My Year of Darwin 4/25/2014: avian ridiculousness

"The Turco is not uncommon. It lives on the ground, sheltered among the thickets which are scattered over the dry and sterile hills. With its tail erect, and stilt-like legs, it may be seen every now and then popping from one bush to another with uncommon quickness. It really requires little imagination to believe that the bird is ashamed of itself, and is aware of its most ridiculous figure. On first seeing it, one is tempted to exclaim, 'A viley stuffed specimen has escaped from some museum and has come to life again!'. It cannot be made to take flight without the greatest trouble, nor does it run but hops." Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

NOT HOPPING!? Say it isn't so. Anyway, the Turco (Pteroptochos megapodius) is an endemic Chilean antbird. 

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Good day at Wilkes with Adventures in Science - had 120 elementary school kids come by and we checked out microbes, parasites and I had a crab they petted (seriously). 

 

My Year of Darwin (3/1/2014): The Indefatigable Army

"A small dark-coloured ant sometimes migrates in countless numbers. One day, at Bahia, my attention was drawn by observing many spiders, cockroaches, and other insects, and some lizards, rushing in the greatest agitation across a bare piece of ground. A little way behind, every stalk and leaf was blackened by a small ant." Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

This must have been an army ant swarm and they are impressive. Darwin more eloquently states how animals are getting the hell out of the way of army ants. They would come through the BDFFP continuous forest site and this was a good and bad thing. When we knew they were coming, it was a good thing, they cleared camp of nuisance ants, spiders, scorpions, etc. When we didn't know they were coming, particularly at night, it was a bad thing. This only happened once that I observed. Fortunately, because of a snoring issue, I set up my hammock away from the primary sleeping area (you could say I was exiled). At night I heard a commotion and apparently army ants had come into camp and somebody stepped out of their hammock to be covered in army ants. Yea, yikes.

It's easy to know when they're coming. Not only are the small creatures getting the out of the way. There are birds that follow army ant swarms that pick off the animals running ahead. These birds are composed obligate ant birds - those that only forage at antswarms and search the forest for swarms. White-plumed Antbird (below) is the most commonly captured antbird in the Manaus area. There are also the opportunists that forage at ant swarms as they pass through their territories but abandon the swarm as the ants exit the boundaries of the territory. 

White-plumed Antbird