Cute and beautiful...

                                                                            Photo: Phichak / Alamy Stock Photo

A Yellow-bellied Fairy Fantail (Chelidorhynx hypoxanthus) is seen perched on a tree branch in Thailand.   It is also found in Vietnam and Myanmar, the Indian subcontinent, the Himalayas and other portions of southeast Asia.

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BarrytheBirder

Goldfinches do converge at our feeders...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

The number of American Goldfinches at our backyard bird feeders has always been big throughout the year, for many years.   The photo above gives evidence of their prolificness.   I've arrived late at some Project Feederwatch data from The Cornell Lab and Bird Studies Canada that shows just how abundant they are compared to the top 25 feeder birds in this part of our world.   While Black-capped Chickadees visit the most sites, on average, their group size at each site is not large.   Meanwhile House Sparrows have larger group sizes at the feeders they frequent, but rank below 50% on number of sites visited.   The third category is called the Feederwatch Abundance Index and the American Goldfinch is at the top of that category.   What a joy to see masses of this special bird.

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BarrytheBirder     

Do Ravens really have beaks that big? They sure do...

 Photos by Nancy and Bob Wallace

My brother Bob and his dear wife Nancy, who live just north of Parry Sound, were introduced to a tame Raven recently and came away with a few pictures of their new friend.   Their impression of this bird, named 'Bella', is one of amazement, because of its vocabulary, friendliness, curiosity, intelligence and keenness for shiny gifts.   Bob gave Bella a couple of coins which she promptly took and buried a short distance away.   Bella lives with a family of folks who are acquaintances of Bob and Nancy, or just maybe the acquaintances live with the beguiling Bella.

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BarrytheBirder

What's that on your beak, Mr. Goldfinch?

Photo by Barry Wallace

I've never noticed an American Goldfinch before with the uniquely coloured and patterned beak, like the male above.   American Goldfinch beaks are usually a somewhat pale, pinkish-orange colour, but the one above has black bars on its beak ... somewhat interesting.   Photo taken at one of our backyard feeders.
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BarrytheBirder

Biodiversity hot-spots unprotected...

Photo: Andrew Coleman / NG / Alamy

An elephant seal and a petral chick are seen on South Georgia Island, a British overseas territory.   The UN patron for the oceans blames England's Boris Johnson for failing to protect biodiversity hot-spots, such as South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, when he was foreign secretary. 

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BarrytheBirder

British researchers say...

Photo: DGD Images / Alamy

A robin perches on a spade handle in a garden on a rainy day in Lixwm, northern Wales.   Researchers have said this past week that when European robins are subjected to human-produced noise, their behaviour changes.

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BarrytheBirder

An oriole of Asia...

Photo: Kim Jae-Sun /EPA

A Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) feeds its chicks in Namyangju, South Korea.  This passerine bird in the oriole family is found in many parts of Asia and it is one of about 60 species in the world.

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BarrytheBirder

Female Baltimore Orioles...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

I got so excited at having many Baltimore Orioles in the backyard over the last few weeks, that I realize now that the pictures I put in this blog space were all male birds.   I did of course take pictures of females and I am now giving them equal opportunity to show their own beauty.

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BarrytheBirder

A perilous situation...

Photo: Ross Henry / Alamy

The world's fattest parrot, the endangered Kakapo, could be wiped out by fungal infection.   Seven of the birds, native to New Zealand, have died, with just 142 adults remaining.

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BarrytheBirder

Big nest for a big chick...

Photo: Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

A 6-week-old White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), also known as a Sea Eagle,  sits on its nest at Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. It has just been vaccinated.   The White-tailed Eagle is the largest raptor in the United Kingdom, as well as in many other parts of the world.  200 years ago is was extirpated in the UK., but made a remarkable come-back.

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comment 
if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

A quizzical look?

                                                                                Photo: Phichak / Alamy Stock Photo

This Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) is perched and seems to be pondering what is to be seen by looking into the distance in Thailand.

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BarrytheBirder

This cozy group looks like Mallards to me...

Photo: Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

A duck and her ducklings are seen swimming in the River Svisloch in Minsk, central Belarus.   I know very little about Belarus waterfowl, but this charming family looks like Mallards to me.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

A Cattle Egret can be elegant...

Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

A Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) is seen at Lake Van, in the far east of of Turkey.   It is found around the world in the tropics, sub-tropics and warm-temperate zones.

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BarrytheBirder

Keeping it in perspective...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

There is an eagle in me 

that wants to soar,

and there is a hippopotamus 

in me that wants 

to wallow in the mud.

                                                           -- Carl Sandburg

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Warblers in our cedar hedge...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Black-throated Green Warbler (immature)

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Canada Warbler

American Redstart (female)

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BarrytheBirder

'Good morning' ... at the kitchen window

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female)

Archilochus colubris

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BarrytheBirder

Life goes on...

