Real ornithology thread this time not on noise board (no roadkill pix PLZZZZ)

http://ltodi.est.ips.pt/jsousa/images/milheirinha1L.jpg

http://www.somersetbirds.uko2.co.uk/images/5607%20Black%20Kite.JPG

i actually find this heartbreakingly poignant

http://www.stephenburch.com/trips/mallorca06/Zitting%20Cist%20Albufera%2027%20Oct%2006sm.jpg

http://www.lochindaalpress.co.uk/images/Hen%20Harrier.jpg

good work seein birds and all

Those birds are beautiful, elegant & fantastic.

Main birds I see daily:
• Mourning doves, who are hilariously stupod. (There are two who live in the tree outside my house. The male kept trying to help the female's nest by presenting sticks to her. Unfortunately, they were all pulled from the bottom of the nest, out of which fell all her eggs.)
• The humble, underrated, charming & quirky grackle.
• Darling families of quails.
• This terrifying, small, tan owl that yells at me & circles my head whenever I'm in the laundry district.
• Sparrows & the occasional robin.

I miss seeing magpies, those are my favorite birds. They're brilliant as fuck & you've gotta love any species that is polyandrous.

There are two who live in the tree outside my house. The male kept trying to help the female's nest by presenting sticks to her. Unfortunately, they were all pulled from the bottom of the nest, out of which fell all her eggs.

I don't know why, but in a horrible sad way this just made me laugh. Silly birds >_<

It is like a metaphor for my life!

I saw an eagle destroying a hare or something a few weeks ago.

Also, magpies are annoying.

And Willie Wagtails are awesome little dueds.
http://www.irock.com.au/~birdscapricornia/Grey%20Fantail.JPG

When hanging out on my cousins farm in the Bega Valley I used to often see eagles and hawks cirling and then really suddenly diving 100mph at the ground. Grabbing rabbits, I guess. Its impressive, the speed they dive at.

Dude, magpies are AWESOME if only for the biological wonderment & insanity that are MAGPIE FUNERALS:

From a Utah bird lover site:
That's sure what Nancy Marsh of Aspen, Colorado, thought she was watching. After a magpie died in her yard, she observed, "Seven magpies came and gathered around the dead bird. They were making lots of noise, hopping around. Every now and then one would pull at a wing or leg on the dead bird. They took turns doing this. Some would fly to nearby low branches, still 'talking' and then fly back by the bird. One by one they flew away, leaving one live bird who stayed on the ground next to the dead bird and leaned close and squawked several times and then flew away. The incident lasted about fifteen minutes." This behavior pattern is often observed in birds of the corvid family. Researchers believe the birds are trying to understand what happened and learn how to avoid a similar fate. They may also be trying to revive the dead bird.

Also, the have beautiful iridescent wings!

whoa this is a cool thread w/ the pictures

i see lots of ravens. ravens are the smartest birds, allegedly.

my only experience bird watching was when i was seven and i wanted to bring a canteen of apple juice. all the adults on the hike smiled at me for being precociously overprepared, but by the end of two miles they were sweating through their shirts and feverishly eyeing me as i refreshed myself. i think that may have been the first time as a kid i felt superior to adults.

Holy shit Abbott, that magpie death thing !!! WTF!

Magpies scare me, in spring they dive bomb yr head ;_;

saw some good stuff in costa rica in march

mainly a pair of these badasses

great curassow:
http://tropicalhardwoods.com/htm/tree_owners_news/photos/19_fall_2004/great_curassow_female.jpg

the male is more plain brown, no mohawk

also a black guan

http://www.tekipaki.jp/~texbird/images/BlackGuan.jpg

corvids are well-regarded as just about the only birds with a genuine sense of 'flying for fun'; their acrobatics are generally gratuitous rather than part of a mating-display (as other birds' antics are). they're pretty much the largest, most developed and most versatile passerines (birds whose young are naked and helpless when hatched), which themselves are far more developed and intelligent than non-passerines (birds whose young are fluffy and mobile at birth). passerines are generally finches, sparrows, larks, warblers and other small chirpers, whereas non-passerines comprise of all the big seabirds, raptors, pigeons, ducks etc.

They may also be trying to revive eat the dead bird.

