This bird has just discovered that golf balls bounce on concrete and he's absolutely loving it:

[tblue37]

Link to tweet

[Picaro]

1. What type bird is this?

Don't recognize the bird species. Someone out there has to know...

[Ocelot II]

2. It's a red-legged seriema, native to Brazil.

And it probably thinks the golf ball is an egg and is trying to crack it open. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seriema

[teach1st]

4. Just came on to share this

The Cute Bird Playing With a Golf Ball Is Actually Trying to Kill It
Slate

What is actually happening here is that the seriemas are trying to murder the balls. It’s possible that the serimeias, which are native to South America, mistook the balls for eggs and were merely trying to break them open, says Kenn Kaufmann, a birder and field editor for Audubon Magazine. But seremias can be more vicious than that. “A number of sources say that seriemas may kill active vertebrate prey (like reptiles or rodents) by slamming the creatures against the ground or throwing them at hard surfaces,” Kaufmann explained to me in an email. The seremias’ behavior is a step beyond most birds’ murder techniques: “Many bird species will bash their prey repeatedly against a perch or against the ground, but throwing seems more risky, since there’s a chance the animal will escape.”

https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/the-cute-birds-playing-with-golf-balls-are-actually-trying-to-kill-them.html

[Ocelot II]

5. That figures. The seriema is the closest living relative of the extinct "terror birds."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae

[Wednesdays]

12. Gahh, glad the "terror birds" aren't still around!

When I first read your post, I was thinking they went out in the K-Pg mass extinction 66 million years ago, but after reading up on them, turns out they were still around at the dawn of humans, just 100k years ago!

[cab67]

20. The term "terror bird" can apply to several groups that all post-date the KPg extinction.

Phorusrhachids are primarily South American, with a brief appearance in North America and, IIRC, a record on islands off the coast of Antarctica.

In North America and Eurasia, we had gastornithids. These were basal anseriforms (related to ducks and their relatives). Isotopic evidence suggests they were mostly eating fruit, but they looked like phorusrhachids and would have been way cooler if they were predators.

There were also the mihirungs in Australasia.

Simultaneously, there were crocodyliforms that independently acquired compressed snouts, serrated teeth, and hoof-like terminal phalanges. These were literally "hoofed crocodiles."

Archosaurs were definitely among the dominant land predators during the Paleogene of the Northern Hemisphere and later in the Southern.

[cab67]

15. They're one of three bird groups that look like that.

The other two are roadrunners and African secretary birds.

Fun and useless fact - these three groups helped a student and I debunk one of the lines of reasoning behind claiming that larger and more "robust" tyrannosaurs were female. This was claimed, in part, because females are usually larger than males in birds of prey. But we showed that the degree of difference depends on feeding mode - females are substantially larger in birds that fly after other birds (e.g. goshawks, sharp-shinned hawks, some falcons), larger but not to a substantial degree in birds that subdue prey on the ground but feed in trees (e.g. most other hawks and eagles, owls), the same size as males in birds that feed on the ground (e.g. Old and New World vultures), and smaller than males in birds that hunt on the ground (e.g. secretary birds, seriemas, roadrunners).

This isn't to say larger tyrannosaurs were necessarily male, but the analogy doesn't work - tyrannosaurs weren't flying after their prey.

[druidity33]

17. Fascinating...sounds like

there was a lot of collating data of weight and height and sex of different birds. Was this for a paper? Or a curiosity exercise?

[cab67]

18. It was for a thesis.

There are a couple of abstracts out there based on her work, but not an actual paper. Still, I'm proud of what my student accomplished.

Some of the data came from an earlier edition of this:

https://www.amazon.com/CRC-Handbook-Avian-Body-Masses/dp/0849342589

[cab67]

21. I'm not sure I agree.

Lots of birds eat eggs. They don't throw them on the ground - they just drop them.

It's possible the bird is acting out of frustration - why isn't this egg cracking open like it should if I just drop it? - but it could also be enjoying itself.

(Kenn Kaufmann is a highly respected authority, so I say this out of respect.)

[Picaro]

8. Thanks

[barbtries]

13. aww

i thought it was having fun!

[Ocelot II]

14. Maybe it is, even if the purpose is to bust open or "kill" the golf ball.

[dem4decades]

3. Is he loving it or pissed off that egg doesn't break?

[Ocelot II]

6. Possibly trying to kill it. See #4.

[PJMcK]

16. He's trying to chip in for birdie

Get it?

(snort)

[AKwannabe]

7. Looks like he's trying to break it to me

But also making sure to get outta the way!
KornFusing!

[KS Toronado]

9. I'd like to think he learned how to play "ball"

[LudwigPastorius]

10. Can't break that egg open to get at the good stuff inside!

[Grins]

11. Trying to open it. Seagulls did this at my Cape Cod home

Find a shellfish on the beach, fly high over a driveway or parking lot - and let go! Hoping it will open.

[Emile]

19. He is a better golfer than you know who.

[Martin Eden]

22. THANK YOU for making my day!!!

That was awesomely hilatious