You have seen many articles of our birdwatching adventures to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. There are quite a few YouTube videos of the Zoo. Among some photos from our adventures, I wanted to share a few their videos. It starts off showing the Parrot Flyover with Macaws. Later in the video there are some baby Turacos. There are other animals shown.
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: (James 3:7 KJV)
Violet Turaco (Musophaga violacea) by Lee at Lowry Park Zoo
Here is a much better photo of a Violet (Violaceous) Turaco (Musophaga violacea) that I took at the Brevard Zoo, Melbourne, Florida.
Violet Turaco (Musophaga violacea) Brevard Zoo by Lee
His head is like the finest gold; His locks are wavy, And black as a raven. (Song of Solomon 5:11 NKJV)
Most casual birdwatchers do not now the name of Icteridae, but if I were to mention Blackbirds, Bobolink, Meadowlarks, Cacique, Orpendendolas, Orioles, Toupials, Grackles, Cowbirds, Baywings, and Marshbirds, you would have heard of them. Many in this Icteridae Family are very commonly seen. That is, if you live in the “New World” or Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas (including nearby islands such as those of the Caribbean and Bermuda).
Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) by J Fenton
This family has 109 members presently (6.1 Version of I.O.C). Wikipedia says, “Icterids make up a family (Icteridae) of small to medium-sized, often colorful passerine birds restricted to the New World. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange or red. The family is extremely varied in size, shape, behavior and coloration. The name, meaning “jaundiced ones” (from the prominent yellow feathers of many species) comes from the Ancient Greek ikteros, through the Latin ictericus.”
“Despite the similar names, the first groups are only distantly related to the Old World common blackbird (a thrush) or the Old World orioles.”
“Icterids have adapted to taking a wide range of foods. Oropendolas and caciques use their gaping motion to open the skins of fruit to obtain the soft insides, and have long bills adapted to the process. Others such as cowbirds and the bobolink have shorter stubbier bills for crushing seeds. The Jamaican blackbird uses its bill to pry amongst tree bark and epiphytes. Orioles will drink nectar.” (Wikipedia, with editing)
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For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. (1 Thessalonians 1:8 NKJV)
“Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.” (Job 9:10)
Peregrine Falcon in Flight by Raymond Barlow
A peregrine falcon diving toward its prey reaches a relative speed of 200 body-lengths per second. This is close to the 207 body-lengths that the space shuttle travels as it enters our atmosphere. Thus, the peregrine falcon was thought to easily be the fastest dare-devil bird on Earth.
Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) Desert Museum-Tuscon by Dan
Scientists have now discovered that a little pink male hummingbird called Anna’s Hummingbird is the real Top Gun among the birds. As part of its mating ritual, a male hummingbird will try to impress a female with his speed and acrobatics. First, the male will fly up to about 90 feet above the ground. Then, he begins a power dive. As he nears the female, he pulls up, ascending again. During that near-miss pull-up he experiences more than nine times the force of gravity. His relative speed during descent is 385 body-lengths per second. That’s almost twice the peregrine falcon’s relative speed. It’s faster than the space shuttle entering the Earth’s atmosphere and is more than twice the relative speed of a jet fighter running with afterburners!
The wonders of God’s creation are still being discovered, and Creation Moments still loves to make them known to our listeners. But God’s greatest wonder is His love for us though His Son, Jesus Christ. We are thankful that this wonder is revealed to us in the Bible.
Prayer: Father, I give You thanks for the wonders You create, but I especially give You thanks for the wonder of salvation. Amen.
Notes:
Science News, 7/4/09, p. 7, Susan Millius, “Hummingbird pulls Top Gun stunts.” Photo: Male Anna’s hummingbird. Courtesy of Kevin Cole. (CC BY 2.0)
“Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee” (Job 40:15)
Since evolutionary “scientist” believe that birds evolved from dinosaurs, I thought I would introduce you to a few articles and a video about the tracks the Dinosaurs left behind.
Dinosaur tracks can be found on every continent! But just how did they form?
Here are a few of the many articles about Dinosaurs from the Institute for Creation Research. I will cover the Dinosaur-to-Bird issue in another article.
