Zoo’s A.A.F. 20

[zoologist03]

Surprised?  Let’s blow the dust of this sucker, shall we?  It’s been awhile….quite awhile, in fact. Got a bit of free time on my hands, so let’s check out another lovely member from Kingdom Animalia.  Our good friend Maso proposed…………

Victoria’s Riflebird (AKA: Duwuduwu-Aboriginal name) Ptiloris victoriae

Hailing from

Comments

[roylevosh]

"Riflebirds have the unusual habit of draping cast-off snake skins on the rims of nests. It is not known if the snake skins are for purely decorative purposes or whether they are also useful for scaring off potential nest robbers."

Interesting that. I would guess that it would be VERY useful for scaring off poential nest robbers. Sounds like a pretty cool evolutionary adaptation to me.

[zoologist03]

Yeah, I'm just wondering how they picked up on it. Unless they like it because it's pretty or something. :P

Birds do have weird item fetishes. Crows like shiny things and bowerbirds like blue stuff.

[roylevosh]

WTF? I keep commenting here and they keep disappearing.

[zoologist03]

Try refreshing...if that fails then I'm outta ideas.

[udigitthemost]

Another interesting feature, Zoo. I find it amazing just how many different bird species there is in the world.

~He can dance if he wants to.~

After since I read that I been singing that stupid "Safety Dance" song in my head. So thanks for that, Zoo. Maybe someday I can pay you back. LOL

[zoologist03]

Yeah, sorry about that. It was stuck in my head for roughly the first half of writing this. :D

Sharing the pain.

[dynamaso]

Zoo, this is a great article. Riflebirds rock, don't they? Just so you know, Cooktown is north of Cairns and the Atherton tablelands is where I was born, so this is all about my home turf (and the area we want to move back to soon).

Great article, mate. But you should apologise to Chris for putting that woeful song in his head LOL

[zoologist03]

They do indeed rock.

Your home turf? Cool. Looks like a nice place with such cool birds. :)

Good to see you back, mate.