A quizzical look?

                                                                                Photo: Phichak / Alamy Stock Photo

This Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) is perched and seems to be pondering what is to be seen by looking into the distance in Thailand.

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BarrytheBirder

This cozy group looks like Mallards to me...

Photo: Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

A duck and her ducklings are seen swimming in the River Svisloch in Minsk, central Belarus.   I know very little about Belarus waterfowl, but this charming family looks like Mallards to me.

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BarrytheBirder

A Cattle Egret can be elegant...

Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

A Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) is seen at Lake Van, in the far east of of Turkey.   It is found around the world in the tropics, sub-tropics and warm-temperate zones.

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BarrytheBirder

Keeping it in perspective...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

There is an eagle in me 

that wants to soar,

and there is a hippopotamus 

in me that wants 

to wallow in the mud.

                                                           -- Carl Sandburg

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Barry Wallace

Warblers in our cedar hedge...

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Black-throated Green Warbler (immature)

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Canada Warbler

American Redstart (female)

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BarrytheBirder

'Good morning' ... at the kitchen window

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female)

Archilochus colubris

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BarrytheBirder

Life goes on...

Photo: Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images

An egret flies over a mangrove at sunrise near Banda Aceh, on Sumatra in Indonesia, where over 170,000 people were killed in the 2004 tsunami that was created by a massive earthquake.

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BarrytheBirder

"In London, you say..."

                                                                                                    Photo: Ilyas Ayub / Alamy

A Ring-necked Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) is seen in central London, in England, where the species has become well-established, to the surprise of many.   The ring-necked, or rose-ringed, parakeet, is the United Kingdom's most naturalized parrot.   It became established in the wild in the 1970s after captive birds were released or escaped.   They are able to survive British winters with the help of garden feeders.
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BarrytheBirder

"I'm coming...I'm coming..."

Photo: Costfoto / Barcroft

A Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) feeds its young at a nest with a front door and a back door, in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, largest city in northeastern China.

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BarrytheBirder

Young European Starlings are insatiable...

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Young starlings are as big as their parents but will not feed themselves.   Parents providing a constant supply of seeds from the feeders are harassed by as many as four or five of their offspring at the same time.

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BarrytheBirder

First juvenile Starling ...ever ...anywhere

Photo by BarrytheBirder

EUROPEAN STARLING

(Sturnus vulgaris)

In all my years as a birder, I have never seen a juvenile European Starling ... until today.   It appeared with a group of adult birds and was being fed by, what I assumed, were its two parents.   It was the same size as the parent birds, but it refused to feed itself, even when sitting on top of a feeder (see photo below).   It was quite aggressive and demanding about being fed.   It was dusky brown in colour with a pale throat, short tail, and a long beak, like its parents. 

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BarrytheBirder

Another foreboding of the planet's future?

Photo: Danita Delimont  / Alamy

Tufted Puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) are seen preening on a cliff.   A study found between 3,150 and 8,500 seabirds died over a four-month period from October 2016 in the Bering Sea, probably as a result of climate breakdown.

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BarrytheBirder

Bee-eaters are so colourful - there must be a reason...

Photo: Ronald Wittek / EPA

European Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) gather on Trees branches in Lambsheim, Germany, where at least 239 pairs have been spotted.   In summer, they are one of Europe's most colourful birds, but they winter in tropical Africa.
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BarrytheBirder

Big eaglets may not be ready to hunt yet...

Photo: P.J. Hahn / AP

Eaglets are seen sitting in a large backyard nest, in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, USA, while one of their Bald Eagle parents leaves the nest.

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BarrytheBirder

Even its leg appears to be white...

Photo: Phil Wilkinson

A 'one-in-a-million' albino House Sparrow has been spotted in a Scottish border town.

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BarrytheBirder

From a Guardian picture essay...

 Dalmation Pelican by Helmut Moik

Snowy Owl by Vincent Munier

Images pictured above are just two of previous winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.  The images appear in a book by Rosamund Kidman Cox, published by the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, London, England.

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BarrytheBirder

Godwits get it...

Photo: Mark Whiffen / Project Godwit / RSPB

Black-tailed Godwits, hand-reared at WWT Welney, Norfolk, UK, after their eggs were freed from muddy farmland, have flown thousands of miles home for the summer.   Experts were doubtful the eggs, found encased in dirt, would hatch.   The birds were released on the Fens before flying south for the winter.   The rare waders, named Estragon and Dill, join 16 other Black-tailed Godwits which have returned to where they raised as part of Project Godwit - a partnership between WWT and the RSPB, now in its third year.

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BarrytheBirder

A.K.A. 'diablotin'

                                                                                        Photo Kate Sutherland / USFWS

Pictured above is a Black-capped Petrel (Pterodroma hasitata)  off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA.   An international team of seabird experts has captured Black-capped Petrels for the first time.   Ten were banded and released with transmitters as part of an effort to prevent the extinction of the 'Little Devil', as this bird is known on its Caribbean nesting grounds.

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BarrytheBirder

Hundreds of years later in Britain...

                                                                                                         Photo: Nick Upton

A White Stork pair is seen arranging nest material in an oak tree on the Knepp Estate, West Sussex, UK.   The pair could become the first wild pair to successfully breed in Britain for hundreds of years.   The enormous birds are brooding three eggs on the re-wilded estate as part of a project to re-introduce the species to south-east England.

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BarrytheBirder

Pacific island home to 3 million birds...

Photo: Dan Clark / USFWS

Black-footed Albatrosses

The  US government plans to strafe Midway Island with poison aimed at eradicating mice that are rampaging through one of the world's most important sites for seabirds.   Each year, albatrosses return to the same nesting spot to meet their mates where they spend time getting re-acquainted through billing and dancing rituals, after spending a year apart, at sea. The area is home to three million seabirds, including the largest colony of albatrosses in the world.

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BarrytheBirder

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.
Please comment if you wish.
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.

Please comment if you wish.

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