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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by michalb

  1. michalb

    Time calibration and Linnean ranks in birds

    Great post(s)! I think it would be very welcome and neat if the linnean taxonomy rank gave some more additional information on the clade. As for cut-off dates, I wonder if one could find a (later) moment in Earth history which would fit better for Passeriformes families, so we don't get 1000...
  2. michalb

    22 years of Birding

    I've had a continuous (though varying in intensity, let's say;)) interest in birds and nature in general ever since I can remember, but my first organized attempt at keeping notes on which birds I saw, where and when was in 1993, when I was 13. My first ever bird "checklist" is from 2.01.1993...
  3. michalb

    Current fuss in North America about eponymous English bird names

    Just for context: in Polish (based on IOC13.2 list as above) there are only about 20 (!) species named after someone - 22 if I didn't miss anything on the list. So well, I guess you can take it as a proof that a system like that can exist ;) And out of those 22 species, 17 are named after...
  4. michalb

    Mafinga Warbler

    Of course Of course, definitely possible.
  5. michalb

    Mafinga Warbler

    There are two records of Locustella alfredi from the same area on ebird, both from October 2022 - so most probably of the same population: https://ebird.org/checklist/S121095687 https://ebird.org/checklist/S121094590
  6. michalb

    Renaming taxa on ethical grounds

    One of the best posts in recent memory!
  7. michalb

    Woodpecker, northern Poland

    This location is about 200 km farther north than the south of Belarus (of course being on a different longitude too).
  8. michalb

    Woodpecker, northern Poland

    Sorry for replying late, I was on hiking holiday in the mountains :) My description was based on my real life views, not photos - it was only when I noticed this unusual head pattern that I decided to try to take pictures with whatever I had with me, otherwise I would just pass the bird as a...
  9. michalb

    Woodpecker, northern Poland

    That's why I also stated what I could see in real life, and the lack of black connection on the neck was very clearly visible. This of course not being enough to decide on the ID unfortunately - it has to go down as D. inexistentus, as lou salomon called it ;)
  10. michalb

    Woodpecker, northern Poland

    Absolutely right! A good lesson for all phone-photography fans (which I'm definitely not!), but unfortunately it was the only picture-capturing device I had available at the moment. Going back to the ID problem however, the pattern on the head/neck which is visible on the other pics (no. 2 and...
  11. michalb

    Woodpecker, northern Poland

    Hello all, this one was quite close, but unfortunately I didn't have any camera on a bike trip and could only take pictures with a phone... My first thought was a juvenile Dendrocopos major, but then I noticed it had a very sizeable white gap on its neck, no red on head and visible streaking on...
  12. michalb

    Guide for coral reef fish

    Thanks to both of you for the remarks. The Caribbean one looks nice, though not the destination of my nearest travels, but of course I do plan to return to that region too.
  13. michalb

    Guide for coral reef fish

    Thanks Andy. Are there any particular ones to recommend? I guess the one I linked to in the opening post is decent too? The worldwide coverage does appeal to me :)
  14. michalb

    Guide for coral reef fish

    Hi, I'm thinking about buying a guide to help identify and name at least some of underwater wildlife that can (still) be seen on coral reefs. Though not bird-related, I'm sure I'll find some valuable recommendations from the bibliophiles here :) My short web research pointed me to "Coral Reef...
  15. michalb

    Wader, Poland

    Yeah, the straight bill is the reason I haven't thought of C. ferruginea (there were two of them on site), and it seems that except this bill everything fits (well the bird is looking quite massive and "hunched", but this is probably only the pose that was caught in a picture). I had some...
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