Hummers have their ways...

Photo: Ken Jones

More migration-based research is showing that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds appear to have adopted a mixed strategy concerning migration.   Some adults choose to fatten up before migrating from Canada and the US. to wintering grounds in Central America.   They gorge at feeders to increase their body mass by more than 33%.   However, juvenile 'hummers' do not appear to do this, likely stopping to feed along the way.

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BarrytheBirder

Golden Eagle

 Photo by William Krumpelman 

GOLDEN EAGLE

(Aquila chrysaetos)

* One of the biggest and fastest birds of prey in Canada

* Over 7' wingspan

* Can weigh up to 7 kilograms

* Can dive over 240 km. per hour

* Emblem of Mexico, Austria, Germany, Albania, Kazakhstan

Photo by Martin Mecnarowski

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BarrytheBirder

European Tree of the Year Contest...

Photo: Pierre Huchette / European Tree of the Year Contest

Pictured above is a Cork Oak in Ghisonaccia, France.   The tree is a candidate for France's 'Tree of the Year' contest.   I include it my birding blog for the following reason.  The unusual shape of the trunk of the Corsican cork oak is thought to have been cause by fire, as shown in its calcined heart.   The trunk resembles the outline of a bird of prey, spreading its wings.   N'est-ce pas?

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BarrytheBirder

One of many types of parakeets 'down under'...

                                                                      Photo: Amer Ghazzai / Barcroft Images

I believe this garishly colourful parakeet, is a Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) feeding on a red flowering gum tree in Adelaide, Australia.
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BarrytheBirder

Trumpeter Swans at Cootes Paradise...

 Photos: Sheila Wilson Moodie

These photos were taken by Wayne Heimen, an old friend and former business associate mine, on a visit he made to Cootes Paradise, which is located between Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario, adjacent to lake Ontario.  All the swans in these photos are Trumpeter Swans, with the exception of the last one, which is a Mute Swan.   Great shots, Wayne.

Mute Swan

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BarrytheBirder

North Sea puffins declining off north-east English coast...

 Photo: Paul Kingston / NNP /National Trust

The north Atlantic 'Puffin Census' commenced this week on the Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast in eastern England.   Numbers have been dropping seriously for the last few years and global warming is being cited as the cause.   Meanwhile eight to ten million (60%) of the world's entire Atlantic puffin population thrives in and around Iceland.

Photo: Tracy Carlton

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BarrytheBirder

'Wisdom' ~ world's oldest known breeding bird...

Photo: Bob Peyton / AP

Wisdom, the world's oldest known breeding bird, sits with her chick in a nest at the Midway Atoll Animal Refuge Centre.   This Laysan Albatross, who is at least 68 years old and has raised at least 31 chicks, hatched her latest one in February, at the remote atoll north-west of Hawaii, US.

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BarrytheBirder

Pilfering penguin poop...

Photo: Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

A scientist collects stool samples from penguin colonies on Ardley Island, one of the South Shetland Islands at the top of Antarctic Peninsula, south of Cape Horn, Chile.   Presumably, the scientist is conducting research.

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BarrytheBirder

Underwater fishing fued...

Photo: Tracey Lund / Sony World Photography Awards

Two gannets (above) are seen underwater, fighting over a fish.   This is one of 12 images by UK photographers shortlisted in the open category of the Sony World Photography Awards.

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BarrytheBirder

2019 International Garden Photographer of the Year...

Photo: Johnathon Need / IGPOTY

'Wildlife in the Garden'

Three starlings (above) are seen waiting for food after a snow storm in Snowdonia National Park in Wales UK.  The image, entitled 'Wildlife in the Garden' was taken by Johnathon Need for the 2019 International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace

Hail, hail, the gangs all here...

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Above, left to right, top to bottom, are five of the most frequent small birds at the winter feeders: Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch, Chickadee, Chipping Sparrow and Red-breasted Nuthatch.

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BarrytheBirder 

Wintering along the Atlantic Coastal Plain...

