Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Long-billed Thrasher

Long-billed Thrasher
 The long-billed thrasher is a medium sized passerine that is found in south Texas, eastern Mexico and parts of northern Central America. They are typically found in arid, scrubby habitat. where they forage in the scrub and on the ground for spiders and insects. They will also eat fruit to supplement their diet.
Long-billed Thrasher
 Even though they are called a long-billed thrasher their bill is not very long. There are even other species of thrashers that have longer bills, however the more common brown thrasher overlaps the long-billed thrashers range and the long-billed thrasher does have a longer bill than the brown thrasher. Even though they are a part of the mimid family of birds they are not known for their mimicry. At times though they will leave their scrub hiding places to come out and sing their song, which is long, rich and complex.



Monday, September 15, 2014

Eat or be Eaten

Furrow Orbweaver Captures a Whiteface Dragonfly
While dragonflies are fierce predators of the insect world they are often also prey. Many are eaten by larger predators such as birds, but other predators are not any larger than the dragonfly. This furrow orbweaver spider has captured a whiteface dragonfly that will feed it well for quite a while. Since orbweaver spiders do not have very good vision they use a web to ensnare prey. Other spiders with better vision, such as wolf spiders, do not use webs for hunting.


Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Hoary Redpoll

Hoary Redpoll
 Redpolls are small northern finches that breed in the arctic and tundra regions. They are circumpolar, meaning that they are found in northern portions of North America, Europe and Asia. During the winter they head south down to southern Canada and the northern United States. They are primarily seed eaters.
Common Redpoll
The hoary redpoll is related to the common redpoll. Both species inhabit a similar breeding range, although the hoary redpolls range extends further north. Often during the winter hoary redpolls will mix in to flocks of common redpolls. As you can tell by the pictures above, the hoary is the first pic and the common is the lower, both species look very similar. The hoary usually appear more white than their common cousins.