I need photos! If you have some good ones, please send them along. Thanks!
Today we have a second batch of birds from British Columbia photographed by Paul Handford (part 1 is here). Paul’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Once again, most of these images are from our yard, in the hills south and east of Kamloops town, with a few from nearby nature parks.I could not resist sending three images of the glorious Mountain Bluebird.
Western meadowlark, Sturnella neglecta
Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus:
Mountain chickadee, Poecile gambelli:
Yellow-rumped warbler, Setophaga coronate:
Pygmy nuthatch, Sitta pygmaea:
Red-breasted nuthatch, Sitta canadensis:
White-breasted nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis:
Northern house wren, Troglodytes aedon:
Townsend’s solitaire, Myadestes townsendi:
Varied thrush, Ixoreus naevius:
Say’s phoebe, Sayornis saya:
Western kingbird, Tyrannus verticalis:
Mountain bluebird, Sialia currucoides:
Ditto:
Ditto:
Fantastic compositions! I love the Red-winged Blackbird, which reminds me of the pond where I used to go fishing almost every day as a kid.
Wonderful photos–thanks! I wish we had the mountain bluebirds here in the east, but our eastern bluebirds are also gorgeous.
Beautiful!
I wonder if we’re missing a language of color when looking at birds, insects, and flowers. Assuming all the colors and patterns have some evolutionary significance, maybe we’ll eventually discover the way they co-evolved among the species in a given ecosystem. For example, does the specific shade or vividness of a color indicate the reproductive status of a potential mate, or the food value of one flower or another.
In males of some bird species, the intensity of the red colouration is a signal, informing prospective mates of the amount of carotene that the male has been getting in its diet and thus how healthy it is.
Sorry, there’s more to it than that, but I have to run off and vote now, no time to back this up.
What excellent photos! They are so clear you can almost see what the birds are thinking. The Varied Thrush with its mountain ash fruit is especially spectacular. (I think of that bird as the “Robin with an upgraded trim package” 🙂 )
Great photos, thanks!
Thank you for these fabulous photographs of some very difficult-to-photograph-well species.
Thanks to you all for your very kind comments, much appreciated!
Stunning photos!
Being east of the Mississippi, we don’t get to see many of these species, and to see such clear photos is truly a treat!
Thank you!
All very nicely done! These pictures exude personality.
Beautiful pictures. Beautiful birds. Thank you.
Thanks!
In Indiana we have many of these. Such excellent closeups!
These are excellent! It must be heavenly living where you do.