Birding!

[cockroach]

I am not an avid birder or even a hobbyist level ornithologist, but growing up in the bush I have a profound love of uncaged birds, and non-invasive birds.
A few of my favorite birds in no particular order are : Pics not mine!
African
Hoepoe


Shoebill - the lungfish eater


Bee eaters


Paradise whydah


Helmeted Guinea Fowl


Livingstone's Turaco


Hornbills


And in general I love the intelligence of the Corvid family. Especially pied crows.


In Asia I really love the Taiwanese bird called the Taiwan Barbet or 5 colored bird

and Japanese White Eyes

 

[esoxlucius]

Lol. That top picture of that stunning Hoopoe brings back some very early childhood memories.

I had a birdspotters guide to British birds when I was a kid and the Hoopoe, with it's stunning head dress was in the book!!

So, naive 8 year old Esox was constantly on the look out for this Hoopoe. I thought it would land in my garden one day along with the robins, blue tits and chaffinches!

Sadly, the Hoopoe never did land in my back garden.

I didn't find out until some time later that the Hoopoe would never land in my northern back garden. It was from much sunnier climates and only very very occasionally was it sighted in southern England.

So, everytime I see the Hoopoe now I am transported back, lol.

Lovely bird though.

 

[Redshark1]

I found this bird in a car park when I went for a walk in the woods. It seemed tame and let me approach while it fed on weed seeds. When I got close I could see it was a Canary which had presumably escaped. Recently there have been a lot of Ring-necked Parakeets in my area of Leeds, West Yorkshire as they have become established in the wild.

 

[esoxlucius]

I found this bird in a car park when I went for a walk in the woods. It seemed tame and let me approach while it fed on weed seeds. When I got close I could see it was a Canary which had presumably escaped. Recently there have been a lot of Ring-necked Parakeets in my area of Leeds, West Yorkshire as they have become established in the wild.

View attachment 1537190

The UK has quite an impressive and widespread wild population of these supposedly tropical birds. That one is quite drab. In some local parks not far away from where I live you get the odd bright green parakeet.

To say they look out of place is the understatement of the century, lol. But they do seem to be thriving and spreading further north year on year.

 

[SilverArowanaBoi]

I found this bird in a car park when I went for a walk in the woods. It seemed tame and let me approach while it fed on weed seeds. When I got close I could see it was a Canary which had presumably escaped. Recently there have been a lot of Ring-necked Parakeets in my area of Leeds, West Yorkshire as they have become established in the wild.

View attachment 1537190

We had a canary very similar to that one, we sold it, but it had the exact same coloration O_O

 

[RD.]

First day of Spring, 5” of snow, and our first Robin out back in our crab apple tree.

 

[deeda]

I had a couple male Eastern Towhees (previously called Rufous-sided Towhees) late last week when the weather was still warm.

I have also seen about a dozen Turkey Vultures soaring in the sky the last couple days and since it's been so breezy, watching them ride the thermals has been fascinating.

 

[Backfromthedead]

I was looking through some older photos and came across this little guy that we ran into on the slopes of mauna kea, hawaii. It was the only critter i spotted there at around 12000 ft, sorta like a cross between a grouse and a quail, i dont know what it was.

 

[Backfromthedead]

This is our pet turkey flock at the family farm. Theyre not actually pets, but since we stopped shooting them they make themselves right at home by the corn pile.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

and Japanese White Eyes
View attachment 1537171

Here in San Diego, CA, Japanese White Eyes are an example of an escaped bird who is making a population from breeding in the wild. Ive seen them a couple times, probably 2nd or 3rd generation birds.

Being the son of an ornothologist, I am quite the birder. I make it a point to wherever I go out of state get atleast 50 bird species. I believe my combined total would exceed 600 if I actually kept track, of course counting the birds out of country too.

My favorite bird ive seen in terms of beauty are hands down the ones in costa rica. When I went, I went to 3 different towns, La Fortuna (touristy), Siripiquí (middle, flat), and Cahuita (Caribbean, borders Panamá). This, of course, provided a diverse birding area, despite being in such close proximity to each other due to Costa Rica being so small. I think I ended with only 124 birds, I tried my hardest to get to 150, but for that I should’ve gone to the Pacific side as well as central and eastern. Anyways, I got to see some crazy tropical colorful birds. Heres a couple pictures.

#1 male Gartered Trogan
#2 Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
#3 Green Honeycreeper
#4 Bay-headed Tanager









My next birding trip is to San Miguel Island, a Channel Island. Problem is that there are very few camp sites and I believe it is quite hard to get a permit and a trip there. Off the island of San Miguel, there is a small island by the name of Prince Island that has growing colonies of Common Murre, and apparently Tufted Puffins, which is a bucket list bird. In 2025 over summer I am going to Denmark where I will go to the Færœ Islands, which I am garunteed to see them, but why not see them twice?