Photo: Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images

An egret flies over a mangrove at sunrise near Banda Aceh, on Sumatra in Indonesia, where over 170,000 people were killed in the 2004 tsunami that was created by a massive earthquake.

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BarrytheBirder

"In London, you say..."

                                                                                                    Photo: Ilyas Ayub / Alamy

A Ring-necked Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) is seen in central London, in England, where the species has become well-established, to the surprise of many.   The ring-necked, or rose-ringed, parakeet, is the United Kingdom's most naturalized parrot.   It became established in the wild in the 1970s after captive birds were released or escaped.   They are able to survive British winters with the help of garden feeders.
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BarrytheBirder

"I'm coming...I'm coming..."

Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft

A Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) feeds its young at a nest with a front door and a back door, in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, largest city in northeastern China.

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BarrytheBirder

Young European Starlings are insatiable...

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Young starlings are as big as their parents but will not feed themselves.   Parents providing a constant supply of seeds from the feeders are harassed by as many as four or five of their offspring at the same time.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

First juvenile Starling ...ever ...anywhere

Photo by BarrytheBirder

EUROPEAN STARLING

(Sturnus vulgaris)

In all my years as a birder, I have never seen a juvenile European Starling ... until today.   It appeared with a group of adult birds and was being fed by, what I assumed, were its two parents.   It was the same size as the parent birds, but it refused to feed itself, even when sitting on top of a feeder (see photo below).   It was quite aggressive and demanding about being fed.   It was dusky brown in colour with a pale throat, short tail, and a long beak, like its parents. 

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Another foreboding of the planet's future?

Photo: Danita Delimont  / Alamy

Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) are seen preening on a cliff.   A study found between 3,150 and 8,500 seabirds died over a four-month period from October 2016 in the Bering Sea, probably as a result of climate breakdown.

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BarrytheBirder

Bee-eaters are so colourful - there must be a reason...

Photo: Ronald Wittek / EPA

European Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) gather on Trees branches in Lambsheim, Germany, where at least 239 pairs have been spotted.   In summer, they are one of Europe's most colourful birds, but they winter in tropical Africa.
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BarrytheBirder

Big eaglets may not be ready to hunt yet...

Photo: P.J. Hahn / AP

Eaglets are seen sitting in a large backyard nest, in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, USA, while one of their Bald Eagle parents leaves the nest.

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BarrytheBirder

Even its leg appears to be white...

Photo: Phil Wilkinson

A 'one-in-a-million' albino House Sparrow has been spotted in a Scottish border town.

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BarrytheBirder

From a Guardian picture essay...

 Dalmation Pelican by Helmut Moik

Snowy Owl by Vincent Munier

Images pictured above are just two of previous winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.  The images appear in a book by Rosamund Kidman Cox, published by the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, London, England.

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BarrytheBirder

Godwits get it...

Photo: Mark Whiffen / Project Godwit / RSPB

Black-tailed Godwits, hand-reared at WWT Welney, Norfolk, UK, after their eggs were freed from muddy farmland, have flown thousands of miles home for the summer.   Experts were doubtful the eggs, found encased in dirt, would hatch.   The birds were released on the Fens before flying south for the winter.   The rare waders, named Estragon and Dill, join 16 other Black-tailed Godwits which have returned to where they raised as part of Project Godwit - a partnership between WWT and the RSPB, now in its third year.

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BarrytheBirder

A.K.A. 'diablotin'

                                                                                        Photo Kate Sutherland / USFWS

Pictured above is a Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata)  off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA.   An international team of seabird experts has captured Black-capped Petrels for the first time.   Ten were banded and released with transmitters as part of an effort to prevent the extinction of the 'Little Devil', as this bird is known on its Caribbean nesting grounds.

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BarrytheBirder

Hundreds of years later in Britain...

                                                                                                         Photo: Nick Upton

A White Stork pair is seen arranging nest material in an oak tree on the Knepp Estate, West Sussex, UK.   The pair could become the first wild pair to successfully breed in Britain for hundreds of years.   The enormous birds are brooding three eggs on the re-wilded estate as part of a project to re-introduce the species to south-east England.

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BarrytheBirder

Pacific island home to 3 million birds...

Photo: Dan Clark / USFWS

Black-footed Albatrosses

The  US government plans to strafe Midway Island with poison aimed at eradicating mice that are rampaging through one of the world's most important sites for seabirds.   Each year, albatrosses return to the same nesting spot to meet their mates where they spend time getting re-acquainted through billing and dancing rituals, after spending a year apart, at sea. The area is home to three million seabirds, including the largest colony of albatrosses in the world.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder