A Dark-Eyed Junco works over a sunflower seed from the branches of a blue spruce.
© riverwindphotography, April 2021
@anythingavian / anythingavian.tumblr.com
A Dark-Eyed Junco works over a sunflower seed from the branches of a blue spruce.
© riverwindphotography, April 2021
Oriental bay-owl (Phodilus badius) in Malaysia
Great Blue Heron in the Swamplands, Charleston, SC
© Doug Hickok More here… hue and eye tumblr
baby Blues have been growing a lot in the last couple of days, and I am glad that they all look strong and healthy. Their eyes have started to open and they are slowly growing feathers. Dr. Clara is still spending the night with them in the nestbox. She will continue doing that until the babies are fully feathered and can regulate their body temperature by themselves. For the time being, they like cuddling up in a big pile to warm each other while Mom and Dad are out hunting insects for them.
Héron Cendré
Roadrunner Gallery I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know the resident roadrunner couple at the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary. These are large birds, gregarious, comfortable around people once they learn that people are not a threat. And they learn fast. They are intelligent, and crafty, on par with crows and ravens. They have excellent memories. When viewed up close they reveal delicate colors and features that you can’t see when they are darting across the road. In addition to the blue and orange facial skin behind their eyes, their crests, mantle feathers, and tails are beautifully iridescent. And they have long, lush eye lashes, like something from a Maybelline mascara ad. The hairy feathers around their beaks are called rictal bristles. These probably have a sensory function, and aid in proprioception. Roadrunners are sexually monomorphic, but they don’t have a problem sorting things out, even if I can’t distinguish male from female. They establish lifelong pair bonds, reinforced by elaborate mating behavior. This pair has been at Ash Canyon for a few years. They will share nest-building duties, and both parents will care for hatchling chicks. I have never seen roadrunner chicks, but they must be impossibly cute. I’m hopeful that they will have a nest full of babies soon. For desert birds, they are more at home around water than you might expect. In another setting I’ve watched roadrunners ambushing dragonflies in the vegetation around a pond’s edge. They jump right in, grab a bite, and then shake themselves dry. At Ash Canyon they like to bathe in the fountains. In the middle photos in this set the bird is getting a drink and a bath, then twisting and fluff-drying in the sun. And just to clear up any Looney Tunes-inspired confusion, roadrunners are fast, but they are not coyote fast. In a sprinting contest, the coyote wins every time, even without an assist from Acme® rocket skates. Greater roadrunner / correcaminos norteño (Geococcyx californianus) at the Ash Canyon Bird Sanctuary in Cochise County, Arizona. Even though I refer to them as “resident” birds, none of the birds at the sanctuary are confined, and there are no aviaries. These photos are for @axelrod, who loves roadrunners as I do.
A female Mallard rests in the shadows of golden grasses
© riverwindphotography, March, 2021
Northern Flicker Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 5 uplands
ミソサザイ 2021.03.18
Rolinha-roxa/Ruddy Ground-Dove
Columbina talpacoti
Great spotted woodpecker/större hackspett.
Summer Tanager - female
The green wood hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus) or formerly red-billed hoopoe is a large near-passerine bird native to the continent of Africa. It reaches lengths of up to 44 centimetres (tail included), and weighs usually about 50 to 100 grams.
Despite avoiding especially arid areas, green wooded hoopoes do occur in a wide variety of habitats, including many different kinds of woodlands, thickets, as well as savanna, palm groves and wooded gardens. They do require some form of cavity for roosting.
Their diet is almost entirely based on arthropods, adults and larvae alike. They feed on beetles, moths, butterflies, termites, spiders (and eggs thereof), crickets, wasps and more. In the western parts of their range they also take lizards, and a small part of their diet consists of berries and acacia seeds.
They usually forage on trunks and branches, probing wood crevices and using their thin bill to search and find invertebrates. Most of the day is spent foraging in trees, but males sometimes forage on the ground, and when termites are swarming they may become aerial insect eaters.
Green wood hoopoes are cooperative breeders, and can normally be found in groups of up to twelve or more birds, with only one breeding pair. The female is responsible for the incubation process, which takes about 18 days. Once the chicks have hatched, the entirety of the group is responsible for feeding them and their mother.
Although it is believed that the species experienced a slight decline in the past few decades as a result of habitat destruction, they are a widespread and common species, and established themselves in several protected areas, leading the IUCN to classify these birds as being a species of least concern.
Photo credits: tdwrsa
Pink Robin. 💜
Goldcrest/kungsfågel.