Military Macaw battling to carry on...

                                                                                                           Photo by Tim Flack

MILITARY MACAW

(Ara militaras)

Military Macaws are caught for the pet trade and are endangered by habitat loss.  In 2007, Defenders of Wildlife estimated that each year 78,500 birds were caught in Mexico and a quarter of their original habitat has been cleared for development.   Today, fewer than 10,000 are surviving in a dwindling habitat.   In 2008, Mexico issued an export ban on its 22 parrot species, but illegal local market sales continue.  The macaw's IUCN Red List Status is 'Vulnerable'.

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BarrytheBirder

Pigeons of New Guinea and Australia

The pigeons seen here were all photographed by Leila Jeffreys of Australia and are currently on display in at New York's Olsen Gruin Gallery.    Ms Jeffreys focuses on bird species diversity and these extraordinary colourful photos certainly belie the lowly reputation of the pigeon or rock dove.

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BarrytheBirder

Near Canterbury in south-east England

Photo: Dan Kitwood /Getty Images

Redshanks (Tringa Totanus) land at Oare Marshes in the Thames Estuary, Faversham, Kent, near Canterbury in south-east England.   The estuary offers harbour for migratory birds as well as resident birds.

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BarrytheBirder

Duck of many names...

Photo: STR/EPA

Whistling Tail Birds (Dendrocygna javanica) a.k.a. Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Indian Whistling Duck, and Lesser Whistling Teal, are photographed at Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Morigaon District, Assa, India.   With winter's onset, migratory birds have begun to arrive in north-east India.

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BarrytheBirder  

Bird photo winners

Natural History Museum, London

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017

53rd ANNUAL EXHIBITION

Photo: Gerry Pearce 

Behaviour: Birds Category

The Incubator Bird

by Gerry Pearce, UK/Australia

Most birds incubate their eggs with their bodies.   Not so the Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami), one of a handful of birds, the megapodes, that do it with an oven.   Only the males oversee incubation.   In the winning picture above, a male has chosen to create his nest-mound near the photographer's home in Sydney, bordering Garigal National Park.   If he and his mound were to a female's liking, she would lay a clutch of eggs inside.   In the photo above, the male is piling on more insulation of brush to raise the temperature.

Photo: Ekaterina Bee

10 years and younger category
The Grip of the Gulls
by Ekaterina Bee, Italy

Like all her family, five-and-a-half year old Ekaterina Bee is fascinated by nature.  On a boat trip off the coast of central Norway, her focus was on the cloud of Herring Gulls above her.   They were after food, and as soon as Ekaterina threw them bread, they surrounded her.   She liked the expression of the bird furthest away.   "It looked very curious, as if it was trying to understand what was happening on the boat.

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BarrytheBirder

Hummingbirds can be fierce or wary...

Hungriest birds in the world 

Hummingbirds aggressively defend flowers and feeders and are particularly aggressive during mating season.   They will attack many other birds, all of which are likely larger, plus animals and even humans.   National Geographic claims hummingbirds are the hungriest birds in the world.   There are other birds, animals and even insects, that pose a threat to hummingbirds.   One of the creatures that hummingbirds are particularly wary of is hornets, such as the Bald-faced Hornets pictured below.   Any hornet, wasp or bee will make a hummingbird abandon a nectar feeder. 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

Lucky South Americans...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

I sometimes think that South American birders are the most fortunate in the world.   Why?   Because every hummingbird in the world is to be found there.   There are about 325 species in the world, but they are found only in the western hemisphere.   And while eight hummingbirds species nest in North America in summer and 20 or so species visit North America, in winter they are all to be found in South America.   The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that have spent the summer in my backyard, headed south three weeks ago.   Was I sorry to see them go.   Yes.   Do I feel deprived?  No.  'Hummers' in a my garden are a joy every day I see them.   The memory of their sight and sound is with me 365 days of every year.   I am a lucky birder and I never forget it.

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BarrytheBirder

Tasmanian Shy Albatross (Thalassarche cauta cauta)

 Photo: sv-takeiteasy.com

Photo: Aleks Terauds

Concrete and mud-brick nests for 'vulnerable' bird

Naaman Zhou, writing in The Guardian, says the endangered Tasmanian Shy Albatross has embraced the idea of settling down in an artificial, specially constructed nest, according to scientists that are trying to boost its population.   A trial of nests was announced this past June to help the breeding success of the endangered species, which biologists believe are vulnerable to the environmental effects of climate change.   Hopefully, the installation of high-quality nests will help more chicks to reach adulthood.   120 nests are currently in use.   An estimated 15,000 pairs of albatrosses breed on only three remote Tasmanian islands.   Nest can weigh up to 12 kg and can be 45cm wide and 30 cm high.   The birds population plunged to only 600 birds in the 1800s as they were killed for feathers.   By 2004 they were back to 25% of their pre-exploitation numbers.

