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

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  1. Z

    Has the bird identification in Europe reached a plateau?

    Depends. Our term for "field guide" is "key" because the first local book on bird ID was literally a dichotomous key used on dead birds (preferably freshly shot) and my former colleague who works with dragonflies was very grumpy when a simple photographic field guide was published by someone...
  2. Z

    Bid to remove Gough Island's mice fails

    I was entering some data on museum specimens of small rodents collected in 1950s. This guy would set several dozens of mousetraps, collect the dead mice from traps, process them (measure, preserve skins) and then go for a new round of trap-checking. He would list the animals in one batch by...
  3. Z

    Yellow-Billed Crow-sized bird...

    In case this is just a mutant common black crow, wouldn't the yellow beak, and particularly yellow beak AND legs, with untouched black plumage, be the least expected combination of strange colors? We had a few abnormally colored hooded crows (which are supposed to be grey+black), and they either...
  4. Z

    No idea: is it just a sparrow?

    I think that for beginners female House Sparrow and female Chaffinch may look very much alike but this problem seems not be recognized by your birding mentors - I also had to figure them out on my own. You will soon learn to tell them apart by posture and hue. Photos and videos where both...
  5. Z

    Introduced birds in Europe

    Muscovy Ducks How is domestic-type Muscovy Duck defined for purposes of having a viable feral population in a country? You will probably see small groups of free-range muscovies (including families with ducklings) if you stroll our countryside, but they actually belong to someone, just like...
  6. Z

    Would you count a bird on a camera trap as genuine tick?

    I cleaned my list of birds I considered tickable when I was inexperienced but I would not positively identify if I saw them exactly like that now. Some I am yet to find again, supporting the idea that they were misidentified in the first place. Others I have satisfactorily identified in the...
  7. Z

    Starling , Northern Greece

    Also check all starlings you see for possible Rose-colored (Rosy) Starlings as there is a big irruption in the Balkans right now.
  8. Z

    'Bee-eater looking' bird

    It is definitively a songbird (probably a female Blackbird). There are no Bee-eaters in early April, they are among the "late migrants", and they have quite a different posture (flat head, somewhat hunched, beak longer than this), plus they are always very colorful.
  9. Z

    Egretta gularis or Egretta garzetta?

    This small, greyish egret was photographed at a very bird-rich location in Pirot, Serbia. At first it was accompanied by E.garzetta egrets and herons, but after they moved on it remained alone. We could not identify this bird positively as we are not familiar with other small egret species or...
  10. Z

    Domestic Mallard or Mallard x Muscovy hybrid?

    Update: the next time I visited the area I made more pictures of these ducks and the blue-beaked duck has curved uppertail feathers characteristic of male mallard :-)
  11. Z

    Domestic Mallard or Mallard x Muscovy hybrid?

    Thank you! It is a relief as I already reported all three birds as domestic mallards in several Big Day-type censuses. They tend to swim farther away from the bank so I never saw them this clear.
  12. Z

    Domestic Mallard or Mallard x Muscovy hybrid?

    These three ducks are continuing birds at one of our city hotspots. I never saw them this close and always assumed that they are just three domestic mallards. However, in this close-up picture the middle white bird shows unusual bill color and head shape is different than in the right-hand white...
  13. Z

    More Birds From Hungary

    And one of sensitive species in eBird. We had only one active nest in Serbia this year.
  14. Z

    Hungarian Pigeons

    The bird on the wire is a Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus). Once upon the time they used to be very shy of humans (to the point of deserting incubated eggs due to slight disturbance) but now they are common in downtown Belgrade, nesting in trees along the busiest streets in city center (they are...
  15. Z

    Is this Egretta garzetta or gularis?

    Thank you! I am not sure how clean the bird is, as this is a downtown location and there might be anything in the water. I alerted everyone on the local forum to take detailed pictures of any white egrets in this area (as black-necked grebes have already appeared, with juveniles in tow, everyone...
  16. Z

    Is this Egretta garzetta or gularis?

    One of our birders made these three photos of a small white heron (egret) in a very well-birded urban hotspot in Belgrade. The most logical choice in our area is Egretta garzetta, although they are already leaving for south (mostly summer visitors). However, several persons remarked that this...
  17. Z

    ID Egret? Portugal

    It is the size of a *large* gull
  18. Z

    Can someone ID this duck ? Minneasota, USA

    The big duck is a domestic-type Mallard. Note the blue speculum (mirror) on the wing, and the down-turned bill. In Muscovies and hybrids the speculum would be green and the bill would be more horizontal.
  19. Z

    Several Tringa sandpipers

    Due to a large-scale drought all shorebirds in our area gathered at a few remaining lakes. Many were easily determined but some are a puzzle for us as we cannot rule out vagrants from other regions. These were left unanswered at our local bird id forum.
  20. Z

    Pure Muscovy or Muscovy x Mallard cross?

    Thank you, I added it as Muscovy to my eBird checklist.
  21. Z

    Pure Muscovy or Muscovy x Mallard cross?

    This bird is completely new to the location and it was trailing at the end of flock of domestic geese. I am not sure whether it is a juvenile purebreed Muscovy, so caruncles are not properly developed yet, or a Muscovy x Mallard cross (the shape and posture of the head is not quite as in big old...
  22. Z

    RSPB very rarely check membership cards

    What is the profile of non-payers? I think most people not interested in birding would just stay away from the reserve (they can have fun in a normal park and pub if they want) unless they want to do something forbidden like make a barbecue in the forest, and then they should be legally dealt...
  23. Z

    Help with identifing baby bird

    The green stuff looks too large for such a small throat, I would use smaller bits (what is that green stuff?). I guess it is some kind of songbird, in which case it will start fluttering in about two weeks and must be fed for another week or so. I think it has the same life expectancy as an...
  24. Z

    Mallards turn predator

    The duck was treating the wagtail like it was a similar-sized and similar-shaped frog. I suspect it is not very wise for fledglings to land near little egrets (or any other mallard-sized bird; black-headed gull, crow) either. What saves small birds in most circumstances is their quick movement...
  25. Z

    When Trying to ID Do You Start With the FAMILY and Work Down?

    I started by reading the field guide first (many times) and then I knew "what exists" and what page (or part of field guide) to go to when I see something unusual. There are certain groups of difficult species, generally on family level; in the field guide, shorebirds were generally between the...
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