Bruce Lyon has returned from Europe with some swell pictures, including many birds. His notes are indented:
A selection of alpine and montane birds from my recent visit to France. I was in France to work on papers with my former graduate student Alexis Chaine, now a researcher at a research station at Moulis in the foothills of the Pyrenees. We were able to fit in a couple of natural history trips during my visit, including trips into the mountains. Here are photos from a day we spent visiting the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, one of the highest peaks in the area (9500 feet). From the bottom of the mountain, a two-stage tram ride takes you to the top. Once there, you are restricted to a large fenced in viewing platform, complete with a restaurant (with very decent views)
The views were spectacular, and although bird diversity was not high, the species we saw were very charismatic high elevation species not seen lower down. The Pyrenees had different feel than the other mountain ranges I have seen. A lot of the terrain seemed smoother than other mountain ranges, and had more vegetation.
Below. View from the mountain top showing the tram that ferries people up and down the mountain. The habitat looks lifeless but it was actually pretty birdy at times.
Below. The Pic du Midi Observatory. According to Wikipedia, a large telescope here was “funded by NASA and used to take detailed photographs of the surface of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo missions”. I am not sure what the tower is about, perhaps weather data? The French government also encourage research at the site and colleagues from the Moulis CNRS research station brought some low elevation lizards to a lab at the top of the mountain to study short-term physiological response to changes in altitude.
Below. The Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria) is a much sought after mountain bird in Europe (and a nemesis bird because it is often missed). This small songbird, a relative of the nuthatches, forages by climbing around sheer cliff faces looking for small insects. We got very lucky—within 30 seconds of exiting the tram we made our way to the edge of the viewing platform and I noticed a small gray bird working a cement pylon. It turned out to be Wallcreeper.
Below. After feeding for half a minute, the Wallcreeper flew off, showing us its spectacular colorful wings and weird loopy butterfly-like flight. I did not get a flight shot but one cannot discuss this bird without showing a flight shot so I ‘borrowed’ this image from the internet (unnamed photographer). NOT MY PHOTO!
Below: We also saw Alpine Accentors (Prunella collaris), charming little birds that live and breed in social groups on the rocky slopes of high mountains.
Below: More accentors. These birds have an interesting mating system—they are polygynandrous, which means that both males and females mate with more than one member of the other sex. Males then help feed at the nests of more than one female.
Nick Davies, a behavioral ecologist from Cambridge University, studied this species in the French Pyrenees with several colleagues. Davies did famous work on the closely related Dunnock (Prunella modulars), which also has a polygynangrous mating system. The researchers wanted to know if the Dunnock mating system is unique—does Dunnock ecology explain the mating system, or do other accentors living in very different habitats also share aspects of the same mating system? If relatives share the mating system, then phylogenetic history would be an important explanation. Davies studied Dunnocks in the Cambridge botanical gardens so the idea was to look at a close relative that lives in a very different setting, so they studied Alpine Accentors in the Pyrenees. It turns out that the mating system of the Alpine Accentor and the Dunnock are similar in many ways, which showed that the mating system is influenced by phylogeny and cannot be explained solely by an evolutionary response to local ecological conditions.
Below: Speak of the devil—at the end of the day when we descended the mountain to find a very tame Dunnock feeding beside our parked car. It clearly did not want us to leave the area with a focus solely on its high elevation relative.
Below: On the mountain we also saw the White-winged Snowfinch (Montifringilla nivalis), another iconic high-elevation species. Like the accentor, this bird was abundant and tame—at the end of the day small flocks of both species were feeding at our feet, looking for food scraps people had left on the viewing platform.
Below: I was delighted to see the snowfinch because it seems very similar ecologically and morphologically to the Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis), an arctic songbird I studied for my Masters with Bob Montgomerie at Queen’s University. The color pattern in flight is quite similar in both species—these two species are not closely related so it seems this plumage resemblance might be a case of convergent evolution. I also find it interesting that males of both species display to females with aerial flight song displays and both species nest in cavities in the rocks. The two photos below, pinched from the web, show that that birds look quite similar in flight (snow bunting on left, snowfinch on right).
Below: A group of Red-billed Choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax ) visited the mountain top a few times. These are corvids (crow and jay relatives) but they have a distinctive sickle-shaped bill. We watched them foraging and they used their long curved beaks to poke in the soil and in cracks in the rocks. The choughs never came very close but I did manage to get an OK flight shot.
Below: We also saw several Griffin Vultures (Gyps fulvus), very large vultures whose shape silhouette reminded me a bit of California Condors. Wingspan is 7-9 feet. This is Old World vulture that is unrelated to the New World vultures, so any resemblance is due to convergent evolution.
Another Griffin Vulture that nicely shows the ‘slotted wings’ with finger-like primary feathers at the wing tips. Slotted wings have evolved independently in various birds that soar using thermals to gain lift—New World vultures, Old World vultures, other raptors like eagles, various storks, cranes, and to some extent American White Pelicans. From what I have read, each feather acts as a mini airfoil that creates smoother airflow at the wing tips at slow flight speeds. This results in a reduction of stall speed so that the birds can circle very slowly, and therefore make very turn tight turns to remain in the highly localized thermals, without losing lift and stalling.
OOOOOOOO
AHHHHHHHH
HMMMMMMM
this RWP’s got it all!
I am one of those birders who has trudged up various hills around Europe and has yet to see a wallcreeper!
Great pics.
Interesting work with the accentors. Cute little birdies too.
Beautiful images. The side by side example of convergent plumage is very interesting.
Indeed! Right down to the small dark patch at the alula area.
Wonderful pictures and stories!
I can’t figure why the snow bunting and snow finch might have similar display colors. Could it be they both have the white + dark colors as camouflage in patchy snow cover?
I have no idea. Note that the strikingly patterned wing and tail are mostly hidden when the bird is perched. Crypsis when perched becomes a very conspicuous pattern in flight.
Interesting similarity in bill color, too.
According to a wildlife prog i saw on Dunnock’s a male will wait until a pair has mated and then remove the previous male’s ,precious bodily fluid and then mate with the female .
Nick Davies, the guy I mention in the post, did his work. He discovered the cloaca pecking behavior and noticed that when a male pecks a female’s cloaca, it results in her rejecting any fluid and sperm she has in her reproductive tract
Nice shots. Certainly a well rewarded outing in the alpine habitat. Thanks.
Great photos and interesting notes. Thank you.
The Pic du Midi Observatory tower is used for lightning studies
I don’t think the tower is as old as the rest of the site
Wonderful photos and interesting biology to boot. I also enjoyed the bright orange and pale green lichen on the high altitude rocks.
Wow, my idea of a great trip! SUCH cool birds! Love the Wallcreeper. Its wings remind me of flash colors in reptiles.
Beautifully patterned Accentors, and, more subtly, the Dunnock. (Beautiful pics, BTW! All of them.)
The convergent evolution shown in so many species of North American and European birds would make a great pro-evolution poster.
Beautiful birds!