Oriole(Kilyawan)
This bird has a yellow and black body.
Its wings and some of its tail feathers are black.
You can tell easily that it wise an oriole when you hear it sing,
"Kiaw!"Kiaw!"Kiaw!
Showing posts with label Bird Classification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bird Classification. Show all posts
Philippine Eagle
The National Bird of the Philippines
If your looking for information about the Philippine Bird Photography site, please visit www.PhilippineBirds.com.
Formerly known as monkey-eating eagle, a Presidential Decree No. changed the name to Philippine eagle 1732 in 1978 after it was learned that monkeys comprise an insignificant portion of its diet, which consists mainly of flying lemurs, squirrels, snakes, civets, hornbills, rodents, and bats.
In 1995, then President Fidel Ramos declared the Philippine eagle as the country's national bird.
Distribution and habitat
The Philippine Eagle is endemic to the Philippines and can be found on four major islands: eastern Luzon, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao. The largest number of eagles reside on Mindanao, with between 82 and 233 breeding pairs. Only six pairs are found on Samar, two on Leyte, and a few on Luzon. It can be found inNorthern Sierra Madre National Park on Luzon and Mount Apo and Mount Kitanglad National Parks on Mindanao.
This eagle is found in dipterocarp and mid-montane forests, particularly in steep areas. Its elevation ranges from the lowlands to mountains of over 1,800 metres (5,900 ft). It is estimated that only 9,220 square kilometers (2,280,000 acres) of old growth forest remain in the bird's range. However, its total estimated range is about 146,000 square kilometers (56,000 sq mi).
Ecology and behavior
Evolution in the Philippine islands, without other predators, made the eagles the dominant hunter in the Philippine forests. Each breeding pair requires a large home range to successfully raise a chick, and thus the species is extremely vulnerable to deforestation. Earlier it has been estimated that the territory is about 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi), but a study on Mindanao Island found the nearest distance between breeding pairs to be about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) on average, resulting in a circular plot of 133 square kilometres (51 sq mi).
The species' flight is fast and agile, resembling the smaller hawks more than similar large birds of prey.
Juveniles in play behavior have been observed gripping knotholes in trees with their talons and, using its tail and wings for balance, inserting its head into a tree cavity. Additionally, they have been known to attack inanimate objects for practice as well as attempt to hang upside down to work on their balance. As the parents are not nearby when this occurs, it has been suggested that they do not play a role in teaching the juvenile to hunt.
Life expectancy for a wild eagle is estimated to be anywhere from 30 to 60 years. A captive Philippine Eagle lived for 41 years in Rome Zoo, and it was already adult when it arrived at the zoo. However, it is believed that wild birds on average live shorter lives than captive birds.
The Philippine Eagle was known initially as the Philippine Monkey-Eating Eagle because it was believed to feed on monkeys (the only monkey native to the Philippines is the Philippine long-tailed macaque) exclusively; this has proven to be inaccurate. The primary prey varies from island to island depending on species availability, particularly in Luzon and Mindanao. This is due to the islands being in different faunal regions. For example, Philippine flying lemurs, the preferred prey in Mindanao, are absent in Luzon. The primary prey for the eagles seen in Luzon are monkeys, birds, flying foxes, giant cloud-rats Phloeomys pallidus which can weigh twice heavy than flying lemurs 2 to 2.5 kg and reptiles such as large snakes and lizards. The eagles prefer flying lemurs and Asian Palm Civets, but they occasionally eat small mammals, birds (owls and hornbills), reptiles (snakes and monitor lizards), and even other birds of prey. There have been reports of eagles capturing young pigs and small dogs. It is estimated that the flying lemur could make up 90% of the raptor's diet in some locations.
Eagle pairs sometimes hunt troops of monkey cooperatively, with one bird perching nearby to distract the primates allowing the other to swoop in unnoticed for the kill.
Reproduction
The complete breeding cycle of the Philippine Eagle lasts two years. The female matures sexually at five years of age and the male at seven. Like most eagles, the Philippine Eagle is monogamous. Once paired, a couple remains together for the rest of their lives. If one dies, the remaining eagle often searches for a new mate to replace the one lost.
