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Strange Bird Behaviour (General; Miscellaneous)

rynner2

rynner2

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Goose photographed flying upside down

A photographer has taken a picture of a greylag goose, as the bird was flying upside down.

Brian MacFarlane was amazed when he looked at the photo he had captured of the bird in flight.

The incredible display of mid-flight acrobatics is also a remarkable feat of wildlife photography.

Mr MacFarlane was simply photographing geese buffeted by strong winds at Strumpshaw in Norfolk and did not expect to capture a moment of contortionism.

"The wind was making life difficult for the flying birds," said Mr MacFarlane.

"Some were expert at controlling their flight, while others were being tossed around in mid-air.

"On closer inspection of the image I realised it had flipped upside down but kept its head the right way up.

"Quite a feat!"

Paul Stancliffe, of the British Trust for Ornithology, based at Thetford, was able to explain the bird's bizarre behaviour.

"It looks like this bird is in mid-whiffle," he said.

"When geese come in to land from a great height they partake in a bout of whiffling, this involves the bird twisting and turning to spill air from their wings and thus lowering their speed prior to landing.

"In 36 years of birdwatching I have seen this many times, particularly when watching pink-footed geese on the north Norfolk coast coming in to roost in the late afternoon and evening. I have, however, never seen a photograph of a bird in mid-whiffle like this. It is an amazing photograph."
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telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... -down.html
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2009052...33/Goose-photographed-flying-upside-down.html

Here is the photo that accompanied the article ...

greylag-goose_1406534c.jpg
​
 
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I experienced something very similar for two or three years running 20 years ago, during the late Fall, in a smaller public park (Inwood Park) only two or three blocks from my uptown Cincinnati apartment.

HUNDREDS of large black crows wheeled and circled around a seasonally-bare tree, which like the lawn below it was also absolutely carpeted with crows. In that general direction the sky was nearly black with birds (the formation resembled a tornado funnel). This continued for evening after evening and repeated itself the next year and most likely the third.

The entire tableau was both starkly beautiful and overpoweringly eerie. It resembled a discarded scene from either THE WIZARD OF OZ (the back-and-white section) or SOMETHING EVIL THIS WAY COMES which wound up unceremoniously dumped onto the editing room floor.

I've never seen anything even remotely like it since.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
...HUNDREDS of large black crows wheeled and circled around a seasonally-bare tree, which like the lawn below it was also absolutely carpeted with crows. In that general direction the sky was nearly black with birds (the formation resembled a tornado funnel). This continued for evening after evening and repeated itself the next year and most likely the third...
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I've seen this kind of behaviour occasionally and, when the wind's just right, I've often seen uncommonly large gatherings of crows tumbling around in the sky, almost as if they are competing with each other. What purpose it serves, I have no idea - they seem to be just showing off and generally having a good time being a crow. I put the sight on a par with playing dolphins - but crows aren't as photogenic.

However, for a truly awesome display of mass aerobatics take a gander at this and this. I've seen this behaviour several times and it never fails to take my breath away - and I love the fact that the bird responsible for such an awe-inspiring natural display is relatively common (although, unfortunately, becoming less so) and therefore often overlooked.
 
This discussion has just reminded me of an experience I had a couple of years or so ago and which I always meant to mention but never got around to. It's kind of interesting because it relates to three different subjects that have been discussed on this board: apparently odd bird behaviour, out of place animals and (possibly) panic.

Anyway, I was walking to work early one morning, my mind still a bit half-asleep and focussed on nothing much at all, when I got this odd and quite strong sense of unease. There was nothing obvious to explain the feeling; it was a sunny morning I was enjoying the job I was involved in at the time and I was, generally speaking, relatively happy with my lot. All in all there seemed to be nothing to account for the edginess I had started to feel. Then I noticed that the birds were acting very oddly. They were in a kind frenzy - skittering around at pavement level, virtually flying into each other in apparent panic - and the woods which line the uphill side of the road were unusually noisy with alarm calls.

I had once or twice seen a sparrowhawk in the area, but the level of activity seemed over the top even for such an efficient predator - it was almost as if the birds were trying to bury themselves under the ground in order to get away from whatever it was they feared and their panic seemed so all consuming that they didn't appear to even register my presence. In fact, they were flying so close to me that I reckon I could have reached out and plucked them from the air.

