Show your Bird Portraits

[Click]

Bert63 and RGB49,

Very nice pictures, guys.

 

[ISv]

The Baltimore Orioles just started to show up so I put some oranges out for them. Nobody told the Red Bellied Woodpecker that oranges are for Orioles!

View attachment 190236

View attachment 190237

First come - first serve!

 

[ISv]

Ha

Thanks! Does this help identification?

View attachment 190238

! It's not about the magnification of your photo Alan - it's about my knowledge of the insects!

 

[ISv]

Nice shots Bert - I too have a weakness for small birds. Why I wrote "exercise" is that we are permitted under lockdown to cycle for exercise (30 min cycling, 1 hour walking according to Mr Gove).

Keep exercising Alan: It's interesting to see the fledglings too!

 

[ISv]

In the US exercise cycles are stationary and usually sit int he garage covered in bric-a-brac and dust. (this was a joke and hope I didn't offend..)

No! Not in all states: here (Hawaii) you can cycle (and hiking some trails and even jogging or just walking in the city parks or botanical gardens - the last from just few days) - we have recently (may be a week or little bit more already) just 0-3 new cases/per day and more than these recovered! The visitors from outside still have to stay 2 weeks quarantine in their rooms. Despite of this there are every day few hundred new visitors to came and unfortunately not all of them are staying in their rooms. Many got arrested/fined!
The graph below is from today's news.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi ISv.
I‘m afraid you may have missed the point, it was not about whether you are allowed out on a bike, it was about the difference between an exercise bike, a frame with legs on it and a flywheel, pedalled for exercise for a week and then used as a shelf and a bicycle, a frame 2 wheels and peddled by many as transport!
Alan was stressing the point that he was out for exercise (allowed) and not photography (questionable).

I'm saddened to hear that you are still accepting visitors and that they are not abiding by the quarantine rules.

Cheers, Graham.

No! Not in all states: here (Hawaii) you can cycle (and hiking some trails and even jogging or just walking in the city parks or botanical gardens - the last from just few days) - we have recently (may be a week or little bit more already) just 0-3 new cases/per day and more than these recovered! The visitors from outside still have to stay 2 weeks quarantine in their rooms. Despite of this there are every day few hundred new visitors to came and unfortunately not all of them are staying in their rooms. Many got arrested/fined!
The graph below is from today's news.

 

[Maximilian]

As already menaced, here some more.

Proud as a king, togehter with its sibs:


Crying for mum:


Hurry up toward her:

 

[Maximilian]

Thanks! Does this help identification?

A > 40 MP body becomes more and more tempting

To me this looks like more than just one victim.
The visible abdomen reminds me of some spider, while I don't know what that green thing to the right might be.
And what seems to twine around the lower beak?

A really good riddle...

 

[Click]

Very nice shots, Maximilian.

 

[AlanF]

A > 40 MP body becomes more and more tempting

To me this looks like more than just one victim.
The visible abdomen reminds me of some spider, while I don't know what that green thing to the right might be.
And what seems to twine around the lower beak?

A really good riddle...

Here's a more difficult from a few minutes ago with one of my garden Longtailed Tits cooperating.

 

[Maximilian]

Here's a more difficult from a few minutes ago with one of my garden Longtailed Tits cooperating.

*LOL* that's a cool mixture, Alan

The wings, long legs and the head are definitely from daddy longlegs (Tipula oleracea)
the white thing with white legs looks like some larva from... *meh* not sharp enough, DOF is missing
Then there is a feather, and something that looks like a crunched wing of a moth or so...

How many points?

By the way:
Did you take it personal that this long-tailed tit lifted its tail feathers towards you

 

[ISv]

Hi ISv.
I‘m afraid you may have missed the point, it was not about whether you are allowed out on a bike, it was about the difference between an exercise bike, a frame with legs on it and a flywheel, pedalled for exercise for a week and then used as a shelf and a bicycle, a frame 2 wheels and peddled by many as transport!
Alan was stressing the point that he was out for exercise (allowed) and not photography (questionable).

I'm saddened to hear that you are still accepting visitors and that they are not abiding by the quarantine rules.

Cheers, Graham.

Hi Graham,
Yes - I missed that point! Thanks for the explanation!
Concerning the visitors: I have no idea about the demography of the new arrivals but according to the news half of the arrivals yesterday were local guys. The other half (~300 - 350) are real visitors, most probably from the other states of USA. Both categories have to obey the 2 weeks self-quarantine. For the tourists it really doesn't make sense to come if they have to stay in their hotel rooms for 2 weeks. But they are coming and looking for a way to cheat the system...

 

[ISv]

Here's a more difficult from a few minutes ago with one of my garden Longtailed Tits cooperating.View attachment 190291View attachment 190292

- It has rather big entomological collection!

 

[ISv]

A > 40 MP body becomes more and more tempting

To me this looks like more than just one victim.
The visible abdomen reminds me of some spider, while I don't know what that green thing to the right might be.
And what seems to twine around the lower beak?

A really good riddle...

That green thing is part of the same insect. I think I have seen something similar back in the years in Europe but still can't recollect what it is.

 

[mikekeck]

A male Dickcissel singing in the north Texas Prairie today.

 

[David Ponton]

Thanks! Does this help identification?

View attachment 190238

 

[David Ponton]

That bird is carrying a crab spider, her abdomen is toward the camera, the head/thorax is in the bird's beak. The caterpillar is part of the bundle - birds forage insects until they get a beak full, then deliver to the nest. The crab spiders trap insects in an ambush, the ones i know matching the color of a flower and spreading their legs wide at the edge of the flower, trapping pollen foragers. It is not likely that the caterpillar was the spiders prey.

 

[AlanF]

That bird is carrying a crab spider, her abdomen is toward the camera, the head/thorax is in the bird's beak. The caterpillar is part of the bundle - birds forage insects until they get a beak full, then deliver to the nest. The crab spiders trap insects in an ambush, the ones i know matching the color of a flower and spreading their legs wide at the edge of the flower, trapping pollen foragers. It is not likely that the caterpillar was the spiders prey.

David
Thank you so much. I have a few more beakfulls to analyse , which I will post.

 

[Click]

Lovely shot, Mikekeck.

 

[Maximilian]

Time for a family getaway.
Family mallard takes a walk... erm, swim:


Famlily goose, too:


Family coot... well, they stay at home: