#BirdGlamour continues Duck Glam with the Black-bellied Whistling Duck! These long-legged ducks spend more time walking or perching in trees than any other duck! They're cavity nesters that form lifelong pair bonds with their mates. Females sometimes lay their eggs in other nests, in a behavior called "egg-dumping." #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt #SciComm

#BirdGlamour continues Duck Glam with the Ring-necked Duck! The rusty red "neck ring" is hard to see, but males definitely have a bold-colored blue, white, and black bill! Thousands will land on Minnesota lakes to feed on wild rice in the fall and form large migration flocks in the winter. They breed in freshwater marshes and bogs in the boreal forests in North America! #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #sciart #scicomm

Wait...are you a female Mallard, or the glamorous American Black Duck? These eastern North American ducks don't have a white stripe on their blue-indigo wing patch & have a darker brown body. They have a fossil record going back at least 11,000 years to the Ice Age in Florida and Georgia! As a paleontologist, it is absolutely fascinating that you can use bones to tell apart the American Black Duck from the very similar Mallard!
#BirdGlamour #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt #SciComm

#BirdGlamour is back! Let's start off my Duck Glam obsession with the Green-winged Teal: the smallest dabbling duck in North America! Winter flocks are as large as 50,000! You can see these tiny ducks on shallow ponds & flooded fields. Green-winged Teals don't use the same wintering spots every year: they like to try out different locations, especially the males that didn't find mates last year: they try their luck with a different group of wintering females. #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt

On the 11th Day of Birdmas #BirdGlamour gave to me 11 Piping Plovers! Piping Plover males make a show nest during their mating display! Females chose their mates based on the nest-building skills displayed by the male! Piping Plovers are a Red List species: please don't disturb their sandy beach nesting sites! There are only 8400 Piping Plovers estimated to be left in the whole world, so they need us to make good decisions.
#12DaysOfBirdmas #scicomm #sciart #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica

On the 7th Day of Birdmas #BirdGlamour gave to me 7 Tundra Swans a-swimming! These Arctic nesting swans stay in flocks until they start breeding. Swans have to be tough: there are a lot of egg and nestling predators like foxes, weasels, wolves, bears, and several species of sea birds! #12DaysOfBirdmas #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #Sciart #scicomm

On the 6th Day of Birdmas #BirdGlamour gave to me 6 Snow Geese laying! In Canada, we see Snow Geese as they migrate from their winter territories in the US & Mexico to their Arctic breeding grounds. Migrating and winter flocks have lookouts to watch for predators while the rest of the flock forages and rests. Snow Geese chicks are well-developed when hatched, and are able to maintain their own body temperature just a few days after hatching! #12DaysOfBirdmas #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt

On the 5th Day of Birdmas #BirdGlamour gave to me 5 Golden...Ring-necked Pheasants! A popular gamebird, they were introduced to North America in 1773 and are now found in the Midwest, Plains states, Canada, and Mexico. They're gorgeous pheasants, but they do compete with local game birds, including nest parasitism in grey partridges, prairie chickens, several duck species, rails, grouse, and turkeys.
#12DaysOfBirdmas #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #scicomm #sciart

On the 4th Day of Birdmas #BirdGlamour gave to me 4 Calling Birds...or is it "Colly Birds" as in the 1780 lyrics? "Colly" is an English expression for "coal-black", so here's a Red-winged Blackbird! Red-winged Blackbirds are very territorial and polygynous: males have up to 15 mates! However, only 1/4 to 1/2 of the nestlings in a male's territory are actually fathered by that male! #12DaysofBirdmas #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt #scicomm

The female Wood Duck has a different but serious #BirdGlamour! Her complex patterns of browns and greys give the female a subtle elegance. They start forming their mating pairs in January. They readily use nest boxes and you can attract a pair if you have trees next to a pond or a lake. They nest quite high up: ducklings will jump from 50-foot-high nest cavities and land completely uninjured! #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt #Scicomm

The female Wood Duck has a different but serious #BirdGlamour! Her complex patterns of browns and greys give the female a subtle elegance. They start forming their mating pairs in January. They readily use nest boxes and you can attract a pair if you have trees next to a pond or a lake. They nest quite high up: ducklings will jump from 50-foot-high nest cavities and land completely uninjured! #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt #Scicomm

#BirdGlamour showcases the adorable Bufflehead! These ducks can be seen during the winter along the coasts and in the US, but they breed in the northern US and in Canada almost exclusively in Pileated Woodpecker and Northern Flicker cavities! Old, dead trees are important habitats for many, many birds. Buffleheads have been in North America for a while: the oldest Bufflehead is known from a 2-million-year-old fossil from California!
#BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt

#BirdGlamour showcases the adorable Bufflehead! These ducks can be seen during the winter along the coasts and in the US, but they breed in the northern US and in Canada almost exclusively in Pileated Woodpecker and Northern Flicker cavities! Old, dead trees are important habitats for many, many birds. Buffleheads have been in North America for a while: the oldest Bufflehead is known from a 2-million-year-old fossil from California!
#BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica #SciArt

The #BirdGlamour Goldeneye Glam Series completes with the rich browns and grey-white speckles of the female Barrow's Goldeneye plumage! Goldeneyes are known for laying eggs in other ducks' nests, but they also do ducky daycare! Several clutches group together and are cared for by one female: these daycares are called creches! #SciArt #SciComm #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica

The #BirdGlamour Goldeneye Glam Series completes with the rich browns and grey-white speckles of the female Barrow's Goldeneye plumage! Goldeneyes are known for laying eggs in other ducks' nests, but they also do ducky daycare! Several clutches group together and are cared for by one female: these daycares are called creches! #SciArt #SciComm #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica

The #BirdGlamour Goldeneye Glam Series completes with the rich browns and grey-white speckles of the female Barrow's Goldeneye plumage! Goldeneyes are known for laying eggs in other ducks' nests, but they also do ducky daycare! Several clutches group together and are cared for by one female: these daycares are called creches! #SciArt #SciComm #BirdGlamourOfNorthAmerica