owlice

@owlice.bsky.social

296 Followers 76 Following

Trained in med sciences, worked in IT, retired into astronomy, now faculty at R1 uni and still astonished at that. Dark skies, travel, music, wildlife, research software & transparency. Sometimes I take pictures.

A Jabiru stands in a green field in pouring rain. This distinctive bird has a black head, white body, and black legs. A red stretchable pouch at the base of the bird's neck looks like a collar when the bird's neck is not extended. The jabiru, in the stock family, is the tallest flying bird in South and Central America.
A slightly-not-in-focus Veery (but by golly, look how sharp the vegetation is! Dang it!) perches on a bush laden with red berries, one of which the bird has in its beak.
An Orange-crowned Warbler perches in the the bottom right of the screen, holding tightly to a small stick sticking up about 80°. There is a bush with small yellow flowers beneath the bird. The background is out of focus, but has what appears to be a bush laden with red berries, or perhaps they are red flowers.
A Golden-Crowned Kinglet in a bush showing off his golden crown (and a bit of the orange that is usually hidden under the golden). This bird was clearly extremely hungry, having just flown over the Delaware into Cape May. He didn't care that I was sometimes scarcely three feet from him; he was chowing down on bayberries. Honestly, if I'd had suitable food in my hand, I'm pretty sure he'd have been fine perching on me to eat it. He really was quite frantic. It was thrilling to watch him, but his desperation was also a little scary and sad to see. Fortunately, the bushes were laden.
Great Blue Heron, neck stretched, looking up to the right (of the picture) at a crow flying high above him...
A Brown Thrasher is perched on a bare narrow branch. The bird has its chest to the camera; it is looking to the left of the picture. His upperparts, which we mostly cannot see, are a warm rufous brown; the chest is buff well-speckled with brown elongated spots, and the bird's eye is yellow.
A Brown-headed Kingfisher is perched on a dead branch; he's showing us his left side. The bird has a red beak, brownish-grayish crown, black eyestripe, and white collar. His chest is a light soft gray fading to off-white, his wings are black with bright blue primaries, and he has a bright blue tail.
A parental unit, perched on a strong branch with its wings up and head down, checks on its nest of fuzzy mostly white African Darters. The adult's dramatic pose above the chicks, and the jumble of chicks in the nest (at least six), what with some with beaks open, wings and bodies and butts every which way... what a sight from the small boat I was in on Lake Baringo!
The photo shows the head and shoulders of a Merlin; the bird has its head turned to one side, so we see its right eye with the sun reflected in it. The bird is brown with a buff eyebrow above its dark eye, buff under the beak, and a fringe of buff about its neckline. It is hard to distinguish one feather from another, making it appear as if the bird is wrapped in a soft, warm, and very cozy cloak.
Sorry not sorry...
Four Canada Goose goslings, soft yellow and adorable, plopped every which way on spring-green grass. One of the peeps rests its head on its back but had one eye on the camera.
Two adorable Black-capped Chickadees are perched on different small branches very close together. The bird on the left appears to be listening to the bird on the right, which has its beak open.
Three Willets feed along the shore; all three are facing to the left and are in strong morning light. They are gray above with a white rump, and white below with a distinct white area above the lores and a narrow whitish eye ring giving the bird a spectacled appearance.
Bird on the left (BoL): "Look at me." Bird on the right (BoR): averts gaze
The obvious choice for me... This image courtesy of my then 9-year-old son, to whom I'd handed a small digital video recorder one day when we were out. This is a frame from the many little videos he took to amuse himself. He's now a lot older, living in the UK, and occasionally sends me photos of birds for me to ID.
A Common Merganser floats in rippling water that is reflecting a building that shares a color palette with the bird: gray, brown, and rust. The bird is not alone; he has a friend nearby.... --->
Four Eurasian Griffons perched (or in one case, plopped) on a high rocky outcropping in the Extremadura. All the cool Griffins hang out here; there were scores of them. These large vultures have grey heads, slight ruffs around their necks, and mostly brown wings and bodies.
A Red-crowned Amazon clings sideways to a bare upright branch at the top of a tree; the background is nothing but the clear blue sky. The mostly green parrot has a red crown; isn't it nice to run across a bird name that actually make sense?!
A Long-billed Starthroat -- a small hummingbird -- sits on its tiny nest built above a well-traveled street.
An LBJ (little brown job) is perched on a very very thorny green shrub. This Kenyan Rufous Sparrow is brown and rufous on its upperparts, buff on its chest and tum, and has a gray, rufous, and brown head, black eyes, and dark beak.
A Blue Jay perches in a flowering fruit tree. We see only the jay's blue and black head and its white breast, which blends in very well with the blossoms around the bird.
