Welcome to Gaia! ::

Common name: Common Grackle
Scientific name: Quiscalus quiscula
Image:
Fun facts:
- Females are slightly less glossy than the males, and slightly smaller.
- Song a harsh, unmusical "readle-eak," like a rusty gate. Call a sharp, harsh "chack."
-on Grackle is an opportunistic forager, taking advantage of whatever food sources it can find. It will follow plows for invertebrates and mice, wade into water to catch small fish, and sometimes kill and eat other birds at bird feeders.
-The Common Grackle commonly engages in anting, allowing ants to crawl on its body and secrete formic acid, possibly to rid the body of parasites. In addition to ants, it has been seen using walnut juice, lemons and limes, marigold blossoms, choke cherries, and mothballs in a similar fashion.
- The Common Grackle has benefited from human activities. The clearing of the Eastern forests was to its liking. The expansion of agriculture, along with the use of mechanical crop harvesters, improved overwinter survival by increasing the supply of waste grain. In the West, the Common Grackle has moved into new areas by following the planting of ornamental trees.

Common name: Mallard Duck
Scientific name: Anas platyrhynchos (say THAT five times fast)
Image:
Fun facts:
-Most common duck in north america

-Only the males are colourful, to attract females

-They have waterproof feathers

-Only female ducks quack. Males make a low, rasping 'Kreep' noise.

-Ducks do not eat minnows or mosquito larvae. They eat alge, seeds and roots.

-Mallard ducks, unlike most, do not go underwater

-Most domestic ducks were bred from mallards.

-The female mallard is called a hen; the male is called a drake.

-Mallards are great fliers: they can take off almost vertically

-Hens lay from seven to sixteen eggs at a time.

-While humans can hunt them, the other big predators for these ducks are foxes, coyotes, skunks, mink and raptors.

-Mallards swim with their tail held above the water, so when trouble comes, they can spring directly out of the water and into the air.

Common name: Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Scientific name: Passer montanus
Image:
Fun facts:
- The fluttering courtship movements of sparrows, the Tree Sparrow in particular, inspired the Japanese traditional dance suzume odori, literally "sparrow dance".
- In the Philippines, where it is known as maya, the Tree Sparrow is the most common bird in the cities. Although many urban Filipinos think it was the national bird, the former national bird of the Philippines is actually the Black-headed Munia, another species also known as maya.
- The Tree Sparrow plays a major role in the manga series, Sparrow, as the symbol of life in battle.
- During the summer, the American Tree Sparrow eats nearly 100% animal matter (mostly insects). In the winter it eats none, turning then to eating entirely seeds and other plant foods.
- As in most birds, the American Tree Sparrow is sensitive to changes in day length, which influence the growth of the sex organs. Increasing day length in late winter causes the gonads to grow. This sensitivity to light is independent of vision. Blind tree sparrows in captivity still show normal patterns of gonadal growth when kept in the proper light conditions.
- No one knows just how many American Tree Sparrows exist. But they breed across a vast expanse of northern Canada and Alaska, approximately 100 million hectares (247 million acres). If the area is about 10-20% filled by tree sparrows, and they have 1-ha territories, as is the case near Churchill, Manitoba where they have been well studied, then approximately 10 to 20 million pairs should be breeding.
- A study found that the American Tree Sparrow seems to prefer to look for predators out of its left eye. This preference may be because the right hemisphere of the brain is dominant for processing visual information. Oddly, the Dark-eyed Juncos examined in the same study preferred to look out of their right eyes.

Common name: Mourning Dove
Scientific name: Zenaida macroura
Image:
Fun facts:

Normally, I overlook the simple Mourning Dove. It doesn't, after all, seem like its more delicate, traditional white cousins, nor does it seem like its flashy cousin, the pigeon. However, being on a college campus, I cannot overlook the mourning dove any longer. They simply won't let me. I'm unsure whether or not this is a campus-specific mourning dove issue, but the little grey birds seem to be extreme daredevils, often plunking down in the streets or on the sidewalk and moving away from cars, bikers, or irate pedestrians at the last possible second, mocking the person who just veered into a tree to avoid them with their haunting Coo-OOO-woo-woo-woo. This song is fairly easy for a human to mimic if they try. However, just because the call is distinctive and easy doesn't mean that your roommate won't look at you like you've got lobsters crawling out of your ears if you try it in the room. Their wings also whistle when they take off.

Looking more into the mourning dove, I discovered that the birds and I have something in common; we're both vegetarians. Mourning doves are particular to seeds and nuts, pine nuts being a particular favorite. No word on if they like pistachios as much as I do, but the next time I see one, I may offer. Also, much like myself, the mourning dove likes to travel. They've spread out all over North and Central America, and they're migratory to an extent. They prefer over-land routes, with the birds that live in Canada traveling the farthest.

An endearing quirk of theirs- mates sometimes travel together. They're monogamous, too, and both parents build the nest together and incubate the eggs, of which there are usually two. They've got the longest breeding season of any songbird, so you'd think they'd be excellent parents. After all, they do feed their babies milk. Seriously. Both parents secrete a cottage cheese-like liquid called crop milk from their crop that is high in protein and fat and feed it to young birds. However, if disturbed by predators, the parents will take off, leaving younglings and eggs behind.

The oldest wild documented Mourning dove was 19.3 years old, but normally they only live a year and a half in the wild. They're a game bird, too, but hunting of them seems pretty well-managed. Most Mourning Doves live in urban, suburban, or agricultural areas where humans have made easily accessible habitats for them by mistake. With about 130 million birds around today, it seems that the Mourning Dove gets along just fine with human expansion

Common name: California Condor
Scientific name: G. californianus
Image:
Fun facts: Just listing the ones I found most amusing x3

-From personal experience, I find them to be a major traffic hazard.
Driving home, I see a huge flock of these soaring over one particular area and lets just say I can't help looking up >_>;;;

-often defecates on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces and/or urine to cool itself (don't you wish you can do that? 8D -shot-)
- from the side one can see through the beak (it has like a giant hole there XD)
-Its primary form of defense is regurgitating semi-digested meat
-The Turkey Vulture is awkward on the ground with an ungainly, hopping walk. It requires a great deal of effort to take flight, flapping its wings while pushing off the ground and hopping with its feet
-There are five subspecies of Turkey Vulture
-Because it lacks a syrinx, it can only utter hisses and grunts. It usually hisses when it feels threatened. Grunts are commonly heard from hungry young and from adults in their courtship display.

Source used: Wikipedia and Google