OVENBIRDS (JOÃO-DE-BARRO)

Photo by Carlos A. Mascaro

Photo by Carlos A. Mascaro

Photo by http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/brazilbirds.html

The Photo Friday Theme (Fri May 26) is HOME.

The Ovenbirds, Furnarius rufus, (João-de-Barro) is from the same family as the Woodcreepers. It is very common in Brazil, in the southern half of South America east of the Andes and is the national bird of Argentina. Here in Brazil his common name is João-de-Barro. (João=John and Barro=Mud).

"They normally search for food on the ground and their diet is based on insects and seeds. Males and females work together building the nest for 6 to 8 days. The female laid 2 to 3 white eggs and the parents feed the chicks for almost 25 days before they leave the nest."

"They are often seen on the ground collecting mud or dung to build their remarkable nests. These look for all the world like miniature versions of the type of oven (or "horno") that you see outside many houses in rural South America. Hence the name "Ovenbirds" in English and "Hornero", the Spanish for baker."

"These nests are built in prominent positions in trees or on any suitable man-made object such as telephone or electricity posts. "

"The nests consist of two chambers so that the 3 to 4 chicks are protected from predators and the wind - in most cases the entrance faces away from the prevailing wind. Like most non-tropical birds in South America, eggs are laid in about September and the building of the mud nest depends on there being sufficient rain to produce the mud but rain that is not so heavy that it washes away the nest as it is being built."

"A pair of Ovenbirds will only use their nest for one season but, because the sun-baked mud is extremely hard, it can last for several years and abandoned nests may be used by a variety of other birds - so always check them out. "

They sing duets: "The Ovenbirds is a territorial bird in which pairs sing duets. This family of birds is known for the simplicity of its song types. Each sex consistently sings a distinct song during the duet: the song starts with both sexes singing identically, followed by a divergence of the female, who slows her singing rate. Also, since both birds pump their wings while singing, at the same frequency as their singing, it possible to see which bird sings at which rate."

Take a look of two amazing videos:

http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/votacio.phtml?idVideo=6176&tipus=1

http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/votacio.phtml?idVideo=6175&tipus=1

Click on photos to enlarge