Also found on four continents...

Photo: Mei Yongcun / Xinhua / Barcroft Images

WWHITE WAGTAILW

(Motacilla alba)

Here's another bird (similar to yesterday's Bluethroat) that is also found on four continents, including Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, where it infrequently shows up in Alaska.   The Wagtail certainly gets maximum impact from its black and white appearance.

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BarrytheBirder

Found on four continents...

Photo: Ronald Wittek/EPA

BLUETHROAT

(Luscinia svecica)

A Bluethroat sits on a stalk in the Wagbachniederung Nature Reserve in Waghausel, near Karlsruhe in Germany.   Bluethroats live in Europe and Asia and winter in North Africa and the Indian subcontinent.  They can also be found in western Alaska.

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BarrytheBirder

Pelicans in Australia

Photo: Mezzanine1/GuardianWitness

PELICANS IN SILHOUETTE

Australian White Pelicans (Pelecamus conspicillatus) are seen in flight (above) near Penguin Island, off the Western Australia coast.  They look as spectacular in silhouette as they do in their normal colours.   There are eight Pelican species in the world and the Great White Pelican is found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Fiji, and Indonesia.  

Wikipedia Photo

The closest living relatives to penguins are the Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) above, found in sub-Sahara Africa, and the Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) below, found in tropical east Africa.

Wikipedia Photo

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BarrytheBirder

Egrets in China

Photo: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

GREAT EGRET

(Ardea alba)

Great Egrets are seen, above, in Xiangshan Forest Park in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province, China.   Great Egreats are found in most of the world's tropical and temperate regions.   They are also known as Great White Egrets and Great White Herons.   The long feathery plumes growing from the back are called aigrettes and appear during the breeding season.   Pictured below are Great White Herons which I photographed at Luther Marsh, about 1 hour from my home in south-central Ontario.

 Photos by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

First Turkey Vulture of spring...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

TURKEY VULTURE

(Cathartes aura)

I saw my first Turkey Vulture of the year this past Sunday, April 1st, in the hamlet of Temperanceville, in King Township.   I can recall many years ago never seeing a Turkey Vulture in southern Ontario, and then a few years ago seeing them in southern Ontario in summer.   Now they appear in early spring and remain until late fall.   They are readily recognized up close by the large dark body, red head and white bill.   At a distance they are recognized by their flight, as they rock from side to side, with their wings held upward in a shallow V.   Their wing-beats are deep and slow, with  minimal flapping.  

The Ontario Field Ornithologists website reports that 12 Turkey Vultures were spotted in the Niagara-Queenston area on April 2nd, plus a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) on the same day.

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BarrytheBirder

Spring harbinger...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

American Robin

(Turdus migratorius)

THE ROBIN

     THE ROBIN is the one

     That interrupts the morn

     With hurried, few, express reports

     When March is scarcely on.

     The robin is the one

     That overflows the noon

     With her cherubic quantity,

     An April but begun.

     The robin is the one

     That speechless from her nest

     Submits that home and certainty

     And sanctity are best.

Emily Dickinson (1830-86)

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Barrythebirder

Tiny bird with a big name...

Photo: Georgi Licovski / EPA

WGREAT TITW

(Parus major major)

This charming wee bird, with the otherwise provocative name, is seen in a winter setting, on a tree in the Jakupica Mountain Range in central Macedonia.   Apart from the yellow flanks, the Great Tit reminds me of the omnipresent Chickadees in my Ontario backyard cedar hedge.
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BarrytheBirder   

Snow is excellent backdrop for European Goldfinches

Photo: Rebecca Cole / Alamy Stock Photo

European Goldfinch

(Carduelis carduelis)

European Goldfinches are seen in a snowy garden at Burley Wharfedale, West Yorkshire, England.   This past winter was not particularly harsh in Britain, save for a few snowstorms late in the season, as evidenced in the photo above, by Rebecca Cole.   This bird loves niger seeds and has the perfect bill for the job.

Photo by Nexhmedin Ramadani

Please 
comment
if you wish.

Barry the Birder

Invasive mink

Photo: GB Non-native Species Secretariat

An American Mink (Neovison vison), an invasive species in Britain, attacks an unfortunate juvenile gannet.   This skilled predator consumes small mammals like voles shrews, rabbits and rats, plus fish, frogs, eels and crayfish, as well as birds and eggs.   American Mink were introduced to Britain in the 1920s, but its numbers are declining.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder 

The Turtle Dove...

Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

TURTLE DOVE

(Streptopelia turtur)

I've just acquainted myself with images and descriptions of the Turtle Dove.  A few other elegant-looking doves in the genus Streptopelia are also called 'Turtle Dove', such as the Asian Oriental Turtle Dove and the African Dusky Turtle Dove.  The Turtle Dove is quite similar to the Mourning Doves (photo below) that inhabit my Canadian backyard in both summer and cold, snowy winters.   I'm not familiar yet with the sound of Turtle Doves, but the cooing of Mourning Doves is one of my favourite, sweet and soft bird sounds.

Photo by BarrytheBirder

MOURNING DOVE

(Zenaida macroura)

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BarrytheBirder

Hawaiian Islands beach...

Photo: NOAA

One of several Layson Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) chicks finds itself surrounded on a beach littered with plastic marine debris, on a shore in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.   Sadly, this is a scene to be found around the world, on beaches and on floating masses of sea debris.

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BarrytheBirder

Weddell Seal and Gentoo Penguin in Antarctica

Photo:Paul Hilton / Greenpeace

GENTOO PENGUIN

(Pygoscelis papua)

A Weddell Seal snoozes near a squawking Gentoo Penguin on Greenwich Island, part of the south Shetland Island Group in Antarctica.   The exact origin of the Gentoo name is long forgotten.   They are the only penguin species currently increasing its population and range.   Their numbers are increasing on the Antarctica peninsula but are plummeting on some surrounding islands.   They received a 'near threatened status' on the IUCN Red List in 2007.

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BarrytheBirder

Bird with an over-designed bill?

Photo:Biju Boro / AFP / Getty Images

ORIENTAL PIED HORNBILL

(Anthracoceros albarostris)

An Oriental Pied Hornbill eats a seed as it perches in a tree in Pobitora Village, on the outskirts of Guwahati, in India's northeast Assam State.   The huge bill assists in fighting, preening, constructing nests and catching prey.   Whatever its intended use, it seems an over-statement and does, in fact, compromises the hornbill's vision field somewhat.
Please comment if you wish.
BarrytheBirder

Egyptian (or Nile) Goose

   Photo: Sina Schuldt / AFP / Getty Images

Photo: Andreas Trepte / Wikipedia

EGYPTIAN

GOOSE

(Alopochen aegyptiaca)

A young Egyptian Goose (a.k.a. Nile goose) is seen above hiding under its mother's belly, in Stuttgart, southern Germany.  Egyptian Geese are native to sub-Sahara Africa.

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BarrytheBirder

Beautiful Barnacle Goose photo

Photo: Ed McAskill

BARNACLE GOOSE

(Branta leucopsis)

Above is a spectacular photo by Ed McAskill of the Barnacle Goose that has mesmerized many local and Ontario birders for the last week or so, at the sewage lagoons behind the Trisan Centre in Schomberg, Ontario.   Several birders from western New York State have also made the trip to Schomberg to add this bird to their life lists.

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BarrytheBirder

Warblers welcome whenever - part 2

Photo and haiku by BarrytheBirder

the coldest season

its reputation well-earned
melts in spring's promise

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BarrytheBirder

Warblers welcome whenever...

Photo and haiku by BarrytheBirder

YELLOW WARBLER

(Dendroica petechia)

winter never wins

its harshness subdued once more

by spring's warm breath

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BarrytheBirder

Yellow-eyed Penguin numbers continue to decline

Photo: Murdo McLoed / The Guardian

Yellow-eyed Penguin

(Megadyptes antipodes)

A Yellow-eyed Penguin (above) recovers after an operation on its left foot at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital on the South Island of New Zealand.   Numbers of the threatened penguin species continue to decline despite the work of conservation groups.

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BarrytheBirder

A 'show-off' hummingbird

Photo: Luis Robayo / AFP / Getty Images

White-Booted Racquet-tailed Hummingbird

(Ocreatus underwoodii)

A White-Booted Raquet-tailed Hummingbird (Ocreatus underwoodii) is seen, above, and up close in the cloud forest of San Antonio, in a rural area of Cali, Columbia.  This very small but spectacular and eye-catching 'hummer' is found in Venezuela, Columbia and south to Bolivia.  There are more than 300 species of hummingbirds in the world and they are all found in the western hemisphere, most of them in south America.

 Photo: Dubai Shapiro

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BarrytheBirder

Bumble-bee beware

Photo: Ali Ihsan Osturk / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

EUROPEAN BEE-EATERS

(Merops apiaster)

Pictured above are two European Bee-eaters in Van, Turkey.   They are also known as Eurasian or Golden Bee-eaters and are found in southern Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.   They seem to be expanding their range as far north north as Great Britain, Finland and Sweden.   Bee-eaters are able to remove the stingers from bees, wasps and

hornets before devouring the insects.   Beehives are favourite targets of bee-eaters, much to the dismay of beekeepers.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder