Thursday, June 11, 2015

Crested Auklet: Day 196


Crested auklets may very well be the most entertaining bird to watch out here. Aside from their candy-corn bill and decorative head gear, these auklets also use auditory and olfactory signals to establish pair bonds and to compete with other birds during mate selection. They have a very distinct barking call that seems to trump all other sounds of the colony, which they produce while sitting on the water, flying in flocks, and climbing around the cliff faces. I haven't smelled it yet, but crested auklets release a citrus-like odor when their nape feathers are ruffled. This cloud of citrus apparently induces the "ruff sniff" display, where birds will insert their bill into the plumage of another. A bird that smells like oranges, now not is certainly unique.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-400 f/5.6 @ 1/2000 sec.

No comments:

Post a Comment