A most distinctive and attractive bird...

                                                                           Photo: Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty Images

A Hoopoe (Upupa epops) is seen in a field in the village of Damour in central Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, just south of Beirut.   This bird is found across Afro-Eurasia and is notable for its 'crown' of feathers.  Once listed as a single species, there are actually four versions of this bird.
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BarrytheBirder

On the China / North Korea border...

Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

Rare egrets and herons are regularly seen during the breeding season in Dandong, Liaoning province, in north-east China, on the western shore of the Yalu River, across from North Korea, on the eastern shore.

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Barrythe Birder

Spring's first White-throated Sparrow arrives in backyard...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

White-throated Sparrow

Our first White-throated Sparrow of the spring showed up in the backyard last Friday afternoon.   The White-throated Sparrow is one of the species believed to be particularly at risk from building strikes, which scientists estimate kill up to a billion birds a year in the United States.

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BarrytheBirder

   

These birds are found around the world...

Photo: Tony Margiocci / Barcroft Images

A pair of Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus) go through their courtship ritual, where the female is offered weed from the bottom of a lake.  Their mating dance is one of the bird world's most fascinating.

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BarrytheBirder

Highly attractive game birds...

Photo: 

Two Reeve's Pheasants (Syrmaticus reevesii) look for food on a mountain slope in Guangshui, central, China.  These striking creatures are endemic to China, and unlike other game birds, their call is a musical warble.

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BarrytheBirder

Peacock in India...

Photo: Money Sharma / AFP / Getty Images

If you can only photograph a part of a peacock, it might as well be its magnificent tail.   This peacock is showing off its splendid tail feathers behind a wall, in a village on the outskirts of Faridabad, in the northern Indian state of Haryana.

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BarrytheBirder

Native of eastern Asia...

Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

A pair of Scaly-sided Mergansers (Mergus squamatus) a.k.a. Chinese Merganser, return to Yichun, Southern China.

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BarrytheBirder

Pelicans over Juon...

Photo: Joseph Eid /AFP / Getty Images

A massive flock of migrating pelicans flies over the seven hills surrounding the village of Juon, south of Beirut, in the Chouf district of Mount Lebanon.
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BarrytheBirder

Goshawk in Moscow, Russia...

Photo: Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images

Alexoi Vlasov, a falconer of the Kremlin Ornithological Service, holds Alpha, a 20-year-old female Goshawk, while on patrol in Moscow.

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BarrytheBirder

Abundant year-round resident in southern Ontario...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

European Starling

(Sturnus vulgaris)

Sometimes described as gregarious and aggressive, this bird loves to flock with its own kind on the ground, or in the air, including those fabulous soaring and swooping murmurations of hundreds or thousands of them in perfect, agile precision.   But get two of them at a feeder and all hell can break loose as they squabble mightily for the best perches, as the two pictured above are demonstrating in my backyard.

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BarrytheBirder

Well-dressed bird lover...

                                                                                         Painting by Lizzie Riches

E-mailed to me by a former neighbour and friend, Zoreh, now living in Ohio, who remembers me as a birder.   Charming piece of art...

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BarrytheBirder 

Oops!

                                                                           Photo: Gerlinde Beyer, Barcroft Images

This frog surely was surprised with the reaction it got to jumping on the back of a Pekin duck in Frankfurt, Germany.   A duck can eat a frog the size of the duck's head.

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BarrytheBirder

Critically endangered...

Photos: Zoo Victoria

Zookeepers in Victoria, Australia, hatch nine critically endangered Plains Wanderer chicks.   They are endemic to Australia but has been placed on the 2018 IUCN Red List.   The species poor flying ability, and the tendency to run rather than fly from predators, makes it easy prey for the introduced fox.
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BarrytheBirder

Love is in the air - or the water ...

Photo: Andi Edwards / Alamy

Three male Peking Ducks are in serious competition to mate with a single female.

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BarrytheBirder

Sprucing up the nest...

Photo: Armando Babini / EPA

A stork passes over the zoo in Frankfurt, Germany, in what appears to be a mission to find nest-building material.   Its aerodynamics are very impressive.

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BarrytheBirder

This is the mess today ... and what about tomorrow?

Photo: Rodrigo Buendia / AFP / Getty Images

A flightless cormorant sits on her nest surrounded by garbage on the shore of Isabela Island in the Galapagos Archipeligo.

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BarrytheBirder

Pollution has tripled flamingo population in Mumbai...

