Rare Yellow Northern Cardinal becoming less rare

 Photo by BarrytheBirder

Northern Cardinal

 Photo by Horatio Luna

Yellow Cardinal

Photo by Collier Holmes

Yellow Northern Cardinal

I am quite familiar with Northern Cardinals (see top photo).   I have them in my backyard every day, year around.   They are a favourite bird of both me and my wife.   Just recently I saw an item about a Yellow Northern Cardinal (see third photo).   I did not know they existed.   They have been considered very rare for a long time.   They are yellow, not red, because of a genetic abnormality called Xanthochroism.   There is also a Yellow Cardinal (see middle photo), which is common to South America.   I've now learned there are 45 to 48 species listed under the tribe 'Cardinalini', plus cardinals are closely related to many grosbeaks, tanagers, saltators and seedeaters.   In recent years, more and more reports of sightings are being made, particularly in southern USA states.   I look forward to being amazed and thrilled one day to see a Yellow Northern Cardinal in my Canadian backyard. However, I have just celebrated my 75th birthday, so I hope this lovely bird turns up sooner rather than later.

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BarrytheBirder   

Robins galore

 Photo by BarrytheBirder

Photo by John MacTavish / Flickr

Before I became a birder, I knew of only one robin...the American Robin (pictured above).   A few years later I learned of a second robin...the English or European Robin (see at right).   Now, years and years later, I have very recently learned there are approximately 160 robins in the world.   98% of world's robins are located on the other side of the world from me.   They are found in Africa, south-east Asia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, ...even in the Himalayas.   They are small and come in many colours.

Photo by Tim Collins

I am quite admiring of the Pink Robin, (Petrica rodingaster) pictured at left, a native of southeastern Australia and Tasmania.   Apart from their colourful breasts, the Pink Robin and many multi-coloured passerine relatives, on the other side of the world, are not closely related to either the American or European Robins.

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BarrytheBirder

Brave Bullock's Oriole

Photo: Steve Shinn / Rex / Shutterstock

A brave Bullock's Oriole (Icterus bullockii) swoops in at a young Bald Eagle perched on a branch in the San Gabriel Mountains, just north of Los Angeles, California.

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Barrythe Birder

That kiskadee in Bermuda...

Oh Great Kiskadee

Pitangus sulpheratus

It's just you and me

Haiku by BarrytheBirder

Photo by Patrick O'Kelly

Here's another photo of the Great Kiskadee, in Bermuda, which I posted in this blog, back on Boxing Day, December 26.   That's my sister-in-law, Beth, conversing up close with her new feathered friend, near the beach.   Her husband, Patrick, took the picture.   In the boxing day photo, this kiskadee was perched on Patrick's fishing poles, on the shore of the Atlantic.   I've visited Bermuda on two occasions and can attest to the inquisitiveness and charm of Grand Kiskadees.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

British Columbia friend's first birds of 2017...

My British Columbia friend and fellow birder, Dave Kemp, sent me these five photos of birds that he sighted on his first outing of the new year, on the coast of the lower B.C. mainland.   Unusually cold and snowy weather has plagued the lower mainland for several days.   Not only are British Columbians staggered by the climate change, but B.C. birds must be struggling also. 

All photos by Dave Kemp

 Bald Eagle

Killdear

Spotted Towhee

Western Meadowlark

Golden-crowned Sparrow

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BarrytheBirder

Coating of ice thwarts Junco at feeder

Photo and haiku by Barry Wallace

seeds are for seizing

unless rain has been freezing

hard ice so teasing

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BarrytheBirder

Visit to the dentist?

Russian photographer Yulia Sundukova, a 36-year-old traveler from Moscow, happened to be in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Tanzania late in 2016, and captured these photos of a Red-billed Oxpecker  spending several minutes cleaning a giraffe's teeth.   The giraffe was rather impatient with the feathered dental technician and had difficulty dislodging the bird.   In fact, the oxpecker was likely looking for seeds or bugs or even blood from a cut or wound in the giraffe's mouth.

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BarrytheBirder

Some favourite 2016 photos from the Wildlife Conservation Society

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates five wildlife parks in New York City, works to save wildlife and wild habitat in nearly 60 countries and all the world's oceans.   The WCS recently published a number of photos from 2016 that it thought merited widespread public exposure.   Three of the photos are pictured below. 

Photo by Rob Wallace / WCS

One of the more than 1,000 bird species registered to date in Madidi National Park, in Bolivia, is the Amazonian Royal Flycatcher (Onychorhynchus coronatus coronatus).   The World Conservation Society (WCS) is leading a multi-institutional effort called Identidad Madidi to describe still unknown species and to showcase the wonders of Bolivia's extraordinary natural heritage at home and abroad, 

Photo by Julie Larsen Maber / WCS

In 2016, a Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) hatched and reared at the Bronx Zoo.   A colony of Little Penguins came to the Bronx from the Taronga Zoo in Australia in 2015.   WCS supports Little Penguin conservation efforts in Sydney Harbour.   Little Penguins are the smallest penguins in the world.

Photo by Julie Larsen Marber /WCS

A Silvery-cheeked Hornbill (Bycanistes brevis) goes after a grape mid-air, high above Astor Court in the Bronx Zoo, in New York.   The adept performance was part of the second annual Birds in Flight demonstration that gave zoo visitors a close-up encounter with with dozens of bird and animal species.

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BarrytheBirder

Cold Creek 2016 songbird nesting boxes update

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Tree Swallow

 Eastern Bluebird

House Wren

Cold Creek Conservation Area Stewardship Committee member Nigel Hussey has just release his report on the 2016 birdbox program.   The report covers 53 of the 55 boxes and show that the 53 boxes were inhabited by the following bird species:

           House Wrens - 25 

         Tree Swallows - 23
Bluebirds - 2

   Nuthatches - 2

   Chickadees - 1

All birdboxes were cleaned out again in the fall of 2016.   A thorough cleaning out of all boxes in 2015 had no effect on birds re-occupying them in the spring of 2016.   The clean-out did however prevent the over-wintering in the boxes by wasps.

   

The occupation of boxes 8 and 48 by nuthatches was a first in recent memory.   The two boxes contained many pine needles which are typical of nuthatch use.   Nuthatches typically nest in holes in trees, but both the Red-breasteds and the White breasteds will use boxes occasionally also.

Several boxes were repaired (three got new roofs) replaced, or moved.   A few nests contained unhatched eggs, dead chicks, and one dead adult.   Kudos to Nigel and his helpers for another year of worthwhile bird conservancy.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Barred Owl in downtown Sudbury

Close encounter of the feathered kind

One of my neices, April Dawn Gull, recently sent this charming photo she came across of a Barred Owl, taken in Sudbury, Ontario.   Unfortunately, there was no photographer identification for the picture, but he or she deserves praise for the capture of the image and the shot's composition.   How often does one get an owl and a traffic light in the same picture?   The setting appears to be a snowy intersection in the city, at night, with the owl sitting on a porch or veranda railing.   Amazingly, a passing handicap motorized scooter gets into the shot immediately behind the owl.   Sometimes great photos are just taken serendipitously.

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BarrytheBirder 

Moment of truth in Kruger National Park

Photo: Greatstock /Barcroft Images

Pictured above, an African Goshawk catches a Plaited Lizard at Kruger National Park in South Africa.   There are 29 species of goshawks around the world.   The African Goshawk ranges south of the Sahara Desert from the western cape of South Africa, north to the southern Democratic Republic of Congo, and upward to southern Ethiopia.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

House Finch

                                                                                                                             Photo by BarrytheBirder
What is it about 
red birds and snow?

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

"On the fourth day of Christmas..."

Photo by Marco Hebig

What is a "calling bird"

In the song 12 Days of Christmas, it is widely accepted the gift on the fourth day is "four colly birds", not "four calling birds".   The word colly means 'black as coal'.   Therefore, the gift on the fourth day of Christmas was the Common Blackbird (Turdus merula), common throughout the UK.   The fourth day of Christmas, by the way, is December 28.

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BarrytheBirder

Christmas Kiskadee in Bermuda

Photo by Beth Sleightholme-O'Kelly

My wife's younger sister and her husband are celebrating Christmas in Bermuda this year and part of the visit involves some fishing.   Beth photographed a Kiskadee perching on Patrick's fishing poles with her iphone and passed it along.   This is the same Kiskadee that joins Beth and Patrick for breakfast each morning.
Please comment if you wish.
Barry The Birder 

Merry Christmas

                                                                                                                     Photo by Barry Wallace

Anchovies on the menu

Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP / Getty Images

Bryde's Whales and gulls in Thailand

A Bryde's whale and her calf feed on anchovies, which are also of interest to local gull flocks, in the Gulf of Thailand, off the coast of Samut Sakhon province.   The whales are named for John Bryde, the Norwegian consul to South Africa who helped establish the first modern whaling station in the country.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

742 new birds in the world ~ 11% of them are threatened

IUCN RED LIST UPDATE

...as reported by Bird Studies Canada, Dec. 8, 2016

 Photo by Singing Wing Aviary

Java Sparrow 

Photo: Wikipedia

Azores Bullfinch

This year, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species has been updated to recognize 742 new species of birds.   This brings the overall count to 11,121, exceeding 11,000 for the first time.   The new total is the product of a comprehensive taxonomic review, and suggests that avian diversity at the species level was previously under-estimated by more than 10%.   Unfortunately, over 11% of the newly-recognized species have been list as threatened.
The need for conservation is especially urgent in Asia and Africa, where habitat loss and capture for the pet trade are depleting populations of the Java Sparrow, Grey Parrot, and other species.
On a positive note, some species have been down-listed to lower threat categories.   Populations of Azore Bullfinch, St. Helena Plover and Seychelles White-eye have sprung back from the edge of extinction, setting a hopeful example of what dedicated conservation efforts can achieve.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

World's 2nd smallest bird

Photo: Theodore Ferguson/Diane Slawych

TUFTED COQUETTE
Lophornis ornatus

Many, many birders know that the world's smallest bird is the Bee Hummingbird, found in Cuba and other spots in the Caribbean area.   But how many of us know what the second smallest bird is in the world?   I've just learned it's another Caribbean and South American hummingbird: the Tufted Coquette.   At 6.6 cm. long and 2.3 gms. in weight, it is just a wee bit bigger than the Bee Hummingbird.   The photo above of a Tufted Coquette was taken in the garden of Theo and Gloria Ferguson in the town of St. Joseph, in Trinidad.   It may be small but it has a grand showy appearance!

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BarrytheBirder

    

Birds on Vancouver Island

 Photos by Dave Kemp

Pacific Loon (winter plumage)

Hairy Woodpecker

Surf Scoter (bottom left) + Black Scoters

Trumpeter Swan family

Common Goldeneye 

My friend British Columbia friend, Dave Kemp, took the shots above, a few days ago, on a trip over to Vancouver Island.   The west coast of Canada has just had a series of big snowfalls, quite unlike what they are normally familiar with, however it looks like critters that were on the water were not inconvenienced.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

Thousands of Snow Geese poisoned in Montana

Photo by Keith Myers / AP

Photo by Tom Munson

Metal-laden waters of open pit mine are deadly

Associated Press reported last week that several thousand Snow Geese have died following a snowstorm that forced huge flocks of the big birds to land in acidic, metal-laden waters of an old, open Montana pit mine.   Spotlights and noise-makers plus other measures were used to scare of the birds and prevent others from landing.

The flock was estimated to be around 25,000 birds, of which 2,500 were poisoned and died.   Sadly, open water was no safe haven for the unknowing birds.   A pitiful end to magnificent creatures.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder