Hey, Terry,
You haven't been feeding one of these now have you?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090730/sc_livescience/newfoundbirdisbald
Scientists have discovered a rare new bird species with a bald head.
The creature, dubbed the
bare-faced bulbul, was found in Laos, and is the only known bald songbird in mainland Asia.
It's also the first time in over 100 years that a new Asian species of bulbul bird has been uncovered.
"To find a new bird species
is very rare these days," said Peter Clyne, assistant director for Asia Programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. "It's not like we're finding
new species of birds every year. This is certainly a highly newsworthy event."
The chrome-domed songbird was discovered by Wildlife Conservation Society scientists Will Duckworth and Rob Timmins and Iain Woxvold of the University of Melbourne as part of a project funded by a mining company, Minerals and Metals Group, that operates in the region.
The bare-faced bulbul lives in the sparse trees and sun-bleached karst limestone of the Laos lowlands.
"Its apparent restriction to rather inhospitable habitat helps to explain why such an extraordinary bird with conspicuous habits and a distinctive call has remained
unnoticed for so long," Woxvold said.
About the size of a thrush, the new bird has olive green feathers on its back and a light-colored breast. Its large dark eyes dominate its bald pink face.
"Whenever you come across a bird that's bald, it's a prominent characteristic," Clyne told LiveScience. "Usually, but not always, it's thought to play some kind of a
role in communication between the sexes."
The researchers describe the bird's call as a "series of whistled, dry bubbling notes."
The researchers describe the new species, whose official name is Passeriformes Pycnonotidae, in the latest issue of the Oriental Bird Club's scientific journal Forktail.
I think it went to the same place my gas cap is at. 