Photo: The Guardian

The flamingo population of India's largest city has tripled.  The birds have been congregating in huge numbers.   A count at the start of the year recorded 120,000 flamingos in Mumbai, three times their highest population in decades.  The flamingos found in India are the Greater Flamingo and the Lesser Flamingo.   Mumbai sewage promotes biological growth of blue-green algae, which is food for flamingos.   But the flamingos are moving on as the city transitions to an environment where wetlands have given way to a new airport, while a 22 km sea bridge cuts across mangroves and mudflats, and a clearance has been given for India's first bullet train to cut through the Thane Creek protected flamingo sanctuary.   It appears that continued sewage and waste dumping is exacerbating a situation that will eventually drive the flamingos out.   Too much of a good thing is spoiling a spectacle for birdwatchers.

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BarrytheBirder

Lesser Prairie Chicken is found in parts of five western US. mid-west states

Photo: James Mundy / Alamy

This Lesser Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) was photographed in Kansas.  Considered 'vulnerable' by the IUCN, it is vulnerable to habitat destruction by human activities and more recently by global warming, which may be greatly reducing the sagebrush ecosystem.

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BarrytheBirder

India's national bird...

Photo: MA Pushpa Kumara / EPA

A Peacock spreads in plumes in windy Damminna, Sri Lanka.   Hindus regard these birds with veneration as they believe they are the mount of the God, Skanda, also known as Murugan, the Hindu god of war.

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BarrytheBirder

Hen Harriers are in trouble...

Photo: Simon Richards

Photo: Laurie Campbell

Hen Harriers are ten times more likely to die or disappear from or near English grouse moors than any other habitat, according to a long-term study which reveals the scale of the illegal bird persecution of the endangered raptor.  Patrick Barkham, writing in the Guardian says Hen Harriers are almost extinct as a breeding bird in England, despite scientific studies indicating there is suitable habitat to support over 300 pairs on English moorland.  Conservationists fear the protected bird is being illegally killed by some gamekeepers because it eats Red Grouse.   However, as the birds are killed in remote locations, often on private estates, there is seldom evidence of wrongdoing and prosecutions are rare.
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BarrytheBirder

Also known as the Black-shouldered Kite...

Photo: Alamy

This pair of strikingly attractive Black-winged Kites (Elanus caeruleus) was photographed recently in Spain.   A distinctive feature of this raptor are the red irises of its eyes.
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BarrytheBirder

One wonders about birds in chaotic Venezuela...

Photo: Matias Delacroix/ AFP / Getty Images

A Blue and Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna), a.k.a. the Blue and Gold Macaw,  flies through the Chacao neighbourhood in Caracus, Venezuela.   Let's hope birds in this troubled country are less troubled than citizens.
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BarrytheBirder

Seasonal plumage change underway...

Photo: Thomas Warnack / AFP / Getty Images

A flock of Starlings fly through a nature reserve close to the River Danube in Daugendorf, in southern Germany.

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BarrytheBirder

Can spring be far away?

Photo: Pan Zhengguang / Xinhua / Barcroft Images

Two Black-throated Bushtits (Aegithatos concinnus) fly among branches of a flowering tree at Wuxi, in east China's Jiangsu Province.

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BarrytheBirder

Heron in China...

Photo: Liu Wenli / Xinhua / Barcroft Images

A heron approaches a nest in Pinglu County, in north China's Shanxi Province.   As the weather turns warm, hundreds of these herons build and reproduce here in springtime.

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BarrytheBirder

11 of the world's most threatened species are birds...

The World's 100 most threatened species is a compilation of the most threatened animals, plants and fungi in the world.  It was the result of a collaboration between over 8,000 scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) along with the Zoological Society of London.   The report was published by the Zoological Society of London in 2012 as the book, Priceless or Worthless?   11 of the 100 species were birds.  Below are the names and photos of those 11 species of birds.

                                                                                                Photo:  Rick elis.simpson

Araripe Manakin

 Photo: Tshering Tobgay

White-bellied Heron

 Photo: Rex Features

Great Indian Bustard

 Photo: Bailiwick Express / Jersey News

Madagascar Pochard

 Photo: Ed Dunens

Amsterdam Albatross

 Photo: Birds Korea

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

Photo: Dave Watts

Northern Bald Ibis

Photo: Phil Chaon

 Liben Lark

 Photo: Tomasz Doron

Edward's Pheasant

 Photo:Mike Greenfelder

Fatuhiva Monarch

Photo: Ichun fai

Chinese Crested Tern

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BarrytheBirder

Survival of the fullest...

