birds

Nature Nugget – New Champion in Avian Migration

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The sooty shearwater is a pelagic seabird that spends its whole life at sea, only coming ashore once a year to breed. It belongs to a group of birds known as tubenoses, named for tubular nostrils on top of their bills used to drain excess salt from their bodies. Sooty shearwaters are dark grayish-brown and are around 16 inches in length with a 43-inch wingspan. They are one of the most abundant birds in the world with an estimated population of 20 million. They are expert gliders, riding the winds inches above the water’s surface in search of food. Their diet consists mainly of fish, squid, and krill which they pick off the surface of the water or occasionally dive under for. There are two populations in the world—an Atlantic population which breeds on islands off southern South America and winters in the north Atlantic, and a Pacific population which breeds in New Zealand and winters in three distinct areas of the north Pacific.

Recently, scientists fitted 33 sooty shearwaters with electronic tags to record data such as position, air temperature, and diving depth while feeding. The 6-gram (about 22-ounce) electronic tags were placed on the shearwaters after they were captured in their breeding burrows in New Zealand. A year later, 20 of the tags were recovered with 19 providing a full record of the distances traveled. The data from these tags showed that the sooty shearwaters travel the Pacific Ocean in a massive figure-of-eight pattern during their migration every year. Their migration paths covered the whole of the Pacific region and took about 200 days to complete. The shearwaters’ journeys took them from their breeding colonies in New Zealand to winter feeding grounds off Japan, Alaska, or California. Some even stopped off on the western coast of South America on the way. During this migration, the sooty shearwaters traveled a maximum distance of up to 40,000 miles and up to 565 miles per day, setting a new record for the longest animal migration known. This record was formerly held by the Arctic Tern, which travels 22,000 miles annually during its migration between the polar ice caps. The data from the tags also showed that the shearwaters dived to an average depth of 46 feet while feeding and could dive as deep as 225 feet.

Someday soon, if we are faithful, we will be long distance travelers also, but on a universal scale. “Many seem to have the idea that this world and the heavenly mansions constitute the universe of God. Not so. The redeemed throng will range from world to world, and much of their time will be employed in searching out the mysteries of redemption.”

“Ellen G. White Comments,” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 990. “All the treasures of the universe will be open to the study of God’s redeemed. Unfettered by mortality, they wing their tireless flights to worlds afar—worlds that thrilled with sorrow at the spectacle of human woe and rang with songs of gladness at the tidings of a ransomed soul. With unutterable delight the children of earth enter into the joy and the wisdom of unfallen beings. They share the treasures of knowledge and understanding gained through ages upon ages in contemplation of God’s handiwork. With undimmed vision they gaze upon the glory of creation—suns and stars and systems, all in their appointed order circling the throne of Deity. Upon all things, from least to greatest, the Creator’s name is written, and in all are the riches of His power displayed.” The Great Controversy, 677, 678.

Nature Nugget – Bowerbirds

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Bowerbirds are native to Australia and New Guinea. Unlike most birds which use just showy plumes and/or melodious songs to attract a mate, bowerbirds construct an elaborate structure on the forest floor called a bower. These structures are not nests for raising young but are bachelor pads designed to attract and seduce one or more females for mating.

Bowers vary from a simple circle of cleared earth with a small pile of twigs in the center to complex and highly decorated structures of sticks and leaves, which into and around the male places a variety of objects he has collected. These objects are usually brightly colored or shiny and may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, insect parts, and even pieces of plastic and glass. The male will spend hours carefully sorting and arranging his collection, with each item having its own specific place. If an object gets moved while the bird is away, it is carefully placed back in its place. No two bowers are the same, with each collection of objects reflecting the personal taste of each bird and its ability to procure rare and unusual items. Male bowerbirds spend nine to ten months of each year working on their bowers.

There are three basic types of bowers: mats, avenues, and maypoles. Mat bowers are among the simplest, consisting of thick pads of plant material ringed with ornaments. Avenue bowers have two close-set parallel walls of sticks that sometimes arch over to create a tunnel. A couple of species even paint the inner walls of their avenue bowers with a stain made from chewed plants, charcoal, and saliva, using a leaf or twig as a paintbrush. Maypole bowers are the most elaborate of all, consisting of twig towers and hut-like structures built around one or more saplings in a carefully groomed courtyard decorated with ornaments. Some create lawns of moss around their creations. The first European naturalists to observe the hut-like bowers believed they were built by human pygmies because of their skillful and aesthetic design.

