John Avise is back with his third installment of the birds of Spain and Portugal (part 1 is here and part 2 is here). John’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Portugal and Spain Birds, Part 3
This week’s post is the third and final of a mini-series on birds I photographed while on a business (i.e., seminar) trip to Portugal and southern Spain in 2010.
Red Kite (Milvus milvus):
Red-legged Partridge (Alectoris rufa):
Red-rumped Swallow (Cecropis daurica):
Eurasian Scops Owl (Otus scops):
European Serin (Serinus serinus):
Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia):
Eurasian Spoonbill flying:
Spotless Starlings (Sturnus unicolor):
Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata):
European Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) male:
White Stork (Ciconia ciconia):
Common Swift (Apus apus):
What a fantastic image you captured of the Scops Owl! That must have been an elusive quarry and exciting find. The others are beautiful too, including the perfectly illuminated Starlings and the Spoonbill in flight.
The Scops owl got me, too. And the partridge and love the swallow in flight. Lovely.
Actually, the Scops Owl was the easiest of these birds to photograph. In broad daylight, it flew in and landed on that branch right in front of me! The Swift was a different story: I stood atop a chapel that they were coming to for nesting, and took many dozens of pictures before getting this good one.
Gotta publish a book of all these (all of the Avise Sunday RWPs). Something like zen in them.
The partridge is striking.
Hard to know where to start, but OK: that Scops Owl is just splendid.
Great pictures. Love the Partridge and the Owl!
BTW. Every Sunday I forward your post to an avid birdwatcher friend. I’ve also made here aware of the Whyevolutionisnow web site, but it’s the birds she’s after!