse their babies, even underwater, for about eight months.

What’s that I “herd”?

The hippopotamus is a social animal, living in groups of 10 to 30 animals. They have even been seen in much larger groups of up to 200 animals! The herd has several cows and several bulls (males), but there is one dominant bull. He has the right to mate with all cows in his herd, although he will sometimes allow subordinate bulls in and around his territory to mate. The dominant bull reminds other hippos of his territory by flinging his dung as far as possible with his fan-shaped tail! When rival bulls meet, they stand nose to nose with their mouths open as wide as possible, up to 150 degrees. This is called "gaping," a way to size each other up. Usually the smaller bull will then retreat without being pursued by the larger hippo. When two hippos do decide to fight, they slash out with their tusks or swing their enormous heads like sledgehammers while bellowing loudly. They have been known to die as a result of a very aggressive battle.

Cute, but not cuddly

Despite the hippos' cute appearance, they are among the most dangerous and aggressive of all mammals. Their canine teeth and incisors grow continuously, with canines reaching 20 inches (51 centimeters) in length. Bulls especially use their canines for fighting. To ward off enemies, a hippo may yawn, scoop water with its mouth, shake its head, rear up, lunge, roar, grunt, chase, and make a loud wheezing sound, all of which are threat displays. A hippo can kill people if it's provoked or feels threatened. But the impressive tusks and canine teeth are used mainly for defense or fighting with other hippos.

Uncertain future

Although the hippo is not yet endangered, its habitat has been greatly reduced over the last 200 years. Once common to all of Africa, hippos are now abundant only in East Africa. Poachers sometimes hunt hippos for their large, soft ivory tusks, which are easier to carve than elephant tusks. Humans have moved into hippo habitat, using the fresh water where hippos live for farming needs. A new threat to hippos these days is hunters who kill them for their meat, which has become a popular food item.

  http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-hippopotamus.html

Animal Bytes: Harpy Eagle

Range: southern Mexico to northern Argentina Habitat: rain forests

Bold and beautiful

The harpy eagle is legendary, although few people have seen one in the wild. This large bird of prey has a very distinctive look, with feathers atop its head that fan into a bold crest when the bird feels threatened. Some smaller feathers create a facial disk that may focus sound waves to improve the hearing, similar to owls. Like most eagle species, the female harpy is almost twice as large as the male. The harpy eagle's legs can be as thick as a small child's wrist and their curved talons are larger than grizzly bear claws: 5 inches (13 centimeters) long! Harpies may not be the largest bird of prey (that title belongs to the Andean condor), but they are definitely the heaviest and most powerful of birds.

Living the high life

For nesting, harpies favor silk-cotton trees (kapok trees) and usually build nests 90 to 140 feet (27 to 43 meters) above the ground. These eagles like trees with widely spaced branches for a clear flight path to and from the nest. They use large sticks to create the huge frame and line the nest with softer greens, seedpods, and animal fur to make it warm and comfortable. A harpy nest will measure about four feet (1.2 meters) thick and five feet (1.5 meters) across-large enough for a person to lie across! Once built, an eagle pair will reuse and remodel the same nest for many years.

High chickee!

Harpy eagle parents fiercely defend their eggs and young. The mother lays one or two eggs but only the first chick to hatch survives. That first eaglet gets all of the attention, while the other egg dies from lack of incubation. So why does the female lay two eggs? The second egg acts as an insurance policy just in case there is something wrong with the first egg. If the first egg fails to hatch, the second egg has a decent chance of hatching, saving the parents the need to start over with a new egg!
Both parents feed the single eaglet for about 10 months. Harpy eagle chicks are ready to fledge at about six to seven months of age, but they usually hang around the nest for over a year, begging a meal from mother and father. Maybe returning once in 10 days, the parents provide less and less food, forcing Junior to fend for him/herself. Once mature, it is not unusual for chicks to return to nest in their "home tree."

Rain forest take-out

The powerful harpy eagle is fast and agile, flying low over the forest and using its great talons to snatch up monkeys and sloths that can weigh up to 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms)! Harpies also feed on opossums, porcupines, young deer, snakes, and iguanas. Heavier prey is taken to a stump or low branch and partially eaten, since it is too heavy to be carried whole to the nest. Most of their food is found in the rain forest canopy and understory instead of on the forest floor. The larger females tend to take the sloths and monkeys; the smaller, more agile, faster males tend to take more quantities of the smaller food items. This increases the pair's odds of eating on a regular basis. Here at the San Diego Zoo, the harpy eagles are fed thawed rodents and rabbits.