I have a sneaking respect for magpies not least because of their associations with bad luck. Up close they do look pretty amazing but they also make a hell of a racket at 5 o'clock in the morning in our garden fighting with the squirrels.

Cassowaries devserve love guys.
http://www.unfamiliar-image.co.uk/photos/cassowary.jpg
http://scribalterror.blogs.com/scribal_terror/images/cassowary.jpg
http://www.robotbreeder.com/Robotblogger/uploaded_images/cassowary-730418.jpg

most dangerous bird, one kick and you have no guts

that last pic needs an 'O RLY'-esque caption

that magpie thing is awesome, and the mourning dove thing funny (but also v sad!)

my favourite birds are PENGUINS.

I saw a female Bobwhite quail at work today!!!! I thought they'd been totally killed off—the ground-nesting birds have taken a huge hit from skunks, raccoons and feral cats. Hence the tick population-explosion. Those guys are excellent tick-eaters. I'm hoping the wild turkeys eat ticks, because they seem to be proliferating apace. Maybe the turkey mamas are big enough to intimidate marauders.

When I was a kid you'd hear whippoorwill and Bobwhite calls all the time. Now—never. Once in a blue moon you'll see a ring-necked pheasant. I was SO AMAZED to see this Bobwhite girl.

I love our bird feeder. We eat breakfast on the back porch and watch the goings-on. We get lots of chickadees, goldfinches, purple finches, nuthatches, towhees and cardinals. Downy woodpeckers. Blue Jays, Redwing blackbirds. Squirrels and chipmunks, too. I don't mind buying the extra birdseed to feed them too, because they are CUTE.

That first bird on the thread is so amazing! If I had seen him I think I would have fainted! What is he?

CASSOWARIES are the bane of my existence.

I am surprised the male great curassow was less decked out than the lady!

You have Cassowaries in New Mexico? I thought that pic was taken, I don't know—on Mars?

Why are they bad? Do they steal laundry off the line? Threaten your dogs?

the first bird is a european hoopoe. i chanced upon one when walking past someone's front garden. all i could see was the beige back and heavily barred black-and-white wings as it flapped awkwardly away from me, but i instantly knew what it was. magnificent bird.

black kites (the third one) are arguably even more magnificent, however.

But the fourth bird is the sweetest. I love him! Or her!

A wren?

He/she doesn't have the perked-up wren tail.

The fourth bird, a Fan-Tailed Warbler (or, more preferably, a Zitting Cisticola) spends all of his (or her) time bouncing around in mid-air going "Sip! Sip! Sip! Sip! Sip! Sip! Sip!".

It's also a real bugger to see unless it's right over your head.

Casowaries do not live in NM...the state bird is the kokopelli.

My thoughts on the cassowary have been explicated here. I also share some stories, IIRC, about growing up with emus, ostriches, and rheas, in which my dad invested when they were briefly a weird agricultural commodity.

Yeah I remember the parents of some guys I went to school with used to breed emus (or maybe ostriches, can't remember which) there was allegedly a lot of money in it, at the time.

^this was in like western New South Wales.

It was like a Danish tulip thing for 2-3 years. My dad paid $50k for a male ostrich & kinda broke even on it from its babies, eventually, but never really got more than barely out of the red with the whole thing. Plus we lived in a trailer at the time; I slept in the living room by the egg incubators & this hutch my dad made for baby ostriches. So my youth is full of tiny ratite skwaking in a cramped house.

This was in Idaho. "Running Bird Ranch" was what my dad named his business.

Lex otm Re: penguins.

THE BEST.

The Blue-Footed Booby is a friend of mine. I also like puffins.

well, def the TWEEest xpost

I'm with Drone...my favourite sentimental bird of all time has to be the ever-cheerful Pied Wagtail:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/images/2006/01/20/pied_wagtail_mike_read_470x365.jpg

I like penguins because A) They have really cool penguins in a local zoo

and

B) They have really cool penguins in Chile, one of my favourite places.

I've never seen any of those birds at the top of the thread. What's number two - a serin? I went through a period of being into birds when I was about nine. Had a field guide and was totally obsessed with the page with the hoopoe on it. Think that bee-eater, roller and possibly golden oriole were all on the same page. I sort of lost interest when none of the above ever showed up in my North London garden, despite the copious amounts of old bacon rind that I put out for them on the bird table

Go through spasmodic periods of amateurish birdwatching now though. There's something appealing in disappearing into the countryside by myself for the day, it can still feel like a big boyish adventure for me. Still get excited about seeing new species, but can't say I go out of my way to find them.