New Dinosaur Tracks Study Suggests Cataclysm – Article
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Brian Thomas, M.S. – … observers are not the only ones who puzzle over dinosaur footprint origins. After all, other animal tracks in mud are not fossilized today because erosive processes rapidly erase them. If a rock layer requires thousands of years to…
Dinosaur Footprints in Dallas – Article
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Various Authors – … slowly receded, it revealed a reshaped shoreline—and dinosaur tracks. What kinds of creatures made these marks? Local news interviewed area paleontologists who made casts of the dinosaur tracks. The paleontologists will not reveal the…
Regarding some of the trickery that evolutionists engage in, to prevent the truth about dinosaurs from becoming exposed, see
Dinosaur DNA Research: Is the tale wagging the evidence? – Article
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Various Authors – … J.D., Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D., and Brian Thomas, M.S.* Dinosaurs are a popular topic of study, whether in the public imagination or in scientific research. The scientific community, however, has a dirty little secret regarding the manner in…
Regarding the kind of noise that dinosaurs appeared to be known for, see:
Sound Science About Dinosaurs | The Institute for Creation Research– Article
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James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D. … there any clues about dinosaur sounds in Scripture or science? In both … and science provide trustworthy evidence that dinosaurs were anything but… ”
Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (Genesis 2:19 NKJV)
“And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:38-40 KJV)
Here is another Creation Moments Minute about a Baby With A Tail.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker:” (2 Timothy 2:15-17a KJV)
Birds’ Unique Leg Structure Says No Evolution – From Creation Moments
“And God created … every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:21)
Countless television programs, museums, textbooks, and popular articles tell us that the birds evolved from dinosaurs. It now appears that this claim is even less credible!
Researchers at Oregon State University have made a fundamental discovery about how birds breathe. Unlike land animals, birds have immovable thigh bones, and they walk and run by bending their knees. All land creatures can move both their thigh bone as well as bend their knees to walk and run. This included the dinosaurs and other theropods from which birds supposedly evolved.
Birds need twenty times as much oxygen as cold-blooded animals. To supply this need, birds are designed with unique lungs and supporting musculature. Researchers found that if birds had the usual muscle structures and could move their thighs, their high-performance lungs would collapse. Even the evolutionists at Oregon State University said that this makes it unlikely that birds evolved from dinosaurs, and they added that birds appear earlier in the fossil record than the theropods from which they supposedly evolved!
There are other transition problems associated with bird evolution that are seldom mentioned. For example, reptiles are cold-blooded and birds are warm-blooded; yet, this major transition has seemingly been overlooked.
Of course, the Bible has always taught that birds were specially made by God and did not evolve from any other creature.
Prayer:
Lord, You have designed all things well. Do not let Your people be fooled by those who deny Your works. Amen.
I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. (Psalms 50:11 NKJV)
After all these months of doing the Sunday Inspirations that have featured the Passerformes Order of birds, we are getting near the end of the list. Known as Passerines or Song Birds, there has been 125 families to tell about and show their pictures. There are seven families left, of which, three of them are small in number, so they are being grouped together in this Sunday Inspiration.
First we have group of birds in an Incertae Sedis or Uncertain Family. “Incertae sedis (Latin for ‘of uncertain placement’) is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined.” (Wikipedia) That means they don’t know into which families to place these birds.
The six birds in this family currently are the Green-tailed Warbler, Yellow-headed Warbler, Oriente Warbler, Wrenthrush, Yellow-breasted Chat, and the White-winged Warbler.
For instance the Wrenthrush (Zeledonia coronata) is neither a wren or a thrush (and unrelated to both). No copyright free photos are available to use other than this drawing. You can see a few photos here.
Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) Cloud Forest by Lee
The Bananaquit belongs to the Coerebidae family. It is the only member, but there are numerous subspecies. I suspect one day they will split some of them off into separate species in the family. In fact they are suggesting three species already. We saw one down at Zoo Miami’s Cloud Forest.
Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) by J Fenton
Our last small family this week is the Calcariidae. There are six members here also. The four Longspurs; Mccown’s, Lapland, Smith’s and Chestnut-collared; and two Buntings, the Snow and McKay’s Bunting.
These are chunky ground-feeding birds with long wings which are usually seen in open areas. Males declare ownership of a territory by singing during short flights over it. The male’s breeding plumage is much brighter than his winter plumage. These birds gather in large flocks in winter. The longspurs are all found in North America; the Lapland Longspur, or Lapland Bunting, is also found in Europe and Asia. (Wikipedia)
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And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” (James 2:23 KJV)
“I’ll Be A Friend To Jesus” – Faith Baptist Quartet
By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7 KJV)
We will continue on with the Birds of the Bible – Foundation series.
