Strange call from Babblers

Photo: Chris Tzaroz / Birdlife Australia

GRAY-CROWNED BABBLER

(Pomatostomus temporalis)

The noisy, chattering call of the Gray-crowned Babbler readily announces its presence, but the most well-known call is a distinct 'yahoo', given as a duet by pairs of birds.  Females give a harsh 'ya' and males reply with a high-pitched 'hoo', but given the perfect timing it sounds as though the combined call has been given by a solitary bird.  Tricky devils.

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BarrytheBirder

Birds & Birders ~ Pax Vobiscum

                                                                                                                    Photo by BarrytheBirder

Purple Finch

(Carpodacus purpureus)

Christmas waves a magic wand

Over the world, and behold, 

Everything is softer 

And more beautiful.

                                                                - Norman Vincent Peale

BEST WISHES TO ALL

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BarrytheBirder

Loves to startle birders who get too close...

Photo by Robert Shantz / Alamy

MONTEZUMA QUAIL

(Crytonyx montezumae)

The Montezuma Quail is native to the south-west US and the northern mountains of Mexico.   It is also known as the Mearn's Quail, Harlequin Quail and the Fool Quail.   The Fool Quail name is because of its behaviour, which includes crouching motionless until being practically stepped upon before exploding straight up into noisily whirring flight.

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BarytheBirder

Halcyon smyrnensis

Photo: Alaa Badarneh / EPA

White-throated Kingfisher

The White-throated Kingfisher is one of over 80 species of Kingfishers in the world.   This particular species is native to southern Asia and Phillipines.   In the photo above, a White-Throated Kingfisher is seen eating a snake, near the West Bank city of Nablus, in occupied Palestine.

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BarrytheBirder 

Neonicotinoids make birds lose their way

 Photos by BarrytheBirder                     

An experimental research study is the first to directly show harm to songbirds, extending the known impacts of neonicotinoids beyond insects.   This has been reported by Damian Carrington, Environment Editor of The Guardian.   The world's most widely used insecticide may cause migrating songbirds to lose their sense of direction and suffer drastic weight loss, according to new research.   The work is significant because it is the first direct evidence that neonicotinoids can harm songbirds and their migration.   Farmland birds have declined drastically in North America in recent decades and pesticides have long been suspected of playing a role.   The first evidence came in 2014 when a study in Holland found bird populations fell most sharply in areas where neonicotinoid pollution was highest.   Three neonicotinoids were banned from use on flowering crops in the European Union in 2013 due to unacceptable risks to bees and other pollinators and a total outdoor ban is being considered.   Now Canada is considering a similar ban.   The research analysed the effect of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on White-crowned Sparrows, as pictured here, that migrate from the southern US and Mexico to northern Canada in summer.   Birds were given doses equivalent to less than a single corn seed and within hours became weak, developed stomach problems and stopped eating.    They quickly lost 17-25% of their weight and were unable to identify the northward direction of their migration.   Professor Christy Morrissey, at the University of Saskachewan says seed sowing coincides with when birds are migrating north, exposing them to harm.  They (the pesticides) are applied in spring which overlaps exactly the time when they are moving north and are stopping   in agricultural fields to refuel along their way.

        

                                                                                                       

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BarrytheBirder

Ibis (Ibises - plural)

Photo: Ofer Levi

Australian White Ibis 

( Threskiornis molluca )

Pictured above is an Australian White Ibis, one of 28 Ibis species in the world (plus there are two more extinct).   The Australian White Ibis is one the bird species running for Australian Bird of the Year 2017.

Photo: Goran Bogicevic

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BarrytheBirder

Well-camouflaged woodpecker

Photo:George Reszeter / Alamy Stock Photo

GREEN IBERIAN WOODPECKER
 (Picus viridis sharpei)

 

A male Green Iberian Woodpecker (above) bathes in a 
woodland pond, watched by a pair

of Ring-necked 

Pheasants.

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if you wish.

BarrytheBirder

    

 Photo: Carlos N. Bocos

Feisty little bird...

Photo by Wild Birds/Alamy

The American Robin in Canada is a fairly easy-going bird, gives way to many same-sized birds and never gets into squabbles, except with other robins.   But the European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) a.k.a. Robin Redbreast, or just plain Robin, is quite the opposite.   Stephen Moss, in his new book "The Robin: A Biography" says that tiny robins will get into "very violent territorial disputes" and that they will "occasionally fight to the death".   Not surprising, I suppose, Moss goes on to say that "robins rarely live longer than a year or two".   Pity.
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BarrytheBirder

An apple a day, keeps the doctor away...

Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/AFP

A Common Blackbird (Turdus merula), a.k.a. Eurasian Blackbird, enjoys an apple in Kaufbeuren, south Germany.

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BarrytheBirder

Birds have no face-masks

Photo: Harish Tyagi / Epa

An Indian Myna Bird is seen perched above an overpass, engulfed in smog, in New Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world.   A 2013 study of non-smokers found that Indians have 30% lower lung function compared to Europeans.   Delhi has now passed a law banning the sale of fireworks to combat air pollution.   Even Myna Birds must be left speechless to hear of such a measure which seems so little so late.   Surely there are greater expectations than this to mitigate the breathing crisis for Delhi's millions of living creatures; human and otherwise.
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BarrytheBirder

Gray Cranes in Israel

 Photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP / Getty

Pictured above, a young Gray Crane (Grus grus), a.k.a. the Eurasian Crane, is seen at Agamon Hula Lake in the Hula Valley of northern Israel, where tens of thousands of the large birds are spending the winter instead of migrating south to Africa.   Pictured below, Gray Cranes are seen flocking over a tractor dispersing food at the Agamon Hula lake, in Decmber of 2016.

Photo: Jack Guez / AFP

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BarrytheBirder

Close companions

Photo: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images

A Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) is seen cleaning the nostril of White Rhino in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa.   The Red-billed Oxpecker is native to south and east Africa.   Another oxpecker, the Yellow-billed Oxpecker is found more broadly in sub-Sahara Africa, stretching from Senegal, on the Atlantic Ocean to Sudan, on the Red Sea.   The two species do mingle in East Africa and when feeding together, the Red-billed always gives way to the Yellow-billed, even though it usually out-numbers the other.

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BarrytheBirder

More of Dave Kemp's great west coast photos

Here are two more shots of by Dave Kemp, in British Columbia, of a Steller's Jay (above) and a Varied Thrush, below.   Once in a blue moon a Varied Thrush visits eastern Canada.   I have seen them and photographed them.   But Steller' Jays never seem to irrupt past the great plains of central North America.   If one were to draw a line from the eastern border of Manitoba down to the eastern border of Texas, that would be the eastern boundary for any irruptive Steller's Jay.   Pity, because I'd love to see one in my backyard.   Thanks for the photos, Dave.

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BarrytheBirder

Bird smugglers thwarted

Photo: Wildlife Conservation Society / AFP / Getty

Electus Parrots

(Electus roratus)

The Electus Parrots, pictured above, were found in a raid in Labuha, Indonesia, after smugglers allegedly stuffed 125 exotic birds inside drainpipes.   The birds were released back into the wild.   Bird smuggling is endemic in Indonesia.

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BarrytheBirder   

A glamorous bird...

Photo: Liu Xianguo / Xinhua / Barcroft Images

GOLDEN PHEASANT

(Chrysolophus pictus)

A Golden Pheasant and a squirrel are seen in Pingdingshan City, in central China's Henan Province.   The Golden Pheasant is native to central and southern China and has been introduced in other places in the world.

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BarrytheBirder

Harriers common in Canada ~ almost extinct in England

Photo by Dave Kemp

NORTHERN HARRIER

Circus cyaneus

Photo: Gert-Jan IJzerman / Alamy

The Northern Harrier  is fairly common in Canada and the US.  But in England, where the bird is known as the Hen Harrier, there are just four breeding pairs left, which puts this bird on the brink of extinction.   Pairs in Scotland, a traditional stronghold,  fell from 505 to 460 between 2010 and 2016. while in Wales they declined from 57 to 35 breeding pairs.   In Northern Ireland, pairs fell from 59 in 2010 to 46 in 2016.  The photo at top shows a male harrier, taken by Dave Kemp on the lower British Columbia mainland in Canada.   The second photo, of a female, was taken by Gert-Jan Ijzerman, in Flevoland, The Netherlands.

Paul Rincon, writing for the BBC, says that harriers feed on grouse, which puts conservationists into conflict with managers of estates in grouse hunting.   The RSPB says  the killing of this bird of prey is a significant factor behind the diminishing numbers and a large barrier stopping their recovery.   Killing or injuring a wild bird in Britain could put a convicted person in jail.   Harriers were once widespread before driven to extinction in mainland Britain in the 1800s.  Despite a comeback, the breeding population today is under 1,000 pairs, a number that points once again to widespread extinction.

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BarrytheBirder 

A feeding phenomenum that happens over and over...

Photo: Yon Itap / EPA

An Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) snatches a fish (above) at Nambae Stream in the city of Gangneung, in South Korea.  Osprey are also known as sea hawks, river hawks and fish hawks.  It is an amazing wonder of the natural world how this bird came to the decision that food in the water was preferable to food on land.   While the Osprey is highly specialized at catching and eating fish, it will, if need be, eat small mammals, birds or reptiles, which makes it fortuitously omnivorous.   Yes it is true that Ospreys almost always carry their catches head-forward.   Try holding a wet fish by its tail.
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BarrytheBirder 






      

A feathered air show...

Photo: Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images

A plump of Pintail Ducks, forming an impromptu aerobatics flight demonstration team, is seen at the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in the Morigaon District of Assam,  northeast India.

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BarrytheBirder

Volunteers naturalists take part in off-putting task

Photo: Elaine Thompson/AP

SURVEYING DEAD BIRDS

Pictured above is a citizen patrol surveying dead birds that have washed ashore on beaches along the US. west coast, at Ocean Shores, Washington.   The information gathered is used as an indication of the coastal environment's health.

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BarrytheBirder

Another west coast feathered beauty...

 Photo: Dave Kemp

Just over a week ago, I showed the photo below of a Stellar's Jay, which was taken by my British Columbia acquaintance, Don Flucker.   Now I have just received the photo above, of a Varied Thrush, taken by another British Columbia acquaintance, Bob Kemp.  Bob Kemp says not only did he have the Varied Thrush in the backyard, but also three Stellar's Jays, at the same time.   Gentlemen, I am so envious of the birdwatching you have on Canada's west coast.   

Photo: Don Flucker

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BarrytheBirder