The beginning of courtship is signaled by nest-building and the eagle remaining near its nest. Aerial displays also play a major role in the courtship. These displays include paired soaring over a nesting territory, the male chasing the female in a diagonal dive, and mutual talon presentation, where the male presents his talons to the female's back and she flips over in mid-air to present her own talons. Advertisement displays coupled with loud calling have also been reported. The willingness of an eagle to breed is displayed by the eagle bringing nesting materials to the bird's nest. Copulation follows and occurs repeatedly both on the nest and on nearby perches. The earliest courtship has been reported in July.
Breeding begins between September and February; birds on different islands, most notably Mindanao and Luzon, begin breeding at different ends of this range.The amount of rainfall and population of prey may also affect the breeding season. The nest is normally built on an emergent dipterocarp, or any tall tree with an open crown, in primary or disturbed forest and may be nearly 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) across and about 30 metres (98 ft) above the ground. The eagle's nest resembles a huge platform made of sticks. The eagle frequently reuses the same nesting site for several different chicks. Eight to ten days before the egg is ready to be laid, the female is afflicted with a condition known as egg lethargy. In this experience, the female does not eat, drinks lots of water, and holds its wings droopingly. The female typically lays one egg in the late afternoon or at dusk, although occasionally two have been reported. If an egg fails to hatch or the chick dies early, the parents will likely lay another egg the following year. Copulation may last a few days after the egg is laid to enable another egg to be laid should the first one fail. The egg is incubated for 58 to 68 days after being laid. Both sexes participate in the incubation, but the female does the majority of incubating during the day and all of it at night.
Both sexes help feed the newly hatched eaglet. Additionally, the parents have been observed taking turns shielding the eaglet from the sun and rain until it is seven weeks old. The young eaglet fledges after four or five months. The earliest an eagle has been observed making a kill is 304 days after hatching. Both parents take care of the eaglet for a total of twenty months.
Conservation
.jpg)
In 2010, the IUCN and BirdLife International listed this species as critically endangered. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature believes that between 180 and 500 Philippine Eagles survive in the Philippines. They are threatened primarily by deforestation through logging and expanding agriculture. Old growth forest is being lost at a high rate, and most of the eagle's forest in the lowlands is owned by logging companies. Mining, pollution, exposure to pesticides that affect breeding, and poaching are also major threats. Additionally, they are occasionally caught in traps laid by local people for deer. Though this is no longer a major problem, the eagle's numbers were also reduced by being captured for zoos.
Charles Lindbergh, best known for crossing the Atlantic alone and without stopping in 1927, was fascinated by this eagle. As a representative of the World Wildlife Fund, Lindbergh traveled to the Philippines several times between 1969 and 1972, where he helped persuade the government to protect the eagle. In 1969, the Monkey-eating Eagle Conservation Program was started to help preserve this species. In 1992, the first Philippine Eagles were born in captivity through artificial insemination; however, it was not until 1999 that the first naturally bred eaglet hatched. The first captive-bred bird to be released in the wild, Kabayan, was released in 2004 on Mindanao; however, he was accidentally electrocuted in January 2005. Another eagle, Kagsabua, was released March 6, 2008, but was shot and eaten by a farmer. Killing this critically endangered species is punishable under Philippine law by twelve years in jail and heavy fines.
Its numbers have slowly dwindled over the decades to the current population of 180 to 500 eagles. A series of floods and mud slides, caused by deforestation, further devastated the remaining population. The Philippine Eagle may soon no longer be found in the wild, unless direct intervention is taken. The Philippine Eagle Foundation of Davao City, Mindanao is one organization dedicated to the protection and conservation of the Philippine Eagle and its forest habitat. The Philippine Eagle Foundation has successfully bred Philippine Eagles in captivity for over a decade and conducted the first experimental release of a captive-bred eagle to the wild. The foundation has 32 eagles at its center, of which 18 were bred in captivity. Ongoing research on behavior, ecology and population dynamics is also underway. In recent years protected lands have been established specifically for this species, such as the 700 square kilometers (170,000 acres) Cabuaya Forestand the 37.2 square kilometers (9,200 acres) Taft Forest Wildlife Sanctuary on Samar. However, a large proportion of the population is found on unprotected land.
