Reader Damon Williford from Texas is a new contributor, and sent some nice photos of the local birds, along with some information (his comments are indented):
Attached are photos I’ve taken over the past 5 years of the raptors and cuckoos of South Texas. Texas may be the land of the theocrats but there is some interesting wildlife in the state. The first four photos are of some of breeding raptors, including the Crested Caracara, Harris’s Hawk, and the White-tailed Hawk. Caracaras and White-tailed Hawks are fairly nervous, making it difficult to even get cruddy photos, but its fairly easy to get good shots of Harris’s Hawks, Considering that Harris’s Hawks will nest in suburban and urban areas, that’s not too surprising. The preening Harris’s Hawk in the second photograph was sitting on top of security lamp in a parking lot at a state park. I was within 25 feet of the bird and it ignored me completely.
Crested caracara (Caracara cheriway):
Harris’s hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus):
White-tailed hawk (Buteo albicaudatus):
The Zone-tailed Hawk (Buteo albonotatus) breeds further west but it shows up occasionally in South Texas during the fall and winter.
Three members of the cuckoo family breed here, including the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Greater Roadrunner, and Groove-billed Ani, which gets my vote for the goofiest looking bird in the world (but possibly tied with the Hoatzin for that honor). The only other place in the US where 3 species of cuculids co-occur is Florida.
Readers—what’s your vote for the world’s goofiest bird?
Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus):
Greater roadrunner (Beepus beepus):
Grove-billed ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris):
Beepus beepus — yet more proof that there is a Divine Creator, and his name is Chuck!
Remarkable coincidence? Or the hand of Ceiling Cat? Does anyone know Latin? What does it all mean?
roadrunners are Geococcyx [earth-butt, I guess]. Closet bird taxa come to “Beepus” is Upupa epops, the Old World hoopoe.
Bonus round, Tibetan name for hoopoe is “upo”
Hmmm…I was hoping for Latin, but that’s Greek to me.
Hand of PCC I’m afraid! I’ve also heard it called accellerati incredibus , which is also fake. I don’t know what the real name is.
I thought it was Beepus maximus profundus.
The first one to come to mind is the Blue-footed booby.
Only recently learned that they apparently come in red, green and occasionally yellow and purple, too.
of course boobies come in colors other than blue, and red, but I believe they’re then referred to as “purple nurples”
😀
Such interesting birds. The caracara looks like a politician with a bad toupee!
There are lots of goofy looking birds, and I can see how the grooved billed ani is a candidate.
Funny – I was just wondering how they’re polling vs. Ted Cruz.
Ha!
Some of these are very rare raptors in the US–congratulations!!
goofy birds would have to include frogmouths and kiwis without a doubt. best names for birds, other than the boobies, would naturally go to the poecile genus and related birds, such as the Siberian tit, the Blue tit, the Somber tit, Penduline tit…
all i can think of is there must have been some really lonely ornithologists in the past!
Goofiest I was going to say Kiwi. Some of the birds that puff up, like Prairie chickens and Sage grouse are pretty goofy when displaying, but not so when in their normal state.
Though I must say the goofiest, and probably why its’ extinct (not really) is the Dodo.
frigate birds would certainly fall into that category. they’re almost beyond goofy and into the realm of kinda creepy and gross.
Pootoos. Huge mouth, bizarre yellow eyes.
Yes, they get my vote.
More weird (in a cool way) than goofy, though, IMO.
The crested caracara is a cool looking bird! I’d never heard of them before.
I agree, and me neither.
Beep, beep, love the Roadrunner, and I had no idea it was in the cuckoo family.
Thanks for the great selection of bird photos.
Great pics, Damon, thanks for sending them!
I dunno. Maybe one of:
Mutant parakeet
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFMXrBWswl0
Silkie Bantam chicken
Shoebill
Rhinoceros hornbill
Abyssinian ground hornbill
Male Andean Condor
Southern and Northern Cassowary
I vote for the puffin. They walk like wind-up toys!