Once I'd become conscious of the unusual activity around me I actually stopped walking - initially because I thought I might get a glimpse of the sparrowhawk I mentioned. And then something made crane back and look directly above me and I experienced one of those, to my mind, truly Fortean moments when you register that you're seeing something that really shouldn't be there, before you've even registered what it actually is that really shouldn't be there in the first place.

What I saw circling lazily above me and riding the thermals as if it owned the bloody place was only, I kid you not, a bloody enormous vulture. This is in NW Derbyshire, mind you.

I suspect what it was the Staffordshire escapee, Bones (story here).

Now, obviously a vulture would constitute no particular threat to bird life, but I can't help thinking that all the birds around me that morning saw and reacted to was a huge and unfamiliar raptor circling their general vicinity, and reacted accordingly by going into conniptions.

With regards to panic: given the uneasiness I felt even before I had consciously registered the birds unusual behaviour I can't help wondering if some of the experiences that have been related to us regarding instances of apparently unreasonable panic experienced by people out in the countryside might not be the result of the brain recognising certain natural signs without really knowing it - signs which when we had more of a visceral connection with our natural environment would have indicated something specific to us, but which now, because we have less of the relevant mental vocabulary to interpret the signs, simply get dumped in the part of our brain marked 'run like feck'.

Just a thought.
 
i spent last weekend in madrid and on saturday night (not too late, let's say 11 o'clock) i noticed a "boomerang-shaped" flock of birds flying up above me. what was weird is the fact that the birds were stunningly bright white against the dark-but-not-black sky, as if they emitted light.
 
ginoide said:
i spent last weekend in madrid and on saturday night (not too late, let's say 11 o'clock) i noticed a "boomerang-shaped" flock of birds flying up above me. what was weird is the fact that the birds were stunningly bright white against the dark-but-not-black sky, as if they emitted light.
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Birds normally fly in a V-formation (it conserves energy).

White birds do appear bright against the night sky if city lights illuminate them. What sort of lighting does Madrid have?

In town here, you often see seagulls flying above at night. (Another example of the light pollution that astronomers and others hate - http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11152 )
 
big city, big lights. in fact that's what i think it was, white irds reflecting light from below. but it was eerie anyway.
 
Christmas lights? No, it’s the wagtail tree: Hundreds of roosting birds cover every twig and branch
By Emily Andrews

With most town centres currently festooned with fairy lights, you might not give this tree a second glance.

But take a closer look and you'll realise that it's not been decorated but is in fact alive with little birds.

Hundreds of pied wagtails cover every twig and branch as they gather to roost for the evening.

The long-tailed black and white bird is usually seen on its own, flitting through the sky in search of insects. Its other common trait is to stand on the ground frantically wagging its tail up and down – hence the name.
But when dusk falls, they gather in large numbers.

This flock was spotted by photographer David Tipling among the decorations in Tunbridge Wells.

He said: 'At first I thought they were lights that weren't working. People were walking underneath oblivious.
‘It has been so cold recently that perhaps they find it warmer roosting in the middle of town rather than out in the countryside.
'They did look a little spooky, all of them gathered there together.'

Dr Nigel Collar, from conservation group BirdLife International, said: 'There are two theories as to why so many wagtails roost together. The first is information exchange – they're all sizing each other up to see who's put on weight, lost weight and where the best food is to be found.

'The second is that it helps protect them from nocturnal predators as the larger numbers mean there's always one bird with his eyes open.'

The birds can be found across most of the UK, and leave some of the highland and northern areas of Scotland in winter.
They are a sub-species of the White wagtail, which breeds in much of Europe, Asia and north Africa.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0bGVavZay
 
This flock was spotted by photographer David Tipling among the decorations in Tunbridge Wells. He said: 'At first I thought they were lights that weren't working. People were walking underneath oblivious.
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Maybe because it’s just birds in a tree? That must have been the slowest news day ...
 
