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'' 'BEAUT SYDNEY-AUSTRALIA
BIRDS' ''
THE BUSHY PAIR OF LAUGHING kookaburras' that used to show up outside my daughter's bedroom window disappeared a few months ago.
The birds simply vanished - after rudely waking us every morning with their maniacal ''koo-koo-kah-KAH-KAH'' call, after my kids named them Ferrari and Lamborghini, after we learned that kookaburras mate for life.
And here's the odd thing : I missed them.
This is not normal, at least not for me, but Sydney has a rare superpower :
It turns urbanites into bird people, and birds into urbanites. Few other cities of its size [five million and counting] can even come close to matching Sydney's still-growing population of bold, adaptable and brightly colored squawkers.
''We've got a large conspicuous native birds that are doing well and that is very unusually globally,'' said Richard Major, the principal research scientist in ornithology for the Australian Museum in Sydney. ''It's quite different in other cities around the world.''
The reasons - some natural, others man-made - are fascinating, and we'll get to them. But lest anyone doubt Mr. Major's assertion, at a time when the bird population of North America is suffering a steep decline, compare a typical day of avian interactions in Sydney with anywhere else.
Morning here begins with a chorus. Relentlessly chirpy, the noisy miner blasts the alarm before dawn alongside the screeching and flapping of rainbow lorikeets, parrots brighter than Magic Markers and that argue like toddlers. And of course, there are kookaburras, with their cackles carrying across neighborhoods declaring : ''This is MY territory!''
A walk to the car or train may require dodging attacking magpies - in spring, they swoop down on your head to protect their young - and rarely does a week go by without seeing a sulphur crested cockatoo, or a dozen, spinning on a wire like an escaped circus act.
Even the local scavenger is extraordinary. As grubby as any New York's pigeon but much grander, the white ibis, known here as a ''bin chicken,'' is a hefty, prehistoric-looking creature with a curved beak. It's a remarkable mix.
Even as ornithologists point out that some small birds are struggling in the city, they note that a generation or two ago, Sydney didn't have nearly as much avian diversity as it does today, nor as many flocks of birds that have mastered what city living requires : competitiveness, an obsession with real estate and ability to adapt.
The birds simply vanished - after rudely waking us every morning with their maniacal ''koo-koo-kah-KAH-KAH'' call, after my kids named them Ferrari and Lamborghini, after we learned that kookaburras mate for life.
And here's the odd thing : I missed them.
This is not normal, at least not for me, but Sydney has a rare superpower :
It turns urbanites into bird people, and birds into urbanites. Few other cities of its size [five million and counting] can even come close to matching Sydney's still-growing population of bold, adaptable and brightly colored squawkers.
''We've got a large conspicuous native birds that are doing well and that is very unusually globally,'' said Richard Major, the principal research scientist in ornithology for the Australian Museum in Sydney. ''It's quite different in other cities around the world.''
The reasons - some natural, others man-made - are fascinating, and we'll get to them. But lest anyone doubt Mr. Major's assertion, at a time when the bird population of North America is suffering a steep decline, compare a typical day of avian interactions in Sydney with anywhere else.
Morning here begins with a chorus. Relentlessly chirpy, the noisy miner blasts the alarm before dawn alongside the screeching and flapping of rainbow lorikeets, parrots brighter than Magic Markers and that argue like toddlers. And of course, there are kookaburras, with their cackles carrying across neighborhoods declaring : ''This is MY territory!''
A walk to the car or train may require dodging attacking magpies - in spring, they swoop down on your head to protect their young - and rarely does a week go by without seeing a sulphur crested cockatoo, or a dozen, spinning on a wire like an escaped circus act.
Even the local scavenger is extraordinary. As grubby as any New York's pigeon but much grander, the white ibis, known here as a ''bin chicken,'' is a hefty, prehistoric-looking creature with a curved beak. It's a remarkable mix.
Even as ornithologists point out that some small birds are struggling in the city, they note that a generation or two ago, Sydney didn't have nearly as much avian diversity as it does today, nor as many flocks of birds that have mastered what city living requires : competitiveness, an obsession with real estate and ability to adapt.
Why so many birds are thriving here is increasingly a subject of international study. Scientists believe it is due in part to how Sydney was settled - relatively recently, compared with many global cities, with less intrusion into wildlife habitats.
The luck of local terrain has helped. Sydney's rocky coastline didn't lend itself to clearing land for agriculture, which slowed development and left lots of native plants untouched. Australia's early leaders also set up large national parks near Sydney, protecting bushland for animals of all kinds.
But making the city a bird capital was probably not on their agenda. The British colonialists in charge hated the sound of Sydney's birds enough to import songbirds like common starlings to soothe their tender ears.
'Today some early examples of those imports, from the 1860s, are stuffed and tagged in the Australian Museum's collection room.
When I stopped by one recent morning, Leah Tsang, the museum's ornithology collection manager, sifted through white metal cabinets containing the taxidermy archives to show me the supposed improvement sent from Europe.
The juvenile starlings in the tray looked small, dark and .......dull.
The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Beauty, Nature and Birds, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Damien Cave.
With respectful dedication to the Founders of The World Students Society : Merium, Rabo, Zilli, Haleema, Saima, Sarah, Zainab, Aqsa, Seher, Lakshmi, Dantini, Areesha, Sameen, Sherbano, Nina, Tooba Emaan, Armeen, Juniper-
Hussain, Shahzaib, Ali, Vishnu, Salar, Reza, Ghazi, Jordan, Bilal, Toby, Zaeem, Danyial, Haider,.
Little Darling Angels : Maynah, Maria Imran, Haanyia, Merium, Eden, and then the Students, Professors and Teachers of Australia and then the world.
See Ya all on Facebook, prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter- !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:
''' Avian Beauty '''
The luck of local terrain has helped. Sydney's rocky coastline didn't lend itself to clearing land for agriculture, which slowed development and left lots of native plants untouched. Australia's early leaders also set up large national parks near Sydney, protecting bushland for animals of all kinds.
But making the city a bird capital was probably not on their agenda. The British colonialists in charge hated the sound of Sydney's birds enough to import songbirds like common starlings to soothe their tender ears.
'Today some early examples of those imports, from the 1860s, are stuffed and tagged in the Australian Museum's collection room.
When I stopped by one recent morning, Leah Tsang, the museum's ornithology collection manager, sifted through white metal cabinets containing the taxidermy archives to show me the supposed improvement sent from Europe.
The juvenile starlings in the tray looked small, dark and .......dull.
The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Beauty, Nature and Birds, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Damien Cave.
With respectful dedication to the Founders of The World Students Society : Merium, Rabo, Zilli, Haleema, Saima, Sarah, Zainab, Aqsa, Seher, Lakshmi, Dantini, Areesha, Sameen, Sherbano, Nina, Tooba Emaan, Armeen, Juniper-
Hussain, Shahzaib, Ali, Vishnu, Salar, Reza, Ghazi, Jordan, Bilal, Toby, Zaeem, Danyial, Haider,.
Little Darling Angels : Maynah, Maria Imran, Haanyia, Merium, Eden, and then the Students, Professors and Teachers of Australia and then the world.
See Ya all on Facebook, prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter- !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:
''' Avian Beauty '''
Good Night and God Bless
SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless
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