Bird Word: Dip
1 Comment »21st December, 2006; Category: Bird Word
- Dip: to miss out on seeing a bird common in the area, or to miss seeing a species one particularly wanted to see, especially frustrating if everyone else has seen it and it is rather rare. It can be compared to scoring a duck (0 runs) in cricket when the team has scored over 600 runs.
In many parts of Australia it is extremely hard to dip on the Noisy Miner, shown in the photo below; it seems to be everywhere!
Noisy Miner
Bird Word: Diagnostic
Yellow Rumped Thornbill
Diagnostic: a feature of a bird that helps to distinguish it from other species being observed. It can refer to plumage colour, size, shape, behaviour or call. For example, the call of a Laughing Kookaburra is diagnostic; no other species of kingfisher sounds like it except perhaps the similar Blue-Winged Kookaburra. The colour of a Blackbird distinguishes it from a Grey Shrike Thrush. The size of a pelican sets it apart from a tern or gull. The beak of a thornbill is slender compared with a finch.
Zebra Finch
Bird Word: Crown
- Crown: the top of the head of a bird
This word refers to the top of the head of a bird, so no prizes for guessing that one. With some birds it is called the cap, in others it is called the crown. Similarly, as in the case of the cap, the word crown lends itself to descriptive names for some species.
Australian bird species that have the descriptive word ‘crown’ in their name include:
- Chestnut-Crowned Babbler
- Grey-Crowned Babbler
- Rufous-Crowned Emu-Wren
- Purple-Crowned Fairy-Wren
- Purple-Crowned Fruit-Dove (Superb Fruit-Dove)
- Rose-Crowned Fruit-Dove
- Tawny-Crowned Honeyeater
- Purple-Crowned Lorikeet
Bird Word: Coverts
No Comments »7th December, 2006; Category: Bird Word
- Coverts: the smaller feathers that cover the bases of the tail feathers or wing feathers.
Birds have many different kinds of feathers. These include:
- wing feathers
- wing coverts
- tail feathers
- tail coverts
- ear coverts.
The coverts are smaller feathers covering the base of larger feathers or, in the case of the ear coverts, covering the ears. In the photo of the Zebra Finch below, the orange cheek patch of feathers are the ear coverts covering the ears.
Zebra Finch
Bird Word: Corvids
- Corvids: birds that belong to the crow or raven family of birds
Crows and ravens, members of the corvid family of birds, are a common species in much of the world. In fact, this family of birds is found throughout the world except the polar caps and the very tip of South America. According to the Wikipedia article this family also includes rook, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies and nutcrackers. It claims that there are over 120 different species of corvids in total.
In Australia the members of this family include:
- Australian Raven
- Little Raven
- Little Crow
- Forest Raven
- Torresian Crow
Little Raven
Related Articles:
- Thieving birds – our resident ravens are caught stealing something very unusual.
- Ravens v Choughs – fights between the White Winged Choughs and the Little Ravens in our garden.
- Clever Crows – the may be cunning, they may be annoying, but they really are clever.
- Something to crow about – more about clever crows
- Glossary of bird words – more words about birds explained.