(These articles are being updated because they were written back in 2009 and needed a little dusting off. The Truths are the same, just updating the photos, etc.) This article about the Ark is a new one. It needs to go between #4 and #5, but I didn’t want to call it #4.5.
What this Foundation article is about, is the Ark itself. We read about the birds going into and out of the ark in the other Birds of the Bible Foundation articles. But what about the Ark?
How did Noah, his family, the animals and our birds all fit in the ark? Was it like you see depicted many times in drawings with of a small boat with a giraffe sticking his head out?
Giraffe at Lowry Park Zoo by Lee
If it was a small ark, as some suppose, it is because they do not believe God’s Word. God said He was going to destroy all flesh except those on the Ark.
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. (Genesis 6:17-20 KJV) (emphasis mine)
They don’t believe those verses. They think that it was only a local flood. If it were, why did the birds have to come on board? They could have just flown off to some other part of the earth. So, for those that only believe in a partial flood, a small ark with a giraffe sticking out is sufficient.
But, did those verses not say that “flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh” and “every thing that is in the earth shall die”? Is God a liar? The exception, of course, are those with Noah in the Ark.
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. (Genesis 8:13 KJV)
So, we need a big Ark, one that the Giraffes and birds don’t have to hang out the windows. Right? So, how big was the Ark?
“Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.” (Genesis 6:14-16 NKJV)
The reason for this article is that, today, there is construction of a life size Ark underway. It is being built by the Answers in Genesis organization. The Ark Encounter, as the location will be known as, is in Williamstown, Kentucky. The planned opening is July 7, 2016. We will be going to Indiana this summer and are planning to visit the Ark during the trip.
Here are two videos showing the ark under construction. They have all those men and great technology. Noah took 120 years. During that time he was preaching and trying to get others to join him and his family.
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I trust those videos will give you a new perspective of how large the Ark actually was. There was even more room for more people to be saved, had they only believed God’s Word. We have the same issue today. John 3:16 is right before our eyes almost daily. Even ball games have banners reminding people of this promise of salvation. If they would only believe.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:15-19 KJV)
If I took verse 19 and changed it thus; “And this is the condemnation, that AN ARK WAS come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.“ (John 3:19) (My paraphrase) This is why they didn’t seek to join Noah. That is the same reason sinners refuse to be saved today.
“But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10 NKJV)
Now for the last half of the New World Warbler Family. See the first half at Sunday Inspiration – New World Warblers I. The Parulidae family has 119 members presently. The Setophage genus is numerous with 37 species which are seen by many of here in the United States. Many of these had their genus changed from Dendroica to Setophage and some may still refer to them with the older genus name. Sibleyguides has a nice chart showing how they rearranged the taxonomy.
Flavescent Warbler (Myiothlypis flaveolus) by Dario Sanches
The next genus is the Myiothlopis group. The 14 here are best represented in Central and South America. This is one of only two warbler genera that are well represented in the latter continent. All of these species were formerly placed in the genus Basileuterus.
Collared Whitestart (Myioborus torquatus) by Reinier Munguia
The Basileuterus genus still has nine species. Again, they are mainly in the Central and South America areas. These are mainly robust warblers with a stout bill. The majority of species have olive or grey upperparts and yellow underparts. The head is often strikingly marked with a long broad supercilium, a coloured crown or crown stripes, and often other striking head markings.
Many species are not well-studied, but those for which the breeding habits are known all build a domed nest on a bank or on the ground, so this is presumably typical of the genus as a whole.
The Cardellina and the Myioborus (Whitestarts) round out the rest of the family. They have 5 and 12 species respectively. The 12 whitestarts are New World warblers in the genus Myioborus. The English name refers to the white outer tail feathers which are a prominent feature of the members of this genus (“start” is an archaic word for “tail”). They are from mainly northern South America and are spreading north to Central America and the USA. The five Cardellina are from South America. (Info from Wikipedia)
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A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver. (Proverbs 25:11 NKJV)
“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.” (2nd Peter 3:5 KJV)
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: (James 3:7 KJV)
Yesterday, we saw this Goose at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. Looks like it has a nice stride, but not sure it would want to be one of these Belgium parading Geese. Then again, what do I know what that bird would like to do.
Enjoy the Geese Parades from Belgium.
Goose Parade March Zelda Style! (Bremmen Mask Song from Majora’s Mask)
Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus 