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Dec 31, 2018

Grackles declared as "Near Threatened" in Canada


                                                                                                 Photo by BarrytheBirder
COMMON GRACKLE
(Quiscalus quiscalus)
BirdLife International, the official Red List Authority for birds, has just released its 2018 update and Bird Studies Canada reports that the updated list now declares the Common Grackle as 'Near Threatened'.   This is a shock as the population of this backyard bird now appears to have plummeted by over half since 1970.   The Common Grackle is thought to have thrived from land clearing that European settlement brought to North America.   However the starling's use of agricultural land had led to it being declared a 'pest', which has prompted intensive control measures in some areas, which appear to have led to significant declines in recent decades.   My observation is that the grackles at my backyard feeders, here in southern Ontario, are as plentiful as at any other time in the last 25 years...maybe more so.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 30, 2018

"Air traffic control... we have a problem"


                                                           Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP / Getty Images
A Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) flies over a Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) at the Mangalajodi Bird Sanctuary, which is 65 km. south of Bhubaneswar, in eastern India, near the Bay of Bengal.   The sanctuary is a popular area for spotting migratory birds along with native species.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 29, 2018

A sunflower squabble...

                                                            Photo: Paolino Massimiliano Manue / Alamy
A European Goldfinch (Chloris chloris) struggles with a Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) in the Italian countryside.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder


Dec 28, 2018

"Excuse me..."

Photo: Ashwini Bhatia / AP
A Himalayan Crow sits on the back of a Himalayan Griffon Vulture (Gyps himalayensis), one of the largest birds of the Himalayas in Dharmsala, northern India.   In fairness, the vulture is young and may not have developed his or her full complement of assertiveness yet.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 27, 2018

Oxpeckers in Kenya...

Photo: Amir Cohen / Reuters
Red-billed Oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhyncus) sit on a buffalo at Nairobi Natural Park in Kenya.   They eat bugs and insects on the animal's hide and will also suck blood from small open wounds in the buffalo's skin.
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BarrytheBirder

Dec 26, 2018

Eastern Curlew threatened by sand...

                                                                                        Photo: Doug McCutcheon / Alamy
An Eastern Curlew catches prey as it wades through an incoming tide in Cairns, in north-east Australia, on the Coral Sea.   The curlew is threatened by the dumping of sand onto its mudflats habitat.
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BarrytheBirder

Dec 25, 2018

"...and a partridge in a pear tree"

Photo: Jose Ardaiz / Fotonatura)
RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE
(Alectoris rufa)
The Red-legged Partridge is native to south-western Europe, being found from Portugal and Spain, to France, Italy and southern Germany.   It has also been introduced to the UK., Ireland, Algeria, Greece and New Zealand.   Its I.U.C.N. status is 'least concerned'.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 24, 2018

Greater Sage Grouse in Wyoming...

Photo: Tom Koerner / USFWS Mountain Prairie
LOSING PROTECTION
Greater Sage-grouse are seen above at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming, US.   Land management plans released last week would open more areas to leasing and allow waivers for drilling pads to encroach into the birds' habitat, undoing protections for the Greater Sage-grouse enacted in 2015 by Barrack Obama.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 23, 2018

A magpie and a moose...

Photo: Tom Koerner / USFWS
A young moose and a Black-billed Magpie have an encounter at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in south-west Wyoming, US.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder



Dec 22, 2018

A chummy group...

Photo: Gary Meredith
Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) are seen in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia.   They are also found in in eastern Indonesian, New Guinea and occasionally in the Solomon Islands.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 21, 2018

Wisdom ... once again

Photo: Madalyn Riley / USFWS Pacific Region
Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) and the world's oldest known wild bird, incubates her egg on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the North Pacific Ocean.  Wisdom is 68 years old and has returned home to Midway Atoll for over six decades, raising at least 30 to 35 chicks.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 20, 2018

Rain shower brings little flock together...



                                                                                         Photo: Back To Nature / care2 

MAMA CHICKEN UMBRELLA
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 19, 2018

Bald Eagles ~ British Columbia ~ lower mainland

Photo by Dave Kemp
"I can't hear you - speak up"
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BarrytheBirder

Dec 18, 2018

Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2018 winners

 Photo: Kristian Bell / Deakin University 

Behaviour Category Winner
Kristen Bell was the photographer of the two Royal Terns seen above.  A beautiful morning on a Florida beach seemed to prompt the pair to begin an intricate courtship dance.

Photo: Alwin Hardenbol / University of Eastern Finland

Ecology & Environmental Science Category Winner
Bohemian Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) gorge on  rowan berries in winter.  The one above came to the trees outside the photographer's office in Finland.

Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 17, 2018

How did I get so many field guides?

Photo by BarrytheBirder
31 Field Guides & 1 World Checklist
Pictured above is the last bird field guide I purchased. It is the Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America which I purchased five years ago.   I now have 31 field guides plus one copy of the World Checklist by Monroe and Sibley (1993), where I have checked off 425 species.   The checklists are by people that range from Roger Tory Peterson to Don & Lillian Stokes and from organizations like the National Audubon Society to National Geographic.   Others are field guides for particular countries such as Australia to Mexico to Venezuela.   Then there are individual species field guides from hummingbirds to hawks.   Interestingly, I have collected the 31 field guides over 31 years, from 1987 to 2018.   There was a time I thought I would go birding all over the world, but now that I am 77 years old I realize that Canada, the US. and the Caribbean will have to do ... no regrets however.   I'm still captivated by birds, even if most of them are in the backyard.   The last few years I thought maybe I should have an online checklist of all the birds I've seen, but now I can't think of a really good reason for doing so.   I can only imagine the looks on the faces of my grandchildren when I hand over a dozen, old, field guides to each of them.   As I was about to sign- off here, I remembered an old field guide that was gifted to me many years ago by a co-worker named Allister Macrae.   He bought it at an auction sale.  It dates back 92 years, to 1926 (see photo below).



Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 16, 2018

...as the crow flies

Photo:Julien Stratenschulte / AFP / Getty Images
A Carrion Crow (Corvus carone) carrying a large nut flies over barbed wires in Hanover, northern Germany.  There are 34 species of crows around the world.
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BarrytheBirder

Dec 15, 2018

No rhyme or reason ... this is sick!

Photo: RSPCA / PA

2  Mute Swans and 5 cygnets shot,
wrapped in plastic bags 
and thrown down bank of a stream.
A family of Mute Swans has been killed in a "senseless" airgun attack, in Benenden, Kent, England.   "It's clear these poor Mute Swans have been shot and killed deliberately - one of the birds was peppered with pellets" an RSPCA inspector said.   "It's absolutely disgusting that someone would purposely target and kill these beautiful birds, and it's heartbreaking that an entire family has been wiped out".   The Guardian newspaper said that the RSPCA is calling for better regulation of air weapons after receiving 884 calls reporting air-gun attacks on animals across England and Wales last year.  The Telegraph newspaper quotes Stephen Knight, a trustee of the Swan Sanctuary in Shepperton,  Middlesex, saying the royal birds are targeted in such attacks because of their relationship to the Queen, who owns all the unmarked swans in England and Wales that swim in open water.   Mr. Knight said: " The reason they pick on swans is because it is widely know that they belong to the Crown, so they are a symbol of the Establishment".   

Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 14, 2018

I wonder how much plastic these herons swallow?

Photo: Fachrul Reza / Barcroft Images
A siege of herons looks for food among the waste at a landfill in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Indonesia.   Reports say plastic waste in Indonesia reaches 64m tons per year.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 13, 2018

World population estimated to be over 310 million...

Photo: Vincenzo Pinto / AFP / Getty Images
murmuration of starlings flies over the Altare della Patria monument in Rome.   Authorities have enlisted falcons to scare off defecatings starlings, as the Italian capital plays host to a growing menagerie of animals including gulls, wild boars and sheep.
Please comment if you wish
BarrytheBirder

Dec 12, 2018

Pretty little thing...


       Photo above: Warren Little / Getty Images

Photo below: Bjorn Christian Torrisson
RED FODY
(Foudia madagascariensis)

A Red Fody, sometimes known as the Madagascar Fody, Red Cardinal Fody or Common Fody is a small bird native to Madagascar and introduced to various other islands in the Indian Ocean.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 11, 2018

What is the special attraction?

Photo: Anushree Fadnavis / Reuters
Seagulls flock over a man rowing down the Yamuna River, near New Delhi, in northern India.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 10, 2018

Short autumn migration in Hamburg, Germany

Photo: Focke Strangmann / EPA

MThe Swan-fatherM
The "Swanfather", Olaf Niess, corrals some of the Mute Swans on the Alstern lakes into a lock in order to catch and then carry them to their winter quarters.   Every Year in late autumn, the birds are moved to a lake nearby that is kept free of ice.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder


Dec 9, 2018

Bird species with most feathers?