A Martial Eagle tries to land on a collection of sticks at the top of a snag. It took the bird a few tries, but he did eventually land on the precarious perch. The bird is mostly white below and a combination of black, white, and grey on the upper parts, mostly arranged in stripes.
An Eastern Kingbird has built its nest at the top of a dead snag. Two hungry chicks look at the parental unit perched above them wondering where their lunch is.
A Black Oystercatcher cocks his red-rimmed yellow eye to the camera above him, giving the impression that he's smiling. The bird has a bright red beak, black head, neck, and chest, and its body appears a very dark brown in the overcast morning light.
A Northern Emerald-Toucanet perches on a thick branch facing the photographer; its head is turned to our right and the bird is looking directly at the camera. This pretty bird has a large bill with a black mandible, a yellow maxilla, and a white vertical strip at its base. Its lower face and throat are a strong blue bordering almost on indigo; its upper body is olive green with bronze overtones on the crown. The bird's chest is green, its tum greenish yellow, and the underside of its tail is chestnut.
Yellow-crowned Night Heron staring not into space, but at the water, its back to the camera
A Great White Pelican is preening, straightening feathers under its left wing. Quite a feat to reach this area, given the size of the bird's beak! The strain in his neck, brought back as far as possible, is visible. It's hard work to look so pretty!
A Lesser Striped Swallow is perched on a small acacia branch. We see the bird's right side; its head is turned somewhat but not entirely toward the camera. The bird has a russet head and nape, a cream-colored throat, chest, and tummy, all with dark brown broken stripes, and a cream-colored vent. the rest of the bird is dark except for a russet rump patch.
A Laysan Albatross standing on green grass. The bird is mostly white with black wings and smoky eyes.
A very wet Black Vulture spreads its wings to dry out, its back to the sun, the backlighting making some of his primaries appear translucent.
Portrait of a male Eastern Bluebird with a beak full of insects
Two Collared Aracaris stopped at the fruit bar after work for snacks and conversation. The colorful huge-beaked birds are facing each other.
A Great Horned Owl takes flight on a sunny day. The focus of the shot having been on the owl when it was perches atop thick dead branches, the bird's takeoff has the bird in the upper left corner of the shot with part of its right wing out of the frame.
A Ground Woodpecker sits on a rock on the left side of the photo; he is small against the background of sky, water, and surf.
A Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher sits on her lichen-, moss-, and spiderweb-covered nest, which is nestled into the V of a tree; we see two branches of the tree, one behind the bird, one in front, that are similarly lichen-covered.
Two handsome Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks standing one behind the other, one looking right, the other looking left but also clearly keeping an eye on the camera. These lovely ducks have black bellies, rufous necks, backs, chests, and crowns, gray cheeks and throat, and pink bills. They also sport white eyerings around their dark eyes.
Two Tree Swallows, one an adult, the other a juvenile, are perched on a wire fence. The adult bird is dark iridescent blue on its top half and white below; the juvenile is medium grey on its top half and white below. The juvenile has one eye on the camera; the adult is looking just over the top of the juvenile's head. The background is blurred greenery.
This Hadada Ibis is shocked, *shocked*, at your suggestion
A Rüppell's Starling faces the photographer, head cocked, with an intense stare, arrows definitely shooting out of those yellow eyes. If looks could kill, it'd be instant death.
A Western Cattle Egret faces the camera but does not look into it; the bird is looking slightly down and looks a little dazed or stoned. The bird is white save for the crown, which has what almost looks like a smudge of pale orange on it; its beak and staring eyes are yellow. A few tuffs of feather stick out of the top and side of the bird's head; the background is completely black.
A Northern Fulmar flies toward the left of the photo; the ground is far below it and show a road, several buildings, and what appears to be a harvested field which is largely light brown. The bird resembles a gull but is in a different family; it appears to be all white because we see only its underside.
Three Greater Yellowlegs stand in calm water which reflects them well. Two, close together, are facing to the left of the photo, lit by morning sun. The other faces to the right, its back sunlit but the rest of the bird in shadow; this bird is looking down into the water as though wondering whether the cell phone he dropped into the water is worth retrieving.
A ruffled Little Bee-eater is perched on a thin branch; we see only his right side. He has a long pointed black beak, red eyes, and a black eye stripe. Above the eye stripe is a short narrow band of brilliant medium blue; the throat is bright yellow. The head, back, and wings of the bird are green that tends toward olive, and the bird's chest and tum are an orange-tinged dark yellow. The bird looks very serious and very adorable.
Splish...