Readers’ wildlife photographs

April 27, 2015 • 8:30 am

First, our regular chick on Stephen Barnard’s bald eagle nursery. There are now two chicks visible, and you can see them being fed (well, at least one of them) in this video. (Click to enlarge.)

Two eagle chicks. One is getting the short end.

Reader Ronaldo Bartl sent a variety of photos from South America:

Some pictures from a recent trip to Argentina, Mendoza province. Hope you enjoy them!
All taken with a Nikon D7000 and Nikon 18-200VRII zoom lens, almost every one at the long end of the range. Pictures were taken on a trip from the city of Mendoza to the Aconcagua provincial park, some at the park proper, at ~3.000m altitude.
Guanaco (Lama guanicoe):
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Pair of chimango caracara (Milvago chimango). Legs color differ among sexes, yellow for female, gray for male.
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A better photo of one of the caracara.
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A couple of pictures of what I believe to be Darwin’s nothura (Nothura darwinii):
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A photo of a family of Andean geese (Neochen melanoptera):
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A couple of photos of, I think, a black-billed shrike-tyrant  (Agriornis montanus). Or “Gaucho Serrano”, in Spanish. Quite common at the site (the Aconcagua provincial park), they would run/hop from stone to stone, where they perked up and scanned the surroundings. They beg for anthropomorphizing, don’t they? 🙂
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A photo of a Andean condor (Vultur gryphus):
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I’m not a naturalist, so any or all species identifications may be off, but those were the closest matches I could find searching the net.
I found the landscapes there amazing, and reminiscent of a trip I made through Death Valley a couple years ago. If I remember correctly, you are rather fond of Death Valley yourself, aren’t you? [JAC: Indeed!] I’ll send a couple of pictures later.
And for people who enjoy good wine and food, you’ll find plenty of both at Mendoza.

15 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photographs”

    1. They feed both chicks. Sometimes one is more active than the other, and I think I can see a dominance hierarchy.

  3. I’m always surprised how South American animals (especially birds) are unknown to me. (Though I did know about the Andean condor. Thanks for all these new species to marvel at. I guess growing up, it’s the African mammals that purveyed my imagination…not by choice, but by the books on animals that my parents had around.

    Stephen, do you take these videos with your camera? My digital SLR captures video, so figured yours might too; no sense carrying around two devices if one can do both. Great quality video for sure.

  4. Stephen, always nice to get the latest family update!

    Ronaldo, thanks for that wonderful variety of Argentinian wildlife! I’m just starting to try to get a handle on birds beyond the US and it’s always a thrill to learn about new ones.

    I just discovered that that notura is in the tinamou family, and that tinamous are flying ratites. What a beautiful plumage pattern that Darwin’s has!

  5. Not to be pedantic, but I’m reasonably certain that the bird pictured is not a nothura. It’s a female grey-breasted seedsnipe. I saw several of them at the park at Aconcagua a few years ago.

    Still beautiful, though.

    1. That’s a great ID! I took the time to look at images of these species, neither of which I’ve actually seen or even heard of, and I believe you’re right. The dark line above the beak is diagnostic.

    2. I stand corrected; I’m a tourist, not a biologist 🙂
      This was my most problematic ID, as I found way too many pictures of birds with similar plumage. Somewhere there was one quite close to mine claiming to be a nothura, and the darwinii are supposed to be found at high altitude grasslands, so…
      Thanks!

    3. An, that would then be Thinocorus orbignyianus, in a family new to me:

      The seedsnipes are a small family, Thinocoridae, of small gregarious waders which have adapted to a herbivorous diet.

      Thank, John!

    4. Not to be even more pedantic, but Andean geese (and other members of the genera Chloephaga and Neochen) aren’t really geese. They’re ducks, most closely related to the shelducks Tadorna. Goosiness (technical term) has evolved several times within Anatidae.

      1. On an African safari cam I watch, the Egyptian Geese are referred to as gucks. 😀

  6. Certainly a seedsnipe, not a tinamou, and it probably is orbignyanus. The passerine is not an Agriornis, however, but a ground-tyrant, Muscisaxicola, either frontalis or alpina— the light makes it difficult to be sure.

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