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BarrytheBirder

There are murmurations and there are murmurations...

Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters

Thousands of wading birds form a murmuration as they fly onto dry sandbanks during October's highest tide at the Was Estuary, near Snettisham in Norfolk, Britain   Some bird species, such as Starlings, can fly perfectly in a murmuration (a large flock of of birds flying closely together without touching each other), while other species try to, but with varying degrees of success.   Less intuitive and unskilled bird species can crash into and injure each other while trying to fly in large, tight, swooping formations.

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BarrytheBirder 

Alarming incident in Antarctica

Photo: WWF/PA

A colony of 18,000 pairs of Adeline Penguins in Antarctica has suffered a catastophic breeding season, with only two chicks surviving; a success rate of just .0001%.

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BarrytheBirder

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)

CARETAKER CROWS

April Overall, recently writing on behalf of the Canadian Wildlife Federation says Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds instilled a real fear of everything avian in many people; crows in particular, but that these smart birds do us a service every day.  They hang around on the sides of roads as you make your daily commute.   As you're working from 9 to 5, crows are working also, cleaning up our roads,   They happily eat roadkill, solving a messy, sometimes stinky, clean-up problem.   She recalls Canuck the Crow, a well-known Vancouver area bird, made famous for stealing evidence at a crime scene.   It was a shiny knife and Canuck the Crow took off with it.   Luckily, police spotted the theft, gave chase, and recovered the weapon.   But then if crows sometimes miss the roadkill, there are always the Turkey Vultures...are there not?  

Photos by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

Humboldt Penguins (Spheniscus humbolti)

Photo: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images

Two Humboldt Penguins, above, a threatened species that only nests in Chile and Peru, stand on the rocks at Damas Island, in front of Punta Choros Beach, Coquimbo, Chile.  There are only 12,000 pairs of Humboldt Penguins: 8,000 in Chile and 4,000 in Peru.

Photo: Wilfred Wittkowsky/Wikipedia

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BarrytheBirder

A remarkable insect...

Photo: Yuri Smityuk

hHUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTHh

A Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is seen feeding on a flower in Tottori, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, in western Japan.   These moths can be found throughout the northern 'Old World' from Portugal to Japan.  They occasionally appear on Canada's east coast, notably in Newfoundland.
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BarrytheBirder

Australian eagle attacks boy at birds of prey show

A wedge-tailed Eagle, part of a birds of prey show, at Alice Springs Park in Australia, flew at a young boy and latched onto the lad's head with its talons, instead of flying to a designated perch.   The boy received superficial wounds and was treated immediately by first aid attendants.    The eagle is Australia's largest bird of prey and was to be part of the show's finale, but when the eagle attacked the boy the event ended immediately.

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BarrytheBirder 

Australian Outback spectacle

Photos by Steven Pearce

Australian wildlife photographer Stephen Pearce captured stunning images of Budgerigars in a murmuration of up to 10,000 birds near a water hole outside Alice Springs.   Very large flocks like the one encountered by Pearce are rare.  Usually, flocks range from as few as three up to 100 birds.  The photographer said there were 7,000 to 10,000 birds over the course of a morning and they only take a few seconds to drink and take off.   The birds were also quick to take off because of predators, including falcons and kestrels.   They had increased their numbers over a few days around a waterhole after a long dry spell. 

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BarrytheBirder

Rare Puerto Rican Parrots survive hurricane.

 Photo: P.Torres/FWS

Photo: Ricardo Briones

Photo: Dennis M Rivera Pichardo

Hurricane Maria recently wiped out the only the only tropical rain forest in the US. forest system and the bird population suffered a devastating blow.   The Puerto Rican Parrot, an endangered species is of special concern.  Once numbering in the tens of thousands, the population dwindled to 13 by 1973 but conservation helped return the number of captive and wild parrots to over 500.   Seven captive birds died in Hurricane Maria, but the loss of wild parrots is unknown.

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BarrytheBirder

2017 Sony World Photography Awards

Photo: Markus Varesvuo, Finland

Peregrine catches a Ruff
2nd Place, National Awards
2017 Sony World Photography Awards

Markus Varesvuo says: 'I was photographing in a photo hide on a marsh where a pair of Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) was nesting.   The parent in the picture had just caught a prey bird, Ruff (Philomachus pugnax), and was taking its catch to chicks in the nest. 

