Category Birds

European Honey Buzzard

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The European Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus) is a medium-sized bird of prey, an accipiter, and a raptor. It is also called the Pern. 

The European Honey Buzzard is eagle-like with a small head, flat wings, and a long tail with a few dark bars. Its feathers are honey-brown. The male has a blue-grey head, and the female has a brown head. The female is slightly darker than the male. Both the male and the female have yellowish to light-orange eyes, and a grey beak with a yellow cere. 

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Temminck’s Tragopan Pheasant

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The Temminck’s Tragopan Pheasant (Tragopan temminckii) is a medium-sized bird.

The male Temminck’s Tragopan Pheasant is red and orange, with white-spotted feathers. It has a black beak and pink legs. Its facial skin is blue and bare with no feathers. It has inflatable dark-blue wattles (skin flaps) on its face. The female has brown and white-spotted feathers with blue circular eye skin.

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Mistle Thrush

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The Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus) is a small bird.

The Mistle Thrush has pale grey-brown upper parts, a greyish-white chin and throat, and black spots on its yellow-beige underparts. It has a rounded head, long pointed wings, and a long tail with white tips. Its eyes are dark-brown and its beak is blackish. It has yellowish-brown legs and feet. 

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Mandarin Duck

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The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) is a medium-sized freshwater bird in the perching duck family. It is related to the Wood Duck.

The male Mandarin Duck has a red beak, large white crescent above his eye, and a reddish face with ‘whiskers.’ His chest is purple with two vertical white bars, with ruddy sides, and two orange sails at the back. Sails are large feathers that stick up like boat sails. The male has orange legs.

The female has a white eye-ring and a stripe from the eye to her back. She has a paler underbelly, a small white side stripe, and a pale tip on her beak. The female has grey legs.

Both the male and female Mandarin Duck have crests, but the purple crest is larger on the male. When the male moults (sheds feathers), he looks similar to the female, except that he has a bright yellow-orange or red beak. 

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Zebra Dove

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The Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) is a medium-sized bird in the Columbidae family of pigeons. It is also known as the Barred Ground Dove. It is related to the Peaceful Dove (Geopelia placida) and the Barred Dove (Geopelia maugeus). 

The Zebra Dove is brownish-grey with black and white bars (broad stripes). Its underparts are pinkish with black bars on the sides of its neck, chest, and belly. Its face is blue-grey, with bare blue skin around its eyes. It has a long, narrow tail and a slender body. There are white tips on its tail feathers. 

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RESEARCH: Bird feeders – are they good for birds?

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Bird feeders are containers filled with birdseed and placed in the garden to attract wild birds.

A British study has found that putting bird feeders in your garden helps the growth of bird populations.

The study, published in May 2019 in the Nature Communications journal, looked at the advantages, disadvantages and impact of bird feeders in people’s garden over the past 40 years.

The researcher, Kate Plummer of the British Trust for Ornithology, and a team of volunteers, have been monitoring the species of birds that feed on seeds and fruit from bird feeders across England since the 1970s. 

The 40-year data shows that about 68 species of birds have always used the bird feeders from the 1970s to the present day. 

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Red-Capped Manakin

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The Red-Capped Manakin (Ceratopipra mentalis) is a small passerine bird in the Pipridae family. 

The male Red-Capped Manakin has a velvety black body, with a bright red head and nape, bright yellow thighs, a pale-yellow chin, and pale-yellow wing linings. The female is olive-green, with paler yellow-green underparts. Both the male and female have brown legs. The male has white eyes and the female has brown eyes. 

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Great Argus

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The Great Argus (Argusianus argus) is a bird in the pheasant family. It is a Galliforme, which includes heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds, such as the turkey, grouse, chicken, quail, partridge, francolin, and pheasant. It is also known as the Giant Argus. 

The Great Argus has brown feathers and a blue head and neck, with a rufous (red-brown) upper chest. It has black hair-like feathers on its crown and nape. It has red legs. The male has very long tail feathers and wing feathers covered in eye-spots. The female has a shorter tail and fewer eye-spots on its wings. 

The Argus in Greek mythology is a hundred-eyed giant. The Great Argus bird has eye-shaped pattern on its wings that resemble the hundred-eyed giant. 

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Kea

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The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is a large bird in the parrot family. It is the world’s only alpine (high mountain) parrot. It is related to the flightless Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus).

The Kea is mostly olive-green, which means that it is well-camouflaged in trees. It has brilliant orange feathers under its wings. The feathers on its back and rump are orange-red, and some of the outer wing feathers are dull blue. It has a dark olive-brown face. Its blue-grey upper beak is large, narrow, and curved. It has a short, broad, bluish-green tail with a black tip. It has dark-brown eyes. Its cere, eye-rings, and legs are grey. 

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Common Emerald Dove

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The Common Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) is a medium-sized bird in the pigeon family. It is also known as the Asian Emerald Dove, the Green Dove, the Green-Winged Pigeon, or the Grey-Capped Emerald Dove. 

The Common Emerald Dove has an emerald green back and wings. Its flight and tail feathers are blackish. Its head and underparts are dark pink, fading to greyish on its lower belly. Its eyes are dark brown, its beak is bright red, and its leg and feet are rufous (red-brown).

The male has a white patch on the edge of its shoulders and a grey crown, which the female lacks. Females have a browner colour, with a grey mark on the shoulder. 

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