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