Last month, European scientists discovered that storm petrel seabirds can smell their relatives.
The study is the first evidence that birds are able to sniff out a suitable mate, and the researchers think this behaviour prevents the birds from "accidentally inbreeding".
Recently, scientists have also found that some bird species that were never considered seabirds in the first place actually depend on the marine environment for much of their food.
In 2009, scientists discovered that gyrfalcons living in the high Arctic overwinter out at sea, spending long periods living and hunting on pack ice.
Gyrfalcons are the world's largest falcon and it was the first time any falcon species has been found regularly living at sea.
The birds likely rest on the ice and hunt other seabirds such as gulls and guillemots, over what appears to be one of the largest winter ranges yet documented for any raptor.
Similar research published in 2011 in the Journal of Avian Biology showed that snowy owls are also secret seabirds.
Researchers fitted satellite trackers to 12 female snowy owls living on southern Bylot Island in Nunavut, Canada.
They discovered that the owls gather on sea ice around patches of open water, targeting other seabirds assatellite, and that snowy owls rely on this marine source of food to survive the harsh Arctic winters.
Evidence published earlier this year in Polar Research has also unveiled a previously unknown courtship behaviour by spectacled eider ducks.
Using a camera mounted on a helicopter, scientists zoomed in to film wintering flocks of eider containing tens of thousands of individuals.
The footage revealed that the ducks engage in "courtship scrums", where hundreds of birds, male and female, intermingle excitedly.
The scrums are so intense it seems unlikely that individuals can track one another to see how attractive they are; rather the scrums may serve to accelerate the hormonal development of the ducks, moving them from winter survival to breeding mode.
sniff-нюхать
marine-морской
falcon-сокол
gull-чайка
raptor-хищник
fit-соответствовать
satellite-спутник
prey-добыча
unveiled-открыт
zoom-увеличивать масштаб
scrum-схватка
accelerate-ускоряться
hormonal-гормональный
1.Do you see seabirds?
2.What seabirds do you know?
3.What feature do seabirds have?
4.When did scientists discover gyrfalcons?
5.Gyrfalcons are the world's largest falcon, aren't?
6.What other birds do seabirds hunt?
7.Where do snowy owls live?
8.Do you like this text?
I chose this article because i like the world of nature!!!Seabirds are really wonderful and unusual birds!!It is interesting to look on these beatiful birds.))) Scientists make many discoveries which help us to learn about seabirds more.Read this text, please!
Birds are the most extraordinary work of nature.Birds are the only creatures that can fly. I think the nature of seabirds is different from the nature of other birds.It has a different food.Seabirds is not necessary to fly to other countries for the winter.