Researchers have noticed that the drab species of bowerbirds build the more fancy and elaborate bowers, and the brighter colored species build the more plain and simple bowers. Apparently, the drab birds, which can look similar to their females, compensate for their dull appearances by building flashier bowers. The Vogelkop Bowerbird is the plainest of the bowerbirds and is the builder of the largest and most elaborate bower. Its bower is a cone-shaped hut 40 inches high and 60 inches in diameter, with an entrance and a front lawn artistically arranged and decorated with colorful flowers and fruits. In addition, this bird is an amazing songster and mimic. Many species even vary their decoration schemes from year to year, like a fashion trend, to keep up with the changing tastes of the females.

As the male bowerbirds go to much trouble to prepare bowers for their females, so our Saviour is preparing mansions for us in heaven. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.” John 14:1−3. “What a comfort these words should be to us! Think of the work Christ is now doing in heaven—preparing mansions for His children. He wants us to prepare to dwell in these mansions.” That I May Know Him, 363.

David Arbour writes from his home in De Queen, Arkansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

Nature Nugget – The Ivory-billed Woodpecker

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On February 11, 2004, an Ivory-billed Woodpecker was seen in the Big Woods region of eastern Arkansas on the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. Over the next 12 months, it was seen several more times and captured on video. This find is significant, because the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was last officially seen in North America in 1944 in northeast Louisiana.

One of six species of birds officially declared to be extinct in North America north of Mexico, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker shook the scientific community with its reappearance. How many individuals may be surviving in this area is unknown, and to find out, researchers have already started expeditions into this vast area of bottomland hardwoods. The finding of this bird has given hope that other remote woodlands of the south may be harboring other individuals as well.

Up to 21 inches in length and having a wingspan of 30–31 inches, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in North America north of Mexico and the third largest woodpecker in the world. This black and white woodpecker sports a large, ivory-white, chisel-tipped bill and bright yellow eyes. Males have a red crest, while the female’s crest is black and often curved forward.

Native to the southeastern United States and the Mississippi River alluvial plain as far north as St. Louis, Missouri, and with a subspecies (last seen in 1988) occurring on the island of Cuba, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is a bird of remote wilderness areas, preferring virgin forests of hardwoods, cypress swamps, and pine savannahs. Never occurring in high densities, an Ivory-billed Woodpecker pair requires about ten square miles of old-growth forests to survive—more if the habitat is degraded. Their diet consists mainly of beetle larvae, which they find by using their chisel-like bills to remove the bark of recently dead trees, but they also eat seeds, berries, and fruits.

The clearing of old growth forests for timber and agricultural development is the single main cause for the decline of this species. Since the cutting of the last of the old-growth forests during the 1940s, scientists have proclaimed the Ivory-billed Woodpecker extinct, and the scientific community met sightings after 1944 with skepticism. Learned men of the scientific community reasoned that the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers could no longer survive because of the lack of old-growth forests, and numerous sight reports over the past 60 years, even very well described sightings by reliable people, were ridiculed. One sighting even produced photos, which were promptly rejected as a hoax. Because of this, some sightings were probably never reported for fear of losing one’s credibility.

Learned men of science have been saying for years that there is no way the Ivory-billed Woodpecker still survives. Even the current world authority on this species say that if any are surviving, Arkansas has the least potential habitat for it of all the possible states in which it might still occur.

God, through the survival of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker into the twenty-first century, has shown how learned men of science are not infallible. In Noah’s day, learned men of science said there could never be a flood and scoffed at Noah’s warning. “The most difficult and humiliating lesson that man has to learn is his own inefficiency in depending upon human wisdom, and the sure failure of his efforts to read nature correctly.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 257. “God and heaven alone are infallible.” Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 30.

Nature Nugget – Bird Migration

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For survival, birds require food, water, protective cover, and a sheltered place to nest. Unfortunately, many bird habitats are suitable for them for only part of the year. Changing seasons can transform a comfortable, food-rich environment into an unlivable one where temperatures are freezing, food is scarce, and vegetative cover has vanished. In order to survive, birds have to either adapt to these changes or leave for fairer parts.

Most birds, in temperate areas of the world, adapt by taking up migrations to areas with less harsh winters or to areas with tropical climates. Some even migrate to temperate areas on the opposite side of the globe to enjoy their second spring and summer seasons for the year. When spring rolls around again, they return to their original home to nest and to take advantage of the abundance of food and cover that the warm season brings to these areas.

People living in the Northern Hemisphere are used to the birds flying south for the winter every fall and back north again in the spring to nest. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is just the opposite; birds fly north in the fall and south in the spring. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.

One of the more famous examples of bird migration involves the return of the swallows of Capistrano. Every year, around March 19, Cliff Swallows return to nest at the Mission San Juan Capistrano in Capistrano, California. So regular and reliable is their arrival around that date that the people of this town have been holding a festival to honor the return of these birds since the late 1700s. After spending the summer in Capistrano, the swallows leave around October 23 to fly south for their wintering grounds in and around Goya, Argentina. Around February 18, they leave Goya, and 7,500 miles and 30 days later they arrive back at Capistrano.

The longest migration of any bird is undertaken by the Arctic Tern, which flies from its breeding grounds in the Arctic to winter in the Antarctic, a round trip of 20,000 miles. The highest-flying migrating birds ever recorded were Bar-headed Geese at an altitude of 29,000 feet over the Himalayan Mountains.

“The swallow and the crane observe the changes of the seasons. They migrate from one country to another to find a climate suitable to their convenience and happiness, as the Lord designed they should. They are obedient to the laws which govern their life. But the beings formed in the image of God fail to honor him by obeying the laws of nature. By disregarding the laws that govern the human organism, they disqualify themselves for serving God.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 189, 190.

“God’s laws for nature are obeyed by nature. . . . So the birds fulfill God’s purpose as they make their long migrations from land to land, guided through trackless space by the hand of infinite power.

“Can it be that man, made in the image of God, endowed with reason and speech, shall alone be unappreciative of His gifts and disobedient to His laws? . . .

“God desires us to learn from nature the lesson of obedience. ‘Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these, That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought?’ ‘With God is wisdom and might; He hath counsel and understanding.’ Job 12:7–9, 13, A.R.V.” Testimonies, vol. 8, 327, 328.

David Arbour writes from his home in DeQueen, Arkansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

Nature Nugget – Mystery Birds of the Marsh

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The family Rallidae, which occurs worldwide on every continent but Antarctica, consists of 150 species of rails, crakes, and wood-rails, and also includes the moorhens, gallinules, and coots. They are found everywhere except in Polar Regions, completely waterless deserts, and mountains above snowline. They occupy various habitats from forests to wetlands, grasslands to remote, scrub-covered islands, and coral cays. Many live a secretive and skulking existence on the ground in dense vegetation and are difficult to observe. Their bodies are short and often laterally compressed for ease of movement through dense, low vegetation, whence comes the expression “thin as a rail.” In spite of their apparent weak flight, many rails undertake intercontinental migrations and have even colonized remote and widespread oceanic islands.

In North America, there are six species of rails, all of which are secretive and closely tied to marsh and wetland habitats. The largest, the King Rail at a length of up to 19 inches, inhabits freshwater wetlands throughout much of the eastern United States. It is bright rufous overall with a long, slightly drooping bill, which it uses to catch crayfish, small fishes, amphibians, and insects. Incubating birds seldom flush from their nest until an intruder comes within ten feet; then they will often flush toward the intruder and strike him. The rail then gives a distraction display and leads the intruder away from its nest. The Clapper Rail of the coastal marshes is a paler, saltwater version of the King Rail. Its diet, habits, and calls are very similar to those of the King Rail, and many scientists believe they are the same species. Downy young of both the King and Clapper Rails have vestigial claws at the carpal joints of their wings.

The most common rails in North America are the Virginia Rail and Sora. These medium-sized rails are common migrants, breeding in the north and wintering in the south. They prefer freshwater marshes, especially ones with cattails. The Virginia Rail is a small, half-sized version of the King Rail, but with gray cheeks and reddish legs and bill. It feeds on invertebrates and fish, which it catches with its long bill. The Sora has a very short, stubby bill that is bright yellow. It is mostly a seedeater but will also take insects and snails.

The two smallest North American rails are also the most difficult to see. The Yellow Rail, at five inches in length, breeds in wet meadows of southern Canada and the northern United States, where it gives its Morse-code-like ticking calls. It winters in hay meadows and coastal marshes along the Gulf Coasts. It has a short, stubby, yellow bill, like the Sora’s, and a similar diet. Seen in flight, it has a bold, white patch in the secondaries, which no other North American rail has. At 4.5 inches, the Black Rail is the smallest rail in the world. It is quite probably the most secretive and difficult to see bird in all of North America. In spite of its secretiveness, its call, which is given usually at night, can be heard a mile away. It prefers the high portion of salt marshes, wet meadows, and shallow freshwater marshes. It is found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and locally inland and in the west.

“He who studies most deeply into the mysteries of nature will realize most fully his own ignorance and weakness. He will realize that there are depths and heights which he cannot reach, secrets which he cannot penetrate, vast fields of truth lying before him unentered.” Education, 133.

David Arbour writes from his home in DeQueen, Arkansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.