Small bird with a striking breastplate...

                                                                                        Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

A Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is pictured in Xinjiang, China.    It breeds in Europe and Asia and some can even be found in western Alaska.   We should all have such glamorous breastplates, yes?

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BarrytheBirder

Small owl with big eyes...of course...

Photo: Prakash Mathema / AFP / Getty Images

A Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) sits on a tree branch in Kathmundu, Nepal.   This little owl breeds in tropical areas from India to southeast Asia.

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BarrytheBirder

Dark-eyed Junco is the top feeder bird in Canada and USA

Photo by BarrytheBirder

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada say online that the Dark-eyed Junco was the most reported feeder bird  in Canada and the USA during the 2017 / 2018 season.   The two countries, combined, were divided into six geographic areas and sightings were reported for each of these areas.   Not surprising was the fact that most feeder sightings (6,886) were recorded in the northeast parts of both countries, while the next highest number was (1,466) in the southeast United States.   The total number of all geographic areas for juncos was 11,512 feeder locations.   Chickadees were second overall.   More numbers and details can be found online, including some very large-sized birds.

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BarrytheBirder.

My favourite Baltimore Oriole photograph...

                                                                                                    Photo by BarrytheBirder

Baltimore Oriole 

(Icterus galbula)

I took this photo in mid-May of this year during the spring migration.   It is a male Baltimore Oriole at one of the backyard feeders.   The orioles drink the sugar and water nectar in the feeders but also love the half oranges that we place on top of the feeders.   I've taken many photos and this one is my personal favourite.   This bird is one of five males, four females and two immatures.   What a joyful sight the orioles are after a long winter.

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BarrytheBirder

Standing on guard at Lord's Cricket Ground...

Photo: David Parry / PA

Wolf the eagle surveys Lord's Cricket Ground in London, England, while warding off pigeons and seagulls ahead of the men's ICC Cricket World Cup.   The event runs from May 30 to July 14, so it's a 16-day gig for Wolf.

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BarrytheBirder

Healthy-looking eaglets in southern California...

                                                                                Photo: Friends of Big Bear Valley / AP

A still from a remote video camera shows two Bald Eagle chicks with a parent on a nest in the Los Angeles National Forest, near Big Bear in southern California, USA.   Hatched a month ago, the chicks have names, thanks to a vote by school children.   The older and larger one is named Cookie and the younger one is called Simba.

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BarrytheBirder

Early morning outing in east-central England...

Photo: Paul Marriott / Rex / Shutterstock

A pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) and their many goslings make their way across Overton Lake, just after sunrise at Nene Park, in Peterborough, UK.

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BarrytheBirder

Largest seabird in the north Atlantic...

Photo: Carsten Rehder / AFP / Getty Images

A nesting gannet, with a wingspan of two metres, is photographed with a twig in its beak over the German island of Hegoland in the North Sea.   

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BarrytheBirder

Lovely lark lifts off...

Photo: Natalie Fedosenko / Tass / Getty Images

A lark takes wing in a field near the village of Danilovichi, in the Grodno region of western Belarus, very near to the borders with Poland and Lithuania.

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BarrytheBirder

Mating game in North Dakota...

Photo: USFWS / Alamy

A female Sharp-tailed Grouse walks by as two males dance in the background during the mating season in Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge near Minot, North Dakota, USA.

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BarrytheBirder

Do bee-eaters ever get stung?

                                     Photo: Mahmut Serder Alakus / Andalou Agency / Getty Images

A bee-eater is seen flying over the Gediz delta of Izmer in Turkey.   The delta river flows into the eastern Aegean Sea.   There are 27 species of bee-eaters, mostly found in Asia and Africa.   Bee-eaters catch bees in the air and then repeatedly bash the bee on a hard surface until it is dead.
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BarrytheBirder

"Why did the chicken cross the street?"

Photo: Thomas Warnack / AFP / Getty Images

A chicken walks on a crosswalk marked with a special sign in Ertingen, Germany.   A local resident set up the crosswalk for the chickens of a neighbouring farm, as the animals cross the road regularly to drink from a village fountain on the other side of the street.

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BarrytheBirder

Attention-getting plumage...

Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

A Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) delivers food to her young, in a tree trunk, at a park in Shanghai, on the coast of the Yellow Sea in China.

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BarrytheBirder

Starlings at sunset...

Photo: Dave Biggs

Spooked starlings make a hasty exit from a tree in Bayston Hill, Shropshire, England.   The photo was the winner in the Urban Wildlife category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards in 2011.
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BarrytheBirder

Global population runs well into the millions...

Photo: Keith J. Smith / Alamy

A Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) is seen perched on a hedgerow in Wilton, Northhamptonshire, UK.   This raptor appears across Europe and Asia and migrates from its main range in western Russia as far as South Africa; a distance of just over 10,000 km or 1/4 of the Earth's circumference.

The eyes have it...

Photo: Biju Boro / AFP / Getty Images

A Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) is seen looking out from it nest in a tree in the city of Guwahati, in north-east India.
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BarrytheBirder

Orange clouds in China...