 Photo: Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images

Snow Geese are seen above descending on a farm in Ruthburg, Mayland.   Part of the Snow Goose's wintering range in America is along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, including the Carolinas, Virgina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.   They will migrate north and summer in the arctic.  Below is a photo showing of a Snow Goose (right) and a Blue Morph (left).

Photo: Suzanne Labbe / Macauley Library

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BarrytheBirder

Starlings and storks...

Photo: Atef Safadi / EPA

These White Storks stand on an electricity pole, in the Jordan Valley on the West Bank, against a backdrop of a huge murmuration of starlings.  White Storks have white bodies with black wings and red beaks and legs.  The storks were probably best off holding their positions until the murmuration moved away.

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BarrytheBirder

First of its kind in a Latin America zoo...

Photo: Ulises Ruiz / AFP / Getty Images

An Adelie Penguin is seen in a cold Antarctic environment recreated in the Guadalajara Zoo in Mexico.   The recent first birth of this species in Latin America took place in the zoo, which is considered the most important zoo in Latin America.

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BarrytheBirder

Bathing in Yichang, China...

Photo: Liu Shusong / Xinhua / Barcroft Images

Red-billed Leiothrixes (Leiothrix lutea), songbirds also known as Pekin Nightingales and Pekin Robins, take turns bathing in a pool of water, in Yichang, south-eastern China.   They are native to southern China and the Himalayas.

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BarrytheBirder

Abandoned in South African drought...

 Photo: Charne Kemp / AP

            2,000 baby flamingos rescued

Baby flamingos are fed, weighed and cared for under warming red light at a rescue centre in Cape Town, after they were abandoned by their parents, as dam waters dried up in South Africa.   A special airlift of baby flamingos is underway in South Africa as drought has imperiled their breeding ground at a reservoir, that hosts one of southern Africa's largest flamingo colony populations, dries up.   The relocation of 2,000 chicks from Kamfers Dam in the Northern Cape Province to several locations, including Cape Town, has attracted public attention in South Africa.   However, some conservation experts have questioned the intervention, asking "...was the decision to step in and remove the abandoned chicks and eggs the right one?   Who made this decision, under what authority and in terms of what expertise?"

Photo / AP

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BarrytheBirder

Half a million bird counters...

Photo: RSPB Images

A family watches a robin on a bird feeder in their garden in Cheshire, England.   The Big Garden Birdwatch  marked its 40th year two weeks ago, when half a million people were expected to count the birds in their gardens or local parks in the world's biggest wildlife citizen science project.

A strike against bird poaching...

Photo:Sean Gallagher / The Guardian

In China, bird poaching - for meat or for the pet trade - has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of migratory birds each year.   In Silent Skies, a video produced by The Guardian, Gu Xuan, a young conservationist, is determined to break this cycle of death and destruction, and set the birds free.

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BarrytheBirder

Record hot temperatures down under...

Photo: Barbara Walton / EPA

A Green Rosella and a Pademelon wallaby drink from a large water bowl, put out for thirsty wild animals in a backyard in Kayena, northern Tasmania.  Australia reported its hottest month on record in January.   It was also the hottest and driest month on record for the island state of Tasmania.

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BarrytheBirder

Condors in danger of extinction in home country of Columbia

Photo by Raul Arboleda / AFP /Getty Images

One of two Andean Condors is seen before being released back into the wild after recovering from possible poisoning, at the Jaime Duque Park in Tocacipa, Columbia.   Andean Condors are distributed from Venezuela to Argentina to Chile.   The Columbian emblem is in critical danger of extinction in its own country, where nature experts estimate a population of just 150 birds.

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BarrytheBirder

Little Blue Penguins stolen from nest in New Zealand...

