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Mar. 26th, 2007 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elsajeniThis morning I went outside to go to work and there was ornithology all over the place. I got to see about a dozen grackle mating displays, one mockingbird performing a territorial display because the fleeing female grackles ("PLZ STOP TRYING TO MATE WITH ME, I AM NOT INTERESTED" they were saying in grackle language) had wandered into his personal space, and a bluejay not doing jack shit, but still being given a wide berth by all the other birds, presumably because they, like me, have noticed that bluejays are vicious fuckers.
Hmm. Actually, I've just looked up mockingbirds on Wikipedia to see if I could figure out whether that was a male or a female mockingbird I saw this morning, and have discovered that
1) at least as far as Wikipedia is concerned, no, I cannot figure out whether that was a male or a female mockingbird, and
2) that display he (or she) was doing is a common behavior during foraging, and some ornithologists argue that, rather than a territorial display, it's used to startle insects and force them out of hiding.
I still say it was a territorial display. For one thing, the white patches, which are supposedly the part that scares the bugs, are on the underside of the wings, thus presumably effective only in startling insects immediately behind the mockingbird, which seems fairly useless.
In other Wikipedia-bird-related news, I think I've determined that the grackles in question were Great-Tailed Grackles, or Quiscalus mexicanus, unless they weren't. Good grief, don't I have anything more productive to do than squint evaluatively at pictures of grackles?
Hmm. Actually, I've just looked up mockingbirds on Wikipedia to see if I could figure out whether that was a male or a female mockingbird I saw this morning, and have discovered that
1) at least as far as Wikipedia is concerned, no, I cannot figure out whether that was a male or a female mockingbird, and
2) that display he (or she) was doing is a common behavior during foraging, and some ornithologists argue that, rather than a territorial display, it's used to startle insects and force them out of hiding.
I still say it was a territorial display. For one thing, the white patches, which are supposedly the part that scares the bugs, are on the underside of the wings, thus presumably effective only in startling insects immediately behind the mockingbird, which seems fairly useless.
In other Wikipedia-bird-related news, I think I've determined that the grackles in question were Great-Tailed Grackles, or Quiscalus mexicanus, unless they weren't. Good grief, don't I have anything more productive to do than squint evaluatively at pictures of grackles?
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-31 03:12 am (UTC)I'm applying for PhD programs in Mathematics. I had a minor in English, but that was as far as it went. And sure, adding is fine - I wasn't sure because sometimes people don't react so well to random drive-by comments :)