Two of my favourites from Audubon's 2018 Top 100 bird photos...

                                                                                                   Photo: Jacob McGinnis

I have never seen a photograph, or a live specimen,  of  a Golden-crowned Kinglet that looked anything like the  male pictured above by Jacob McGinnis, which he photographed at Cottage Lake Park in Woodinville, Washington.   I always saw this tiny bird's crown patch as a sliver of orange and yellow, if any colour was visible at all.

                                                                                               Photo: Bobby R. Harrison

Another one of Audubon's 2018 top 100 bird photos is the Snowy Egret, pictured above, by photographer Bobby R. Harrison, at St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida.   I feel that egrets have no idea that no other bird species can replicate the drama of their aigrette plumes.

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BarrytheBirder

Give a goldfinch seeds and a smile...

                                                                                      Photo and haiku by BarrytheBirder

such a puffy breast

for a finch so very small

 wee winter warrior

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BarrytheBirder

Kidnapped penguins found and returned to zoo...

Photo: The Guardian

Two Humboldt penguins, stolen from a zoo in Nottinghamshire, England, have been found two months later and returned to safety.   A 22-year-old man was arrested in connection with the theft.   Taking the penguins to the local police detachment caused quite a stir and then great amusement for all involved.   All's well that ends well...at least if you're a penguin or a 'copper'.

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BarrytheBirder

World's biggest chicken species...

Photo: Backyard Chickens.com

The JERSEY GIANT

This chicken species resulted from cross-breeding in the United States in the mid-1800s.   It quickly evolved to the point where it weighed upwards of 20 pounds and was seen as a substitute for turkeys.  These days, the normal weight is between 12 and 15 pounds.

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BarrytheBirder

Winter foraging in central Europe....

Photo : Attila Kovacs / EPA

A Great Tit (Parus major) centre, and two European Green Finches (Carduelis chloris)  pick seeds from a withered sunflower during snowfalls, near Pilisszentkereszt, north-west of of Budapest, Hungary. 

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Barry Wallace

"This will only take a second, little fella..."

Photo: Rungroj Yongrit / EPA

Concerned wildlife officials are seen extracting a captured Barn Swallow from a mist nest, during a routine health check program in Bangkok, Thailand.
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BarrytheBirder

Getting a close-up...

Photo: Department of Conservation

A Northern Royal Albatross inspects the New Zealand Department of Conservation's 'Royal Cam', a live-stream that documents an albatross nest in breeding season.

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BarrytheBirder

Full Moa skeletons sell for $20,000 to $50,000

                                                                  Photo: Alpha Historica / Alamy Stock Photo

Paleontologists are pleading with the government of New Zealand to halt the trade in the priceless bones of the extinct moa bird, stating that millions of years of science is disappearing as entire skeletons are disassembled and sold on the internet or smuggled overseas.    Moas, giant flightless birds which stood up to 3.6m tall, were native to New Zealand about 500 to 600 years ago.   Although it is illegal to collect or sell bones from public conservation lands, looters routinely plunder caves and swamps for bones, which in their entirety can be sold for $20,000 to $50,000, or between $70 and $350 for a single bone.   When moa bones are lost, so too is the rich DNA and scientific data they hold.

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BarrytheBirder

Decline of puffins in England...

Photo: Paul Kingston / NNP / National Trust

The 'Puffin Census' commenced this week on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast of north-eastern England.   Numbers on puffins on these islands have been plummeting for the the last few years and it is thought that global warming is the cause.   North Atlantic Puffins are found primarily in and around Iceland where they number in the millions.

Photo: Tracy Carlton

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BarrytheBirder

"Damned poor view of the beach from here..."

Photo: Sergen Sezgin / Anadolou Agency / Getty Images

An injured flamingo is housebound, and probably bored, at Bursa in the far north-western corner of Turkey, while it recovers after being rescued at Yenikoy Beach on the Black Sea.
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BarrytheBirder  

Cleanliness is next to godliness...

Photo: JohnathonPlant

Almost all birds, including the moorhen (above) in Staffordshire, England, seem to spend almost as much time, out of necessity, preening their feathers as they do feeding.

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BarrytheBirder

Magpies in China...

 Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

Photo: La Paz Group

Above, a Red-billed Blue Magpie (Urocissa

erythroryncha) eats berries in Xiuhu Park in Jinhua, China.

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if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus)

  Holland Marsh ~ 2015  /  Photo by BarrytheBirder

  'Ah, bitter chill it was!

  The owl, for all its feathers, was a-cold..."

The Eve of St. Agnes ~ John Keats 1819

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BarrytheBirder

A snack in the offing...

                                                                                                       Photo: Ting Shen /EPA

A hawk swoops down to catch a mouse in the snow on the National Mall in the centre of Washington, DC.   The area is under a  major winter storm warning this weekend.
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BarrytheBirder 

Protecting rare birds in China...

Photo: Wang Jianwei / Barcroft Images

Artificially-bred Red Crowned Cranes (Grus japonensis) are seen at Zhalong Nature Reserve in China's Heilongjiang Province.   The reserve is home to 190 species of rare birds.   The Red Crowned Crane is listed as 'Endangered' on the I.U.C.N. Red List.

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BarrytheBirder 

For me, unusual bird names keep popping up...

Photo: Umeshscrinivasan

A tiny Mrs. Gould's Sunbird (Aethopyga gouldiae) feeds on cherry flowers (left)  at a conservation park at the Doi Inthanon National Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand.   The Irish ornithologist Nicholas Vigers named the bird after Elizabeth Gould, a British artist and wife of naturalist John Gould.

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BarrytheBirder

Rare landrace fowl at Dog Tales Sanctuary in King...

Photo: Lisa Richards

Icelandic Chicken

Linda and I were walking around Dog Tales Sanctuary last Sunday and came across some new residents: Icelandic Chickens.   They have been present in Iceland since their introduction by Norse settlers in the 9th century.   Uncommon outside Iceland, there are three or four of the birds at Dog Tales, and I suppose the expectation is that they will breed.   A very attractive bird, indeed.

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BarrytheBirder

Sleepy Nuthatch...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

This plump and healthy looking White-breasted Nuthatch spent between five and ten minutes drifting in and out of sleep while perched on a backyard bird feeder.  Even with several other types of birds using the feeder, it would close its eyes and drift off for short and long periods of time.   I went out to check that it didn't have a leg trapped and got within two inches before it flew off.

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BarrytheBirder

In the Holland Marsh...

                                                                                                     Photo by BarrytheBirder

This Red-tailed Hawk caught my eye sitting atop a road sign in the Holland Marsh recently.   What I noticed in particular about this most common raptor were the three leg bands it was sporting.   I've never seen a wild hawk with legs bands before.   Is it an escapee from a raptor aviary, or perhaps a wild raptor that got caught in a migration net meant for smaller birds?   It sat long enough for me to get a picture and remained in place as I drove away.

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BarrytheBirder

Thought to be extinct since the late 1990s...

Photo: Ben Sadd /WWT / Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

A Madagascan Pochard is seen on Lake Sofia in northern Madagascar.   The species was thought to be extinct in the wild for 20 years but unexpectedly showed up in December of last year, when 21 ducklings were introduced to the lake and kept in floating aviaries.  The population is now thought to number 90 individuals.

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BarrytheBirder

Plastic found in 100% of Alderney's Gannet nests

Photo: Alderney Wildlife Trust / PA

British wildlife trusts have reported the return of a rare seahorse breed and Nudibranch Slugs to UK waters in 2018, but said plastic pollution has been found in almost 100% of gannet nests in Alderney, Channel Islands.

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BarrytheBirder

Also known as Cotton Teal...

Photo: STR / EPA

Cotton Pygmy Goose

(Nettapus coromandelianus)

A pair of rare Cotton Pygmy Geese take off from Chandubi Lake in the Kamrup District of Assam, India.   The species is widely distributed in Asia, Australia and the Middle East, and is thought to be the smallest waterfowl on earth at 10" long and 5.6 oz.

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BarrytheBirder

Native to Northern and Central America...

Photo: Peter Llewellyn

A juvenile, but very intent, Green Heron is seen hunting along the edge of Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest fresh water lake, located between Mexico City and Guadalajara.
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BarrytheBirder 

Small ear tufts ~ but big eyes...

 Photo: Jerome Murray / Alamy

Photo: Shantanu Kuveskar

A Short-eared Owl 
(Asio flammeus) was photographed above, in a flight over Gloucestershire, South-west England.  Its smallish ear tufts are not always visible.

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BarrytheBirder

Gay Bird?

Photo: Brook Mitchell / Getty Images

A winged reveller on Sydney's Oxford Street, in Australia, is ready for the upcoming Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.

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BarrytheBirder

Loch Lomond, Scotland

Photo: Grant Thomas / UPY / 2018

LOVE BIRDS

Underwater Photographer of the Year (Overall British Winner)

The first idea for this photo, taken at Loch Lomond, Scotland, was to frame a split shot of one swan feeding below the water surface, but when the photographer saw how comfortable they were around him, he was confident that he could get a remarkable shot of both.

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BarrytheBirder

2018 Wildlife Photographer of Year competition...

Photo:Wim Van Den Heever

Three King Penguins are seen on a beach in the Falkland Islands at sunrise.   This photo was an entry in the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, sponsored by Lumix and selected by London's Natural History Museum.   Below are three more photos, featuring birds from the same competition.   There were 45,000 submissions from 95 countries.

Photo: Phil Jones

Photo: Connor Stefanison

Photo: Rob Blanken

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Barry Wallace

Flying at the top of the world...

Photo: Zhang Rufeng / Xinhua / Alamy

A Ruddy Shelduck (Tardorna ferruginea) and a flock of Barhead Geese (Anser Indicus) fly over a wetland in Nyima County, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, In China.   Elevation here in the Himalayas is 23,000 feet.

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BarrytheBirder

Turkey's National Poultry Show at Izmir...

 Photo: Emin Menguarslan / Anadoulu / Getty

This entry in Turkey's National Poultry Show is a nine-month old Ayam Cemani of Indonesian origin.   The species' beak, tongue, comb and wattles - and even its meat, bones and organs are all black.

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BarrytheBirder

Golf tourney does not interrupt nest-building...

Photo: Stuart Franklin / Getty Images

An African Weaver Bird is seen busily constructing its nest during day four of the Alfred Dunhill Championships at Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, South Africa.

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BarrytheBirder

Hurricanes do no one some good...

Photo: Marc McCormack / Bureau of Meteorology / EPA

A curlew is seen above looking for food in Cairns, north-eastern Australia, after recent Cyclone Owen brought heavy rain and winds of 200 kms per hour.
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BarrytheBirder

Whistling ducks do not quack - they whistle

Photo: EPA

A flock of Indian Whistling Ducks (Dendrocygna javanica) is seen in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam, India.

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BarrytheBirder