BIRD WEEKLY – PHOTO CHALLENGE – BIRDS WITH WHITE FEATHERS

Posted on by Ark

Fiscal Shrike.

Migrating White Storks Ciconia ciconia high above our property.

Breeds in parts of Eurasia and North Africa, heading south in the non-breeding season to sub-Saharan Africa. In southern Africa, it is common to abundant in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa, largely excluding the arid Karoo. It has a small breeding population in the Western Cape. It generally prefers open woodland, grassy Karoo, grassland, wetlands and cultivated land.

Male Black-Backed Puffback. The one and only time I have seen this bird.

Male White Bellied Sunbird takes nectar from our coral tree.

Crowned Plover.

Barn Swallow launches itself from the neighbours’ TV aerial.

Pied Crow.

With thanks to Lisa for the challenge.

Ark.

26 thoughts on “BIRD WEEKLY – PHOTO CHALLENGE – BIRDS WITH WHITE FEATHERS”

  1. WOW! That’s about all I can say to your gallery this week. The Shrike is stunning! Getting birds in flight when it appears they are coming right at you is difficult. Great job on the Barn Swallow. I’ve never heard of the Male Black-Backed Puffback. Guess that was a rare bird? Loving your white feathered birds. 🙂

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    1. I don’t know if the Puffback is a rare bird, but it is certainly a rare visitor!
      We truly are so very fortunate with the number and variety of birds that visit our spot and working from home gives us the opportunity to see them.

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      1. I’m certainly glad you shared it. We get a lot of birds in our yard. I need to move my computer outside so I can see them more than at lunch time. LOL! 🙂

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        1. If I’m in the house and not mooching in the garden my ears usually are the first source of alert – I’m sure you, too are used to certain bird calls by now, yes? Then I’ll grab a camera and follow the sound.
          How many birds have you managed to record in your garden to date, Lisa?
          Do you keep any records?

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          1. I know a lot of birds by sound and still don’t know more than that. I document all my birds on Ebird.org. Our life total is 351 species. We have seen 72 different species in our yard since 2015. I log our birds through the site and I can go in and run reports at any time. 🙂

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          2. That is a lot of birds.
            I’ve managed to photograph 53 species in our garden since 2015.
            I don’t go out to do specific bird watching but if I’m out and about and riding shotgun I will take the camera with … just in case.

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          3. That is a pretty good number of birds in your garden. I’ve had 72 species in my yard since 2015. I think I may have missed a few because I didn’t log them. Jacksonville is in the migration zone from South America to Canada. 🙂

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          4. 72! I am green with envy.
            This sounds like a challenge to me , Madam?
            Are you throwing down the gauntlet, by chance?
            😉

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          5. Oh boy! Well, in that case, it is 73 now. We had Barred Owls in the backyard last night. We’ve had them before but apparently I never logged them to eBird. I did last night because it is the first of the year. We heard them and we out and spooked one of them and watched it fly to another neighbor’s tree. It was awesome! 🙂 If you want, you can check out this old post and hear them from one of the times they were back there. There was 8-10 owls that was flying from our yard to a neighbors yard. So we couldn’t pinpoint exactly how many. I took a recording while out there and it is on this post. So awesome!
            https://oureyesopen.blog/2020/10/16/bird-weekly-photo-challenge-owls/

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          6. Dammit! How am I supposed to get a further 20 plus birds?
            This could be a long challenge, Lisa! Watch this space, as they say.
            We’ve had Eagle Owls at our spot and they visit from time to time.
            They also used to visit our friend across the road and they even bathed in a small run off area of their swimming pool. I wish I had shots of that!
            I shall now go check your link.

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          7. Well, it’s not a competition really, or not! LOL! Did you ever see the movie “The Big Year”? That is what got me into birding like a maniac to begin with. Now, that was competition. I hope you see many more new species in your garden. I’ll keep you posted as we go along. As I said in the beginning, I knew I had birds that I never logged in my yard because we probably already had them on our list for the year. Now, I do a list at least a couple times a week in our yard to build up my list for here at home. hehehe! 🙂 I’ve added 3 new birds this year that have visited before.

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          8. No, never saw it.
            My goal was initially just to catalogue what we had here , flora and fauna and then, after the acquisition of a nice digital camera it was ‘A for away’.

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          11. I loved Brian Dennehy and was sad when he passed last year. He was on one of my favorite TV shows called “The Blacklist” starring James Spader that is still on primetime in the US. Dennehy’s character was replaced by Ron Raines, but they soon killed the character off. Not sure if that was the original plan or if it came because of Dennehy’s passing last April. 🙂

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    1. Why, thank you, my dear! She is a pretty little thing, even if her reputation is somewhat negative – her ”other” name being the butcherbird.

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      2. we have shtikes here, too. I’ve only ever seen one, chasing an obviously terror stricken chickadee around the corner of the house. Apparently it’s the only songbird we have that kills other songbirds. brr.
        But those are still amazing photos, Ark.

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