I lurve that picture (#118), btw.

I don't understand how those tiny birds make that migration of hundreds or a thousand miles?
Hummingbirds eat like a wood chipper, voracious. They eat more insects than nectar. They can lose 10% of their body weight overnight while sleeping, unless they go into a torpor where they only lose 1% but are extremely vulnerable. So how do they eat enough and travel?

Fly with their mouths open? Worked for me when I rode my motorcycle.

I's just comb my beard when I got home.

Enough bugs for a sammich.

Home tweet home

Attachment 66841

The two Bald Eagle nests with spycams on Santa Cruz Island are bustling.
One has one young chick and the other three rapidly growing ones.
This morning the Sauces nest (bottom) Mom has a bloody beak and tail from the breakfast Dad brought awhile ago.

https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/photo...gle-webcam.htm

Sorry, Mom above is at Fraser Point.

And getting no rest because the little bastards won't settle down. :haha:

Golden Gate Osprey nest cam, one of the birbs brought a stuffed monkey back to the nest. Well the little one will hatch soon and they can have a toy.



Hanover Iggles are on any-minute-now hatching watch. People say you can hear the baby birbs chirping from within the aigs.

Hanover chicks are hatched out, mama's feeding the lil puffballs. They get raw fish from day one.

http://cellar.org/img/bebebirbs.jpg

Dahlgren Naval Station osprey, beating the Golden Gate osprey, now has 4 stuffed animals :D

Ospreys are supposed to fish, not raid daycare centers.
I fear for the brood.

You guys didn't have stuffed animals when you was babbies?:eyebrow:

The most majestic birds of prey of North America

http://cellar.org/img/bebebirbs2.jpg

Revenge of the birb.
 

….....Attachment 67295
An endangered cassowary roams in the Daintree National Forest, Australia on June 30, 2015.

I decided to risk putting this here. If it's too much for the thread, a mod can move it.

Attachment 67314

Pretty birb, right?

Wrong, birbbrain, body paint!!:

Attachment 67315

A number of sites around the UK are favoured by Peregrine Falcons at nesting time.
These tend to be the spires/towers of cathedrals and churches and ledges on other tall buildings.
The County Council HQ in Aylesbury has had Peregrines nest there for several years but unfortunately the webcams are not working.
I had the good luck to see one 'in the flesh' last year over the town centre and I was surprised at the size of it. I had assumed that they were Sparrowhawk size.

However, the webcam is working at Chichester Cathedral in Sussex and is worth a look.

Attachment 67377

Link to live stream.

www.chichesterperegrines.co.uk

Possession is nine-tenths of the law is not a legal principle which troubles the average gull.
Enjoying your chips, grease burger or other edible health hazard on the beach runs the risk of it being stolen by a sea bird.

Attachment 67378

Desperate times require desperate measures...

Attachment 67379

Link

Attachment 67382

"Excuse me, Miss? I would like to return this birb what I bought in this very boutique not half an hour ago..."[/Cleese]

Also:

What is that racket?

Grab that Gull by the throat. :bitching:

And swing it around a few times...

I think it's the wind around the gargoyles. :eek:

Certainly wasn't there earlier in the day.

Baby birbs are the least cute of all types of animals.

It's amazing how these two have grown in three weeks since hatching. They are a little smaller than footballs now. They have pin feathers - you can see all those spikes growing out of them, those will become more srs feathers and replace the fluff they have now.

http://cellar.org/img/bbbirbs3.jpg

And what I learned is, these birbs knew upon hatching how to take a shit outside the nest. Built-in behavior, they squat, bend over like they're mooning ya, and SQUIRT right over the edge.

Don't shit where you eat

Guys love chicks that squirt.

Also, that.

Owls excepted.

Also penguins!

Hummingbirds aren't too bad.

Checks out!

I check the progress of the baby Bald Eagles on Santa Cruz Island off Southern California every day.
There are two nests at the link.
One has a single chick and the other has three.
I can't help but wonder how differently the solo one must view the world so far.

https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/photo...gle-webcam.htm

More food less competition

I have pix of birdies to share with you. Some editing in the phone is required first though.

When it's rainy, mom provides shelter for the little ones. Now that they're not so little, she can't keep them completely covered. But they're big enough now that they can survive it.

All this instinctive behavior is really amazing. Just built right in.

http://cellar.org/img/dampbirbs.jpg

Split-second thought upon see that pic:

That eagle has the biggest knees I've ever seen on an eagle.

We visited the finnriver cidery last night and saw this beastly raven.

Attachment 67693

Seems it was really something to crow about...

:D

Test of workflow successful. I took the picture last night using the camera in my phone, resized it using a newly downloaded app (PhotoResizer, cryptic, I know...) and uploaded it from my phone. This was done using the hotel wifi, but could also have been done using mobile data.

Yay!

Resizing, *not* merely cropping pics on the phone has been a giant post-blocking pain in the ass.

I didn't know that hawks had canard wings:

Attachment 67813

Oh, it's another birb...Must be a canardinal.



TIHAW, try the wings.

It's a Kingbird.

Birbiplane...

Attachment 67827

The native Red Kite population was persecuted almost to extinction in the 19th century and just a small number were left in mid-Wales.

Since then a local re-introduction project has increased the numbers substantially and they are now a frequent sight hereabouts.

We had one land in the front garden a few years ago and occasionally they settle in the tall trees behind the house.

Sadly, I found one bird that had flown into a power cable and severed a wing.

I took the poor soul to a nearby wildlife hospital and they were hopeful that it would survive in captivity as the point where the wing was severed is the point used in amputation and doesn't bleed too badly.

Unfortunately, it succumbed about a fortnight later.

Good catch, and thanks for the ID.

~Wiki

One of steve biro's pictures...

On 5/31 last year I reported that the Bald Eagle chicks on the Santa Cruz Island live cams took their first flights.
It looks like the first ones will do so today or tomorrow.
The three siblings on the bottom cam are really active this morning.


https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/photo...gle-webcam.htm

I saw one Fly.

Watching the stream from Sauces Canyon and Fraser Point I don't see chicks, just one adult at each nest.

The chicks are as big as the parents, who have white-feathered heads and tails.
Sometimes the feed gets stuck and they show previous highlights.
Two chicks (of three) at Fraser Point and both parents spent at least part of the night and can be seen by viewing earlier video by clicking on the timeline.
The rowdy youngsters have torn the crap out of the nest in the past week or so.
At 0844 Thursday there just one of the "babies."
Always only "Solo" at Sauces.

Yeah, I looked again later and saw chicks.

The Hanover birbs are "practicing", they're getting about an inch of air

http://cellar.org/img/birbflightpractice.jpg

Up and at 'em lads!

The single eaglet (Solo) at the Sauces nest finally soloed.
A landing at 0825 today lacked a little grace, but was nice to see.

https://explore.org/livecams/bald-ea...ces-bald-eagle

One of the Hanover youngsters was accidentally knocked out of the nest during a food delivery. The eaglet landed on a lower branch and is okay. Experts say he may find his way back to the nest by climbing, or may gain enough confidence to try flying off. Experts figure it is time to fledge; they have all the proper feathers to get started.

An interesting event in an otherwise great year for them.

The four eaglets on Santa Cruz Island are gone almost all of every day and night with an occasional visit with the hope of a meal.

Only one birb in Hanover nest right now, looks ready to take the plunge.