Ornithamateurs - The Birding Thread

[kismet999]

Cormorant. Double Crested.

https://www.***********/s/ncibon9dio0jzn6/Double Crested Cormorant.JPG?dl=0

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

I love watching the cormorants fly. They are easy to pick out, because they are usually alone, and always fly like they are late for work

 

[kismet999]

House Finch

https://www.***********/s/1pekcbbdc70ivxj/House Finch.JPG?dl=0

 

[kismet999]

Lesser Goldfinch

https://www.***********/s/cu85p6wu8j05wwa/Lesser Goldfinch.JPG?dl=0

 

[kismet999]

Egrets - Great and snowy?

https://www.***********/s/kj9ri90kzkmg5q9/Great Egret with Snowy Egret.JPG?dl=0

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

I didn't know to expect to see vultures in my new home state. Spotted my first turkey vulture this morning; it was playing chicken with traffic over some road kill squirrel.

 

[Blue]

I don't bird watch at all but, coincidentally, today I got the closer to doing so than usual; found the spine of a pigeon with the wings still attached and nothing else on the side of the road.
Poor pigeon.

Although, rare black flamingo:
(Caused by a genetic defect causing super-high melanin concentrations in their feathers)
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-04/12/16/enhanced/webdr03/enhanced-18762-1428870219-27.jpg

 

[rbijon]

I love watching the cormorants fly. They are easy to pick out, because they are usually alone, and always fly like they are late for work

....& they look like they forgot to wash their hair.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Blue]

I don't know if it's the same everywhere else but where I am pigeons are referred to as "flying rats".
Why all the hate for pigeons.
I love 'em.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/blogs/assets/File/Lyme-Regis-pigeon-pair-April-2015-1-600-px-tiny-June-2015-Darren-Naish-Tetrapod-Zoology.jpg

 

[jm1993]

I don't know if it's the same everywhere else but where I am pigeons are referred to as "flying rats".
Why all the hate for pigeons.
I love 'em.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/blogs/assets/File/Lyme-Regis-pigeon-pair-April-2015-1-600-px-tiny-June-2015-Darren-Naish-Tetrapod-Zoology.jpg

Eh. It depends on what pigeons we're talking about. Rock Doves in that picture are known as pigeons as well and they're everywhere. They offer a sort of clean up I suppose of crumbs and other food remnants but I can only imagine in cities where they have much higher densities that they could be carriers for disease, likening them to rats. I typically have no love lost for non-native species. Which is ironic because who decides what species is native and non-native.

 

[jm1993]

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1630/25813544254_456759d035.jpgbrown_headed_cowbird_glamor by A J, on Flickr

Speaking of hated birds, the Brown-headed Cowbird, known for its brood parasitism. A native species to the USA but has been given more access to habitats by our fragmentation of pristine woodlands. This has allowed it to impact species who had never before encountered its breeding strategies and so have no evolutionary advantages to counteract it. not my photo btw

 

[jm1993]

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1443/26418366275_73df071e6f_c.jpgDSC_0043 by A J, on Flickr

When I went searching for the Tropical Kingbird, I found this lovely Loggerhead Shrike. As a biology major, I am against anthropomorphizing animals. I believe it causes more harm than it does good in the long run when it comes to protecting the environment, but I digress. When you see a Loggerhead Shrike, I can imagine you'd be drawn to it's dark color scheme; gray's and black. Very simple, understated and yet it's unique. It has a more robust stature than the ubiquitous Northern Mockingbird that shares similar habitat and prey items with it. To me it's dark and mysterious. They fascinate me. So when my Dom decided that I should have a 'slave name', he named me Shrike. If you look at the end of a Shrike's beak, you'll see a curved hook that they use to kill their prey. Then then are known to skewer their prey on barbed wire or cactus spines, or other thorned plants in order to save their food for later. This behavior has given them the nickname "butcher bird".

 

[jm1993]

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1494/26326029742_5ec5cedcdb_c.jpg12019752_1137493289597731_5164241214189445354_n by A J, on Flickr

Ruby Throated Hummingbird, Female

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Awesome pics, all

Elle, does your pigeon have a name?
Silly question.. what do you feed it?

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Oh, I didn't keep it, I just got it to adult hood and then encouraged it on its birdy wAy. Sometimes it's hard not to want to keep somethings.

Pigeons and their ilk are quite easy to provide food for, because of pigeon fanciers needing food. In a real emergency they can have dog biscuits soaked and then sieved, but I use chick crumb, which up until recently I have usually had in. Then you can quite easily buy something called 'pigeon milk'. As they get older you can get them eating a commercial pigeon mix for ease, or other grains pigeons can eat. I put them out side, so that they aren't just eating from a bowl in a cage, and they start looking around.

I don't go looking for fallen birds, and myself would probably not bother, but once G brings it home convinced I can save it ( and it's not always a possibility at all) . If it were a rare bird I would call one of the specialist animal welfare charities I guess. I've not been in that position. ( thankfully)

When I was a kid, we incubated some eggs and hand reared a quail. I don't remember what happened to the rest of them, but we kept one. He was our pet his entire life, and he would happily sit on our heads or shoulders, we only put him in a cage at night. I'm sure it wasn't the best life be could have had as a bird, but I'm also sure that he contributed greatly to my love of birds

 

[pensivepoet]

I've tried to save a lot of birds.
Breaks my heart when it doesn't work.
Once tried with a hummingbird that couldn't fly. I think he finally died of a broken spirit.
Once when camping on Lake Superior, we founda sick herron. We drove it around to every vet that would see us.
Called universities.
Finally all we could do was take it to a protected place near the water and leave it.
More birds have broken my heart than women.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

I am so excited by this, ( maybe you told me before ) because the lore is quail CANNOT be free range, it's the reason I never kept them.

Good thing we never asked anyone if it could be done or not
What is the supposed barrier?

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

That they will always disappear, wander off.

An acquaintance of mine farms them, on small scale, and trying to keep welfare standards high is her biggest nightmare, because the males can be quite problematic together, and the rules about husbandry ( for reasons of hygiene) preclude lots of enrichment one might give on a small scale. We were inventing all kinds of crazy ways to keep them busy and happy within the guidelines.

Well just get one - they make a great pet

 

[AbsintheFather]

I heard a really cool story this morning on the radio about how some birds use spider silk as their 'duct tape' for building nests. I found it to share. Chack out this site too. It has a lot of other stories that look worth checking into

http://birdnote.org/show/spider-silk-duct-tape-bird-nests

http://birdnote.org/shows

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

I heard a really cool story this morning on the radio about how some birds use spider silk as their 'duct tape' for building nests. I found it to share. Chack out this site too. It has a lot of other stories that look worth checking into

http://birdnote.org/show/spider-silk-duct-tape-bird-nests

http://birdnote.org/shows

Awesome, as always Abs