The Seminoles have a story about the Turkey, who was once the king of the birds and flew high in the air like the eagle. He would swoop down on the council ground and bear away a man. Then people devised a plan to catch him. Four men were to roll four big balls along […]
Category: Galliformes
Bird stories, Congo Peacock (Afropavo congensis)
The Congo peafowl was only discovered in 1936 in the rain forests of the eastern Congo and called Hokoe by the natives. The name is derived from its song, “Hokoe, hokoe, hokoe,” sung around 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. It is believed that this bird tells people to wake up or to return home from […]
Bird stories, Common Piping-guan (Pipile pipile)
The common piping-guan (yura pahua) is said to lead its chicks through patches of the herb known as pahua yuyu in the early morning. In this way, the chicks will bathe in the dew accumulated on the leaves of this Ventura notes that when the piping-guans plant; this, it is believed, will make them grow […]
Bird stories, the Plain and Black Chachalaca
In Mopan Maya folklore the call of the Black Chachalaca (Penelopina nigra) is said to indicate it will rain soon. In the Mayan writings, there frequently occur representations of a bird that was evidently used for sacrificial purposes. It is shown with erectile head feathers and a ring of circular marks about the eye,it probably […]
Bird stories, Black Guineafowl (Agelastes niger)
By the Mbuti tribe of the DR Congo, the Black Guineafowl is considered to have such power to cause an illness. Several animals are thought to be sources of evil. The type of disease and its graveness vary, depending on the animals eaten. The most powerful and dangerous ones are avoided for most of the […]
Bird stories, Black Curassow (Crax alector)
In the very beginning of things a trumpeter and a curassow decided upon a matrimonial alliance, but domestic troubles soon broke out, and there was no possibility of a reconciliation; it was thereupon decided to lay the case before the gods who live on the summit of Mount Duida. The wise gods ordered them to […]
Himalayan Quail (Ophrysia superciliosa)
[order] GALLIFORMES | [family] Phasianidae | [latin] Ophrysia superciliosa | [authority] Gray, 1846 | [UK] Himalayan Quail | [FR] | [DE] | [ES] | [NL] Himalaya Kwartel | [copyright picture] Birdlife Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Region Range Genus A single species from north-western India; possibly extinct. Physical charateristics Rather nondescript quail with red bill and […]
Territorial behaviour and population dynamics in red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. II. Population models
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 1 abstract 1) Recent experiments on cyclic red grouse populations discovered that aggressiveness, induced by testosterone implants, depressed population density for more than a year after the implants were exhausted. 2) This confirms the observation, also made in previous studies of this territorial species, that aggressiveness can determine population […]
Willow ptarmigan chicks consume moss sporophyte capsules
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 5 abstract Willow Ptarmigan( Lagopus lagopus) chicks consumes sporophyt capsules, a moss, istichiumin clinatuma, at La Perouse Bay, near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.S ix chicks(6 -16 days old) were examined over 3 yr, and crops of all chicks containemd moss capsules.In two chicks, capsules represented a substantial portion of the […]
Evidence of re-nesting after brood loss in Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus
Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) Science Article 9 abstract The Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus is a single-brooded species that can re-lay if a clutch is lost during the nesting period (Cramp & Simmons 1980). However, there is no reported evidence regarding second clutches being attempted after a brood of young chicks is lost. Indeed, there […]