An acquired taste...

Photo: Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

An African Snake Eagle chick eats a snake, its favourite food, on a nest in a forest, near the village of Yanovichi, Belarus.

Clever crows at one of world's most-acclaimed theme parks...

Photo:Sebastien Salom Gomis / AFP / Getty Images

Two crows have been trained to collect cigarette butts and other rubbish at Puydu Fou theme park in France.  The crows receive treats for their caretaking efforts.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder 

Cozy parakeets...

                                                                                          Photo: Care2 Website

This photo was labelled a 'Cuddle Puddle'

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Hummingbird haiku...

hummingbird flying

high speed stillness in the air

nourishing flowers

                                                             -- Arno Muhren

                                                                                       Photos by BarrytheBirder

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Australian Geographic Bird Photographer of the Year

...more winners

Attention to Detail Category Winner

Western Crowned-pigeon (Goura cristata)

Photo: David Easton

Attention to Detail Category Silver Award

Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Photo: Alan Price

Attention to Detail Category Bronze Award

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)

Photo: Mario Suarez Porras

Best Portfolio Winner
Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja)
Photo: Petr Bambousek

Best Portfolio Winner
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)
Photo: Petr Bambousak

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Australian Geographic Bird Photographer of the Year

...more winners

Bird in Flight Category Winner

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Photo: Sienna Anderson

Bird in Flight Category Bronze Award

Northern Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)

Photo: Roelof Molenaar

Garden and Urban Birds Category Winner

European Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

Photo: Nikos Bukas

Garden and Urban Bird Bronze Award Winner

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

Photo: Kevin Sawford

More winners tomorrow

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Australian Geographic Bird Photographer of the Year

...more winners

Best Portrait Category

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)

Photo: Saverio Gatto

Best Portrait Silver Award Winner

Common Snipe (Galanago galanago)

Photo: Roelof Molenaar

Best Portrait Bronze Award Winner

Grey Heron (Ardea cineria)

Photo: Ivan Sjogren 

Birds in the Environment Category Winner

Common Ostrich (Struthio Ostrich)

Photo: Salvador Colvee

Birds in the Environment Category Silver Award

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)

Photo: Mario Suarez Porras

Birds in the Environment Category Bronze Award
Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus)
Photo: Petr Bambousek

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Australian Geographic Bird photographer of the Year

...more winners

2018 Bird Photographer of the Year Winner

and Creative Imagery Category Winner

American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

Photo: Pedro Jarque Krebs

Creative Imagery Category Silver Award
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
Photo: Fahad Alenezi

Creative Imagery Category Bronze Award
Adelie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
Photo: Martin Grace

Bird Behaviour Category Winner 
and People's Choice Award Winner
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus)
Photo: Richard Shucksmith
  

Bird Behaviour Silver Award Winner
Cabotis Tern (Thalasseus acuflavidus)
Photo: Petr Bambousek

Bird Behaviour Category Bronze Award
Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)
Photo: Thomas Chadwick

    ' A robin snatches a worm'

   Photo: Nick Bukas

More winning photos tomorrow

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Australian Geographic Bird Photographer of the Year

Photographers of various ages and skill levels have entered the 2018 competition and four photos showing birds from 'Down Under' are pictured here.

'Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo preening'

Photo: Kirsten Woodforth

'The Pollinator'

Photo: Kim Wormald 

'On the brink of extinction'

Photo: Ofer Levy 

'Penguin vs. the world'

Photo: Andrew Peacock

More to follow tomorrow...

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Turkish flamingos casting shadows...

Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images

An aerial view shows flamingos standing in Lake Tuz during their incubation period in Aksaray, Turkey.   Flamingos normally lay one egg and incubation begins shortly afterwards and lasts 27 to 31 days.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

'The Glorious Twelfth'

                                                                                             Photo: Owen Humphreys / PA 

Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotius) are seen on Jervaulx Moor, North Yorkshire, as the 2018 grouse hunting season got underway.   The season ('Glorious Twelfth') traditionally begins on August 12th, but was a day later this year because shooting on a Sunday is prohibited...God forbid!  Too bad every day of the week isn't a Sunday.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder 

Female Baltimore Orioles...

...at the feeder

   

...in the wild

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Problem: fewer grouse ~ Answer: keep shooting them

Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images

A dog retrieves a grouse shot on the first day of the season on Forneth Moor at Dunkeld, Scotland.  Gamekeepers are looking at a poor grouse shooting season in 2018 due to a cold March, followed by a very hot summer which has affected the number of birds breeding successfully.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Problem parrot...

Photo: Rex / Shutterstock

A parrot stuck on a roof for three days greeted rescuing firefighters with a tirade of of four-letter words.   Jessie, the multilingual Macaw, escaped from her owner's home in Edmonton, north London.   Some times our feathered friends do deserve the nickname 'birdbrain'.   But then who taught Jessie the four-letter words?

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Red-crowned Crane ~ National Bird of China

Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

RED-CROWNED CRANE

(Grus japonensis)

A staff member trains Red-crowned Cranes to fly at the crane breeding and wilderness centre of the Zhalong state-level nature reserve in Qiqihar, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.   A total of 58 of them were hatched in the centre by July of this year.   Staff members are training them to fly, hunt and survive and then release them to join the wild crane population and migrate with them.   The Zhalong Nature Reserve covers 2,100 sq. km. and began  almost 40 years ago in 1979.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Flamingos seem comfortable at 7,500 ft. in Turkish highlands

Photo: Ali Ihsan Osturk / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Flamingos, in this case (Oenicopterus ruber roseus) are pictured standing in Akgol, a lake situated at an altitude of 2320m in the Ozalp District of Turkey's eastern Van Province.

Please comment if you wish.

Barrythe Birder

Citizens researchers down-under...

Photo: Tony Zuvela / Alamy Stock Photo

Australian environmental scientists are increasingly calling on private citizens to help them with their research and to collect data on wildlife, such as the Queensland male Fairy Wren (Malurus cyaneus), pictured above.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

One of Serbia's largest birds...

Photo: Djordje Savic / EPA

GRIFFON VULTURE

(Gyps fulvus)

Gryphon Vultures, a.k.a. Eurasian Vultures, feed on dead animals, including the occasional human who has died or been killed accidentally in remote locales.  The ones pictured above feed on dead animals in the reserve at Uvac Lake, 350 km southwest of Belgrade, Serbia.   Over 500 specimens of the Griffon Vulture inhabit the stonewalls above the reserve.   With a wingspan of up to 300 cm, they are some of the country's largest birds.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Purple Heron shows up in Somerset...

 Photo: Jamie-MacArthur

   A Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) made a rare visit to southern Britain recently where it was spotted from a hide at Noah's Lake, on the Avalon Marshes, in Somerset.   Deep purple shading is usually seen on the bird's back.   It normally breeds in Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia.
   

Photo: Steve Garvie

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Goldfinches missing in action...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

...while they raise a second brood

Our backyard has no American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) at the feeders this week.   We are in a part of Canada where this 'American Canary' ( as it is nicknamed by many for its complex warbled singing), is busy raising a second brood of the summer.   The two broods normally occur between July and September.  The photo below shows how bountiful and colourful  they are for half the year before turning a somewhat drabber colour during the winter.   They are my favourite bird at the feeders. 

Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder   

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Photo: Dan Clark / USFWS /Pacific Region

The remains of a Black-footed Albatross chick (Diomedea nigripes) with plastic waste in its belly is seen on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

An intimate but not so private moment...

Photo: Arradolu Agency / Getty Images

Flamingos in Turkey's Van province

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Photographed south of Australia...

    Photo: Barbara Walton / EPA

SCARLET

ROBIN

(Petroica multicolor)

...photo above taken

 in Kayena,

northern Tasmania

Photo: Margaret Leggoe

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder