91-year-old David Attenborough is back...

BIue Planet II ~ seas seen as never before

The inimitable David Attenborough is returning with the sequel to Blue Planet, but now the seas are changing faster then ever.   One of the amazing segments (see photo above) features a bird-eating fish: the very large Trevally, in a lagoon on an Indian Ocean atoll.   The Trevally has seen a tern flying low above the water and has launched itself out of the water to snatch the tern out of the air.   Young, unwary terns are particularly vulnerable.   But you'll have to view the new series to see how successful Trevallies are when they jump out of the ocean.

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BarrytheBirder   

Whose afraid of the big bad turkey?

    Photo by Jim Hadcock

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Wild Turkeys, after having been wiped out of eastern Canada and the US. a hundred years ago, are making a remarkable comeback.  But they are increasingly clashing with human residents in semi-urban areas, who say the turkeys destroy their gardens, damage automobiles, chase household pets and attack people.   The complaints are often nothing more than a turkey blocking traffic, but recently in New England, there were five cases of Wild Turkeys that became so aggressive, local police has to shoot them to protect humans.  Recently, a large male turkey attacked a woman and her child and backed off only when the mother whacked the turkey several times with a shovel.  Local officials suggested residents "...step forward and act confidently."   Whenever I come across Wild Turkeys, they are always very wary and immediately head off in the opposite direction.   I also think Wild Turkeys have learned to recognize shotguns when they see them.

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BarrytheBirder 

Australia's favourite bird?

   Photo: Martin Harvey/Getty Images/Gallo Images

Photo: J. J. Harrison

Australia seems to have a love/hate relationship with many, many of its 800 bird species.   So much so that it seems no one has ever organized a survey of Aussies to determine the country's favourite bird.   But anecdotally, it seems that the Pink and Grey Galahs have a slight edge over all other birds on the 'down under' continent and would be chosen as the favourite bird if an official contest or special survey was held.  They are undoubtedly attractive.

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BarrytheBirder

Changing Climate Photo Award...

Photo: Jose Luis Rodriguez

Jose Luis Rodriguez, 2017 Ciwem Environmental Photographer of the Year, was awarded the Ciwem Changing Climates prize for this outstanding photograph "Flight for Life", showing a kingfisher, caught mid-flight, with extreme pollution dominating the background.

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BarrytheBirder

Bird of the Year in New Zealand

                                                                                                 Photo: Wikipedia Commons

Seen above are Keas at Arthur's Pass National Park, in Canterbury, New Zealand.   The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is the world's only alpine parrot.   It has been crowned New Zealand's Bird of the Year, with thousands more votes cast for the species than there are surviving individuals.   Pity.

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BarrytheBirder

Canadian Pink-footed Goose

   Photo: Cernan Elias / Alamy

Photo: Bird Watching Magazine

Pink-footed Geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) are seen above searching for food on the marshland of the RSPB Nature Reserve in Southside, Merseyside, UK.  They are common and plentiful in northwest Europe, plus Greenland, Iceland and eastern Canada.  They are also known as Canadian Pink-footed Goose.

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BarrytheBirder

Military Macaw battling to carry on...

                                                                                                           Photo by Tim Flack

MILITARY MACAW

(Ara militaras)

Military Macaws are caught for the pet trade and are endangered by habitat loss.  In 2007, Defenders of Wildlife estimated that each year 78,500 birds were caught in Mexico and a quarter of their original habitat has been cleared for development.   Today, fewer than 10,000 are surviving in a dwindling habitat.   In 2008, Mexico issued an export ban on its 22 parrot species, but illegal local market sales continue.  The macaw's IUCN Red List Status is 'Vulnerable'.

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BarrytheBirder

Pigeons of New Guinea and Australia

The pigeons seen here were all photographed by Leila Jeffreys of Australia and are currently on display in at New York's Olsen Gruin Gallery.    Ms Jeffreys focuses on bird species diversity and these extraordinary colourful photos certainly belie the lowly reputation of the pigeon or rock dove.

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BarrytheBirder

Near Canterbury in south-east England

Photo: Dan Kitwood /Getty Images

Redshanks (Tringa Totanus) land at Oare Marshes in the Thames Estuary, Faversham, Kent, near Canterbury in south-east England.   The estuary offers harbour for migratory birds as well as resident birds.

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BarrytheBirder

Duck of many names...

Photo: STR/EPA

Whistling Tail Birds (Dendrocygna javanica) a.k.a. Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Indian Whistling Duck, and Lesser Whistling Teal, are photographed at Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Morigaon District, Assa, India.   With winter's onset, migratory birds have begun to arrive in north-east India.

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BarrytheBirder  

Bird photo winners

Natural History Museum, London

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017

53rd ANNUAL EXHIBITION

Photo: Gerry Pearce 

Behaviour: Birds Category

The Incubator Bird

by Gerry Pearce, UK/Australia

Most birds incubate their eggs with their bodies.   Not so the Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami), one of a handful of birds, the megapodes, that do it with an oven.   Only the males oversee incubation.   In the winning picture above, a male has chosen to create his nest-mound near the photographer's home in Sydney, bordering Garigal National Park.   If he and his mound were to a female's liking, she would lay a clutch of eggs inside.   In the photo above, the male is piling on more insulation of brush to raise the temperature.

Photo: Ekaterina Bee

10 years and younger category
The Grip of the Gulls
by Ekaterina Bee, Italy

Like all her family, five-and-a-half year old Ekaterina Bee is fascinated by nature.  On a boat trip off the coast of central Norway, her focus was on the cloud of Herring Gulls above her.   They were after food, and as soon as Ekaterina threw them bread, they surrounded her.   She liked the expression of the bird furthest away.   "It looked very curious, as if it was trying to understand what was happening on the boat.

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BarrytheBirder

Hummingbirds can be fierce or wary...

Hungriest birds in the world 

Hummingbirds aggressively defend flowers and feeders and are particularly aggressive during mating season.   They will attack many other birds, all of which are likely larger, plus animals and even humans.   National Geographic claims hummingbirds are the hungriest birds in the world.   There are other birds, animals and even insects, that pose a threat to hummingbirds.   One of the creatures that hummingbirds are particularly wary of is hornets, such as the Bald-faced Hornets pictured below.   Any hornet, wasp or bee will make a hummingbird abandon a nectar feeder. 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

Lucky South Americans...

Photo by BarrytheBirder

I sometimes think that South American birders are the most fortunate in the world.   Why?   Because every hummingbird in the world is to be found there.   There are about 325 species in the world, but they are found only in the western hemisphere.   And while eight hummingbirds species nest in North America in summer and 20 or so species visit North America, in winter they are all to be found in South America.   The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that have spent the summer in my backyard, headed south three weeks ago.   Was I sorry to see them go.   Yes.   Do I feel deprived?  No.  'Hummers' in a my garden are a joy every day I see them.   The memory of their sight and sound is with me 365 days of every year.   I am a lucky birder and I never forget it.

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BarrytheBirder

Tasmanian Shy Albatross (Thalassarche cauta cauta)

 Photo: sv-takeiteasy.com

Photo: Aleks Terauds

Concrete and mud-brick nests for 'vulnerable' bird

Naaman Zhou, writing in The Guardian, says the endangered Tasmanian Shy Albatross has embraced the idea of settling down in an artificial, specially constructed nest, according to scientists that are trying to boost its population.   A trial of nests was announced this past June to help the breeding success of the endangered species, which biologists believe are vulnerable to the environmental effects of climate change.   Hopefully, the installation of high-quality nests will help more chicks to reach adulthood.   120 nests are currently in use.   An estimated 15,000 pairs of albatrosses breed on only three remote Tasmanian islands.   Nest can weigh up to 12 kg and can be 45cm wide and 30 cm high.   The birds population plunged to only 600 birds in the 1800s as they were killed for feathers.   By 2004 they were back to 25% of their pre-exploitation numbers.

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BarrytheBirder

There are murmurations and there are murmurations...

Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters

Thousands of wading birds form a murmuration as they fly onto dry sandbanks during October's highest tide at the Was Estuary, near Snettisham in Norfolk, Britain   Some bird species, such as Starlings, can fly perfectly in a murmuration (a large flock of of birds flying closely together without touching each other), while other species try to, but with varying degrees of success.   Less intuitive and unskilled bird species can crash into and injure each other while trying to fly in large, tight, swooping formations.

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BarrytheBirder 

Alarming incident in Antarctica

Photo: WWF/PA

A colony of 18,000 pairs of Adeline Penguins in Antarctica has suffered a catastophic breeding season, with only two chicks surviving; a success rate of just .0001%.

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BarrytheBirder

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)

CARETAKER CROWS

April Overall, recently writing on behalf of the Canadian Wildlife Federation says Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds instilled a real fear of everything avian in many people; crows in particular, but that these smart birds do us a service every day.  They hang around on the sides of roads as you make your daily commute.   As you're working from 9 to 5, crows are working also, cleaning up our roads,   They happily eat roadkill, solving a messy, sometimes stinky, clean-up problem.   She recalls Canuck the Crow, a well-known Vancouver area bird, made famous for stealing evidence at a crime scene.   It was a shiny knife and Canuck the Crow took off with it.   Luckily, police spotted the theft, gave chase, and recovered the weapon.   But then if crows sometimes miss the roadkill, there are always the Turkey Vultures...are there not?  

Photos by BarrytheBirder

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BarrytheBirder

Humboldt Penguins (Spheniscus humbolti)

Photo: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images

Two Humboldt Penguins, above, a threatened species that only nests in Chile and Peru, stand on the rocks at Damas Island, in front of Punta Choros Beach, Coquimbo, Chile.  There are only 12,000 pairs of Humboldt Penguins: 8,000 in Chile and 4,000 in Peru.

Photo: Wilfred Wittkowsky/Wikipedia

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BarrytheBirder

A remarkable insect...

Photo: Yuri Smityuk

hHUMMINGBIRD HAWK MOTHh

A Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is seen feeding on a flower in Tottori, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, in western Japan.   These moths can be found throughout the northern 'Old World' from Portugal to Japan.  They occasionally appear on Canada's east coast, notably in Newfoundland.
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BarrytheBirder

Australian eagle attacks boy at birds of prey show

A wedge-tailed Eagle, part of a birds of prey show, at Alice Springs Park in Australia, flew at a young boy and latched onto the lad's head with its talons, instead of flying to a designated perch.   The boy received superficial wounds and was treated immediately by first aid attendants.    The eagle is Australia's largest bird of prey and was to be part of the show's finale, but when the eagle attacked the boy the event ended immediately.

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BarrytheBirder