January 2009

Those Amazing Catalina Birds

We love birds! They sing beautiful songs in the mornings, fill the air with acrobatic flying displays, eat a lot of bugs, and provide food for foxes. Birds also make our spirits soar as they break the chains of gravity and take wing — something we humans can do only with the use of technology.

But there's another side to birds that includes strange and bizarre adaptations and behaviors. Feathers may be specialized for silent flight (as in owls), fuzzy warmth, powerful lift, or faultless waterproofing. The ways birds feed, walk, mate and communicate are fascinating. From the tiny Allen's hummingbird to the magnificent bald eagle, Catalina's birds are a mixture of oddities, specializations and adaptations, making their study interesting and rewarding.

In this gallery we'll explore some adaptations and habits of a few of Catalina's birds and answer some questions such as: Why don't woodpeckers get headaches from all that pounding? "What makes a hummingbird hover? And, "Why do ravens attack eagles?" These questions and more are answered in this month's gallery of Catalina Birds.

Perch Here.

Additional photos by Frank Starkey, Judy Seals and Stephen K. Davis