Relationship with humans
The Philippine Eagle was officially declared the national bird of the Philippines on 4 July 1995 by President Fidel V. Ramos under Proclamation No. 615. This eagle, because of its size and rarity, is also a highly desired bird for birdwatchers.
The Philippine Eagle has also featured on at least twelve stamps from the Philippines, with dates ranging from 1967 to 2007. It was also depicted on the 50 sentimo coins minted from 1981 to 1994.
Historically, about 50 Philippine Eagles have been kept in zoos in Europe (England, Germany, Belgium, Italy and France), United States and Japan. The first was a female that arrived in London Zoo in August 1909 and died there in February 1910. The majority arrived in zoos between 1947 and 1965. The last outside the Philippines died in 1988 in the Antwerp Zoo where it had lived since 1964 (except for a period at the Planckendael Zoo in Belgium). The first captive breeding was only achieved in 1992 at the facility of the Philippine Eagle Foundation in Davao City, Mindanao, the Philippines, which has bred it several times since then.
Maya
The Bird Called Maya
This the first of my ancient articles. I made some update of this post to fix inaccuracies.
I never thought that a bird like maya, with its previous high status as our national bird, would be wrongly identified by many people. Even to the people whom I considered as very educated. Most of these people reside in the city, the place where only a handful of these fine birds would venture. The misidentification of these birds is partly due to the false information by the media that largely funneled to these people where it has a strong presence.
I came to realize this widespread mistake when I happen to wonder about the name of the particular brown bird so abundant in every Philippine urban areas. A friend of mine from negros call this bird guryon. In our place when I was a child, we call it citybirds or lovebirds, because it is very common in the city and we often seen it flying in pairs or in groups. Personally though, I do think it was a wrong name, it is not even in our local dialect. When I asked my girlfriend (now my wife) about the name of these birds in their dialect (My mother tongue is Cebuano from Mindanao while my wife is Hiligaynon from Capiz) she readily answered that the bird’s name is maya. I was surprised! I admit that the brown bird (in the image above) is as small as maya but it is nowhere the same in appearance. The real maya has a black head and somewhat dark red in its body.At that time, after our conversation, I thought that maybe it was just a misidentification of my I have known maya long before I saw this kind of bird and had read some school books with a description of its habitat when I was a child. What I had learned from my parents, grandparents and the old people in our place is that our former national bird is look like the image in the left. Those references coincided very well with the habitat of maya that I have known, the flock of birds I have always seen crowding in the rice fields, often feasting on our precious rice and then quickly fly if someone comes near. They are mostly the reason why the rice fields contains a long colorful ribbon called banderitas, like the one we see in streets during fiesta, designed to sway even in a little breeze, and a human-sized scarecrow made of straws. Rice fields are the favorite place of maya, in sharp contrast with the birds in the city sidewalks, buildings, parks and plazas and others. I am pretty sure that the bird in the first picture is not a maya. Not even its relative.
wife, but in the early week of February 2007 she informed me that one of the Philippine leading newspaper, the Philippine Star, January 21, 2007 issue, in the article intitled “Ohh Baby, Baby It’s A Wild Bird” by Ann Corvera, posted a picture of what seem to be a city bird in our topic, like the one in the first image. The caption as what I had read, roughly states that the bird in the picture, the Eurasian Tree Sparrow in English, is locally called maya. Eventhough the caption never said anything about this bird being our former national bird the term “maya” is enough for the readers to consider it is the former national bird. This mistake is a big disappointed for me as I was expecting to hear or read only truthful information from our leading newspapers. I hope they would spend a little time researching about their topics before posting or publishing anything in their papers.
In my part, I did some digital research. Browsing the net for this interesting birds I stumbled on the images of old stamps of the Philippines and I found this picture (see the picture). On its leftmost side “National Bird (maya)” is printed. Obviously, the bird in the picture is nowhere look like the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). It has a darker head and redder body than the foreign Tree Sparrow. Further search confirmed that many people mistakenly identified the Eurasian Tree Sparrow as the former Philippine national bird called maya. There are even an article in Wikipedia with similar mistakes (this is probably corrected by now). The maya is actually belong to Munia family (Lonchura sp.), probably three species or more of these birds can be seen in most part of the Philippines. The bird in the picture is the Black-headed Munia (Lonchura atricapilla).