 Photo: DoC / Brent Tandy / The Guardian

Little Blue or Fairy Penguin

(Eudyptula minor)

Two of the world's smallest and most vulnerable penguins have been stolen during an overnight raid on their nests in New Zealand.   Little Blue Penguins, or Korora, are native to New Zealand and Australia.   Two weeks ago two men with a crowbar made a late-night raid on a Little Blue Penguin burrow/nest at Perfume Point in Napier, on the North Island's east coast.   The Department of Conservation believes the theives used the crowbar to pry heavy rocks off the burrow, and then hooked the tool around the birds' necks to pull them from their sanctuary.   One penguin died in the attack, and two others were wrapped in towels and taken away likely destined for illegal wildlife trade.   Locals in the area expressed shock at the incident.   The local community plays a vital role in protecting the birds and the fragile coastal habitat.   Korora are protected under the wildlife act and violators could face a $100,000 fine and up to two years in prison.

Photo: Fir0002

'...no penguin too small'

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BarrytheBirder

Here's a photo we all wish we had taken...

                                                                                       Photo by Ilya Naymushin / Reuters

GREAT GRAY OWL

(Strix nebulosa)

A  two-year-old Great Gray Owl sits on the head of Daria Koshcheyeva, an ornithologist, during a training session in the Siberian taiga, near Krasnoyarsk, central Russia.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Lions in Namibia are eating seabirds and seals...

 Photos: Flip Stander / Namibian Journal of Environment

In the photograph above, by conservationist Flip Stander, a lioness is seen carrying a cormorant along a beach in Namibia. 

Desert lions are learning to hunt marine life

Niki Rust, writing in The Guardian, states that lions in Namibia have turned to hunting seabirds and seals in the face of scarce food resources in the desert landscape.  The desert lions, which are found exclusively in Namibia's Skeleton Coast region, are the only lions known to target marine life.   They have been recorded eating fur seals, cormorants and flamingos.   They have also been reported to be foraging in intertidal areas, where their diet may include crabs, shellfish and sea turtles.

Pictured above, a lioness is seen guarding her catch of a fur seal.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

"Great Backyard Bird Count"

2018 Great Backyard Bird Count 

Photo Contest Winners

Sponsors: Audubon / Bird Studies Canada / The Cornell Lab

Group Category ~  First Place

Willow Ptarmigan 

Graham Sorenson ~ North West Territories

Group Category ~ Fifth Place

Snow Buntings 

Peter Gadd ~ New Brunswick

Group Category ~ Honourable Mention

Black-capped Chickadee

Hope Bilinski ~ Saskatchewan

Behaviour Category ~ Fifth Place
Northern Cardinal
Denis Hains ~ Quebec

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

A plethora of penguins...

Photo: Cindy Miller Hopkins / Pew Charitable Trusts

A remote black lava beach in the frigid southern Atlantic plays host to five species of penguins: Chinstrap / Gentoo / King / Macaroni / Adelie.   Settled among the penguins are Fur Seals and Elephant Seals.  The islands are the South Sandwich Islands which lie just outside the Antarctic Circle.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder 

Fluid form above the Bramaputra...

Photo: EPA

Migratory Ruddy Shelducks ( Tadorna ferruginia ) search for food along the wide Bramaputra River in Morigaon district of Assam, northern India.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder 

Ubiquitous Goldfinches in Europe...

 Photo: Kostya Pazyuk / Alamy

Photo: Franklin C. Franklin

European Goldfinches are seen above, flying over sunflower fields in the Ukraine.

Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Magpies are taking over...

Photo: Ben Birchall

Magpies are now one of the most common birds in the UK.  Their numbers have increased 112% in the past 30 years and they are now the 13th most commonly seen birds in English gardens.   Most people either love them or hate them.   In the photo above, a magpie is seen among purple crocuses, in Bath, UK., were mild weather is triggering an early bloom of spring flowers.

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BarrytheBirder

Is this the future of birding and bird photography?

Photo: Manehem Kahana / AFP / Getty Images

Black Kites( Milvus migrans) sit on a tree among plastic bags after a storm close to the Dudaim Dump, in the Negev Desert near Rahat, Israel.   Most of the lands and seas in the non-polar parts of the world have an immense waste plastic problem.  Black Kites have a huge distribution also, being  found in Eurasia, Australasia and Oceania.   They are one of the most abundant raptor species in the world.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder