A bird of prey.

The National Bird of the United States of America.

I chose the bald eagle for today’s bird of the day because it is the 2008 election day. We MUST move forward from the past eight years and today will be the start of this new journey. If you live inside the U.S. and are a citizen, please DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE. It is very important.

The Bald Eagle is now off the endangered list, YAY! It is a big bird. It is 28-42 inches in length with a wingspan of 66-96 inches, 5 feet 5 inches to 8 feet wide! WOW! Impressive. It weighs in at about 6 1/2 – 15 1/2 lbs. And the females are bigger than the males. =)

The Bald Eagle is opportunistic and prefers a fish diet. Thus, it lives near bodies of water in order to obtain the fish.

I am relieved to know that is no longer on the endangered list. YIPPEEE!!! And I learned that the young explore for up to four years. They explore the country. How interesting. That is a long time for a bird.

You can listen to the Bald Eagle at All About Birds: Bald Eagle by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_eagle

http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/

http://www.eagles.org/moreabout.html

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Bald_Eagle.html

Eurasian Black Vulture – Aegypius monachus

Originally uploaded by HGHjim

The black vulture is near threatened. Sheesh. Doesn’t it seem like too many birds are near threatened or threatened? It is sad. =( It is also known as the Aegypius monachus, the Eurasian Black Vulture, the Monk Vulture and the Cinereous Vulture.

They are known as Old World Vultures. I’ve now learned that there are two types of vultures: Old World and New World. All vultures are known not to have feathers on their head area in order to not get bloody and messy while eating the dead carcasses of animals they feed upon. Both types of Vultures feed on dead animals. Both hunt. Both have the bald heads and strong beaks.

How are they different besides being not-so-related genetically?

Old World Vultures find their food primarily through sight only. They have keen eyesight. While New World Vultures also possess excellent eyesight capabilities, they find their food primarily through their keen sense of smell which the Old World Vultures cannot do because they lack a perforate nasal septum and have a heavier bill (so you can look through one nostril and see out the other in an Old World Vulture). But the New World Vulture has weak feet and their hind toes are not functional unlike the Old World Vultures who have extremely scary 3-toed claws meant for killing and able to get a strong grasp on its prey. They also do not have a voice box or the bird equivalent (a syrinx), so they are forced to grunt and wheeze for communication.

Furthermore, New World Vultures practice urohydrosis (defecating on their legs to cool them evaporatively), also seen in storks. Um, grossssssssssssssssss! From what I read, the Old World Vultures do not practice urohydrosis.

New World Vultures seem to have evolved much more recently than the Old World Vultures (no, duh! the name gives us that clue…) who evolved at least 30 million years ago.

Interesting information I found out today. I feel like I learned something.

Back to the Eurasian Black Vulture. It is the largest predatory bird in the world. It is 39-44 inches long with a wing span of 99-119 inches that is 8 feet 2 1/2 inches to 9 feet 9 inches folks! THAT IS HUMONGOUS! It weighs in at about 15-30 lbs (not as much as I expected, especially after the cassowary who weighs in at a 150lbs but is also a flightless bird).

The Eurasian Black Vulture lives high up in the mountains or deep in the woods and is not particularly fond of humans but then why should it be?

I am infinitely intrigued about the etymology of words or names, so I found the following information about the etymology of the Eurasian Black Vulture’s scientific name, Aegypius monachus, from Wikipedia interesting:

The genus name Aegypius is a Greek word (αιγυπιος) for ‘vulture’, or a bird not unlike one; Aelian describes the aegypius as “halfway between a vulture (gyps) and an eagle”. Some authorities think this a good description of a lammergeier; others do not. Aegypius is the eponym of the species, whatever it was. The English name ‘Black Vulture’ refers to the plumage colour, while ‘Monk Vulture’, a direct translation of its German name Mönchsgeier, refers to the bald head and ruff of neck feathers like a monk’s cowl. ‘Cinereous Vulture’ (Latin cineraceus, ash-coloured; pale, whitish grey), was a deliberate (though very inappropriate) attempt to rename it with a new name distinct from the American Black Vulture.

This bird is HUGE! It is 4 feet tall and has a wingspan of 6.6 feet! And its a carnivore being a raptor! Scary! The sexes look similar but the male has longer tail and head feathers. This bird is the official national emblem of Sudan.

Coat of Arms -- Sudan

And according to Wikipedia,

Secretary Birds have two distinct feeding strategies that are both executed on land. They can either catch prey by chasing it and striking with the bill, or stamping on prey until it is rendered stunned or unconscious enough to swallow. Studies of this latter strategy have helped construct the possible feeding mechanisms employed by dinosaur-like ‘terror birds’ that once walked the earth five million years ago.

A bird of prey, similar to the families of hawks, eagles and vultures this bird falls into the “raptors” category. But according to Wikipedia this classification is being investigated. These birds like the warm tropical climates (notice a pattern?). They like to snack on apple snails. Anyone know what an apple snail is?

Apple Snail (No, not really!) Photo Source Oddfae.com

Just kidding, this is what an apple snail looks like when it is being eaten by a Snail Kite:

Snail Kite eating an apple snail (Creative Commons)