                                                                                                 Photo: Ian Duffy
The EMPEROR PENGUIN
(Aptenodytes fosteri)
In the decades I've been a birder I've never asked myself which bird species has the most feathers ... until today.   Now I know.   According to Mary McCann at BirdNote, penguins can claim the current feather record, because they have a multitude of small feathers all over their bodies, and the bigger the bird - the more feathers.   The largest penguin species is the Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes fosteri).   One project counted 80,000 feathers on a single bird (nearly 60 per square inch).  That should keep them warm and dry in the harshest of cold climates.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder


Dec 8, 2018

Australian threatened bird species populations halved in 30 years...


WANDERING ALBATROSS
Photo: Graham Robertson
A Guardian newspaper story by Calla Wahlquist reports that populations of threatened bird species in Australia halved in the past 30 years, according to a new national Threatened Bird Index.   The index is part of a large data consolidation undertaken by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub, along with Queensland University and Birdlife Australia.   Over 180,000 surveys from 35 monitoring programs on 43 species that where listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered found an average population decline of 52% between 1985 and 2015.   Populations of migratory shorebird species dropped by an average of 70% over the same period.   Last month, the Living Planet Index reported a 60% decline in global animal populations since 1960.   The alarm bells continue to ring.   Are we deaf?
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 7, 2018

The Harpy Eagle...


                                                             Photo: David Tipling / Yale University Press
...longer talons than the claws of a Grizzly!
The Harpy Eagle is found in sub-tropical and tropical Central and South America.   It's likely the most powerful avian predator in the world.   It has talons longer than the claws of a Grizzly Bear.   Its conservation status is 'near threatened'.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 6, 2018

Whither Antarctica's largest protected sanctuary?

Photo: Paul Hilton / Greenpeace
A Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) displays agility at Brown's Station, Paradise Bay, in the Antarctic.   The area forms part of a proposal to create the largest protected area on the planet; an Antarctic ocean sanctuary.  China, Russia and Norway have blocked plans to create a huge new reserve in the Antarctic that would have been a sanctuary for whales and other species.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 5, 2018

Not as uncommon a sight as you might think

Photo: Brent Cizek / Audubon
Female Common Merganser and her mob
This female Common Merganser has over 50 ducklings trailing along behind her.   The first 10 or 12 behind her are likely her own but the next 40 or so are pick-ups or hitchhikers who have lost their mothers. The photographer of this picture returned a week a later and discovered the string had grown to over 70.   The missing mothers may have been preyed upon by raptors or snapping turtles, or become accidentally separated, or shot.   It is a surprisingly common occurrence. 
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 4, 2018

Welcome to Antarctica...

Photo: Stefan Christmann / NHU / BBC
Above is a four-week-old Emperor Penguin chick in Atka Bay, Antarctica.  At this age, parents will persistently encourage their young to leave the pouch and stand on their own two feet ... poor little devils.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 3, 2018

Puerto Rican Parrots pummeled...

Photo: Carlos Giusti / AP
Puerto Rican Parrots (Amazona vittata) huddle in a flight cage at the Iguaca aviary.   Biologists are trying to save the last of these endangered birds after more than half the island state's population disappeared when Hurricane Maria destroyed their natural habitat and food sources on September 20th of last year.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 2, 2018

Snow Geese take over bird sanctuary

Photo by Andrew Soong / Xinhua / Barcroft Images
100,000 Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) have congregated at the Terra Nova Bird Sanctuary in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. to feed before migrating further south to warmer areas of the US., including the states of Washington and California.   (See also blog on Nov.19th).
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Dec 1, 2018

Blood-sucking Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Photo: Veronika Patrovska Vernerova
Yellow-billed Oxpeckers (Buphagus africanus) are seen  above, on the back of a zebra in Lake Mburo National Park in Kenya.   Oxpeckers are passerine birds in sub-Sahara Africa and in several parts of the southern African continent.   They eats insects, ticks, and larvae from the backs of large wild and domesticated animals, such as cattle, antelopes, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras, etc.   They prefer however, fresh blood which they take from opens wounds on the large mammals' backs, which the creatures tolerate.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder