Birds 2012

[aster]

Very,very cute shots, Mark. : )

Neat lunch to-go shot, especially.



Sury;

Very good shot of the eagle.


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[Greg Beetham]

Some great snippets there Mark, and just going for a walk with the parents too, wow!
Nice Eagle portrait Sury.
Greg

[sury]

Thank you Greg. Here is one from a town fountain in South Lake Tahoe, California, USA.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsu ... .jpg[/img]
DSC27492 by BigSury, on Flickr[/url]

[mvanrheenen]

These kind of squares in towns and city's are a very good place to catch some city wildlife. The pigeons are quite bold sitting on top of this 'vulcano of water' I like the shot sury, well done!

Mark

[sury]

Thank you Mark.

Sury

[Argonaut]

In the home stretch for Tanzania, today's theme is 'groups'. The Northern Red-billed Hornbill is a common bird all over. Three on a branch is a bit unusual, but the blown out sky behind is, unfortunately, not. Oh well. I like it because it looks like they are planning some outrage: the button man on the right, the brains in the middle (doing the talking) and the lookout on the left. Probably they are planning nothing more sinister than camp-robbing, a favorite activity. a580, Sigma 400, f8, 1/1000, ISO 1600.

Lesser Striped-Swallows are like all swallows - usually NOT perched - so I'm glad these were, even if it's on a piece of rebar sticking out of a bridge we drove over. a580, Sigma 400, f8, 1/640, ISO 800.

Oxpeckers are just strange. The Red-billed ones have a bug-eyed look, and this particular arrangement of five of them, in the mud, looking at us as if we were interrupting something important, is certainly different from the typical oxpecker-on-a-zebra shot. a580, Sigma 400, f8, 1/200, ISO 400.

073_Northern red-billed Hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus)_120301_DSC01765_a580.jpg

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080_Lesser Striped-Swallow (Cecropis abyssinica)_120302_DSC01826_a580.jpg

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081_red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhyncus)_120303_DSC01846_a580.jpg

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[Dr. Harout]

One word Argonaut: WOWWW

[Birma]

Wonderful Argonaut - you are right, the Oxpeckers have crazy eyes

[Greg Beetham]

Great shots Argonaut, I agree about the Hornbills, they certainly look to be in some kind of meeting, I like the attentive look on the far one, looks like he’s listening too grandpa in the middle talking about ‘Well in my day…’ and the closest young one looks kinda guilty about something.
Amazing luck finding Swallows sitting on a perch, nice photo, and those Oxpeckers certainly do have startling eyes, another great photo.
Greg

[sury]

Thanks for those informative posts Argonaut. I certainly enjoyed reading and seeing them.

Sury

[aster]

Sury;

That's a welcome scene from an urban center.. Must be a playful and enjoyable spot for the town's birds.


Argonaut;

Always a pleasure to see more of the most interesting bird species at their most natural. : ) Something eyecatching and colourful about each one.

Thank you for the great input to the Birds thread.



Yildiz

[Juanito200]

I love that formation of Oxpecker Argonaut. Here is something a little less exotic, a common pigeon. Ian and I were in downtown Dallas, Texas so he good get a little more time in on my a200 before leaving for the Toronto area tomorrow..

[sury]

Not to the same caliber of posts here but never the less, here is another one... from Denali National Park.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsu ... .jpg[/img]
DSC30464 by BigSury, on Flickr[/url]

[mvanrheenen]

Hi guys and gals,

Been away for what feels like ages. The missus and I spend the last couple of weeks in a small house smack in the middle of a bananafield in the west coast of "Isla Bonita", better known as La Palma, one of the Canary Islands (Spain). I shot a lot less picture than previous holidays, but the keeper rate's a lot higher.

I'm still editting the images, first up are the feathered friends (who knew?! P)

Western Canary Islands Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus canariensis canariensis)

Who ever thought of this name was a) not very original and b) liked long names. Well, it is an official subspecies of the common European Chiffchaff we all know and love. These birds were sitting in a tree, cuddled together to...



... take a nap!



Atlantic Canary (Serinus canaria)

Can't go to the Canary Islands without shooting some canaries. There were a lot of them on the bananafields and they made a lot of racket too!



Long-eared owls (Asio otus)

I have never seen an owl, any owl, in the wild before. Here we were, sitting in the garden of the house when my birders eye saw something move very slowly in one of the mango trees nearby. Not able to contain my curiousity, I left my breakfast for a while to peak through th leaves to see what was up that tree, this is what I saw:



Walking a bit through the brush around the tree, I had a bit better view of this young owl. Great experience for us!



More images follow later this week.

All shot with the a580 and 70-300G.

Mark

[Greg Beetham]

We’ve been missing your birding Mark, I like that first one of the Chiffchaffs, the others a great too, the Owl was a surprise I bet.
Greg