Scott Ritchie from Cairns has put up a set of 39 of his favorite photos from 2025, and I’ll show about a third of them today. Scott’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge them by clicking on them. Scott’s Facebook page is here.
Here are some of my favourite pics from 2025. It was a big year, with trips to Florida, Costa Rica, Western Australia and Victoria/NSW. And I had a publication in Australian Birdlife showcasing the lovely Rainbow Bee-eaters at a local cemetery ….I hope you enjoy them.Have a happy New Year all!
Rainbow Bee-eater [Merops ornatus] comes in for a landing on Angel boy statue, Cairns Cemetery. [This was the cover photo of Australian Birdlife mentioned above.]
A butterfly guided missile. The bee-eater positions a Pale Triangle butterfly for aerodynamic efficiency:
I posted this before, but not with a caption.
Bee-eaters work in family groups. Here a couple and maybe last year’s offspring help in the nesting duties:
Off to Florida. A Burrowing Owl [Athene cunicularia] in Marco Island, Florida surveys his patch. These owls dig nesting burrows in residential yards:
Here one flies to his nest burrow. I love the intensity of his eyes:
The original Woody Woodpecker. A Pileated Woodpecker [Dryocopus pileatus] looks for grubs in a Live Oak tree in Florida:
A Great Horned Owl [Bubo virginianus] fledgling stares me down in The Villages, Florida. Look at an earlier post. It’s amazing how I found these guys:
The St. Petersburg area was great for shorebirds. Hear a Grey Plover, a.k.a. Black-bellied Plover [Pluvialis squatarola], pulling a worm out of the sand. Eventually, the worm relented:
A Snowy Egret [Egretta thula] dances over the water in search of fish. St Petersburg, Florida:
Off to Costa Rica! I just love how you can just see the eye in this Scarlet Macaw [Ara macao], play fighting in Costa Rica:
A Collared Aracari [Pteroglossus torquatus] comes in for landing. I’ve tried to get more habitat in my bird shots, and I love the colorful rainforest trees in the background. A member of the toucan group. Costa Rica:
And here’s a full-blown toucan in full flight. Keel- billed Toucan [Ramphastos sulfuratus]. What a schnoz!:
I’ve shown this before, but I’ll dub it the Animal Photo of the Year for this site, even though I steal Scott’s photos (with his permission) from his FB page.
No trip to Costa Rica would be complete without seeing the Resplendent Quetzal [Pharomachrus mocinno]. A male brings in dinner to his chicks:
Wow! These are great! Thanks so much for sharing.
Amazing bird photos!
Everything about these is great. The lighting, the framing, the composition, and the technical quality. I am awestruck.
Photo of the Year right there! The “aerodynamic” bee eater!
And I do remember the Resplendent Quetzal photo – gorgeous!
Exciting photos! That bee eater missile is my favorite. I like how the butterfly is positioned for efficiency. That is an amazing moment to capture.
Holy cow, those are awesome!
Works of art and science, each one packed with action!