That hen harrier is gorgeous BTW!

I think I had the same field guide, all the rare occasional visitors lumped together on the one page, I remember thinking how impossibly exotic they all looked.

I too have a fondness for pied wagtails, there's one that's staked out his turf outside the local offie and is generally to be seen patrolling.

I, much to my delight, have a garden full of that little-regarded joy, Dunnocks

We had a dunnock called Derek living in our garden until recently. Funny little fellow but such a beautiful song. Think he got killed by a bastard cat though - RIP Derek.

there's a grey wagtail that hangs around down by the thames, 5 minutes from here. the only time i had a good look at him (20 ft away) my camera was full and ever since i've only ever seen him flying off places.

there's also a black headed gull on ravenscourt park pond at the moment, first i've seen there. looks lonely.

lots of peregrin falcon cams on the web: http://195.224.106.202/peregrine/webcam.htm
blimey, he's big. has been two weeks since i looked last and they were just balls of feathers then.

Nick, it is

oh whoops, posting error!

Nick, it is a serin! When I saw it singing atop a wire, at first I thought it was a Yellowhammer, but its song was too different, its size too small, and its breast too yellow. A quick consultation of the field guide confirmed my suspicions.

My own field guide (huge, comprehensive beast with one bird per page) I've had since I was SIX. Between that age and 12 I was an obsessive, since then almost nothing, but I've recently determined to get back into it a bit (my continental sojourn certainly helped this resolution).

When I was fielding in a cricket match last week (in France) our umpire told me there was a Golden Oriole in the woods behind us, but I couldn't run off and look for it, alas. You're not going to see any of those birds in England, however...

dungeness thread has re-awakened the pang

Louis: crazy beautiful bird photo here that you might like. How the fecking feck did he bag that? The moment must have been there and gone in the blink of a snipe's eye.

Also: quite a gross photo of a little auk further down that page.

Oh my goodness, that curlew is ADORABLE!

That curlew has something of Philippe about him, no?

And as for the sparrowhawk-with-snipe capture, I am fairly in awe.

I saw some ravens doing something very smart to make sure a dead snake was actually dead. They would hop closer and closer to it, but only after spreading their wings apart very showily with every gained inch.

Like I said upthread, ravens (and crows in general) are probably the most intelligent birds, probably because they're the largest songbirds, therefore have the largest and most developed brains, and songbirds pwn non-songbirds in terms of cleverness.

Best bird I've seen (not my photo):

http://www.birdlife.org/images/sized/400/b_californian_condor.jpg.jpg

Literally as we arrived at the Grand Canyon one of these beauties was ascending a thermal about 50 yards out from the edge. Amazing.

If ravens are a) songbirds and b) clever why do they make such a terrible sound?

http://images.dr3vil.com/files2/default/Eagle911.gif

No tear no credibility

If ravens are a) songbirds and b) clever why do they make such a terrible sound?

Whut, they make an awesome sound dude! Evocative of being out in the hills somewhere with the north wind whistling through yer smalls.

Yes, but you're the kind of person who likes pain :)

'Songbird' isn't a specious definition. It's an actual genetic state. I refer to it upthread in terms of 'passerine' and 'non-passerine'. Passerines are songbirds, and are far more mentally developed than non-passerines.

Passeriforms!

Has anyone read Mind of the Raven? Holy shit is it ever good and it will convert you to burning corvid lurve.

I don't need that conversion. Crows get all the fun. I'd be a crow if I was any bird. *cue Nemi rewrite pasting*

BUT THE BOOK IS FUCKING AWESOME.

OK! I'm sold!

FUCK YES YOU ARE.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Raven_croak.jpg/800px-Raven_croak.jpg

Does anyone here love the GRACKLE?

I saw a ruffed grouse in rural PA recently. I was super excited. There wasa gorgeous full-page illustration of one in The New Yorker (maybe last week?)

Oh my goodness there were grouse near my house as a child (& pheasants) and they are just extra gorgeous. In Gary Paulsen's The Hatchet they are the stupid "pear birds" he figures out how to kill & eat.

