. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. 804 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Photograph by L. W. Brownell SCRAGGLY BABY KINGFISHERS LINED UP FOR A SUN BATH Usually hatched on a mass of regurgitated fish bones, these pinfeathered youngsters pass the first days of their lives in a burrow underground. The kingfisher digs a home in a bank, most commonly beside stream or lake. the slopes of the mountain El Yunque, I found them resting in dead tree tops after rain to dry their feathers in the sun. MAY LIVE TO BE EIGHTY The African gray parrot has been known in captivity f
. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. 804 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Photograph by L. W. Brownell SCRAGGLY BABY KINGFISHERS LINED UP FOR A SUN BATH Usually hatched on a mass of regurgitated fish bones, these pinfeathered youngsters pass the first days of their lives in a burrow underground. The kingfisher digs a home in a bank, most commonly beside stream or lake. the slopes of the mountain El Yunque, I found them resting in dead tree tops after rain to dry their feathers in the sun. MAY LIVE TO BE EIGHTY The African gray parrot has been known in captivity for hundreds of years, and is the most famous of those species that imi- tate human speech and other sounds. Some of the Amazon parrots also are excellent mimics and in America are more familiar than the African species. Certain cock- atoos also learn to "; Ability in this direction varies with dif- ferent individuals, some being gifted and some extremely stupid. Parrots learn by hearing often repeated sounds or phrases. It is not unusual to see one that whistles, barks like a dog, mews like a cat, and re- peats various sentences, sometimes so aptly as to make the bird appear more intelli- gent than it really is. Curiously enough, this mimicry seems to be developed only in captivity. I have known various species of Amazon parrots in the wild state, where they are noisy and vociferous, but have never found one with the slightest tendency to imitate familiar forest sounds. The longevity of parrots is proverbial, and, while sometimes it may be exaggerated, there is no question but that some individ- uals live for many years. In the National Zoological Park in Wash- ington, D. C, is a sulphur-crested cockatoo called "; He is the only living indi- vidual of the animal stock brought to the park from the Smithsonian grounds when the zoo was established in its present loca- tion in 1890. At that time this bird was fifteen or twenty years old. Dick in 1936
Size: 2098px × 1191px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookpublisherwashingtondcnationalgeographicso, booksubjectbirds
