Friday 26 January 2018

Virginia got a remarakable picture yesterday of a Carrion Crow attacking a Cormorant which had perched in an unwisely exposed place in a tree near the Italian Garden. The Cormorant wouldn't be budged, and after a while the crow gave up and flew off.


Also by Virginia, the first record of a new species on the Serpentine, the Rubber Duck, Anas elastica. Moving rapidly in the wind, it frightened the other birds and they gave it a wide berth.


Doug Falder sent a fine shot of a Sparrowhawk with a Starling in Kensington Gardens.


Years ago I was walking to work across the Parade Ground and I also saw a Sparrowhawk with a Starling. It was so intent on keeping its prey that it stood its ground when I approached, and I got within three feet of it. Sadly, I wasn't carrying a camera.

Another fascinating video shot by Neil in Kensington Gardens, this time in slow motion, of Great Tits and Blue Tits coming to feed from his hand. This is probably close to the speedy birds' own perception of life. The eerie hoarse cries in the background, which sound like something from Jurassic Park, are the slowed-down shrieks of parakeets.


For some days there has been an American Horned Lark, Eremophila alpestris, at Staines Reservoir. David Element paid a visit and sent an excellent photograph.


Fran took this striking shot of Kestrels mating in Richmond Park.


Two pictures from Extremadura by Tinúviel. A Greenfinch perches on a railing. Greenfinches have become sadly scarce in the park here after they were hit by a respiratory disease, and I haven't seen or heard one in the past year.


A Spotless Starling, Sturnus unicolor, looks up apprehensively at a passing raptor. You can see from the droppings on the wall that it's outside its nest under a pantile.


This species, slightly larger than a Common Starling, has a small range around the western end of the Mediterranean.

A picture from Johanna van de Woestijne, who makes the excellent long videos on my YouTube channel. A young gull -- which I think is an American Herring Gull, Larus smithsonianus -- plays with a bit of bladder wrack.


On Wednesday I published a picture taken by David Holland in Cali, Colombia, of a bird he thought was a Great Kiskadee, Pitangu sulphuratus. I have now had an email from Duncan Campbell disagreeing with his identification, and identifying it pretty conclusively as a flycatcher. He sent me this picture from the web which is apparently of the same species.


But which species? This photograph appears on the web twice, once described as a Social Flycatcher, Myiozetetes similis, and once as a Rusty-Margined Flycatcher, Myiozetetes cayanensis. Duncan also sent me a photograph of the illustrations of both species from the enormous and authoritative Handbook of Birds of the World, volume 9, plate 40. I hope the copyright holders will forgive me if I reproduce these here for purposes of study. This is the Social Flycatcher, with the nominate species on the left and a subspecies on the right ...


... and this is the Rusty-Margined Flycatcher, similarly displayed.


Both have coloured patches on top of their heads, but according to HBBW these are often concealed (it doesn't say how) and are reduced or absent in juvenile birds.  The bird shown on Wednesday has stronger hints of 'rusty margins' on its folded primaries than the one in this blog post, but not enough to be conclusive.

Lastly, for those who are into identification of Colombian birds, here's another picture by David Holland. He can't identify this hummingbird because his reference book got ruined on the trip. I've tried on the web, but there is such a bewildering profusion of birds in Colombia that I couldn't find it.

16 comments:

  1. I used to have a Cuban-American student who was very much into birding. He learned to identify Iberian species at lightning speed, the reason (according to him) being that small Caribbean birds were incredibly more difficult to tell apart in comparison. European warblers were small potatoes for him. I imagine Colombian birds are no easier.

    That is an amazing picture of the Cormorant holding its ground!

    I had a fit of laughter at Anas Elasticus. Well done!

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    1. Yes, that's the perfect remark about Central and South American birds: 'They make warblers look easy.'

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    2. Oh dear, anas is feminine. Should have been elastica. One should always check. I was thinking of A. platyrhyncos, but that's not an adjective. Cf A. strepera, clypeata etc.

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    3. Yep, feminine according to the OLD, but I don't think it's actually that important (I had to look it up myself, and I'm a Hellenist). Platyrhynchos is actually an adjetive ('broad-beaked'), but as it is a compound adjective of two endings the masculine and the feminine have the same form.

      And that's enough Greek grammar for a Friday night!

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    4. There can never be too much Greek grammar.

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    5. Those giant yellow ducks aren't cheap, surprised nobody poached it/her. See here. Jim

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    6. I prefer the rubber ducklings, myself!

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    7. I think a child wanted to float the duck on the lake and it blew away.

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  2. Apologies for the poor identifications, I will try to get a better one. David Holland

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    1. Looks as if the hummingbird is a Brown Violetear.

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  3. Great to see the hand feeding in slo-mo. And hear the weird sounds.

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    1. If you speed up a Carrion Crow 8 times it goes tweet tweet.

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    2. Sure you're not a little light-headed with those prescription painkillers? Only asking.

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    3. Prescription? I don't do doctors. Painkillers? Pain reminds you to rest and avoid causing it.

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  4. Hi, very fun to see the young gull photo on your blog, which I couldn't ID at the time. It was an odd situation too, on the California Pacific coast, just south of Half Moon Bay, where a dead whale with dead calf had washed up, towed back out by the city (it was fouling the beach) and washed up yet again. Of course gulls and pelagic birds rarely seen were showing up, feasting on what was available. I took the photo, because this young gull wasn't busy joining in three way tug of wars to pull things apart and scram with the goods, but was running up and down on the shore waving some sea weed around. Go figure. I was wondering what goes on in a young gulls mind?

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    1. Young gulls do have these idle moments of play. Especially, perhaps, as it was no longer hungry after gorging on blubber. Fairly certain of ID on grounds of obvious bulk and leg colour.

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