In Gary Paulsen's The Hatchet they are the stupid "pear birds" he figures out how to kill & eat.

Cliff Notes.

there used to be a bald eagle that nested somewhere on the river outside my office in massachusetts. whenever it would show up we'd watch the geese get nervous but the only thing we ever saw it eat was carp.

there were also a couple of blue herons that made that stretch of river home.

Also, grackles are probably my favorite bird and I have a copy of Mind Of The Raven sitting in front of me RIGHT NOW.

Actually, I think that the hooded pitohui is my favorite bird but the grackle is the sentimental pick. I can relate to the grackle whereas its been a while since I've sweated poisonous beetle toxins.

So glad for the grackle love! They act like they own this town, all squalling and chirping and ruffling proudly, and actually, they're probably right.

Bird of Paradise mating rituals. They CLEAN before trying to impress the ladies!

holy mother of god, are those birds awesome. superb BoP display is actually kinda terrifying. from the front it looks like some sort of UFO with a huge luminescent mouth :-|

if it appeared in a dream of mine i would wake up screaming

Ostiches mating. Contrast with girl in a hotel with her family performing ostrich mating dance. NB neither have the Attenborough (sp?) elegance.

i mean, 2:09 into that video = HOLY FUCKING SHIT xposts

that ostrich video srsly needs some house music

We had ostriches, emus & rheas growing up, any old time a person would walk by, down would drop Mr. Ostrich on his backwards two-toed legs and groove away in pointless horn.

Heard and actually saw a common keol aka 'storm bird' this morning.

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/images/factsheets/full/Eudynamys/scolopacea/koelmalenfifer.jpg

The male's (awes) call http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/images/audio/eudynamys-scolopacea.mp3

I'd just like to express my disappointment L()uis hasn't given us an ornithological update here ;_____;

I like capercaillies, but you hardly ever see them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Capercaillie_Lomvi_2004.jpg

Golden eagles still my favourite relatively common bird you get in Scotland, but capercaillies are excellently stupid-looking

And, look, you can't even see it there!

http://www.snh.org.uk/images/publications/saf/capercaillie.jpg

There was a good wee segment on The One Show last night about the Loch Garten ospreys and the success of the osprey protection efforts in general. It was a bit misleading though as it was filmed months ago and showed the mother sitting on her eggs. Anyone who caught the show and decided to go see the chicks now would have to go to north Africa.

(just checked and it seems one of them died over the Atlantic)

Aye, we saw that, one of my husband's former colleagues jacked in his job to go and be a warden at the osprey reserve at Boat of Garten.

lying in my sleeping bag early on sunday morning i heard a tawny owl but I have still failed to see one of the buggers. Barn owls are another matter they seem to delight in coming in at head height like silent ghosts.

also say red kites, pheasants and some very inland (buckinghamshire) gulls at the weekend.

we're goin' birding on Sunday

http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/10/27/2725452.htm

Man that is a lot of budgies.

Saw a heron just on the other side of the full-sized window trotting round the edge of the work pond earlier, thought it was very pretty, but when I pointed it out to the receptionist she was outraged and banging on the windows to get rid of this fish-stealing monster, so I felt kind of bad (for seeming like an asshole who doesn't care about the fish, or for the bird being thumped and shouted at? dunno)

herons ate my dads koi

i laughed

shoutoutz to the lyrebird obvs

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Lyrebird.jpg

http://weirdimals.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/albertslyrebird.jpg

http://skola.amoskadan.cz/s_aj/esc/images/Australia/LYREBIRD.jpg

Did I mention that when I was growing up my grandfather was a peacock breeder and we'd visit their farm every few weeks and there'd be peacocks all over the shop? it was totally amazing and I miss it in retrospect.

http://www.wiresnr.org/images/albinoFrogmouth013sm.jpg

http://www.dartfordwarbler.com/uploaded_images/tawny1_sq-745067.jpg

<3<3

straight outta henson that last dude

amazing. look, they eat mice, too.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/TawnyFrogmouthEatingMouse.JPG

Frogmouth!

ahahahaha this thread

no wait shit I was thinking of the noize board one

proceed

also what have I seen recently oh I saw some BITTERNS

YOU BASTARD

and where did I see them, do you ask?