Photo:

A silhouetted bird flys in front of clouds illuminated by the rising sun in Karancssag, north-east of Budapest, Hungary.

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BarrytheBirder

For the love of chickens...

Photo: Aletheia Casey

Ella in Callala Bay

Australia National Photographic Portrait

prize finalist 2019

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BarrytheBirder

The collapse of biodiversity...

Photo: Sam Hobson / WWF

This photo by Sam Hobson was part of a picture essay by The Guardian newspaper in support of the wildlife charity WWF's support of the IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, www.ipbes.net).   IPBES, the independent global scientific body on biodiversity of more than 130 governments has just published it report on the current state of life on Earth.

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BarrytheBirder 

Pecking order for orange juice among Baltimore Orioles...

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

In my backyard, the male Baltimore Oriole (above) is the first to dine on the half oranges.   He is followed by the mature adolescent male (below) who is followed by the female (at bottom).   Naturally, the mature male always gets the lion's share.

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BarrytheBirder

Spring arrivals today...

 Above and at left are a male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Below are three male Baltimore Orioles.
Below them is a Scarlet Tanager and at bottom, a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird.   There were also 12 more  species at the feeders today.   It was our best ever spring migrant day in the backyard! 

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BarrytheBirder

International Garden Photographer of the Year competition...

Photo: Alan Price

Black & White Photo Project 2019

Alan Price's photograph of a Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) in Criccieth, Wales, was a finalist in this year's competition.   The Blue Tit is a European bird that is common and widespread throughout the British Isles.

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BarrytheBirder

Big prize for a big gull...

HERRING GULL

(Larus argentatus)

This Herring Gull photograph, taken by Steve Young, won the top prize at the British Wildlife Photography Awards in 2010.

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BarrytheBirder

Cassowary kills Florida man...

Photo: Christian Ziegler

This Cassowary was photographed in north-east Queensland, Australia, in 2012, by Christian Ziegler for National Geographic.   In Florida, this past week, a large Cassowary killed its 75-year-old owner, who fell to the ground and was set upon by the huge bird.

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BarrytheBirder

Canada Goose nests at entrance to Pierre Berton Library

 Photo by BarrytheBirder

A pair of Canada Geese have taken up residence at the entrance to the Pierre Berton Resource Library, just south of Kleinburg, on the south side of Rutherford Road.   Their nest is in one of the large round planters near the front entrance and is cordoned off with bright yellow hazard tape.   Library patrons and dozens of school students  walk right by the geese throughout the day.   The geese are not totally oblivious to the traffic about them, but seem at complete ease with the situation.

The gander is never far from his mate's nest in the planter and both male and female will even sleep at the same time, despite human traffic passing them by at all times.   It seems a good example of necessity being the mother of invention.

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if you wish.

Barry

the Birder

Rose-breasted Grosbeak appears...

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

(Phuecticus ludovicianus)

The first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the spring season showed up on Saturday.   It didn't stay long at the feeders because of the numerous and pesky starlings.  It was a very welcome sight however, especially in flight with its flashing black and white wings.

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BarrytheBirder

First White-crowned Sparrow of the spring arrives...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

A White-crowned Sparrow showed up in the backyard on Saturday, May 4th, approximately 2 weeks after the first White-throated Sparrow arrived.   This is normal but both species seemed to be a bit later than usual.   No surprise however, given the cold, wet spring we have had here in southern Ontario this year.
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BarrytheBirder

A diving seabird of the family Phalacrocorax...

Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

A large, all black cormorant, looking magnificent, but daunting and menacing at the same time is seen taking off in Yichun, Heilongjiang, China.  The province of Heilongjiang is a northernmost, hinterland province of China and  is surrounded by other provinces, plus Mongolia, Russia, Japan and North Korea.
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BarrytheBirder

Grey Heron triumphant...

Photos: Martial Trezzini / EPA / AP

A successful Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) catches and holds onto a carp which it has found in Geneva, Switzerland.   My guess is that this is the maximum size of fish this heron can swallow.

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BarrytheBirder

Albatross, the film: ode to a victim of the plastic soup...

Photo: Plastic Soup Foundation

Amsterdam, 18 April 2018 - Halfway through the film, the image suddenly stops.   A close-up of an albatross feeding its chick.   The albatross parent regurgitates food and slips it into the throat of of the hungry chick.  The image stops at the point that a blue piece of plastic glides into the chick's throat.   The American filmmaker, Chris Jordan, has worked on Albatross - a love story for our time from the heart of the Pacific for years.   The film is about the largest colony of albatrosses in the world on Midway, a remote archipelago in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, and the devastation that the plastic soup is bringing to the colony.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Two new White Eye species...

Photo: Sean Kelly

Researchers from Ireland and Indonesia and the conservation group Operation Wallacea have described two new species of White Eyes, a widespread family of 140 passerine bird species from Africa, Asia and Australasia.   The new species occur on islands offshore of Sulawesi, a large Indonesian island known for its weird and wonderful plants and animals.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder