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Bald Eagle image is by Francois Portmann and is used with permission You know, I’ve been thinking about this whole dustup over hunting cranes in Tennessee and now Kentucky. And while we’re at it, I think it’s time to open a limited season on Bald Eagles. We’ve always hunted Bald Eagles. I get it now, I really do.
Recently, a group of nature photographers were spotted using live fish to bait a family of Grey-headed Fish Eagles in Singapore, where the species is listed as Critically Endangered, with only about 12-18 breeding individuals left in the wild. A Grey-headed Fish Eagle photographed ethically.
Regardless of what may have been my motivation, all eagles are exceptionally amazing birds that will scarcely ever fail to impress lucky birders. So here they are, the German eagles… Osprey. Attempts at re-introducing the species to Baden-Württemberg (SW Germany) were made during the late 1980s/early 1990s, but were unsuccessful.
There are numerous species of raptors around Broome including Black Kites and Whistling Kites. We have observed Pied Oystercatcher parents chase of White-bellied Sea-Eagles and unfortunately there are feral cats and feral foxes have become more prevalent too. The post Pied Oystercatcher breeding season is here again!
Instead of going on about zip lines and other modern, adventure tourism attractions, the birding crowd talks about taking photos of Resplendent Quetzals , seeing dozens of hummingbird species, and the seemingly odd absence of raptors in Costa Rica but nope, we don’t really talk about extinction. Resplendence.
With birds bedecked in their breeding best and filling the air with song, this is migration at its loveliest. A wonderful variety of bird species are waiting to be seen and among them are many a birder’s favorite avian group, the wood-warblers. In the birding world, May is the beautiful time. Great Green Macaw!
There are 154 species of cuckoos in the world, and they’re all a fascinating bunch. It’s not a species you are likely to overlook, either, as it is extremely noisy, its cackling call carrying great distances. I wonder whether birds that breed in Europe ever meet up with those nest in southern Africa?
Before I was born, it used to be a rare breedingspecies in mountainous areas south of Belgrade, but became extinct after the 1960s due to intensive poisoning of wolves. There’s an eagle… a White-tailed Eagle , a relatively common and numerous breedingspecies of riparian forests along large water courses and fishponds.
Somehow, Steller’s Sea Eagle manages to look both fierce and slightly cartoonish. The species is listed as Vulnerable – the estimated number of individuals is 4600-5100 (HBW), of which about 2000 winter on Hokkaido. Back to the eagle. They also estimate between 2115 and 2645 individuals traveled to see the eagle.
Then sometimes when you see these birds actively regaining their energy and getting ready for defending territories and breeding, they give the impression that their migration had just been a short jog around the block rather than a marathon across desert, mountains, and oceans.
Already recorded this winter are Black-throated Diver , Goosander and several Greater Scaups , together with Ferruginous and Tufted Ducks and the regulars, Common Goldeneye , Caspian Gull , Pygmy Cormorant and White-tailed Eagle. Although many of them can be found in city parks, too, at the top of Avala your chances are higher.
Above them, on limestone cliffs, Alpine Swift and Crag Martin breed. Raptors to look for in this reserve are Golden Eagle and Short-toed Snake Eagle , European Honey-buzzard and Peregrine Falcon. The commonest owls are Eurasian Scops Owl and Tawny Owl , while rare ones include Ural Owl and Eurasian Eagle Owl.
This large flock is generally the non-breeding birds and on one occasion we have observed a nest there, but we do not know the outcome of it. In recent years there have been Pied Oystercatchers attempting to breed along the shores of Roebuck Bay. Many of the migratory shorebirds still have some of their breeding plumage.
With more than 312 so far recorded bird species, Lake Kerkini National Park offers great birding year-round. In spring, a huge heronry of 10 species (including Spoonbill , Glossy Ibis , Squacco , Purple , and Night Heron , Pygmy Cormorant , etc.) Overwintering raptors include Greater Spotted , Golden , and Imperial Eagles.