On Friday at around 5pm at as i was walking to my boyfriends house from work, i noticed a flock of birds in the sky behaving oddly. There were about 10-15 birds flying in "formation" (i`m using the term loosely due to their odd behaviour) high in the sky. They were heading leftwards and seemed to be in formation in a rough group but were flying amongst themselves in a disorderly fashion, some were flying around in little circles, some were haphazardly flying back and forth, some were flying really slowly. It seemed really strange because the whole time the entire group of birds were still heading leftwards in the sky. The feel of it was they were disorientated or dizzy, like they knew they had to go left but was unsure of how to get back into formation. It reminded me very much of seagulls flying above a seaboat, or vultures around carrion but there would be some formation to those and these birds seemed incredibly disorientated. I couldn`t tell you what birds they were as they were very high up but they were large and dark coloured. I would guess they were migrating but i`m not very good with directions so i couldn`t tell you where North or south was from my perspective. I`m not near the coast (i was In Ealing walking down Northfields avenue) and i don`t think it was because they`d been disturbed by a plane, as i`ve never seen birds do this before here and i do like looking at the sky in that area because i enjoy watching the planes go over. Is it possible the birds had been confused by the recent solar flares or slight pole shifts we`ve experienced recently?

I did film the birds but the zoom on my phone is rubbish and i couldn`t see them at all through the viewfinder. When i get home i`ll transfer the footage to my laptop to see if you can see anything on a pc screen and if i can, i`ll repost.
 
Could be that there was a smallish bird of prey in the mix - maybe a sparrowhawk or something?

Lots of birds will buzz predatory birds to intimidate them whilst flying.

In London it could've even been a peregrine.
 
I've got some strange bird behaviour going on here, don't recall ever (or incredibly rarely) hearing birds on my roof before, suddenly i've got loads of them and I can hear their foot/claw steps when i'm in the attic, suddenly it's happening quite a lot most days.

Had wondered if there was a nest up there or something, but then one of my neighbours says she has a similar thing going on.

One of my cats gets excited when he hears them, and climbs up some shelves, then sits at the top looking at the ceiling :lol:
 
That could be a sudden influx of gulls or pigeons/doves.
 
BlackRiverFalls, I wonder if a neighbour has started to keep pigeons? We had lots of 'bird on the roof' action at one time, but since the pigeon-fancier has moved on all is quiet.
 
rynner2 said:
Goose photographed flying upside down
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Here's another rare photo of a goose whiffling.

Goose flying upside down is simply showing off, say experts

GooseWhiffling-2108.jpeg

A dark gray-brown Bean goose flying upside down was snapped by an amateur photographer near the Dutch town of Arnhem.

The maneuver, called whiffling, is when geese roll their body upside down and twist their neck and head 180 degrees around to its normal position.

This aerial acrobatic resembles a falling leaf and may be used to avoid avian predators or a long, slow descent over an area where hunters for sport or food are present.

The behavior is seen in several species including Lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), the Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), the Northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), Pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus), or the Bean goose (Anser fabalis). ...

FULL STORY: https://wgme.com/news/offbeat/goose-flying-upside-down-is-simply-showing-off-say-experts
 
Actually, I'm not sure if this is particularly 'strange' at all - but it's not something I've ever witnessed before.

We have a lot of owls in my area, and mobbing is a fairly common occurrence - especially at the moment, when there appears to be a surge in the jackdaw and magpie populations.

Generally speaking - at least in my experience - birds like owls and buzzards would rather avoid the crowd than engage with it, and don't fight back. (We have a lot of buzzards, too.)

Last night - alerted by a lot of clacking from one of the neighbourhood magpies, and knowing this meant cat or owl (don't much like the former, love the latter) I went to watch what I suspected would be the latest skirmish in what has been an ongoing dispute over roosting rights in a large conifer in my neighbours garden.

What made this episode noteworthy was, that for the first time ever, I witnessed the tawny owl break cover and actively attempt to attack the magpies (two of them). It was not just the usual case of the smaller bird swooping at the threat in that counting coup style of faux attack associated with mobbing; in this case, the owl was as on the aggressive, and fought back - and I have no doubt that it was after a kill. It was so intent that at one point it misjudged a manoeuvre and flew bodily into a clutter of branches on the goat willow in my garden, actually tumbling a couple of feet before it regained control.

All in all - in the half light of early evening - it was a pretty dramatic display, and I had a ringside seat. Although the magpie survived, I reckon the owl won this match, but I suspect it's yet to be seen how it ends.
 
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