We have to stop meeting like this.....

                                                                       Photo by Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images

A bird rests on the head of a White-tailed Deer roaming free and presumably minding its own business, in San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador.

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BarrytheBirder

Loons near your cottage?

Photo: Brian Lasenby / Shutterstock

Spot them...once a month for three months

If you spend a least one day a month in June, July and August on a lake with loons, you can easily participate in Bird Studies Canada's Canadian Lakes Loon Survey.   Just visit the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey web page or contact Canadian Lakes Loon Survey Coordinator Kathy Jones at volunteer@birds.canada.org.   Chick numbers are decreasing and surveying is a simple and important way to understand why.

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BarrytheBirder   

Back from the brink...

                                                                             Photo: Jacques de Speville / IUCN

Mauritius Kestrel

(Falco punctatus)

44 years ago, the endangered Mauritius Kestrel was near extinction, with just four known birds, including one breeding female.   Conservation efforts included captive breeding, extra feeding, nest-site improvements and predator control.  Today, with a population of approximately 400 birds, this conservation achievement is cited as one of the most successful bird species reclamation projects in the world.

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BarrytheBirder

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed...

Photo: Tom Stables / Comedy Wildlife Photo.com

2016 comedy Wildlife Photo finalist

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BarrytheBirder

Ever-opportunistic gulls...

Photo: Don Emmert AFP / Getty Images

A gull stands on the rostrum of a feeding Humpback Whale, while other gulls fly and paddle about hoping to snatch Sand Eels, in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, near Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

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BarrytheBirder

What a wingspan!

Photo: Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty Images

A Black-eared Kite (Milvus migrans lineatus) catches a fish from a pond at the Zoological Park in New Delhi, India.   In addition to a broad wingspan, note the black circles around the eyes.   This feature is also referred to as 'dark ear coverts' of a 'dark mask'...a somewhat distinctive feature.
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BarrytheBirder

Closely related to the Black Butcherbird...

 Photo above: Genevieve Vallee / Alamy

Immature Australian Magpies (top) are seen in New South Wales, Australia. They are also found in New Zealand, southern New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Scientists have found that the magpies can understand other birds calls. I wonder if that means they merely recognize other birds calls or do they know the meanings of other birds' calls.

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BarrytheBirder

Elegant teamwork...

Photo: STR/EPA

A pair of Egrets build their nest in the Panbazar area, on the banks of the Brahmaputa River in the sprawling city of Guwahati, in northeastern India.
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BarrytheBirderTeamwork

One of the world's most formidable birds...

Photo: Maxmilian Hornisch

The annual competition of the Society of German Wildlife Photographers, which showcases talented European Union photographers, has chosen its 2018 winner: German photographer Maxmilian Hornisch's image of a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).   The photo (above) was the overall winner and first place in the birds category.   A description of the winning image states: 'Temperatures are rising, the snow melts and water slowly cuts its way down into the valley ... The Golden Eagle floats in through the retreating veil looking for winter's leftovers ... Numerous avalanches in the mountains have taken their toll, offering the Golden Eagles a generous supply of food after the snow is gone ... Two days later there was going to be new snow, heavily restricting the Golden Eagle's food supply once more'.

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BarrytheBirder

Green Peafowl endangered in Cambodia...

Photo: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images

GREEN PEAFOWL

(PAVO MUTICUS)

A large Green Peafowl (a.k.a. peacock) is seen on a parked delivery van in a street of Phnom Penh in Cambodia.  Nearby residents say the bird is an escaped pet.   The I.U.C.N. classifies these peafowl as endangered in Cambodia with rapidly declining populations due to diminishing forest and hunting, which might explain this startling photo in a busy urban setting.

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BarrytheBirder

Stilts are found around the world...

Photo: Mei Yongcun / Barcroft Images

MBlack-winged StiltM

(Himantopus himantopus)

Two Black-winged Stilts rest on a shoal near Anhai town at Jinjiang City, in China's Fujan Province.   In addition to the Black-winged Stilt, there are five other species and two sub-species of stilts found all over the world, including North and South America, Hawaii, Europe,  Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia.

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BarrytheBirder

Time for cygnets to hatch...

Photo: Graham Hunt / Alamy

MAbbotsbury SwanneryM

The first of this year's cygnets have hatched at Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset, England.  I have never come across the word swannery before.  What a great sound is has!   Of course it is simply defined as a place for breeding swans, but for me there is something about the word swannery  that suggests things like elegance, verve, stylishness and flair, etc., etc.  However, I'm sure I will probably never actually use the wonderful word swannery in my normal course of routine.
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BarrytheBirder

Hey! I'm talking to you...

Photo: Shivang Mehta / Alamy

A Chinkara or Indian Gazelle is seen getting an earful from a Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) bird in Ranthambore National Park, famous for its tigers in northern India.   A Rufous Treepie is a member of the crow family.
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BarrytheBirder

A scene that speaks of China...

Photo: Shi Guangde / Xinhua / Barcroft Images

The Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes), a.k.a. Swinhoe's Egret, is a vulnerable species in Eastern Asia, due to habitat loss.   As many as 3,400 individuals can still be found breeding in China, the Koreas and far eastern Russia.

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BarrytheBirder

Plastic and rubber fatal for shearwater

Photo: Denise Hardesty / CSIRO / AP

A dead shearwater lies upon a table next to a plastic straw and pieces of red balloon found inside it.   It was discovered on North Stradebroke Island, off the coast of Brisbane, Australia; more and more a scene found around the world.

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BarrytheBirder

Only 100 of these birds left on earth...

Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

JAVAN GREEN MAGPIE

( Cissa thalassina)

A hidden keeper uses a puppet to feed a 43-day-old Javan Green Magpie at the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic.  The bird, which is endemic to the Indonesian island of Java, is one of the most critically endangered birds on earth.   As few as 100 are believed to be left in the world.   Wikipedia states that in the wild, Javan Green Magpies dye themselves bright green by eating green insects that contain a yellow pigment called lutein.   When kept in cages, their colour can change from green to blue due to inadequate diet.

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BarrytheBirder

Cranes with breeding in mind...

Photo:Michael Tatman / Alamy Stock Photo

SANDHILL CRANES

(Antigone canadensis)

Two Sandhill Cranes are seen performing a mating dance among Canada Geese, in Rookery View Park, Wauwau, Wisconsin, USA.   It is estimated that just over 1/2 million Sandhill Cranes exist in North America.
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BarrytheBirder

Getting ready to make love...

                                                                           Photo: Maxim Malinovsky / AFP / Getty Images

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                              Photo by Aconcagua

   

BLACK GROUSE
(Tetra tatrix) 

A Black Grouse (above), a.k.a. Blackgame or Blackcock, performs courtship rituals in a field near the village of Lovchitsy, in Belarus.

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BarrytheBirder 

Oppoprtunistic crow in China

Photo: Feature China / Barcroft Images

FINDING EXCELLENT NESTING MATERIALS

A cheeky and enterprising crow plucks chunks of fur,  for its nest in a zoo, from the rear end of a recumbent Panda in Beijiang, China.

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BarrytheBirder

Mrs. Moreau's Warbler...

                                                                          Photo: Dr. Neil Burgess

WWhat makes a bird memorable?W

Consider Mrs. Moreau's Warbler (Scepomycter winifredae)

1.  Discovered in 1938 and declared monotypic.

2.  Also known as Winifred's Warbler.

3.  Discovered by ornithologist Reginald Moreau in the         
     montane forest of the Uluguru Mountains of Tanzania.
4.  Reginald named the bird after his wife, Winifred Moreau.
5.  I.U.C.N. listed as 'Vulnerable' - threatened by habitat loss.
6.  Birdlife International says may be only 500 birds left.
7. The Rubeho Warbler, identified in 2009, in the Rubeho-    
     Ukaguru Mountains of Tanzania, is closely related and 
     the combined species are both labelled as 'Vulnerable' by
     I.U.C.N
Source: The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World (6th edition), Cornell University Press.

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BarrytheBirder

Amazing instinct and timing...as usual

Photos by BarrytheBirder

First 'hummer' arrives May 10 ... as predicted

Spring's first Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrived in the backyard yesterday, May 10th, as they usually do every year, for the last 10 years or so.   I was beginning to wonder because of the strange weather so far this spring.   Just minutes before the arrival of the 'hummer', two striking Rose-breasted Grosbeaks showed up at the feeders (see photo below).   If that wasn't enough, a short time later the first Pine Siskin of the spring showed up (bottom photo).   What with an Indigo Bunting and Northern Oriole earlier this week, it's been a colourful few days.

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BarrytheBirder

First Indigo Bunting arrives at backyard feeder...

Photo: David Bree / Macauley Library / Cornell University

My wife and I were pleased to see the first Indigo Bunting of the spring, at the feeders on Wednesday of this week.  It did appear to be intimidated by the crowd of goldfinches however, and the visit was short.   The 'Indigo' did beat the arrival of Red-throated Hummingbirds, which normally show up on May 10.   The 'hummers' may be a day or so late this year.

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BarrytheBirder 

A Robin in Germany...

Photo: Karl-Joseph Hildenbrand / AFP / Getty

A Robin (Erithacus rubecula), a.k.a. Robin Redbreast in Britain, sits on a Tinder Fungus, growing from a tree in the Trettachtal Valley, near Oberstdorf, in southern Germany.  Tinder Fungus is also known as Hoof Fungus, Tinder Conk and Ice Man Fungus, and is found around the world. 
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BarrytheBirder

Spring 2018's first Northern Oriole arrives...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Warmly welcomed on May 5

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BarrytheBirder

Encounter in Cape Town...

Photo: Nic Bothma /EPA

"Are you from around here?"

An African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), above right, interacts with a Cape Cormorant (Phalacrocorax capensis), above left,  on Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa.  If the cormorant appears to be looking askance at the penguin, it may be because the African Penguin, a.k.a. 'jackass penguin' has a donkey-like bray.

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BarrytheBirder

40 million vultures poisoned...

 Photos: 2018 Whitley Awards

The Whitley Awards for Nature Conservation have been made for 2018.  One of the six award recipients recognized by the Whitley Fund for Nature was Manir Virani, a raptor biologist who is working to preserve endangered vultures in Africa's Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.   Varani left a promising cricket career to begin his project in 2003, following the Asian vulture crisis, which saw 40 million vultures poisoned by a now-banned anti-inflammatory  and pain killing drug used in cattle.   Winners are provided with funds to enhance their conservation projects.

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BarrytheBirder

Moa Bird by Daniel Louis Munday (1867)

Photo: Estate of Harry Callahan

- courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

Julius Haast stands among the skeletal remains he unearthed of several Moa Birds.   Haast was, by all accounts, a dashing figure in mid-19th century New Zealand.   The 6 ft. tall, robust and gregarious German geologist, stumbled (perhaps literally) upon the greatest collection of Moa bones, near the town of of Glenmark Station in 1866.

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BarrytheBirder

Some of us know how much a fishing hook injury hurts

Photo:James D. Morgan / Getty Images

A penguin from the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, is released at Shelly Beach in Sydney, Australia, after being nursed back to health, following a fishing hook injury.   The hospital is located at Mosman, New South Wales, on the north shore of Sydney Harbour.

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BarrytheBirder

The charm of 'hummers'...

                                                                                                                     Photo by Dave Kemp      

Photo: Pedro Lastra / Flicker

While waiting for the first of 2018 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to grace the nectar feeders in my backyard in King City, north of Toronto, I revisted the superb photo above of an Anna's Hummingbird taken by my British Columbian friend, Dave Kemp.   I'm sure Dave has already spotted more than one hummingbird species already this spring, on Canada's west coast.   At left is a photo showing what a male Anna's Hummingbird looks like.

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BarrytheBirder

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Photos by Barry Wallace

Cooper's Hawk dines on Mourning Dove

Our backyard is a favourite spot for Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks to take down Mourning Doves, on the ground, below the bird feeders.   The Hawk pictured here, on this occasion, was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.   It is about 4" longer than a similar-looking Sharp-shinned Hawk, and it is often tricky to tell them apart, unless they are side by side (almost never).   The Cooper's Hawk has one distinguishing feature however.   It is the white band at the tip of its tail (see photo at left, below - and at bottom).   'Sharp-shins' do not have that white band.

This juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk spent over an hour devouring its catch, before taking off with one small remaining morsel.    It should be full for a couple of days.

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BarrytheBirder

A United Nations peacock in flight...

Photo: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty Images

U.N. peacocks in Switzerland

An Indian Peacock, or Peafowl (Raro cristatus) roams over the grounds of the United Nations of Geneva offices in the Ariana Park, in Geneva, Switzerland.   The peacocks have full access to the big 46-hectare park, with a splendid view of lake Geneva.   Most of the peacocks were donated to the UNOG in 1997 by a zoo in Japan.   Others were a gift from Permanent Mission in India.   Park gardeners take care of and feed the fowl.
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BarrytheBirder