Owls Have A Well-deserved Reputation For Wisdom, But Even Greater Is Their Capacity To Teach. Above,

Owls have a well-deserved reputation for wisdom, but even greater is their capacity to teach. Above, a Little Owl supervises a dog studying for an upcoming German vocabulary test.

In times of plenty, Kingfisher birds can forgo their more active hunting methods in favour of simply waiting on an outcropping near water, beak agape.

Much like the fabled star captains peppered throughout history, the motto of the Kookaburra is 'Never give up, never surrender'.

That air pumped by their air sacs also flows through their hollow bones. 

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Once believed to be a mysteriously not dead plesiosaur, the Loch Ness Monster has finally been unmasked as various sightings of Double-crested Cormorants. The classic photograph of ‘Nessie’ taken at a distance of over a hundred yards turns out to have been in reality a poorly-focussed cormorant mere feet away.

Bare-throated Bellbird - Procnias nudicollis

The Bare-throated bellbird, Procnias nudicollis (Passeriformes - Cotingidae), is a striking white bird known from a wide area of east Brazil, north-east Argentina and east Paraguay. 

This bird is regarded as one of the loudest birds in the world. Its call is a loud and far-reaching series of metallic, two-tone koink and prroink notes emitted from high in the forest canopy. This remarkable call is the result of extreme sexual selection, as is the male’s arresting appearance of all-white plumage with turquoise, black, bristly, bare skin around the eyes, throat and lower neck. 

This species is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, as its global population is estimated to number no more than 10,000 in total, although it probably numbers fewer, and is thought to be in steep decline. This has most likely been caused by habitat loss and trapping for the cage-bird trade.

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Photo credits: [Top: ©Ricardo Gentil | Locality: Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR), Iporanga, São Paulo, Brazil, 2013] - [Bottom: ©Fábio Manfredini | Locality: Parque Estadual Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR), Serra do Paranapicaba, Iporanga, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012]