                                                                                                    Photo: Anupam Nath / AP

A Cattle  egret feeds its young on a tree along the River Brahmaputra in Gauhati, in the far north-eastern state of Assam, in India.   The orange feathers are part of the breeding plumage.
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BarrytheBirder

Renowned bird artist, Martin Woodcock, passes at 84

Photo: Barbara Woodcock

British bird artist for 45 years, Martin Woodcock, has left the nest, permanently.  He travelled through Africa and Asia painted some of the world's most elusive birdlife.   His masterwork, which occupied three decades, was the huge, multivolume The Birds of Africa, for which he painted more than 200 colour plates.   In the 1980s and 1900s, he painted 5,000 separate illustrations of more than 2,000 different species.   In 1994 he became president of the Africa Bird Club and late in his career he became a poet.

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BarrytheBirder

Mutualism: nature's insecticide...

Photo: Jerome Delay / AP

A Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) picks the ear of an impala in Kruger National Park, in South Africa.  Oxpeckers feed on insects and ticks on impalas, giraffes and other wild animals.

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BarrytheBirder

Pink waters down under...

Photo: William West / AFP / Getty Images

A pair of stilts look out over a lake at Westgate Park, near Melbourne, Australia, that has turned pink.   The phenomenon is caused by green algae, reacting to high levels of hot weather and salt.

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BarrytheBirder

Cherry picker...

Photo: Yonhap / EPA

A Brown-eared Bulbul (Hypsipetes amaurotis) pecks at leftovers of Japanese cornelian cherries - or sansuyu - in Ulsan, South Korea.

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BarrytheBirder

World's only alpine parrot...

Photo: Murdo McLoed

An endangered Kea (Nestor notabilis) is seen on the Dart Glacier on the south island of New Zealand.   It is the world's only alpine parrot and is known for its large size and curiosity.

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BarrytheBirder

Outdoor Photographer of the Year 2018

 Photo: Salvador Colvee Nebet

OPOTY 'Wildlife Insight' Winner last year was Salvador Colvee Nebet of Spain for his high-key image of a common kestrel, which he captured by increasing the exposure on a cloudy day when the light wasn't good.

Below, youngster Josiah Launstein of Canada was commended for his photo of an American Goldfinch near the Porcupine Hills, close to Pincher Creek, Alberta.  The goldfinch fits into the colourful scene perfectly while snacking on a seedhead, known in western Canada as "prairie smoke". 

Photo: Josiah Launstein

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BarrytheBirder

Early arrival over King City by Great Blue Huron...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

My first Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodius) of this year flew over my house yesterday.   Much local water is still frozen over, so i'm skeptical about how many fish this Great Blue is going to find in the middle of March here in southern Ontario, north of Toronto.   The Big Blue was heading south when I saw it, so perhaps it was returning a bit south to open water in Lake Ontario.   Sighting it certainly warmed my cold spirits nicely.

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BarrytheBirder

Booby.... the bird with the unfortunate name

    Photo: Sue Forbes

Photo: Kelvin Boot 

A single juvenile Red-footed Booby (Sula sula) is seen above pursuing a flying fish.   The photo was an entry in the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.   Boobies are found throughout the tropics.   Wikipedia says the English name "booby" was possibly based on the Spanish slang term, meaning "stupid", as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured, cooked and eaten.   The photo above, at right, shows a mature (brown morph) Red-footed Booby.

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BarrytheBirder

The RAVENMASTER by Christopher Skaife

Photo by Barry Wallace

I've just finished reading The Ravenmaster by Christopher Skaife, Yoeman Warder of the Tower of London.   Any birder will find this book an interesting read.  If you're not a birderwatcher, it may not be worth your time and interest.  This book came to my attention rather inadvertently.   My local library has been supplying me with 50 books by the late Canadian author, Pierre Berton.   The new Ravenmaster book showed up, inexplicably, along with a couple of the Berton books I had reserved.   Being a birder, I thought I would give a whirl.  As I read it, I found myself learning more about this species, in a few days, than I have in my 30 years as  an earnest birder.   There's nine colourful photos, in the centrespread, that add to a pleasurable read.   Despite Scaife's long experience with, and knowledgeable insight about ravens, there's the  persistently mystifying and unexplained behaviour about ravens.

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BarrytheBirder