Small birds have more efficient wing strokes than bats

Date:  February 5, 2018

Source:  Lund University

Summary:

Small birds are more energy-efficient than bats when flying. Researchers previously believed this was due to air resistance created by the bats' ears. However, biologists have now discovered another reason.

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Eyes bigger than your belly? Greedy bee-eating bird tries to eat a BAT

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:45, 8 July 2015 | UPDATED: 11:47, 8 July 2015

There are times in life when you're so hungry you could eat anything that's put in front of you.

And as a juicy bat flew into range, that's just what this bird must have thought also.

Unfortunately, on this occasion, the predator literally bit off more than it could chew – or swallow, to be precise.

These stunning photographs capture the moment the European bee-eater – which, as the name suggests, normally feed on insects – tried to take on prey almost a third of its own size. 

Read more and see video:

For the birds (and the bats): 8 ways wind power companies are trying to prevent deadly collisions

Hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are killed by wind turbines in the U.S. each year, including some protected species such as the golden eagle and the Indiana bat. That’s only a small fraction of the hundreds of millions killed by buildings, pesticides, fossil-fuel power plants, and other human causes, but it’s still worrying — especially as wind power is experiencing record growth.

Both the wind industry and the federal government have been under intense public scrutiny over the issue in recent weeks. In late November, the Obama administration fined Duke Energy Renewables $1 million for illegally killing birds, the first time a wind company has been prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

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‘50,000-year-old cave dwelling birds still exist’

KUCHING: Similar or identical species of cave-dwelling birds and bats in the Great Cave of Niah 50,000 years ago still exist today, revealed archeologist Dr Christopher M Stimpson yesterday.

Stimpson, who had completed his PhD research on bird and bat bones recovered from the Niah Cave under the University of Cambridge, said there was evidence of large population of bats and swiftlets for such a long time.

“The cave’s ecosystem which has been described in this part of the world is not a recent phenomenon for it is quite ancient ecosystem as well,” he added.

“The bats and swiftlets are primary contributors to the cave ecology,” he said in his public awareness talk on ‘Paleozoological Perspectives on Biological Conservation in Niah National Park: Evidence from the Great Cave’ held at the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre in Jalan Puncak Borneo here.

The talk discussed results from an analysis of bird (Aves) and bat (Mamalia: Chiroptera) bones that were recovered during archeological excavations of the Niah Cave in archeological sequences dating from 50,000 years to 350 years before the present time.

Continuing on, he said the birds will go out and catch insects, return to the cave and deposit the energy into the cave environment in the form of guano.


Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/07/06/50000-year-old-cave-dwelling-birds-still-exist/#ixzz2YHMFlOiy