Harpy hunting habits

Harpies are great at saving precious energy. You will never see a harpy eagle soaring over the top of a rain forest. Harpies hunt in and below the rain forest canopy; they perch silently for hours—up to 23 hours!—in a tree, waiting to drop on unsuspecting prey. These eagles have excellent vision and can see something less than 1 inch (2 centimeters) in size from almost 220 yards (200 meters) away. Flying below the canopy, the birds are capable, in a serious chase, of reaching speeds of 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). The eagle dives down onto its prey and snatches it with outstretched feet. Its short, broad wings help the harpy fly almost straight up, too, so it can attack prey from below as well as above. And the harpy eagle can turn its head upside down to get a better look at its potential meal.

Conservation

You would think that the massive harpy eagle is invincible. But think again. Years of hunting, in addition to logging, destruction of nesting sites, and poaching have eliminated this bird species from much of its former range, especially the northern part, and it is now rare in many areas. Harpy parents raise, at most, a single eaglet every two years, so once the number of harpy eagles in a particular area has been reduced, it is hard for the population to recover. The San Diego Zoo is the only zoo in the United States to breed this rare species. Twelve harpy eagles have hatched here since 1992, and two offspring have been released into their native habitat in Panama. We continue to work with The Peregrine Fund to help harpy eagles in the wild.



http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-harpy_eagle.html

bald eagle

Birds: Bald Eagle

Range: Canada, United States, and northwest Mexico Habitat: coastlines, lakes, rivers, swamps, and marshes

Our national symbol

The founders of the United States wanted a bird to symbolize a nation that they hoped would be strong and powerful, a bird that could soar high in the sky to represent freedom. They chose the bald eagle, a bird of prey found only in North America. You can see images of bald eagles on coins, stamps, and much more!

Are bald eagles really bald?

No! Their heads are covered with short white feathers. The term "bald" may be from the Old English word balde that meant white. Bald eagles are sometimes called American eagles, fishing eagles, Washington eagles, and white-headed eagles. They belong to a scientific grouping of eagles known as sea eagles or fish eagles that includes the Stellar’s sea eagle Haliaeetus pelagicus.

Got fish?

Bald eagles live near bodies of water to be close to their favorite food—fish! No need for a fishing pole—bald eagles come equipped with spiny scales and sharp talons on their toes for gripping slippery fish. A hungry eagle will wait on its favorite perch until it spies a fat fish near the surface. It can swoop down on the water and quickly grab a fish with those special feet. Then, holding tight, the eagle flies back to its nest or a convenient perch in a tree to enjoy its meal. A powerful, hooked beak helps the eagle rip into its food. Bald eagles are still numerous in Alaska, and will gather in huge groups around Alaskan rivers when salmon are abundant. When fish are scarce, bald eagles will hunt rabbits, squirrels, other birds, and even young deer. They have also been known to steal food from other birds!

Eagle eye

If someone says you have eagle eyes, take it as a compliment! It means you can see things that others might not notice. Bald eagles can see four to seven times better than humans! They are able to see things sharply from quite far away. This, of course, helps them spot their next meal from high in the sky, or from a lofty perch in a tree or cliff ledge. However, unlike our eyes, an eagle’s eyes can’t move from side to side. So to look around, the eagle has to turn its whole head.

The dating game

It is believed that bald eagles choose a mate for life. To impress each other, a male and female perform a special courtship dance in the sky. They lock on to each other’s talons and tumble and twist in the air. At the last second they let go, just before reaching the ground! To be successful parents, eagles need to find homes where the fishing is good, with large trees for nesting, and little disturbance from humans. Both parents help care for the chicks, called eaglets. The mother does most of the chick-sitting, and the father provides the food for the family.

Home, sweet nest

Most birds make nests of some sort to lay their eggs in, but the bald eagle is a master nest builder. A pair will make a large nest high in a sturdy tree, or sometimes on the ground if no tree is around, and come back to it year after year, adding more twigs, grass, moss, feathers, and branches to the original nest until it becomes huge. Sometimes a nest gets so heavy over the years that its supporting branches break, and the nest comes crashing down! Then the eagle pair has to start all over again. Once the nest is to the eagles’ liking, the female will lay one to three eggs, and both parents take turns keeping the eggs warm day and night until they hatch.

It’s tough to be an eaglet

Eagle mothers lay their eggs several days apart, once a year. The first eaglet to hatch gets an advantage over its younger siblings, since it has had several days to grow! In fact, the biggest eaglet will usually fight for the most food from its parents, and it may even kill its smaller, younger siblings. This is a survival strategy for the eagles—it insures that at least one chick will get a good chance at living to adulthood. Eaglets are a fluffy, light gray color when they hatch. They turn dark brown just before they leave the nest at about 12 weeks old. Their head and neck feathers don’t turn white until they are mature. Life is rough for young eagles, and most don’t survive their first year.