When to visit: best during winter and migration season, but also breeding season. eBird list of the recorded species. Birds of prey include European Honey-buzzard , Long-legged Buzzard , Short-toed Eagle , Booted Eagle , Montagu’s Harrier , etc. eBird list of the recorded species. Dupljaja area.
My target at the start of the year was 200 species in the UK and 300 in Europe, so I’ve achieved the latter, while the chances of reaching the former are pretty good. That trip was fun, as it reminded me of the delights of watching birds like Golden Plover and even Meadow Pipit on their breeding grounds.
Back on the first weekend in May, I attended the Heron Festival at Clear Lake, one of the four aforementioned lakes which also include Eagle Lake, Lake Almanor and the Thermalito Afterbay of Lake Oroville. Like the breeding activity of many species this spring, the grebes were late, probably due to the unseasonable weather.
Peregrine Falcon Peregrine Falcon Another highlight was when another birder informed us of a Eurasian Eagle-Owl that roosted in a vine on the cliff. The owl could be observed extremely well, and again I was very happy to get my best sighting of this species, which I’ve seen a few times before but usually at a distance or at dusk.
This year we have continued to monitor the breeding of several pairs of Pied Oystercatchers along the coast in Broome from Gantheaume Point to Willie Creek on the south side. This species are long living and so the population appears to be sustainable at this stage despite the predation. Pied Oystercatcher family searching for food.
a British expat birder who was living in Belgrade, for a suggestion: “The top species is undoubtedly White-tailed Eagle. commented further: “With a little work some species can be seen quite easily such as the divers, scaup, scoter, Goosander , Garganey and Long-eared Owl. Hence, I asked my friend B.C.,
When discussing this topic for local media, I often say that because of their White-tailed Eagles , the Scottish island of Mull makes 2 million pounds per year from birders alone. Defining Belgrade bird specialties is the hard part – there is no defined criterion, beside attractiveness which often comes from how uncommon some species is.
I observed White-tailed Eagles likely a few thousand times, and this didn’t strike me as the dark young bird. The next option would be a very dark adult Greater Spotted Eagle … but I wasn’t ready! And I decided to search it for the forest species: Eurasian Sparrowhawk , Syrian Woodpecker (okay, not truly a forest sp.),
The Veliko Ratno Island birdlist is about 170 species long, of which more than 90 were observed from the Dorcol Promenade. Highlight species: Ferruginous Duck , Goosander , Red-breasted Merganser , Red-crested Pochard , Greater Scaup , Velvet Scoter , Black-throated Diver. In March and November, Common Cranes are a possibility.
I was happy to read that the wood stork ( Mycteria Americana ), a bird near and dear to me, was down-sited from the status of endangered to threatened species. Fish and Wildlife Service is down-listing the wood stork from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). However, birds in the U.S. Photo: U.S.
For mankind to snatch away a species’ very existence is wrong on so many levels that I can’t begin to explain them. However, despite our best efforts to wipe them off the face of the earth, some of the more vulnerable species have managed to hang on. this speciesbreeds. this speciesbreeds.
Even the Latin species name soror (“sister”) indicates the similarity to another pitta species (blue-naped). The eBird description of the Small Niltava starts with the surprisingly dull statement that “size distinguishes this species from other niltavas” Who would have thought.
Some 320 species have been recorded here, and in springtime it is possible to observe more than 150 bird species in a week. Booted Eagle by Kostas Papadopoulos The next morning was a lazy one, a late breakfast and even later excursion. Later in the day, roadside birds included a Booted Eagle and a Levant Sparrowhawk.
Each evening the shorebirds head off on their migration to breed in the Northern hemisphere. A White-bellied Sea-Eagle was perched on the top of the cliffs on our visit this week and there were also a pair of Brahminy Kites. White-bellied Sea-Eagle observing the shorebirds on the beach. Whimbrel amongst the mangroves.
