Stray Feathers: Reflections on the Structure, Behaviour and Evolution of Birds

By Penny Olsen AM and Leo Joseph

Stray Feathers showcases some of the remarkable adaptations of Australian birds. A brief introduction describes how evolution shapes form and function, followed by a series of vignettes illustrating the wondrous variety of forms and functions shaped by evolution. For example, did you know that Barn Owls can hunt in absolute darkness and that cuckoos commence incubation before their egg is laid?

Sections include anatomy and physiology; the senses; giving voice; tongues talking; plumage; getting around; finding and handling food; optimising foraging and feeding; reducing competition; using ‘tools’; communicating; quality vs quantity; courtship; nests; parental care; chicks; and living together.

The book is superbly illustrated with black and white drawings of a range of birds, making it a worthy addition to the bookshelves of bird lovers everywhere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
• Release date: Jun 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9780643103450

Book preview

Stray Feathers

Reflections on the Structure, Behaviour

and Evolution of Birds

Penny Olsen, The Australian National University &

Leo Joseph, Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO

© Text: Penny Olsen and Leo Joseph 2011

Artwork: Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS)

2011

All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, duplicating or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Contact CSIRO PUBLISHING for all permission requests.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Olsen, Penny.

Stray feathers: reflections on the structure, behaviour

and evolution of birds / by Penny Olsen and Leo Joseph.

9780643094932 (pbk.)

9780643103443 (epdf)

9780643103450 (epub)

Birds.

Birds – Anatomy.

Birds – Behavior.

Ornithology.

Joseph, Leo.

598.2

Published by

CSIRO PUBLISHING

150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139)

Collingwood VIC 3066

Australia

Telephone:    [phone]

Local call:     1300 788 000 (Australia only)

Fax:             [phone]

Email:           [e-mail]

Web site:       www.publish.csiro.au

Front cover: Eastern Barn Owl. (Artist: Trisha Wright)

Back cover: Apostlebirds. (Artist: Trisha Wright)

Set in Adobe Caslon Pro 11/18 and Helvetica Neue

Edited by Janet Walker

Cover and text design by Andrew Weatherill Typeset by Andrew Weatherill

Printed in China by 1010 Printing International Ltd.

CSIRO PUBLISHING publishes and distributes scientific, technical and health science books, magazines and journals from Australia to a worldwide audience and conducts these activities autonomously from the research activities of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of, and should not be attributed to, the publisher or CSIRO.

Original print edition:

The paper this book is printed on is in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council®. The FSC® promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

Foreword

Knowledge of the what of Australia’s birdlife abounds. Over the last 50 years, field guides, checklists, handbooks and manuals have detailed and distilled an enormous amount of information on what the species of Australian birds are, where they live and what they do. Next to nothing is understood, however, about the how of Australian birds: how they move, how they feed, and, indeed, how they have evolved their life forms. Today, these are questions that assume greater importance than ever, not only for appreciating Australia’s birdlife for its own sake, but also for understanding how to help manage the survival of its members.

Why? Because the molecular revolution of the last 30 years reveals that Australia’s birdlife has had different, and often earlier, origins and evolutionary histories from the birdlife of northern continents, yet in appearance and behaviour the two avifaunas are remarkably alike. Many species of Australian raptors, ducks, pigeons, parrots and night-birds, not to mention its babblers, wrens, warblers, robins and flycatchers, may look just like northern hemisphere birds with the same names but they are either unrelated to them or but distantly connected. Adaptation to equivalent niches is, of course, the simple theoretical explanation. We now need to trace the course and steps of these evolutionary journeys, information on which will be both fascinating in itself and vital for understanding the ecological needs of our birds for survival. It bids to usher in the next phase of ornithological endeavour in Australia.

This book opens a door on this new phase. It is a kaleidoscope of vignettes covering the biology of Australian birds: their anatomy and physiology, senses, voice and communication, plumage, means of movement, food and feeding, and breeding in all its diverse aspects, from courtship to fledging young. Some of the vignettes are straightforwardly descriptive, others have an evolutionary twist; and adaptive evolution and its genetic base are the threads that tie the whole together. Supporting the text are a multitude of fine figures illustrating the biological characteristics of Australian birdlife. Originally planned for an avian volume in The Fauna of Australia, an uncompleted program sponsored by the Australian Biological Resources Study, these figures, fortunately, finally see the light of day here.

But not just textual content is important in getting a ‘message’ across – the right style and pitch are essential too. As well as being leading Australian ornithologists, Penny Olsen and Leo Joseph are able writers and deeply concerned with the health and growth of Australian ornithology. Their text may be packed with information, but it is also lively to read and easy to assimilate, unencumbered by jargon and needless detail. It brings science to the people. Anyone interested in birds, from the beginner to the professional ornithologist, will find much of interest and value in this work – but those who will surely be enthused and inspired the most will be the student and experienced amateur, the very people upon which the future of ornithological enterprise in Australia depends.

Dr. Richard Schodde, OAM

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: watching birds

Anatomy and physiology

Light, compact skeleton: Budgerigar

Rigid yet flexible skulls: Budgerigar, Rainbow Lorikeet and Great Knot

Interlude: Form reflects function, but can mislead about evolution

Monster-mouth insect trap: White-throated Nightjar

Scoop bill: Australian Pelican

A diversity of beaks: bowerbirds

Boy bills and girl bills: riflebirds and Trumpet Manucode

Interlude: Evolution of birds’ bills

A loaded spring: Australasian Darter

Complex respiratory system: Budgerigar

Efficient digestive system: Budgerigar

Water saver: Emu

Oil powered: storm-petrels

The salt shedder: White-faced Storm-Petrel

Brain power: goose

The senses

Sense organs: Budgerigar

Seeing double: Tawny Frogmouth

By the light of the moon: Letter-winged Kite

Silent night hunters: barn owls

Interlude: Evolution of many traits for one purpose

Sight and sonar: Australian Swiftlet

Seeing through the mud: Great Knot

The smell of the sea: shearwaters and storm-petrels

Interlude: The sensory world of birds – more than meets the eye

Giving voice

Sophisticated syrinxes: Budgerigar, ducks and geese

Built-in bagpipes: Magpie Goose and Trumpet Manucode

The air drummer: Emu

A sound-sensing helmet? Southern Cassowary

The roarer: the Australian Bustard

Tongues talking

Nectar straws: honeyeaters, silvereyes and sunbirds

Brush tongued: Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

Sweet tongued: Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets

Fork tongued: Rufous and Black-tailed Treecreepers

Shelling seed: parrots

A quick drink: Red-capped Parrot and Rainbow Lorikeet

Plumage

Flexible feathers: Budgerigar

Featherlight: Crimson Rosella

A diversity of feathers: Budgerigar

Feathers are better than fur: Emu

Looking after feathers: Budgerigar

Hung out to dry: cormorants and darters

Blending into the background: Spotted Nightjar and Tawny Frogmouth

Don’t mess with me! Australian Painted Snipe, Eastern Barn Owl and Spotted Nightjar

Creating a diversion: Bush Stone-curlew

Pluck a duck: Pink-eared Duck

The secrets of cryptic chicks: shorebirds

Something in the silhouette: various parrots and raptors

Getting around

No-flap flight: albatrosses

Water wings: Little Penguin

Going up, going down: Brown Treecreeper and Varied Sittella

The marathon runner: Emu

Swimming on land: Short-tailed Shearwater

A gripping tale: Purple Swamphen

What’s in a foot? stilts and avocet

Furtive traveller: Buff-banded Rail

Migration and speciation: Australian and Oriental Pratincoles

Finding and handling food

A built-in broom: Chowchilla

Vice-like grip: Wedge-tailed Eagle

Tension and spin: Grey Phalarope

Stand-over merchants: Great Skua and Arctic Skua

Unsavoury habits: Black-faced Sheathbill

Burly burley seekers: albatrosses

Variations on a theme: storm-petrels

Interlude: Thinking about the oceans as environments – parallels with more familiar terrestrial habitats

