Lookout parrot seized by police...

Photo: Mike Pitts / BBC

Brazilian drug dealers train parrot

The Guardian reports that a parrot has been taken into custody in Brazil following a police raid which targeted crack dealers.   Brazilian press said the bird had been taught to alert criminals to police operations by shouting: "Mum, the police".   The parrot was seized when officers swooped on a drug den run by a local couple.   Police said as soon as they got close, the parrot started shouting.   A journalist who came face-to-face with the imprisoned bird, said it had clammed up and hasn't said a word after its arrest.   The parrot is now in a zoo.

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BarrytheBirder

Changing the colour despite the weather...

                                                                                                        Photo by BarrytheBirder

American Goldfinch

Carduelis tristis

Well, the male American Goldfinches have turned bright yellow and black, but here in southern Ontario it is still very chilly weather.   Nevertheless, we do have lots of these delightful small birds and they are very well fed.  They are often referred to as the "Wild Canary".   The Audubon Society says their food is mostly seeds and that nesting does not begin until midsummer or late summer when seeds are available.   This allows them to stay in flocks until well past the time when other species have formed pairs and are nesting.   Because they breed so late, only a single set of eggs is raised each summer.  Their bright call "per-chick-o-ree" is delivered in flight and coincides with each undulation.

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BarrytheBirder

Three Bald Eagles raising three eaglets...

Photo:

A rare trio of Bald Eagles is raising eaglets together on the upper Mississippi River near, Fulton, Illinois, U.S.A.  The two male birds, named Valor I and Valor II plus one female, Starr, are raising three eaglets which hatched in the spring of this year.   It is only the fourth time such an event has ever been recorded in US. birding history.  Both males were observed mating with Starr, prior to her nesting.

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BarrytheBirder

Making ends meet in Al-Hasaken, Syria...

Photo: Delil Souleiman / AFP / Getty Images

A woman displaced from Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province is seen with a hen in al-Hol camp for displaced people, in Al-Hasakeh, Syria.   Presumably, the chicken's future is based on two choices: eggs or the pot.

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BarrytheBirder

Hoopoe charm in China...

                                                                                   Photos: Costfoto / Barcroft Images

A Hoopoe, or Upupa epop, carries an insect in Yichun, China.   Hoopoes have come to symbolize peace and happiness.  In the photo below, it would appear that a male is offering food to a female, perhaps as a prelude to mating.

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BarrytheBirder

Symbiosis...

Photo: Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images

Egrets perch on water buffaloes in the Manggamut River, southern Aceh province, Indonesian.   It is a symbiotic relationship involving insects as pests and food.

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BarrytheBirder

Odd bedfellows...

                                                                                                    Photo by Laurie Wolf

I'm guessing we have an Eastern Screech Owl and a very young Wood Duck in the photo.   Anyone else have a guess?   How they came to be together, I've no idea ... but they sure are cute.
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BarrytheBirder

World's fattest parrot has record breeding season, but...

Photo: Don Merton / AFP / Getty Images

Kakapo is still critically endangered 

The Guardian newspaper reports that the world's fattest species of parrot has had a record-breaking breeding season in New Zealand.   Which is good because there are only 147 adult Kakapo alive today.   A far cry from when they were one of New Zealand's most common birds.  The culprits?  Hunting to the brink of extinction, killing by introduced pests and being displaced by farming.   The birds are vulnerably flightless, nocturnal, known for their charismatic charm and owl-like faces.  They are subject to one of the world's most intensive management programs and this year 76 chicks have hatched and 60 are expected to reach adulthood. 49 out of 50 breeding females laid eggs this year.   In the last two seasons, fruit has not been so plentiful in 50 years.  Feeding and breeding has started early and some Kakapo are nesting twice.   The chicks are being raised on two predator-free islands off the New Zealand coast.  The population would have to reach "at least 500" for scientists to think about backing off.   They were thought to be extinct until some were found in the 1970s.   They had reached their lowest number in 1977 at 18 birds.
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BarrytheBirder

Prize-winning photograph...

Photo: Alan Fieldus

This photo of an Eliot's Storm Petrel (Oceanites gracilis) was the first prize winner in the BIRDSEYE APPS 2018 / 2019 Tropical Bird Photo Contest.   It was photographed at Las Bachas  Beach, on Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.   This bird is normally a sooty, dark-coloured bird, but I feel the sun, perhaps near the horizon, may have enhanced its colouring.  In fact, the reflection in the water is probably a more accurate colour representation.   Indeed, a most interesting photograph.
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BarrytheBirder

Love nest sits upon garbage and debris...

Photo: Yui Mok / PA

Grebes prepare for the spring imperative on a nest partially constructed from trash and debris, on the the south quay at the Isle of Dogs, east London.

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BarrytheBirder

Great Britain's national bird...

Photo: John Gilbey

A Robin (Great Britain's national bird) sings to defend its territory in a mixed, deciduous forest along the River Teifi, near Cilgerran in Wales.

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BarrytheBirder

The colours of drought...

Photo: Jeffery Arguedas / EPA

A Nicaraguan Grackle (Quiscalus nicaraguensis) looks for water in a lagoon at La Sabana Metropolitan Park, in San Jose, Costa Rica, which has been affected by the droughts produced by El Nino.   This medium-sized bird is found only in Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica.
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BarrytheBirder

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