The A Birds

The “A” Birds
Birds are peaceful little treasures.  Birds fly up to people and say “hello” in their own way.  Birds like the Albatross, Rhinoceros Auklet and The Avocet eat food; have predators, eggs and offspring.  Birds are special in ways people have never thought about before.  Some people like learning about birds because they are interesting.  Birds in flight are a treasure to the wind. Birds on the ground are treasures to but in a different way.  Birds mating are a treasure to their creator.  Let’s learn about these three birds, the Albatross, Rhinoceros Auklet and the Avocet.
Albatross is one of several large, web-footed sea birds that have the ability to stay aloft for long periods of time. This big bird has the longest wingspan of any bird—(up to 12 ft) and is the largest of some two dozen species. The Albatross uses their long wingspans to ride ocean winds and sometime to glide for hours without rest or flapping their wings. They also float on the sea’s surface, though the position makes them vulnerable to predators. Some of the predators the Albatross is vulnerable to are sharks, large fish and fishing. They drink salt water, as do some other birds and feed on squid, cuttlefish, crustacean and fish. The Albatross is also familiar with mariners because they sometimes follow ships in hopes of eating handouts or garbage. They are rarely seen on land and gather only to breed in big colonies on remote islands. While they are breeding they communicate with loud gurgling calls, bill-clattering, brays and yaps. Mating Albatross produce a single egg and take turns caring for it. The young Albatross may fly up to three or ten months depending on their species at which time they leave the land for some ten years until they reach sexual maturity. Some species of Albatross mate for life.
Both male and female Rhinoceros Auklets bear a horn and a vertical white plate on the base of their bills. This bird dives underwater to capture smelt, herring, anchovies, rockfish, crustaceans and squid and uses its wings to swim. During the day the Rhinoceros Auklet stays on the water and catches fish for themselves and their young. They deliver food to their nests by night to keep gull and other species from stealing it. The Rhinoceros Auklet will nest in a large group on forested and non-forested isolated islands where thousands of birds come to raise their chicks. They dig deep burrows underground that can be up to 20 feet long that fork many times. At the end of each burrow is a nest with a shallow cup of moss and twigs. The female Rhinoceros Auklet lays one egg and both parents keep it warm for 5-1/2 to 7-1/2 weeks. When they hatch, they are covered in down and can walk but they stay in the nest. Both adults feed the chick until it flies at 7-8 weeks. The chick then leaves the nest and has its own life. The Rhinoceros Auklet have many predators that have cased population loses. These predators are foxes, mink, raccoons, cats and rats. These animals come in to burrows and eat the eggs, chicks and adult Rhinoceros Auklets. The Rhinoceros Auklet is also vulnerable to oil spills. They head to California during the winter months. You can also find them in low numbers in Washington in the winter.

The Avocet has thin, grey legs and have black and white on the back with white on the belly. The neck and head are brown during the summer and grey in the winter. The long, thin bill is upturned at the end and the adult Avocet is 18 inches tall. The mating ritual of the Avocet is the male bird splashing himself with water until the point of frenzied splashing and approaches the female. Once the Avocets completes the mating process they intertwine their necks and run forward.  The Avocet prefers freshwater marshes and shallow marshy lakes. They breed in salt water or in brakish marshes where they crouch on the ground only to move and crouch again in a different location. The Avocets feeds in shallow water or by wading or swimming snapping up insect prey by sight or sweeping its long bill through the water capturing its prey by touch. Some places you may find them are in interior Washington and British Columbia, east to Minnesota and south to California and Texas. The Avocets move to the west coast, north to California, on the Gulf Coast, Florida and the southern Atlantic coast and the Pacific coasts of Mexico and the United States in the winter. When the Avocets establish their territory they perform customary displays. One of these displays involves two to five Avocet facing each other in a circle and stretching their bills toward each other. The Avocets nest in depressions of sand, on platforms of grass on mudflats, in marshes, on beaches, on prairie ponds or on shallow lakes in the mid-west and on the Pacific coast of North America. If the water rises the breeding pair of Avocets will raise the nest up a foot or more with sticks, weeds, bones and feathers to keep the eggs above water. The female Avocet may lay one to four eggs in a nest of another female, who then keeps the eggs warm until they hatch. While nesting female Avocet sometimes physically attack Northern Harriers and Ravens to protect the eggs.  The eggs are greenish brown with irregular dark spots and they are pointed on one end. The Avocet chicks will leave the nest within 24 hours after hatching. The Avocet chicks are downy and can walk, swim and dive to escape predators.  Avocets sometimes make a series of notes that gradually change pitch making its appearance faster than it actually is.  This is called the Doppler Effect.  When a predator approaches, the Avocets may approach the predator with a teetering gait and outstretched wings, as if on a tightrope. Since 1995 the owners of Selenium-Contaminated sited in northern California has been ordered to provide a safe wetland habitat for the Avocets. Breeding success on the created sites has been much greater than expected but long-term possibilities at these sites are unclear.
Birds are like treasures ready to fly. Birds like to fly up to people and say “hello”. Birds are special in many ways and the human population doesn’t know that.  People capture birds for pets or buy the birds at the pet store.  So people if you have birds set them free and watch them fly on the ocean winds.  Some birds like the Albatross, Rhinoceros Auklet and The Avocet eat food, have predators, have eggs and have offspring and are free.  Birds are beautiful to look at when they fly on the sea breezes.  Birds are easy to look at on the ground.  Birds are beautiful to behold while they are mating.  Please don’t capture birds anymore.  They are born free and should stay free.

bibliography

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/albatross/
http://www.wildspeak.com/animalenergies/albatross.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Albatross?s=t
http://www.alaskasealife.org/New/visitors/index.phppage=Rhinoceros_Auklets.php
http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/rhinoceros_auklet
Robinson, J. A., L. W. Oring, J. P. Skorupa, and R. Boettcher. 1997. American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana). In The Birds of North America, No. (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA., No. 275 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and the American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
http://www.reference.com/browse/American+avocet?o=100074