Wildlife February 2010

[annew]

I enjoyed them too.  

[mark smyth]

Did anyone watch Killer Amazon Bats tonight on 5? They could have done better. The same echolocation recording was played for every bat they saw. Vampires do not rip open flesh with their canines. Disappointed ^._.^

[annew]

I saw 5 minutes of it - too sensationalised (is that a word?). Couldn't watch that chap longer than that.

[Stephenb]

The Russian nuthatch may be a different race that ours. The British bird is pinky brown underneath
http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp

I hadn't realised that there were quite so many species and subspecies in the genus Sitta; see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuthatch. The North American species is also White-breasted. Which species is Olga's then?

[mark smyth]

Stephen I was looking on another web site and think it could be a western nuthatch but I don't know their range. It is possible Olga's bird is unusually coloured

European form
http://www.birdpix.nl/album_page.php?pic_id=150068
http://www.birdpix.nl/album_page.php?pic_id=164425

[Armin]

Stephen,
The Nuthatch in Europe has three subspecies:

S. e. europaea - The Nominate form populates Fennoscandia. The sides of the trunk are rust beige, the breast and belly are whitish center, sometimes with whitish forehead.
S. e. caesia - Form of Central Europe. The bottom is beige, males have intense red-brown flanks.
S. e. asiatica - Form of the eastern Russia and Siberia, but also occurs occasionally in Finland. The underside is white, the top light blue-gray. On the forehead and above the eye stripe is a little white. The subspecies is smaller, thinner beak.

Olga,
marvelous pictures. The little blue tit must have been very hungry to trust and feed from a human hand!
 

[ranunculus]

A very poor image of a nuthatch captured last weekend.  It paid just one fleeting visit to a bird table at Tandle Hill Park.

[mark smyth]

A few of these visiting the garden would be very exciting
http://www.birdpix.nl/album_page.php?pic_id=100448

[Lori S.]

Mark,
American goldfinch is common here in summer, of course, and very beautiful.  They don't often come to our feeders (preferring the open fields, perhaps... or maybe someone else's feeder) but we hear them overhead, and see them in the park along the river.  They are late arrivers and late nesters - they wait until the the thistles are in flower for the downy plumes.

Common birds of Kaua'i - all introduced, however - from our trip just after Xmas.
1, 2, 3) I don't normally profess to admiring chickens much, but feral chickens abound on Kaua'i, and since they seem to have devolved(?) largely back to something very like jungle fowl, they are small, lithe, colorful birds (although domestic chicken influence can be seen more strongly in some individuals).
4) Spotted dove
5) Red-crested or Brazilian cardinal

[Stephenb]

Stephen,
The Nuthatch in Europe has three subspecies:

Thanks for that, Armin, interesting..

[Olga Bondareva]

Little blue tit

[Olga Bondareva]

Lori
Very funny roosters!

Paddy
Thank you! 

[Olga Bondareva]

Somebody raptorial

[Olga Bondareva]

Spotty thrush

[mark smyth]

spotty thrush in English - Fieldfare Turdus pilaris.