Tag Archives: bird
H is for Hue – The Secret Miracle of Birds
Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) by Ralph Arvesen, Flikr. . . The secret universe of birds is extraordinary – and completely unavailable to us. Their vision has more acuity – they can see far finer grades of every colour than we can. A lemon-yellow petal to them may be a myriad of lemon-ness we will never experience. …
V is for Vitelline Warbler
Image taken by Michael Gore on ARKive, to go to site press here. . Vitelline warblers live only on the Caymen Islands, in woodland and scrub. Exceptionally beautiful, they look like little splinters of sun singing in the trees, with a characteristic tsu tsu tsu tsu tsooooo sound. They eat insects they find in the …
Q is for Quelea
A male quelea – taken by Alan Manson, creative commons license here. . Quelea . Flying in shifting umbras, a hurricane flock of quelea . darkening. . All the air winging, . their calls the sound of insanity. . A madness only surpassed . by the roar and flash of a bomb, . and rain …
G is for Greenfinch
This is a slightly different post, and a true story. Greenfinches hold a very special place in my heart. When I was a child, my friend Sharon brought round two baby birds whose nest had been destroyed. I used to volunteer at the vets’ and I took them both along to find out how to …
Y is for yellow-bellied asity
The yellow-bellied asity is a tiny, extraordinarily beautiful, brilliantly plumaged bird. It lives in high-elevation forests in Madagascar. It has a downwardly curving, black beak and drinks nectar using its long, hollow tongue. Despite being very small it defends its nectar sources bravely, flashing its bright yellow throat feathers at creatures many times its size, …
S number 1 is for Shoebill Stork
. Shoebill storks live in Africa, and are unusual, prehistoric-looking birds, about one and half metres tall. They have extraordinary, up to 30 cm long, shoe-shaped bills from which they derive their name. Not a huge amount is known about them – they hunt at night, are quite solitary, and live in impenetrable marshes. They …
