Avian
Whatsapp /
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Colonised Fauna /
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Alfred and Tsering's initial conversation originated from a shared observation about exotic fauna in Western European art, and whether these depictions of birds and animals had been utilised to enhance position and status. Ostensibly, patrons could exploit art to show off their connections to the colonies by the insertion a tropical bird or animal. These commissioned works of art lavishly display the real or fanciful creatures that were taken from the colonies (invariably without showing the colonised*) as tamed playthings or worse, food. By making the people of the colonised country invisible and implying possession of the fauna, thus signifying the land, was this a way of declaring ownership? To show that the colonisers had brought the "wild" to heel?
*While certainly there are many exceptions, it is important to note, that people of colour in Western European art were often depicted either as strange and outlandish or those in servitude, mostly unnamed, while various notable non white historical figures have been (and continue to be) portrayed as white. However, there is a rich history of people of colour in Western European art that is often ignored and the issue of how these works are (or not) displayed is frequently problematic.
Dinosaurs /
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Building a dinosaur from a chicken by Jack Horner
Drawing a chickenosaurus (timelapse)
Articles on dinosaurs (not in any particular order - most recently discovered first)
Large flock of parrot-like dinosaurs uncovered - Jacqui Hayes, Cosmos Online (2006)
“An astonishing 67 dinosaurs were found in just one week in the Gobi desert, which straddles northern China and southern Mongolia, by palaeontologist Jack Horner from Montana State University, USA.”
Why two tiny wings preserved in amber have palaeontologists in a flap - Dr Hanneke Meijer, The Guardian (2016)
”Nicknamed ‘Rose’ and ‘angel wing’, the two specimens show that even in the age of dinosaurs, wings already looked remarkably modern.”
Food /
Birds /
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Articles on birds (not in any particular order - most recently read first)
Small-Brained Birds More Likely to Get Shot - Christopher Intagliata, Scientific American (2016).
Urban Birds Boast Big Brains - Karen Hopkin, Scientific American (2011)
Wings /
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Articles on wings (not in any particular order - most recently discovered first)
Why two tiny wings preserved in amber have palaeontologists in a flap - Dr Hanneke Meijer, The Guardian (2016)
”Nicknamed ‘Rose’ and ‘angel wing’, the two specimens show that even in the age of dinosaurs, wings already looked remarkably modern.”
Pathogenes /
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Our considerations of airborne proliferation have to include the possibility of pathogens -which brings us to this, the pandemic stage of the project. During their time in lockdown - Alfred in Manila and Tsering in Barcelona - have been communicating more and more about things that are carried on the wing. Seeds, pollens, parasites, viruses.
Every day at the same time, Tsering walks her dog to the same nearby patch of grass in an otherwise closed park. During these walks she she has been recording the birds for approximately 40 seconds and sending it to Alfred - sometimes with a photograph to capture something about that minor outing. Now that the park is closed to people, it is abundant with birds and they are louder than ever. These recordings and photos will continue while Barcelona is still in lockdown.
The possibility that something like the Covid-19 pandemic happening has been researched and forewarned for some time, and, maybe not surprisingly, with a considerable focus on birds. These beautiful feathered creatures, whose song characterises our proximity to nature, have actually been under epidemiologists' scrutiny and concern for decades.
Articles on avian pathogens (not in any particular order - most recently discovered first)
Ancestors of chickens studied for conservation - Economic Times (2008)
“KOLKATA: The ancestors of domestic chickens and poultry are being conserved and studied by scientists in case the domestic birds are eradicated by outbreak of diseases like bird flu.”
Tick-infested songbirds help spread Lyme disease - Prairie Research Institure Illinois (2017)
"Researchers studied songbirds and their foraging habitats to determine which environmental factors affect bird-tick encounters and the dispersal of ticks in Illinois. Birds are known to move ticks long distances and play a role in spreading the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), a primary vector of Lyme disease."
Bird Migration Routes and Risk for Pathogen Dispersion into Western Mediterranean Wetlands - Elsa Jourdain, Michel Gauthier-Clerc, Dominique Bicout, and Philippe Sabatier (2007)
"...data about avian movements might be used to improve disease surveillance schemes or to adapt preventive measures. However, solid bridges between ecology and human medicine are still lacking."
New host species for avian influenza identified - Phys.org (2007)
“An eight-year surveillance study, which included more than 36,000 wild migratory birds tested for low pathogenic avian influenza, details new data on host species, prevalence, and temporal and geographical variation of avian influenza in wild migratory birds in Europe.”
How Has Human Sprawl Affected Bird Migration—And the Spread of Avian Diseases? - Scientific American (2010)
“As humans populate formerly wild regions, they increasingly intersect bird migration patterns. Will greater human and domesticate animal proximity to wild avian life escalate incidents of disease transmission? “
Borne on the Wing: Avian Influenza Risk in U.S. Wild Songbirds Mapped - Phys.org (2010)
“Scientists have discovered that 22 species of passerines--songbirds and perching birds--in the contiguous U.S. are carriers of low-pathogenicity avian influenza.”
Avian /
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Various summaries of article and books on migrant birds
The Hypothalamus–Pituitary–Thyroid (HPT) Axis of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates - David O. Norris Ph.D. & James A. Carr Ph.D. (2013)
“Migratory birds possess active thyroid glands as compared to non-migrating or postmigrating individuals of the same species, suggesting some role in the migratory process.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/migrant-bird
How did the chicken, a shy, flight-impaired forest bird, migrate around the globe? - Dr. Hanneke Meijer - The Guardian (2016)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/aug/24/how-did-the-chicken-a-shy-forest-bird-migrate-around-the-globe-new-zealand
Bird Migration Routes and Risk for Pathogen Dispersion into Western Mediterranean Wetlands - Elsa Jourdain, Michel Gauthier-Clerc, Dominique Bicout, and Philippe Sabatier (2007)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2725901/
Why you can thank geology for your morning songbird chorus - Dr. Hanneke Meijer - The Guardian (2016)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/19/geology-understand-evolution-spread-songbirds
Feathers /
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Articles on feathers (not in any particular order - most recently discovered first)
Gene discovery may reveal how scaly dinosaurs became feathery birds - Dr David Hone, The Guardian (2017)
”A study shows that tweaking the genes of alligators can produce feather-like structures – we could be on our way to understanding how birds became birds.”