Feeling food: Straw-necked Ibis and Royal Spoonbill

Striking stalker: Black-necked Stork

Multi-purpose snake charmer: Brown Falcon

The twitchers: Spangled Drongo, Satin Flycatcher, Willie Wagtail and Magpie-lark

A wagging tale: Willie Wagtail

Optimising foraging and feeding

Putting your best foot forward: Crimson Rosella

The big-billed, picky eater: Glossy Black-Cockatoo

Choosing carefully: Peregrine Falcon and Galah

Interlude: The evolutionary equilibrium of predators and prey

Optimal foraging: oystercatchers

Reducing competition

Made to measure: shorebirds

The same but different: Australasian and Hoary-headed Grebes

Different ways to make a living: Pacific Gull, South Polar Skua and Crested Tern

Size matters: honeyeaters

Using ‘tools’

Playing with fire: Black Kite

Stone tools: Black-breasted Buzzard

Hammer and anvil user: Noisy Pitta

The lumberjack: Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo

The drummer: Palm Cockatoo

Communicating

The bearded boaster: Australian Raven

Group chorister: Australian Logrunner

A cracking duo: Eastern Whipbird

Heard but not seen: Rufous and Noisy Scrub-birds

The song and dance man: Superb Lyrebird

Polygynous posers: Magnificent Riflebird, Trumpet Manucode and Victoria’s Riflebird

Signaling maturity: Black-faced Sheathbill

Staking a claim: Black-faced Sheathbill

Quality vs quantity

Boom and bust shorebird style: Banded Stilt

Familiarity pays: Short-tailed Shearwater

Courtship

Boom box territoriality: Emu

Male–female dynamics: Great Crested Grebe

The scented powderpuff: Musk Duck

A long engagement: Wandering Albatross

Breeding seasons’ greetings: Australasian Gannet

You are my Valentine: Christmas Island Frigatebird

Do you think I’m sexy? Pied Cormorant

Mutual attraction: Red-tailed Tropicbirds

The flap dancer: Black-necked Stork

The ballet dancer: Brolga

Brazenly barefaced: Royal Spoonbill

Bow coo: pigeon courtship

True blue Lotharios: Variegated Fairy-wren

Playing hard to get: White-throated Treecreeper

The importance of ritual: Red-browed Finch

Life in the monogamy fast track: Black-throated Finch

Architects are smarter: bowerbirds

Why go to so much trouble? Great, Spotted and Fawn-breasted Bowerbirds

Look at me: Crimson Chat

Nests

Designed by the same architect: robins

Topped and tailed: Yellow-bellied Sunbird

What nest? Spotted Quail-Thrush

The fancy stitcher: Golden-headed Cisticola

An insect’s nest: Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher

The bottle-builder: Fairy Martin

Bees and burrows: Rainbow Bee-eater

Interlude: A cooperative migrant

Parental care

Hot-footed: Brown Booby

Saliva nests and egg-incubating chicks: Australian Swiftlet

A bun in the oven: Malleefowl, Australian Brush-turkey and Orange-footed Scrubfowl

Is it a boy or girl? Australian Brush-turkey

A head start in the arms race: Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo

Helpless hatchlings: Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo

Coping with extremes: Australian Pratincole and Masked Lapwing

A crown of thorns or a larder? Crested Bellbirds

Taking them under his wing: Comb-crested Jacana

A parent’s love: Brolga

Cream of the crop: Emerald Dove

Toilet trained: the Golden-headed Cisticola

A face only a father could love: Pheasant Coucal

Chicks: behaving badly; behaving well

Balanced begging: Singing Bushlark

Bright little beggars: Painted Finch

Cooperative killers: Australian Pelican

Killer babies and insurance eggs: Brown Booby

Cheaters versus cheated and odd couples: Eastern Koel, Australasian Figbird and Little Friarbird

Sticking together: Fairy Tern

Living together: same species

Sociality for survival: Apostlebird, White-winged Chough and Varied Sittella

Lending a hand: Grey-crowned Babbler

Red-eyed kidnapper: White-winged Chough

Waiting in the wings: Laughing Kookaburra

Ritualised aggression: Dusky Moorhen

Cold comfort: Black-faced Woodswallow

You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours: Silvereye

Troop fishing: Australian Pelican

Cooperative spear-fisherman: Black-necked Stork (Jabiru)

Living together: different species

A one-sided affair? Azure Kingfisher and Platypus

Lured into the shadows: Cattle Egret

Farming mistletoe? Mistletoebird

Pest control: Spotted Pardalote

Looking after trees? Bell Miner

Wrapping up

Further reading

Preface

In the late 1980s the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) planned a volume on birds in the Fauna of Australia series, which aimed to synthesise and publish all current zoological information for the region. By the early 1990s much of Volume 2B Aves was drafted, but events such as the publication of the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds overtook the exercise and it was abandoned. Many of the illustrations gathered for that volume are richly informative of the biology of Australian birds as well as being attractive in their own right. They provide an opportunity to discuss some of the adaptations that make birds so interesting and some that make Australia’s birds unique.

Opportunism has its limitations, as many Australian birds know. In writing the text, we used each illustration to trigger a riff, rather than the more usual reverse. Hence the subject matter is heterogeneous and the collection and treatment far from comprehensive. The uniting theme is evolutionary biology, which shapes birds’ lives as it does all life.

Some illustrations inspired a mini-essay, others a few lines of observation. The musings often tackled more than one subject but, for the sake of order, they have been placed under the section heading to which they most relate. Inevitably, because we wanted each essay to stand alone, there is some repetition.

There are many different ways of looking at birds. Stray Feathers is intended as a ‘taster’ for bird lovers or students who wish to gain some insight beyond a simple enjoyment of birds for their beauty, liveliness or rarity. Our hope is that the book brings greater interest, study and understanding. Much-needed research into birds in landscapes has become the norm, but arguably the pendulum has swung too far from the individual. There is still plenty to be learned about the great, continuing and changing forces of evolution, which have implications for us all, especially in these rapidly changing times. There is still plenty that we need to know about Australia’s birds if we are to conserve them. And, of course, we will continue to refine and consolidate our ideas about evolution, assisted by the knowledge gleaned from watching birds.

NOTE: Nomenclature follows Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds by L. Christidis and W. Boles (CSIRO Publishing, 2008).

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the artists for permission to use their inspirational drawings: Wendy Arthur; William Cooper; Nicholas Day; Ian Faulkner; Jon Fjeldsä; Peter Marsack; and, especially, Trisha Wright, who could not be located to seek her blessing for the use of her work.

Thanks also to the authors of the original, abandoned ABRS volume who suggested and vetted the illustrations close to 20 years ago: Baker-Gabb, D.; Bamford, M.J.; Bock, W.; Boles, W.; Briggs, S.; Brown, E.D.; Brown, R.G.B.; Bruce, M.; Burger. A.E.; Calaby, J.; Christidis, L.; Collins, B.G.; Crome, F.; Donaghey, R.; Ferrier, S.; Fitzherbert, K.; Fjeldsa, J.; Ford, H.; Forshaw, J.M.; Frith, C.; Fullagar, P.; Gales, R.; Garnett, S.; Hockey, P.; Homberger, D.; Howell, T.; Jones, D.; Joseph, L.; Kentish, B.; Kikkawa, J.; Lanyon, S.M.; Lewis, M.; Lill, A.; Long, J.; Lowe, K.W.; Maddock, M.; Marchant, S.; McEvey, A.; McLean, G.; Menkhorst, P.; Murray, D.; Norman, I; Noske, R.; Olsen, P.; Paton, D.; Pettigrew, J.; Reid, N.; Rich, P.; Rowley, I; Schodde, R.; Tarburton, M.K.; Tomkins, R.; van Tets, G.; Warham, J.; Weinecke, B.; Whitehead, M.; Williams, K.; Woinarski, J.; Woodall, P.; and Wooller, R.; and to its editors, Chris Glasby and Graham Ross.

Special thanks to Alice Wells, ABRS, and John Manger and the team at CSIRO Publishing – Tracey Millen and Pilar Aguilera – and editor Janet Walker for their enthusiasm for the project and, not least, to Naomi Langmore, Janet Gardner, Peter Marsack, Jim Reynolds and Alice Wells, who commented helpfully on all or part of the manuscript.

Introduction: watching birds

What do we really see when we look at a bird or, for that matter, at a flock of birds? What do we think about when we observe a bird? What I am getting at here is something that we hope this book will encourage all those who watch birds, not just academics, to think about when they observe birds. It is perhaps most simply summed up in the following question: which interesting corners of evolutionary biology might be illuminated by the birds we are watching?

That is what has motivated us to write this book. We wanted to explore the notion that when we see a bird in the field, we are really looking at the results and actions of evolution. A bird’s appearance and behaviour, the sounds it makes as vocalisations or perhaps with a whirr of its wings, where it nests, how it builds its nest, and what its eggs look like, all reflect the current point at which a bird finds itself on an evolutionary lineage. That lineage is a path that its ancestors have travelled as the species has evolved.

Evolutionary thinking can start even before you leave your front door on a birdwatching trip. Consider this example. Not so long ago, I found myself on a one-day birdwatching tour led by Phil Maher in Deniliquin, New South Wales. We hoped to see one of Australia’s most peculiar birds, the Plains-wanderer. Perhaps without realising, the thing that drives most birdwatchers to want to see this odd bird is its evolutionary uniqueness. Certainly, that is what drove me and my two colleagues and friends, Dave Winkler from Cornell University and Krystof Zyskowski from Yale University, who had travelled from the USA to see the bird. Our current understanding is that the Plains-wanderer is the sole representative of an evolutionary lineage of shorebirds, or waders, which evolved a quail-like form through its adaptation to life in arid and semi-arid Australia and which is most closely related to the South American seedsnipes.

The night-time is the right time to see Plains-wanderers, so in the afternoon we were treated to some of the other birdwatching delights of the area. On a plain covered in saltbush, we spotted a spectacular male White-winged Fairy-wren. As the party hastened to see that single, stunning adult, I pondered what he and his species could tell us about evolution.

The first question we might consider is: where does the White-winged Fairy-wren fit in the world of birds; that is, within the avian family tree? First of all, it is a passerine and among passerines there are two major groups, the oscines and the sub-oscines. This fairy-wren is an oscine.

Oscines fall into two main groups, the Passerida and all the rest, which, remarkably enough, do not have a simple scientific name. The phylogenetic tree (see page 14) is an attempt to illustrate this odd situation. Phylogenetic trees show relationships that reflect evolutionary history. As this tree shows, the species we are concerned with belongs to that other group of oscines with no formal name. Within that group, however, it is part of a subgroup known as the superfamily Meliphagoidea. Within the Meliphagoidea, the White-winged Fairy-wren belongs in the family Maluridae along with other fairy-wrens, grasswrens and emu-wrens. Within the genus Malurus, it is most closely related to the Western Australian island populations that are black and white, and then to the Red-backed Fairy-wren, then to the Superb, Splendid and Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens, then to the chestnut-shouldered group of species.

That is a very dry, taxonomic way of looking at things. But what we have learned about the evolution of passerine birds in recent years is that the Australia-New Guinea-New Zealand region has been, to use a hackneyed but useful term, a cradle of evolution. Most particularly, the Passerida, which are the dominant passerines of the northern hemisphere, appear to have evolved from a southern hemisphere lineage that ‘escaped’ out of the region. So, our humble Deniliquin fairy-wren on top of his saltbush clump could be considered to represent the ancestral group that gave rise to the spectacular radiations of northern hemisphere passerines.

Still thinking about the fairy-wren’s deeper evolutionary history, let’s go forward in time to consider how it relates both to the Western Australian offshore island populations of the species that are black-and-white and to its mainland populations that are blue-and-white. It has been learned that the granules that contain melanin (a black pigment) in the feathers of the black-and-white populations are still present but empty in the blue-and-white populations. A 2004 study showed that a gene that controls the deposition of melanin (the gene’s abbreviated name is MC1R) has five fixed differences in its DNA base sequence between the blue-and-white and black-and-white forms. A later study, published in 2010, produced more nuanced conclusions. It looked at MC1R variation in Malurus fairy-wrens more generally, not just the White-winged Fairy-wren. Viewed in that broader context it became clear that the blue-and-white mainland birds are the ones that are genetically unique. So, the MC1R gene is not directly or solely responsible for the black-and white plumage of the island birds. Finally, the black-and-white populations appear to have evolved from blue-and white ancestors because vestiges of the nanostructure required for the production of blue colouration exist within their black feathers. Pulling together all the data on genetics and feather structure, the authors concluded that there have been two independent evolutionary transitions from blue to black plumage.

Next, we can consider what has been learned of the reproductive biology of the various populations and what role natural selection might have played in the evolution of the island birds. The mainland birds are