THE BIRD THREAD - Post birds, discuss birds or even sniff birds.

[internet friend]

So I went camping out in the bush for a long weekend a bit ago and took my camera. This can only mean one thing...

BIRD TIME!

First up we have the Grey Crowned Babbler, who are quite chatty and social little birds that are pretty human-friendly. I really like the second picture cos they remind me of O&S from Dark Souls.



Next is the Australian Wood Duck and her little fluffy babies!


The White-naped Honeyeater is a bit of a favourite of mine due to their cool orange eyebrows.


This Leaden Flycatcher is a female. You can tell as she has some nice orange on her breast, while the male has only white, but is a more shiny blue.


He's a bit hard to see, but this little fella is the Striated Thornbill. Took a bit of time to ID him as all small birds are kinda similar.


This fine looking bird is the Australian Kestrel! He was quite surprised when I pulled the car over to snap a shot, so he took flight to check me out. He quickly decided I was boring and left.


This cool mohawk sporting fluff is the Eastern Shrike-tit, who for some reason really wanted to rip this tree to shreds.



On the way back, I noticed this Brown Falcon circling over a farmer's freshly tractored land. Probably looking for some kind of rodents to snack on!


The real star of the show, the poser of all posers, had to be the White-necked Heron. Every time we drove past his little watering hole, he always stood and posed for as long as I liked. What a legend!



Alas, we all know how uploading to the KF goes, so not everything I wanted to show is in this post. Perhaps I'll try again later.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

I fucking love parrots, especially macaws. They're beautiful, intelligent, social and some can live more than 80 years. I'm using Google images because there aren't any where I live and I'm shit at taking pics.

Left to right: military , catalina (a hybrid, not natural), hyacinth, scarlet.


I have a soft spot for spix macaws, they look like they're halfway between a macaw and a parakeet. They're extinct in the wild and the remaining captive ones are so inbred that their eggs often don't hatch, so they're being hybridized with closely-related species to help with genetic diversity.


But my favorites are blue and yellow macaws, they look so majestic and have some really vibrant colors. Look at those feathers:

 

[Johan Schmidt]

A one eyed baby wood pigeon fell out the sky and hit me today. I assume some sort of predatory bird was attacking it; anyway. It now lives in a little box with some blankets, and I fed it a little ready brec, some tepid water, and put a hot water bottle under it. I assume it will likely die pretty soon, since it seems very young. If it lives though I should hopefully be able to release it.

 

[keytar]

So I went camping out in the bush for a long weekend a bit ago and took my camera. This can only mean one thing...

BIRD TIME!

First up we have the Grey Crowned Babbler, who are quite chatty and social little birds that are pretty human-friendly. I really like the second picture cos they remind me of O&S from Dark Souls.
View attachment 5406483
View attachment 5406484

Next is the Australian Wood Duck and her little fluffy babies!
View attachment 5406485

The White-naped Honeyeater is a bit of a favourite of mine due to their cool orange eyebrows.
View attachment 5406487

This Leaden Flycatcher is a female. You can tell as she has some nice orange on her breast, while the male has only white, but is a more shiny blue.
View attachment 5406488

He's a bit hard to see, but this little fella is the Striated Thornbill. Took a bit of time to ID him as all small birds are kinda similar.
View attachment 5406491

This fine looking bird is the Australian Kestrel! He was quite surprised when I pulled the car over to snap a shot, so he took flight to check me out. He quickly decided I was boring and left.
View attachment 5406502

This cool mohawk sporting fluff is the Eastern Shrike-tit, who for some reason really wanted to rip this tree to shreds.
View attachment 5406507
View attachment 5406508

On the way back, I noticed this Brown Falcon circling over a farmer's freshly tractored land. Probably looking for some kind of rodents to snack on!
View attachment 5406538

The real star of the show, the poser of all posers, had to be the White-necked Heron. Every time we drove past his little watering hole, he always stood and posed for as long as I liked. What a legend!
View attachment 5406505
View attachment 5406504

Alas, we all know how uploading to the KF goes, so not everything I wanted to show is in this post. Perhaps I'll try again later.

Holy shit what beautiful pictures! I've only heard of half of these birds but I love all of them.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

A one eyed baby wood pigeon fell out the sky and hit me today. I assume some sort of predatory bird was attacking it; anyway. It now lives in a little box with some blankets, and I fed it a little ready brec, some tepid water, and put a hot water bottle under it. I assume it will likely die pretty soon, since it seems very young. If it lives though I should hopefully be able to release it.

Poor thing, hope the little guy makes it. But if it's disabled, and at such a young age too, is it a good idea to release it back into the wild?

 

[Diet Coke 4 Life]

Poor thing, hope the little guy makes it. But if it's disabled, and at such a young age too, is it a good idea to release it back into the wild?

Might not be legal to keep it - perhaps turning it over to a bird rescue or wildlife rehabilitation center/sanctuary might be a good call? There are a few of those out here as there are many managed wildlife fowl that cannot be kept by private citizens as there's exotic carer licensing required.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Poor thing, hope the little guy makes it. But if it's disabled, and at such a young age too, is it a good idea to release it back into the wild?

Might not be legal to keep it - perhaps turning it over to a bird rescue or wildlife rehabilitation center/sanctuary might be a good call? There are a few of those out here as there are many managed wildlife fowl that cannot be kept by private citizens as there's exotic carer licensing required.

It turned out to have both eyes, I thought it was missing one because it had a cut on the back of the head; and lots of a blood went in one eye. Looked like it had been pecked out. It's just a normal flying rat pigeon. I've been poking around looking for where the nest might be because it might be good to just pop it back in there.
I don't really want to care for a pet pigeon lol. So even if I can't find the nest, I'll see about taking it to a rehab so they can release it. I've named it 'dumbass', because it's a dumbass. All it does it scream for food, I bag feed it, it eats until full, then it screams and pecks me, and then sleeps. Very much a dumbass. Cute though.

 

[Squawking Macaw]

It turned out to have both eyes, I thought it was missing one because it had a cut on the back of the head; and lots of a blood went in one eye. Looked like it had been pecked out. It's just a normal flying rat pigeon. I've been poking around looking for where the nest might be because it might be good to just pop it back in there.
I don't really want to care for a pet pigeon lol. So even if I can't find the nest, I'll see about taking it to a rehab so they can release it. I've named it 'dumbass', because it's a dumbass. All it does it scream for food, I bag feed it, it eats until full, then it screams and pecks me, and then sleeps. Very much a dumbass. Cute though.

That's great lol, glad the little guy is fine. I admit I have a soft spot for pigeons, they're kinda cute.

 

[internet friend]

All it does it scream for food, I bag feed it, it eats until full, then it screams and pecks me, and then sleeps.

So it behaves like a bird?

 

[Johan Schmidt]

So it behaves like a bird?

Yes. Tiny, birdbrained dumbass that it is. Also not sure about the age, since it still has some yellow fluff strands on it, without the collar on the neck yet.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Another baby bird update.

Dumbass covered himself in his food by shoving his entire head in the bag, and freaks out if I try and clean it. This was about 2ish days ago. The wings have developed proper feathers, but there's still fluff, which makes it probably about 14 days old. I'm going to try and see about mixing in some soft peas/corn into the diet. I'm still a little wary of solid food because it's so young. So I might keep just using the crop milk substitute for now.
Also it enjoys it when I walk it around the house cupped in my hands. Very strange bird.

EDIT: You can see the headwound it had, on the back of the skull, that patch of red/black, seems to be healing. I try and check for infection and dabbed it with iodine when it was open wound, so far seems to be good.

 

[Anonitolia]

it enjoys it when I walk it around the house cupped in my hands. Very strange bird.

this is adorable thank you for sharing

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

Poor Gizmo hurt himself trying to fly for the first time, luckily no broken bones. He stopped talking since he hurt himself trying to fly. They didn't know he could fly because he was neglected by his first owners and kept in a cage without ever flying once.

https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/4l8ZUK9PunY

 

[Diet Coke 4 Life]

Poor Gizmo!! But for real, sometimes it can be for the best to prohibit flight for your permanent companion bird.

Spoiler: Anecdotal shit concerning parrots and flight here

I let my bird fly recently - he wears jesses when he goes outside, and we affixed kite string to keep him recoverable. After a few practice flaps, he managed a full football field and was happy as a clam sitting in a hedge waiting for me to come retrieve him.

Then his attitude exploded and he decided he didn't have to listen to people anymore because he had wings. Step up? No. Pleasant talking? Nah, not when he can shriek! Come here? Pfffft lolz nope.

Why did he do this, after two full decades of being a sweetheart and a well trained companion? Because African Gray parrots are fucking three year olds with tin-snips on their faces and superiority complexes.

Bloody bastard has earned himself another two decades of clipped wings due to the shenanigans he pulled in the singular month he had full wings.

And yes, he's back to being a sweetheart again. Lousy punk.

 

[Vash the Stampede]

 

[Diet Coke 4 Life]

Lousy little fuckers like to fly off the second they see a phone, so had to be stealthy to get this screaming asshole.

Video taken on a potato through a pane of glass and a screened porch.

 

[Um...]

Had my first bluebird sighting of the season this week. Four males and a female congregating around the water dishes, drinking and splashing around and just hanging out.

They disappear mid-late summer to dine on their preferred diet of bugs and worms, then reappear once the weather starts to turn cold. Also spotted a Flicker this morning, getting a drink

Water attracts a lot of birds, even without any food for them to eat.

Still waiting for these guys to show up. They’re called red-bellied woodpeckers for some reason even though the red is on their heads.

and these guys too, the little downy woodpeckers

They’re feisty little things and don’t allow the Cardinals to chase them off even though they’re smaller than the cardinals.

(these are all google images, I’m not talented enough with a camera to take my own.)

 

[AbyssStarer]

Birds named after people in is US are being renamed because....uh...racism.
American Ornithological Society Will Change the English Names of Bird Species Named After People
crtf F "divers" results: 4. "inclus" 5. and so on and so forth.

I will not be respecting the change and won't be buying any new bird books. At this rate might as well rename the entire Audubon Society and anything named after Audubon and throw out any bird books named after people.
Like 2 years ago or so I remember their twitter posting that they were looking for hires for a diversity board and figures that this is what's happening now.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Another baby bird update.
View attachment 5424224
Dumbass covered himself in his food by shoving his entire head in the bag, and freaks out if I try and clean it. This was about 2ish days ago. The wings have developed proper feathers, but there's still fluff, which makes it probably about 14 days old. I'm going to try and see about mixing in some soft peas/corn into the diet. I'm still a little wary of solid food because it's so young. So I might keep just using the crop milk substitute for now.
Also it enjoys it when I walk it around the house cupped in my hands. Very strange bird.

EDIT: You can see the headwound it had, on the back of the skull, that patch of red/black, seems to be healing. I try and check for infection and dabbed it with iodine when it was open wound, so far seems to be good.

Pigeon update.
It is still alive, and unfortunately is very affectionate. The wildlife service I contacted did not get back to me. I was reading up on the bird itself; and apparently they need to be introduced to flocks of their own kind slowly. Which is a real problem since I have a job. It also uses me as a climbing frame once I finished feeding it, and enjoys sitting on my shoulder; or climbing into the hood of my hoodie and nesting in it.
Oh and it can jump/partially fly out of the bowl I put it in to wash itself after it eats. Which means it's well on its way to flying. But it's still behaving very much like a baby, pumping wings/shoulders and squeaking whenever it sees me; only now it runs towards me whenever I let it out of its cage. I may unironically be stuck with a fucking pet pigeon.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

I think word has gotten out in my rural neighborhood that we rescue or take care of unwanted animals; most recently someone abandoned two roosters in front of the house.

Sadly only one survived until I could get a coop, as we didn't have any place for them to safely roost; one of the big owls, coyotes, or racoons got the smaller bird during the first night, as they had perched further away from the house on a fallen tree at the edge of our yard. I think a hawk tried to get the white rooster the next day; he disappeared for hours, leaving a pile of white feathers in the yard, only to show up that evening with a bald, bloodied patch on his back.

Anyways.... meet "Crispy Salt"

He quickly learned that our cats are pacifists & pushovers, along with where the good food is:

The cats also quickly learned not to mess with the rooster (at least those who didn't start life on the farm), lest they earn a quick peck on the head or get chased around. He also tries to mount the large orange cat which is pretty funny (and probably pretty embarrassing for him); but otherwise they hang out together most of the time.