Forum Birdwatching 2010

There are some cracking pictures on this page especially.

I will recount seeing a female mallard duck preening herself by a canal, but standing on a branch about 20 feet up a tree. It was most odd as I have never seen behaviour like it before. A duck flew up onto a tree branch and preened.

Also I want to praise the common blackbird Turdus merula. The male with his handsome dark plumage and bright yellow beak, their callings and tail-bobbing behaviours and the way they remind me of dinosaurs when they run around on the lawn. They're great.
 
Mr Clingford said:
Also I want to praise the common blackbird Turdus merula. The male with his handsome dark plumage and bright yellow beak, their callings and tail-bobbing behaviours and the way they remind me of dinosaurs when they run around on the lawn. They're great.
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Ah, we have a pair that have come back to our 'garden' every year for about five years. Do Blackbirds mate for life?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Blackbird#Breeding
The fount of all knowledge states that Blackbirds are monogamous.

It also states that their main predator os the domestic cat, which isn't all that surprising. I have a conflict of interest as both my partner and I are 'Cat people' but have not possessed a cat for years. In that time my interest in birds has grown and I enjoy seeing them in the garden. Alive.
 
Saw this yesterday. It flew around for some time. The total lack of a tail was quite interesting. Thing resembles a true flying wing.
Shopped a raven image for this illustration..
What is it?
 

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EHocking said:
Turkey vulture most likely. The white primaries rather than wing tips seem to distinguish it from a Black?

Does this link help?
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/turkey_vulture/id
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Vultures come through here when migrating every year. The thing I saw was raven sized, with a feathered, not skin, head. And nothing aft of the wing to say it had lost feathers, and was coping with the loss.
The wing was a bit more pointed than in the photoshopped raven image and totally black.
Reminded me of some of the flying wing models I've flown.
 
I Ratant said:
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Vultures come through here when migrating every year. The thing I saw was raven sized, with a feathered, not skin, head. And nothing aft of the wing to say it had lost feathers, and was coping with the loss.
The wing was a bit more pointed than in the photoshopped raven image and totally black.
Reminded me of some of the flying wing models I've flown.
Click to expand...
?? A semi leucistic raven?
 
NoahFence said:
His beak looks like a raven, but the coloring of the wings look like a TV.

A turkey raven? :D
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That is a photoshopped image of a raven to illustrate the shape I observed.
I wasn't able to get a photo of the actual bird.
That ravens need their tails (as do all other birds) for manuvering, and this one having nothing at all even close to resembling a tail is the remarkable thing.
 
Are you sure you were not viewing a black vulture. They are smaller with a less prominent tail. The black skin of the head could have been mistaken for a feathered head.
 
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