Oh I saw them WITHIN ABOUT TEN YARDS OF LEAFY WEST LONDON BACK GARDENS

in the WILD

Hey L0uis, I actually saw lots of dope flora and fauna in central australia due to the crazy floods which have affected the region over the last few months, the birds were kind of boring iirc - some cool finches, not much else. However it was super dope driving through the desertscape with fields upon fields upon fields of purple desert flowers though :)

Did the cool finches include zebra finches? Because if so I'm going to have to draw attention to this again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icWo6eu_UUU

also were there wallabies

WITHIN ABOUT TEN YARDS OF LEAFY WEST LONDON BACK GARDENS

I'm guessing it was at the WWT centre? Anyhow... YOU BASTARD

even better video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz536OlsCM8

yeah it was indeed at the Wetland Centre. I saw THREE. inyufface.

link to link of my review of barbican exhibition: BIRDS

also BITTERNS

also oh did I say I saw a PURPLE HERON in Dungeness quite recently

all ur herons belong 2 me

Been to the WWT once, and there was some guy with a scope on a bittern, but fucked if I could find it tbh. Amazingly cryptic camouflage.

Never seen a purple heron either YOU BASTARD, but did see spoonbill in Dorset, so gnnhhhh.

Did it really become a "MUSICAL SENSATION??!" though

but yeah I'm led to believe there were desert finches; no wallabies whatsoever; Lots of camels though and some dueder has reconstructed a camel skeleton out the front of his 'd0ng3r' (accom block) which is O_ooooo

you got feral camels in queensland

what a country

also ner whatever spoonbillman I bet you've never seen a SPUR-WINGED PLOVER (this was many years ago)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3646/3324045072_bc5b238f4a.jpg

shit tons, louis!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3469/3229327134_dd92c6face.jpg

Spot the bittern?

I hope they have pitched battles with roos.

A couple of the bitterns were well-hidden Nick and required a gimlet eye but one of them was displaying IN THE OPEN it was an awfully cocky sod, for a bittern

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DctQ5MHBOFc

ah, the Australian way

yuh 'taking to the skies' = machinegunning :(

Okay LJ, I will start baiting the bird table with bittern food.

good luck, pal - maybe invest in a 30-acre reedbed while you're about it?

Oh, that'll just get in the way of the photos.

stick to little egrets, amateur

It's better to live having no egrets.

bittern by the tailfly

no seriously, can you see that tailfly on that reed clump? there is a bittern next to it

A++ thread

no idea that louis was a birdwatcher

i actually find this heartbreakingly poignant

― strongohulkington, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 20:33 (6 years ago)

the noize board ornithology thread is where it's at, obv

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/athwart

http://www.theonion.com/articles/renowned-ornithologist-always-secretly-wanted-to-b,32781/

I dated a twitcher last year. I miss going on drives up to the hills and wandering about in nature reserves/national parks/bird sanctuaries with him.

http://i.imgur.com/InMGLtK.jpg

keep the meme alive

https://www.birdguides-cdn.com/cdn/articles/1-AGAMI-Great-Northern-Diver_Okanagan-Valley-BC-Canada_May-11_Glenn-Bartley-74482.jpg

Spotted my first common loon/great northern diver this weekend! 'Common' is a geographically subjective nomen, obviously, because I've not once seen one over here, ever. It was scurrying about on the banks of a small lake, before being spooked by a flock of geese and flying off south.

LJ, have you seized on the lockdown opportunity to get out there and do some spotting?

Oh my word, that's a magnificent spot! Subject of the final Swallows & Amazons book, such is its mystique.

Have done a spot of spotting. Haven't seen anything too far out there. Some avocets and a flushed snipe, that was nice.

Oh, I'll have to check out Swallows & Amazons someday. Avocets and snipes are nice finds! They're a bit more common over here, traditionally, but like the gracious Northern lapwing, they're having a terrible run here atm. Same goes for the oystercatcher, godwit, curlew and redshank. Climate change combined w/ fucking farmers unwilling to do an iota for these birds is driving them away.

Saw some skylarks this weekend, too, which are always a joy, nu doubt they'll be going south soon for the winter. Been getting into spotting more and more (again), albeit nigh-on wholly incidentally. Just going out for long walks every weekend, you'll be amazed at what you'll come across.