Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (1 Viewer)

[TicoTyler]

This one was a half lifer for me on Monday. I count heard only birds for my Life List but also maintain a list of those heard onlys. I was finally able to see (and film, photograph and audio record!) a central American Pygmy Owl.

Video: ML619090227 - Central American Pygmy-Owl - Macaulay Library

 

[Patudo]

Chimney swift - over Central Park, NYC

 

[Xenospiza]

Black-and-white Tody-Flycatcher was the last one of some 70 IOC ticks (more according to BirdLife or Brazilian list) on Fernando de Noronha and in Amazonia.
The most exclusive tick was probably Chestnut-headed Nunlet, but this will likely receive a steady stream of visitors as long as the water level is high enough.
Not many people go to Noronha, but you need just 10 minutes on the island to see the endemic birds. The line for the entry payment takes longer.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Swinhoe's Pheasant, Dasyueshan, Taiwan.

 

[cutlera1976]

West Indian Whistling-Duck, at the Montego Bay sewage ponds, Jamaica

 

[TerryL]

Honey - Buzzard (208) from friends garden

 

[lammergeier05]

8 lifers from the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, highlights on top of all the available endemics (all quite easy) being Bridled Quail-Dove and White-tailed Nightjar

 

[Ozprey1]

Black-billed Cuckoo heard in back woods behind our yard. Did not know that Minnesota was a common breeding area.

 

[timsg80]

Black Woodpecker this morning in the Danube Delta in Romania. What a stunning bird! And so pleasing to finally see one after countless attempts to see them across Europe.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Tawny Owl and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Belgrad Forest outside of Istanbul.

 

[TicoTyler]

White-bellied Emerald. First one seen in almost a century in Costa Rica!

ML619544812 - White-bellied Emerald - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML619544812; © Tyler Wenzel; Alajuela, Costa Rica

macaulaylibrary.org

 

[Swindon Addick]

Bluethroat this morning. Specifically the one that got confused about where it should migrate to and has spent the early summer of each of the last few years at Slimbridge wondering why no female ever turns up in the excellent bit of habitat it's claimed as its territory.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Grey-headed Woodpecker - male - Bialoweiza, Poland.

 

[ParisNorway]

Merganser with up to 19 chicks in downtown Cieszyn, Poland. Actually it was on the border river between Poland and Czech Republic. Adult female merganser was hunting and diving in the shallow river near a bridge. You could see it perfectly under clear water hunting for small fish. Later I encountered a female hanging out on rock islet with 17-19 chicks (not all are visible in the image). I'm not sure whether it was the same female, and I'm not sure whether all the chicks belonged to one mother. Is it possible for two females with two sets of chicks to hang out together, taking turns hunting?

It is my bird species number 335

 

[david kelly]

Merganser with up to 19 chicks in downtown Cieszyn, Poland. Actually it was on the border river between Poland and Czech Republic. Adult female merganser was hunting and diving in the shallow river near a bridge. You could see it perfectly under clear water hunting for small fish. Later I encountered a female hanging out on rock islet with 17-19 chicks (not all are visible in the image). I'm not sure whether it was the same female, and I'm not sure whether all the chicks belonged to one mother. Is it possible for two females with two sets of chicks to hang out together, taking turns hunting?

It is my bird species number 335

View attachment 1582805

View attachment 1582806

Goosander in Europe, Common Merganser in North America, Mergus merganser.

David

 

[temmie]

#4785 Lesser Scaup, long been a boogey-bird as I even managed to dip it in e.g. Cuba, but luckily it showed up in Belgium (pending acceptation).
Slowly creeping towards #5000 which I will probably reach somewhere next summer.

 

[Georgebirds]

Wow, that photo of the Goosander with allll the chicks is amazing, what a brilliant sighting to have as your life list entry!

My most recent life-list addition is actually a bird I saw six years ago - I know, I know, I feel bad for ignoring the poor thing all this time! I'd taken the pictures of some little cute bird I didn't recognise, while walking to Foxton Locks from the car park, intending to look up what it was when I got home from my trip.
Then totally forgot - back then I hadn't started birding, just a fan of nature in general, so ID-ing everything wasn't a priority, hah
The other day I went to look back at my photos of the locks and canal boats, and there were these three shots of the bird in the tree I'd walked under. Of course, now I've spent a lot more time reading my bird books, I recognised it right away, and can say I saw my first (and only) Spotted Flycatcher back in the summer of 2018!

 

[Jon.Bryant]

From the first few days of a trip to Qinghai China (and an unexpected detour to Gansu)

30/5
Tibetan Snowcock. The bird was calling quite close but we just couldn’t find it, and it looked like it was going to be a ‘heard only’. Then there it was in the bins. What a great bird!

Gansu Leaf Warbler. Arguably just a dull Pallas’s, but a nice song, and nice that the first one was singing 50m away from a singing Chinese Leaf Warbler (one of the other duller versions of Pallas’s).

Przevalski’s Nuthatch. A great bird that somehow looks almost clown like.

White-throated Redstart. Another cracker (well the males) and reassuringly common in the right habitat.

31/5
Blue Eared-Pheasant. After several heard only, finally two came out of a gully and made their way across the meadow to the trees, stopping to call a few times. Not a great call, but handsome birds.

Grey-headed Bullfinch. Just the one, which kept quite hidden in the foliage, so seen ‘bit at a time’, but still a nice bird.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

A few more ticks in the Rubber Mountains and at Chaka in Qinghai.

Tibetan Partridge - a real ‘Tigger-like’ partridge.

White-browed Tit-warbler - in my opinion too few birds are lilac!

Blanford’s Snowfinch - now only Afghan Snowfinch to go. Hmmm, not sure when I will be ticking that one!

 

[Georgebirds]

Some more for the Life List for me today, Little Gulls and a Red-crested Pochard, plus an actual clear view of a Mediterranean Gull, to replace that dubious one I only found in my photos later - that can be officially on my list now!