Ornithology (BIOL 4142)

Spring 2012

Textbook: No textbook required for lecture. For lab, you will need Roger Tory Peterson’s “A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America,” which is available in most bookstores for 15-20$; Amazon has new copies for ca. $13 and used ones for $3 to $7.

• Lecture Schedule

• Lab/Field Trip Schedule

• Radar Ornithology

• photos by Charleston Shirley and Elizabeth Hingle from recent field trip

• Final Exam

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future:

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Old:

• Binoculars

• Breeding Bird Survey bonus exercise

• Christmas Bird Count data bonus exercise

• Bird Literature bonus exercise

• Geological Time Scale ppt

• Enantiornithine Skeleton ppt

• University Lake census Bonus Project (11-12 Feb.)

• eBird Animated Distribution Maps

• air-flow in bird lungs (a) and (b)

• Lammergeyer: the bone-eater

• Continental Drift - animated

• Continental Drift -- make a map

• Faunal Regions/Realms

• Midterm (copy of 2004 version)

• Lab Final

• Lab Final ID tips from former TA Brian O'Shea

* Lab Final – practice quiz from photos #1

practice quiz from photos #2

practice quiz #3 - Charadriidae

practice quiz #4 - Tyrannidae

practice quiz #5 - Scolopacidae

• Bird-banding bonus points

• Field Notes bonus exercise (for Spring Break)

BIRD VIDEOS:

Leks and promiscuous solitary male displays:

• Blue Manakin

• Wire-tailed Manakin

• Superb Bird-of-Paradise

• Blue Bird-of-Paradise

• Greater Sage-Grouse

• Temminck’s Tragopan

• Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise

Great vocalists:

• Superb Lyrebird (Menuridae)

• Palm Cockatoo (using stick as drumstick)

Feeding behavior:

• kingfisher videos (a) and (b) to illustrate dagger-shaped fish-eating bill in action.

• Rynchopidae: feeding behavior

• Sharp-beaked Ground-Finch (Geospiza difficilis) (blood-drinking)

• The killing foot in action: eagle catches fox

• The walks-on-floating-vegetation foot of the Wattled Jacana

• The climbing foot and climbing tail in action: Wedge-billed Woodcreeper

• The cursorial behavior of the Sanderling

World’s great birds:

• Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex; Balaenicipitidae, a monotypic family)

• Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin; Opisthocomiformes, a monotypic order)

• Horned Guan (Oreophasis derbianus; a monotypic genus in the Cracidae)

• Satyr Tragopan (Phasianidae)

• Kakapo (Strigops habroptila; Psittacidae) – a flightless, terrestrial, partly nocturnal parrot of New Zealand. And an example of loss of antipredator instincts in island birds.

Extinct:

• Kauai Oo (Moho braccatus; Hawaii)

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Useful Links

Louisiana Nest Record Card Program

Louisiana Bird Resource Center

LOS (Louisiana Ornithological Society)

BIRDNET (Ornithological Council -- lots of useful info)

OSNA (Ornithological Societies of North America newsletter)

JOBS (job board == summer etc. jobs in bird biology)