Photo by Husain Hakim Alfraid, Saudi Arabia

Cliff view

2nd Place, National Awards

2017 Sony World Photography Awards

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BarrytheBirder

Swan ablution

Photo: Andrew Milligan / PA

A cygnet splashes in the loch at Callendar Park

FALKIRK, UK.

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BarrytheBirder

Pine Farms Orchard's ducky denizens

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Ducks are like fish...

...they don't care if they get wet

Seen here are the Muscovy Ducks at the Pine Farms Orchard, two days after Thanksgiving Day, and although it rained all day, these big birds were happy to be out of their pens and wandering around to look for and seize any tasty-looking morsel.

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BarrytheBirder

Southern migration takes wing...

BIRD WATCHER
by Jane Yolen

 Across the earless
face of the moon
a stretch of Vs
honks homeward.
From the lake
laughs the last joke
of a solitary loon.
Winter silences us all.
I will miss
these conversations, 
the trips at dawn
and dusk,
where I listen carefully,
then answer
only with my eyes.

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if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Pacific Loon on Lake Simcoe

Photo: Robert Royce

Frank Pinilla reports on eBird Checklist a Pacific Loon at Minet's Point, near Barrie on Lake Simcoe, last Thursday, October 5, at 12.39 p.m.   That's about 1,400 kms. from the south coast of Hudson's Bay, which is normally the farthest east Pacific Loons are found in Ontario.   Neat sighting.
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BarrytheBirder

Also known as 'Pinkfoot' or 'Pinkfeet' (plural)

 Photo: Steve Round

Pink-footed Goose

(Anser  brachyrhynchus)

Pink-footed Geese take off (above) to feed from the Montrose Basin in Scotland.   Staff and volunteers at the Scottish Wildlife Trust have recorded more than 60,000 geese arriving to spend the winter in the reserve.   Although there are other species of geese with pink feet, the Pink-footed Goose is best identified by its very short beak (see blow).

Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell

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BarrytheBirder

Study says cats kill 1 million Australian birds a day

Photo: The Guardian

Number is 'staggering' say researchers

The Australian Associated Press says more then 1 million native Austrlian birds are killed across the country by cats every day, new research shows.   The published study estimates feral cats kill 316 million birds a year, while pet cats kill 61 million birds annually; of which more than 99% are native species.   Everyone knows that cats kill birds, but this study shows that, at a national level, the amount of predation is staggering, and is likely to be driving the decline of many species.  Scientists estimate that there are about 11 billion native birds across the country, suggesting cats kill about 4% of the population every year.   Records were found of cats killing 338 species of native birds, of which 71 were threatened species, which amounts to about 60% of the threatened species in Australia.   Feral cats now cover 99.8% of Australia.   And this is just one country in the world.

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BarrytheBirder

When is a bird not a bird? ...when it's a Little Red Flying Fox.

 Photo: Glenn Campbell / AAP

Photo: Renee Tick / the zoo illustration

A colony of Little Red Flying Foxes is to be found in the Nitmiluk National Park, at the mouth of the Katherine Gorge in the North Territory, Australia.   An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Little Red Flying Foxes call the park home, as they follow blossoming eucalypts (large flowering evergreen trees) around the country.

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BarrytheBirder

Dusky Moorhen ~ Gallinula tenebrosa

Photo by Lukas Koch / AAP

A Dusky Moorhen is seen at the 2017 Floriade Flower Show in Canberra, Australia.   Floriade is celebrating its 30th anniversary, down-under, and is open from September 16 to October 15.   The first Dusky Moorhen was seen and described officially in Australia in 1846 and is now found in Borneo, India, Indonesia, New Guinea, as well as Australia.
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BarrytheBirder 

Flamingos in Turkey

Photo: Cem Oksuz / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Flamingos are seen above flying over the Aegean Sea during their migration period in Izmir, Turkey.   I'm never sure how I should describe the appearance of the flamingo.   In one moment I can see them as spectacular creatures in colour and form, and then, a moment later, they strike me as somewhat awkward and ungainly.   I am of course always delighted to see them in person, even if not as often as I would prefer.

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BarrytheBirder

Bearded Tit Warblers ~ Panurus biarmircus

Photo: Robin Chittenden / Alamy

Bearded Tit Warblers live and feed almost exclusively

hanging on to reeds above wetlands, as pictured above in Norfolk, England.   There are almost a million of these birds in Europe alone, and across their range are cited by the I.U.C.N. as of 'least concern'.

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BarrytheBirder

Photo: Conrad Tan