Wednesday Wings

This week’s Wednesday Wings come from avalus, who writes:

Usually I can not take pictures of birds with my cellphone cam due to the lack of good zoom. But last week a friend and I helped this little fellow to escape the architectural nightmare and birdkiller, that is the our chemistry departent building. It is made of lots of glass and with windows in odd places and every so often we find birds that have flown in but could not escape again and died. This one was already pretty exhausted, as I doubt we could have caught it with the box otherwise. It did not put up any resistance.

This story had a happy end, we released the little one a minute or so after taking this picture: We took away the cardboardpane we used to cover the box, the little one looked at us puzzeled, left droppings in the box and flew away.

 

I do have no idea what kind of bird this is.

Young bird sitting in a lab

©avalus

 

I think it’s a juvenile Redstart that got caught in the lab.

Wednesday Wings

Hello and Welcome to Wednesday Wings, one of the new features replacing the Daily Bird. Today’s gorgeous pics are from David in NZ, who writes the following:

This is Manu, he puts on a show for the crowd, flying from one keeper to another, untethered and outside a cage. He did go for a “holiday” for 3 days last year.

 

Cheers

 

David

 

Blue Macaw

Blue Macaw sitting on a hand

Macaw flying

Macaw flying

I know that the birds of prey ion our local zoo tend to go on holidays as well, but generally return because hunting is too much work.

Monday Mercurial

Hello and welcome to Monday Mercurial, a regular feature for all the critters out there. Sadly we won’t be able to keep up the Daily Bird, but we will replace it with three regular features throughout the week for the winged and furred inhabitants of planet Earth.

This is a young magpie that kept begging for food, even though it was already old enough to get over to the bowl of dogfood some campers had forgotten outside.

Young magpie with open beak

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Yound magpie, begging for food

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Young magpie with open beak

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Barcelona, the Zoo 2: Gorillas

Since we were talking about apes anyway…

My favourite great apes are gorillas. I could watch them for hours, especially their eyes. The group in Barcelona just gor some snacks when we were there, so some of the images will be them foraging.

Gorilla on green grass

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Young gorilla climbing a rope

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Young gorilla sitting

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Gorilla, eating

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Barcelona: the Zoo 1

We’re leaving the Aquarium, but stay with the animals. Zoos are something we love to visit wherever we go. The zoo in Barcelona has the perk of having not one but two species of hippos, and I love hippos. These are the pygmy hippos, which are a solitary species, quite unlike the “normal” hippos who live in groups.

Something to keep in mind the next time somebody tries to tell you about human behaviour because of chimps or something.

Pygmy hippo with open mouth

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Side of pygmy hippo

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Pygmy hippo, full length

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Backside of pygmy hippo going into a pond.

Bye!
©Giliell, all rights reserved

Barcelona: The Aquarium 4: Creatures of the Sea

The last images from the aquarium. Oh, and I won a bet that day. When we walked past the gift shop on our way in I swore we’d leave with one of the penguins on display. Sadly, nobody who knows my kids would have held that bet.

Head of a seahorse


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Green and blue corals


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Jellyfish in a blue light


©Giliell, all rights reserved