First, 800 km of driving from Belgrade through Bulgaria to very NE corner of Greece and the Dadia Forest National Park with its 36 species of diurnal raptors, out of Europe’s 38. From there to the nearby Evros River Delta, at the very border with Turkey, with more easterly species such as the Spur-winged Plover.
A White-tailed Eagle is calling somewhere from the forest. Judging by Google Earth, some 250 m / 800 ft away, there’s a Greater Spotted Eagle , dark adult that appears like a black hole, like an object pulling and eating all the light, itself appearing as dark as can be. Nearby are four very dark brown ducks… Tufted Duck females!
Barn Swallows and Sand and House Martins left us in September, together with most heron species. Over coffee or tea, wine or whatever, we observed 31 species, including the first Pygmy Cormorants coming to overwinter at their Belgrade roost – the largest known in the World, gathering up to 6750 birds, or 9.6% We met at 10.00
While these birds are very much liked by Chinese birders, the species could unfortunately not be named the National Bird of China as the Latin species name of the bird is Grus Japonicus. Frankly, if the name of the Bald Eagle was North Korean Eagle ( Haliaeetus coreaseptentrionalis ?),
Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. Madagascar, however, has had more than its fair share of extinct or lost species and Madagascar Pochard was firmly on this list. Then in 1991, a fisherman on the lake caught a male in his fishing net.
In a warm Catalonian March (I was about to say Spanish, but among quite a few flags, I haven’t seen a single Spanish one), Barcelona is filled with sunlight and full of Rose-ringed and Monk Parakeets , two charming but alien and invasive species. Steve answers: Bonelli’s Eagle ! Garraf Natural Park.
So much so that the two species are placed within their own family, Chaetopidae. The species is insectivorous and nests amongst the scree and boulders on the steep mountain slopes. Breeding groups typically occupy territories of around 8 hectares and consist of a breeding pair and one or two helpers.
My British total was a mere 172 species – not bad, but not very good. Every one of my 171 species was a bird that I found myself. It keeps a monthly record of sightings, so I can tell you that it was in February that I recorded my highest monthly species total (106), while my lowest total was in August (39).
It was also great to finally travel overseas again, meet a lot of people I did not know (and some I did), to be in a new country… and not just the new country, but its best birding area, where almost all local hotspots are yellow (150+ species) and several are ochre (200+ sp.), impressive for Central Europe.
There just is not the forage fish available that the species needs to thrive and grow its numbers. They have no use for land other than to breed; this realization fascinates our participants. Once, an individual was even working on kicking clawfuls of dirt into the air as it cleaned out their burrow before breeding.
They do not build nests, but occupy old nests of Rooks and breed colonially among them. Red-footed Falcon’s breeding range starts less than 50 mi north of here and I hope that some will choose to join a local rookery and stay. Wait, those fingers, the upper one is not a buzzard… a small eagle, it’s a dark morph Booted Eagle !
In short, the accepted view used to be that a small breeding population of Egyptian Vultures inhabited Southern Africa, but has vanished facing the spread of towns, roads and farms. During my lifetime, this species was rare in my native Serbia, too. My first ever Balkan Egyptian Vultures!
The reward for the troubles comes in the shape of a Lesser Spotted Eagle circling in a thermal at the opposite side of the meadow, two Stag Beetles ( Lucanus cervus ) engaged in a wrestling match on a low branch, Roe Deer swiftly running across the road… But what are we doing in that meadow? Okay, but falcons do not nest in the grass?
eagles and vultures ) so we need to pay attention. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service , there are about 10 billion breeding birds in the US. The maximum population size may be closer to 20 billion in the fall, and 10 billion at the start of the Spring breeding season. The first choice will kill a lot of starlings.
I chalked up 132 species in a pretty relaxed eight days, during which birds shared the agenda with culture. With 154 eBirded species almost single-handedly spotted by the UK expat Geoff Laight, the Paljuvi is the latest addition to the top-5 list. With 154 eBirded species, the Beljarica shares the 4th place on the list.
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