Archive for the ‘Animal’ Category

Aviceda leuphotes

Posted under: Animal

Aviceda leuphotes or Black Baza, Spread from the Himalayas, South India, South China, Southeast Asia. In the winter migrate to the Great Sunda region.

This bird having small size only 32 cm, easily recognizable, black and white. Long black crest and often lifted up. Most of the feathers black, with white stripe on chest, white mottled wings, and abdomen dark striped ribbon. At the time of flight, short rounded wings patterned stripes of black and gray fur secondary (in contrast to the primary feathers are black tipped pale).
Fluttering like a raven, while sliding the wing looks flat.
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Haliaeetus leucogaster

Posted under: Animal, Eagle

Haliaeetus leucogaster or in English translation White Bellied Sea Eagle is a large-sized eagle with a length of 70-80 cm. WIth white, gray and black colors. In adult age the eagle the white coloring the head, neck and lower body while wings, backs and tails colored gray, black primer coat In individuals who are still children and adolescents pale brown color and will change color around the age of 3 years.

Albatross habitat is usually in areas close to water. While foraging habits are circling in the waters, large lakes, big rivers and swamps. Frequently visited the coastal areas until the area reaches 3000 m height.
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Animal conservation efforts

Posted under: Animal, Eagle, Forest

Making our environment green is about everyone dreams, that’s them main reasons why people gathering with their efforts by collecting money in charity events or with spending their time on animal and plants conservatory. Thus this site is focusing in eagles or hawks, lets talk about it more in this articles.
About 200 years ago, hundreds of thousands of bald eagles filled the skies of North America. They were such a beautiful sight that in 1782 the species was chosen to be the national symbol for the United States. (You can see bald eagles on quarters and on dollar bills.) But starting about 100 years ago, the bald eagle ran into trouble. People were destroying lots of the birds’ habitat (the wild places the eagles need to live in). Also, many farmers and ranchers were killing eagles. (They thought the birds were killing large numbers of their farm animals, but that wasn’t true.) Then, the numbers of eagles went down further due to pollution–especially from DDT, a chemical used to kill insects on crops.
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Atlantic Forest Conservation in Brazil

Posted under: Animal, Forest

The 2010 Latin American National Geographic Buffett Award was given to Vitor Osmar Becker and his wife Clemira Ordonez Souza, of the Instituto Uiracu in Brazil. The couple created the Serra Bonita Reserve Complex, using their savings and retirement benefits to purchase nearly 5,000 acres of threatened Atlantic Forest in Bahia, Brazil.
Becker and Souza then created the non–profit, non–government Instituto Uiracu which continues to expand the reserve and coordinate efforts to study and restore this threatened ecosystem. The name, Istituto Uiracu, is taken from the local word for the harpy eagle (Harpia Harpyja). This once common bird is now functionally extinct within the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Becker and Souza hope that the restoration and protection of the Serra Bonita mountain range might result in the return of the harpy eagle and other native wildlife.
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Sea Eagle

Posted under: Animal, Eagle

The Steller’s Sea Eagle, Haliaeetus Palagicus is the heaviest eagle in the world weighing 11 to 20 pounds. However, other eagles like the Harpy Eagle, Philippine Eagle, and the Martial Eagle surpass it in other measurements. The bird is named after the German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller who lived from 1709 to 1746. Two subspecies have been named. It lives primarily in northeast Asia and preys mainly on fish.

The Steller’s Sea Eagle is the largest bird in the genus Haliaeetus and is one of the largest birds of prey overall. Females weigh on the average 15 to 20 pounds while the males weigh 11 to 13 pounds. An unverified record exists of a female that gorged herself on salmon and weighed 28 pounds.

The Steller’s Sea Eagle breeds on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the coastal area around the Sea of Okhotsk, the lower parts of the Amur river and on northern Sakhalin and Shantar Islands, Russia. It has 14 not the usual 12 retrices. Retrices lie in a single horizontal row on the rear margin of the tail and help the bird brake and steer in flight. The skull and beak are the largest of any eagle and comparable to the largest Old World Vultures, the biggest raptors.

The Steller’s Eagle is classified as vulnerable which means that it is likely to become endangered unless circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction change. It is a threatened species. The main threats to its survival are habitat alteration, industrial pollution, overfishing, and poisoning by lead shot. If present activities continue, the Steller’s Sea Eagle could become extinct in fifty years. The current population is around 5000.

The Steller’s Sea Eagle’s main diet includes salmon, a favorite, trout and cod. It also preys on water dwelling birds such as ducks, geese, swans, cranes and gulls. Mammals, crabs, squid, and carrion also round out its diet. They may even prey on young seals. This particular eagle builds an aries (a platform nest that is used and refurbished for several years), high up in trees or rocks, some 70 feet up.

Courtship usually occurs between February and March with white-green eggs laid around April to May. Usually only one hatchling survives. Incubation occurs between 39-45 days and the chicks hatch with a gray to white down. At ten weeks the down changes to brown feathers and the bird learns to fly. They reach sexual maturity at around four to five years. Full adult plumage appears at eight to ten years. Eggs and hatchlings can be preyed upon by martens (a mammal), and birds, mostly Corvids. Once fully grown the bird has no natural predators.

Steller’s Sea Eagles are known to stay near their prey by lakes, rivers and oceans. They are recognized as preferring to steal their prey from each other. The thought is that it is easier to carry off something that has already been caught rather than fishing for it outright.

The primary goal of this monitoring program is to conserve the population of this rare species in the Sakhalin area. Dr. Masterov, a PhD from Moscow State University was contracted to conduct field studies of this bird to include such information as abundance, age and sex composition and reproduction success. Exxon Neftegas Limited is funding this program as it is building a pipeline and project facility in Russia. They are building around the Sakhalin and Khabarovsk Krai area.

Included with this program is the building of nineteen artificial nests. Eagles are monitored to determine their usage. The primary goal is to move them away from the Sakhalin facilities to new coastal sites for breeding. In 2006, the Steller’s Sea Eagle first used an artificial nest near the Chavyvo well site.
Up until just recently, Steller’s Sea Eagles have been difficult to study. There was once a military outpost in Kamchatka from the Soviet era which prevented any scientific study of this rare bird. The harsh wintery conditions in this area have also prevented study of the bird. The Steller’s Sea Eagle may be seen at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.

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