The importance of eagles

Bald eagles are at the top of the food chain, so they have no natural enemies. When their population drops, that means humans have done something to harm the eagles’ wild habitat. In the mid 1900s, farmers began using pesticides to protect their crops from insects. They didn’t realize that eagles would eat fish from bodies of water that had been contaminated by overuse of the poison. Eagles became endangered. Fortunately, the use of pesticides is better regulated now and bald eagles have made a dramatic comeback in some states. However, what happened to them shows how all wildlife is linked together. One way to help eagles and other birds is to recycle paper, so that there will be more trees left for them to nest in.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-bald_eagle.html

condor bird

Birds: California Condor

Range: currently located in the wild only in isolated areas of reintroduction: California and Arizona in the United States, and Baja California, Mexico Habitat: wooded mountains and scrublands

Nature’s cleanup crew

California condors are vultures. Like all vultures, they feed on carrion. Condors prefer large dead animals like deer, cattle, and sheep, but they also eat rodents, rabbits, and even fish. They don’t have a good sense of smell like turkey vultures, so they find their food mostly by their keen eyesight. These large birds gorge themselves on 2 to 3 pounds (1 to 1.36 kilograms) of food at a time, and can then go without food for several days until they find another carcass. Like other scavengers, condors are part of nature’s cleanup crew, and they are an important part of the ecosystem. Without them, things could get pretty messy!
At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the adult condors are fed either rabbits, rats, beef spleens (melts), trout, or a ground meat product called carnivore diet four days a week. They are not given the same items every time. This encourages the birds to try different items. Wild condors don’t eat every day, so the condors at the Park have “fast” days, where they don’t get any food either. This gives them a chance to digest what they’ve already eaten, and is similar to what they would experience in the wild.

Condors are neat!

Some people think of vultures as "dirty,” but actually, California condors are pretty tidy. After eating, they clean their heads and necks by rubbing them on grass, rocks, or branches. Condors also bathe frequently and spend hours smoothing and drying their feathers. They even have a very hardy and effective immune system, so they don’t get sick from any of the bacteria they may come in contact with when feeding on decaying animals.

Bald and beautiful

Adult California condors have distinctive pink, bald heads. They may not be the prettiest birds you’ve ever seen, but those bald heads are perfectly designed to keep rotting food from sticking to them as they eat. The skin on the bare heads of adults can also express some emotions. It turns a deep red-pink during courtship or when the birds are excited or alarmed. The adults also have a throat sack that they can puff out during courtship displays.

A home in the cliffs

Crevices and caves in rocky cliffs make for great condor nest sites, although no nest itself is constructed for the egg. The adult female will lay a single whitish or pale green-blue egg between January and March. The chick hatches almost two months later with bare patches on its head, neck, belly, and underwing. At about eight weeks old the chick will start to wander outside of its nest area. By five or six months the youngster is ready to practice flying.

Impressive in flight

When they fly, California condors are a wonderful sight to behold. That’s when their impressive wings are shown in all their glory and when you can see the triangular patch of white flashing under each wing. The condors catch thermal air currents that rise up as the sun heats the ground, and with those huge wings they can stay aloft for hours, soaring through the skies as they scan the fields below. They can reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour), and they can climb to altitudes of 15,000 feet (4,600 meters).

The magnificent thunderbird

California condors are one of the largest flying birds. At one time there were thousands of them in the wild, ranging across the western United States and into Mexico. Native American tribes have great respect for the condor and see it as a symbol of power. They call it the thunderbird because they believe it brings thunder to the skies with the beating of its huge wings.

Humans and condors

Destruction of habitat, poaching, and lead poisoning almost wiped out the California condor population. In 1982, only 22 birds remained in the wild. The San Diego Zoo was given permission to begin the first captive propagation program for California condors. The program also involved the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, the National Audubon Society, and the Los Angeles Zoo.

Conservation at work

Thanks to the conservation-breeding program, within 20 years the population of California condors grew to almost 200 birds. It took a variety of techniques developed by scientists and bird keepers to do this. Eggs were removed from condor nests, encouraging the females to lay replacement eggs. This is called "double clutching.” The removed eggs were placed in incubators for hatching. To make the hand-raised condors feel like they were being raised by their parents, the newly hatched chicks were fed and cared for using adult look-alike condor puppets. Taped sounds of adult condors were played to the chicks as well. In the wild, both parents incubate the egg and care for the chick, and they may only raise one chick every other year.

Full circle: reintroduction

In the early 1990s, captive-bred condors were reintroduced into the wild in California. As of November 30, 2010, there are 373 California condors, including 197 birds currently living in the wild. However, reintroduction is not the end of the story. Appreciation and protection of the condors' wild habitat is crucial for their ongoing survival. This is not always an easy task. Animals that are legally shot by hunters sometimes get left behind. California condors, who are scavengers by nature, often feed on these carcasses and unintentionally eat the lead fragments from the bullets. These fragments can lead to serious illness or even death for the condor. Another problem for wild condors is the development of new areas for human habitation in traditional condor habitat.
Condors still need the watchful eye and careful protection of conservationists and all of us who want to see them survive into the future. But it is good to know that all the hard work has enabled California condors to stay with us into the 21st century.


http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-condor.html