Maya
One of the most widely spread misinformation in the Philippines is the identity of our formal national bird. Before the Philippine Eagle was declared as the official national bird of the Philippines in 1995, the title previously belonged to the Philippine maya.
Everyone thinks it's the brown bird...
When I was a child, I was told all of those tiny brown birds were all mayas. Everyone around me thought the same. My friends, family, and teachers, all of them thought the brown birds were mayas. Unfortunately what I was taught was incorrect. These brown animals, the most widely seen bird species in the country, is not actually endemic to the Philippines. It's found all over Europe and Asia and was introduced here. The official name of this bird is the Eurasian Tree Sparrow or Passer montanus.
The real maya stands out -- it's red in color
Thankfully this morning, in my backyard in Bacolod, Philippines, a real maya bird visited my garden. This was the first time I've ever captured a real maya bird on a DSLR. He was looking to build his nest and something in my garden attracted him. Soon there were two of them looking around for building material.
The Philippine maya is otherwise known as the Black-headed Munia also known as Chestnut Munia (Lonchura atricapilla). While it's family is found throughout Asia, the maya bird subspecies particularly belongs to the Philippines. It's called Lonchura atricapilla jagori.
When they are young, the color of their feathers are brown but when they mature, they turn red.
So there you have it, you have now been given truth. Spread it out and help educate the masses! Teach your friends, relatives, and children the correct information. If you are Pinoy, you should at least know your former national bird wasn't an introduced species by foreigners.
Labels: finch, maya bird, philippine bird watching, philippine national bird, philippines birds, sparrow
Maya is the Filipino common name for the Eurasian tree sparrow, Passer montanus. This widely distributed Passeriformes species is just introduced to the country, but has adapted very well to its conditions. It is now arguably the most familiar bird in urban areas in the Philippines. As a result it is confused by most locals with maya pula, or the Black-headed Munia (Lonchura atricapilla), as the former national bird of the Philippines.
Species Profile
The Tree Sparrow's length is 12.5 to 14 cm. Its plumage is basically brown, black and white, with the adult's crown and nape colored chestnut, while the chin and throat are black. On the white cheeks are ear-coverts there is a triangular black patch, while two distinct narrow white bars cross the brown wings. The legs are pale brown and the irides hazel. Both male and female species look practically alike.
The young closely resemble their parents, but just appear to be duller. Also, their face pattern appear to be less distinct. The breast and belly are also browner than in the adult.
The Tree Sparrow's voice sounds more shrill compared to the House Sparrow. Their bird call is a shorter chip, and the song, consisting of modulated chirps, is more musical.
Habitat and Distribution
The bird is naturally a rural species in Europe, its place of origin. However it is a popular urban bird in parts of Asia, particularly in the Philippines, where it is commonly found perched along electric wires. Its nesting habits seem to be unscrupulous, and colonies will settle in tree hollows, disused quarries, and even human structures. Their nests are composed of hay, grass, wool, or other material, then lined with feathers. The bird lays four to six eggs.
The Tree Sparrow has a large global population, with an estimated 52,000,000-96,000,000 individuals in Europe alone. The total size has not yet been quantified. For this reason the IUCN has evaluated the bird's conservation status as of Least Concern.
Habitat and Distribution
The bird is naturally a rural species in Europe, its place of origin. However it is a popular urban bird in parts of Asia, particularly in the Philippines, where it is commonly found perched along electric wires. Its nesting habits seem to be unscrupulous, and colonies will settle in tree hollows, disused quarries, and even human structures. Their nests are composed of hay, grass, wool, or other material, then lined with feathers. The bird lays four to six eggs.The Tree Sparrow has a large global population, with an estimated 52,000,000-96,000,000 individuals in Europe alone. The total size has not yet been quantified. For this reason the IUCN has evaluated the bird's conservation status as of Least Concern.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
