Author: BrantaMedia.Com

_{This YouTube video was produced by the American Bird Conservancy.}

“A wonderful bird is the pelican; his bill can hold more than his belly can,” begins the limerick by Dixon Lanier Merritt. And it’s true — a pelican’s pouch can hold up to three times more than its stomach. This multi-purpose structure serves as a scoop, a cooling mechanism in hot weather, and as a trough for young pelicans, which retrieve food from their parents’ pouches.

Although the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is the smallest of the world’s eight pelican species, it’s still a big bird at about four feet

_{This YouTube video was produced by the American Bird Conservancy.}

More than most, the Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) is a bird that inspires strong emotions in humans. A familiar species across much of the West, the Black-billed Magpie is intelligent, adaptable, and bold. For these attributes, they are both admired and loathed. While considered an annoyance or an inconvenience by some, they are also highly social and will occasionally leave “gifts” for humans who feed them.

Like many other intelligent and opportunistic corvids, magpies will take advantage of whatever resources they can. As such, the Black-billed Magpie is probably best

_{This YouTube video was produced by the American Bird Conservancy.}

A handsome bird of open landscapes, the Chocolate-vented Tyrant (Neoxolmis rufiventris) is an unusual species to be included among the so-called “flycatchers.” Inhabiting flat grassland and scrub, this bird is primarily a ground-dweller, rarely seen higher than a fencepost or tussock. Furthermore, this flycatcher is not one to catch insects on the wing (to “fly-catch” in ornithology lingo), preferring instead to hunt its prey on the ground. In keeping with this terrestrial lifestyle, the Chocolate-vented Tyrant has notably long legs and is more likely to run or walk than to