Wednesday, November 27, 2013

How to create a birdfeeder ?

The winter has come here in Bulgaria. The weather is much colder and we have few centimeters of snow. I think that this is the right time to make a post about bird feeders.

For me this is one of the simplest and in the same time important things that we can do to help our bird friends. Below I will post few interesting videos that describe how you can make a simple bird feeders.

For those who already have bird feeders..don't remember to keep them full with seeds and nuts.







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Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Funny Bird Pictures

Fun is very important for me and that is why I will start making post about funny bird pictures. I promise that I won't post such pictures every day ,but when I find something funny and interesting I will share it with you. If you have some fun bird pictures , feel free to share them or send them to me. Have fun and enjoy !

That is the question !

Shhh..

....

Haters gonna hate ! :D

Come at me bro !

The death of Davy Jones..

Bird watching.


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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Garden Birds : Finches

I'm interested in garden birds since I was a little boy and I've decided to make post about interesting garden birds in Bulgaria and Europe. I think that those post are going to be very interesting and useful to people that are not so familiar with bird watching ,because they will be able to learn something about nature around them.

My friends ask me questions about birds very often and I'm very happy to answer them ,but I will try to make post for those who can't ask anyone.

My first post will be about Finches. There are only two species of finches in Bulgaria - Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) and Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla). I've never ringed Brambling in my life ,but they are one of my favorite garden birds. In Bulgaria it's much more likely to see Brambling in winter ,because through the warmer months they live in the mountain. I've gathered some information about the two species. There are also pictures from Wikipedia.

The Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), usually known simply as the Chaffinch is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family. The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts. The female is much duller in colouring but both sexes have two contrasting white wings-bars and white sides to the tail. The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.
The Chaffinch breeds in much of Europe, across Asia to Siberia and in northwest Africa. It prefers open woodland and often forages on the ground. The female builds a nest with a deep cup in the fork of a tree. The clutch is typically 4–5 eggs, which hatch in about 13 days. The chicks fledge in around 14 days but are fed by both adults for several weeks after leaving the nest. The Chaffinch is a partial migrant; birds breeding in warmer regions are sedentary while those breeding in the colder northern areas of its range winter further south.

The Chaffinch is about 14.5 cm (5.7 in) long, with a wingspan of 24.5–28.5 cm (9.6–11.2 in) and a weight of 18–29 g (0.63–1.0 oz). The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a black forehead and a blue-grey crown, nape and upper mantle. The rump is a light olive-green; the lower mantle and scapulars form a brown saddle. The side of head, throat and breast are a dull rust-red merging to a pale creamy-pink on the belly. The central pair of tail feathers are dark grey with a black shaft streak. The rest of the tail is black apart from the two outer feathers on each side which have white wedges. Each wing has a contrasting white panel on the coverts and a buff-white bar on the secondaries and inner primaries. The flight feathers are black with white on the basal portions of the vanes. The secondaries and inner primaries have pale yellow fringes on the outer web whereas the outer primaries have a white outer edge.
After the autumn moult the tips of the new feathers have a buff fringe that adds a brown cast to the colored plumage. The ends of the feathers wear away over the winter so that by the spring breeding season the underlying brighter colors are displayed.The eyes have dark brown irises and the legs are grey-brown. In winter the bill is a pale grey and slightly darker along the upper ridge or culmen, but in spring the bill becomes bluish-grey with a small black tip.
The adult female is much duller in appearance than the male. The head and most of upperparts are shades of grey-brown. The underparts are paler. The lower back and rump are a dull olive green. The wings and tail are similar to those of the male. The juvenile resembles the female.



The Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. The common English name is probably derived from Common West Germanic *brâma, meaning bramble or a thorny bush. (Compare Standard German Brämling with the same meaning.) It has also been called the Cock o' the North and the Mountain Finch.

The Brambling is similar in size and shape to a Common Chaffinch. Breeding-plumaged male Bramblings are very distinctive, with a black head, dark upperparts, orange breast and white belly. Females and younger birds are less distinct, and more similar in appearance to some Chaffinches. In all plumages, however, Bramblings differs from Chaffinches in a number of features:
-Brambling has a white rump whereas that of Chaffinch is grey-green;
-the breast is orange, contrasting with a white belly on Brambling, whereas on Chaffinch the underparts of more uniformly coloured (pink or buff);
-Brambling's scapulars are orange, whereas Chaffinch's are grey or grey-brown;
-the flanks are dark-spotted on Brambling, plain on Chaffinch;
-Bramblings lack the white outer tail feathers of Chaffinch.

An additional difference for all plumages except breeding-plumaged males is the bill colour - yellow in Brambling, dull pinkish in Chaffinch (breeding-plumaged male Bramblings have black bills, Chaffinches in the corresponding plumage have grey bills).


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Sunday, August 4, 2013

The swallows left their nest

Today I went to Veshtica and I've witnessed the first flight of the four young swallows. The nest is in our house and I just wanted to take some pictures of the young birds ,but few seconds after the pictures all of the swallows flew from the nest and made 2-3 circles around the house. Then they came back in the nest and they were very excited.

I wanted to ring the swallows ,but I came from Sofia too late and they were fully feathered. But anyway I'm very happy that I saw their first flight.






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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Water in the summer heats

I just want to make a little post about something very important in the summer. As you probably noticed the last few days were very hot and the incoming are going to be even hotter.Those weather conditions are very dangerous for our bird friends.

So this post is just a reminder for you to find few minutes and put water on your window or in the backyard. This can be lifesaving for the birds living around you home.

Picture-Google images.

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Black Stork /Ciconia nigra/ Live camera

Today a friend of mine sent me a link . The link is from a live camera and the camera is showing a Black stork nest with young storks inside. For me it was very interesting to watch them so I decided to share the link with you. Enjoy :)

The link for the Live Camera!


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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Interesting birds in Bulgaria - Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria)

It's time for another post about the interesting birds in Bulgaria.This time I will post about the Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria). The reason for that is because this is one very interesting bird and I think that many people don't know about it. So I've decided to share some interesting information with you.

Another reason is the fact that this bird habitats the Belogradchik Rocks which are near my hometown Belogradchik.

The Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria) is a small passerine bird found throughout the high mountains of Eurasia. It is the only member of the genus Tichodroma.

The Wallcreeper is a 15.5–17 centimetres (6.1–6.7 in) long bird, with a mass of 17–19 grams (0.60–0.67 oz). Its plumage is primarily blue-grey, with darker flight and tail feathers. Its most striking plumage feature, though, are its extraordinary crimson wings. Largely hidden when the wings are folded, this bright coloring covers most of the covert feathers, and the basal half of the primaries and secondaries.

A bird of the high mountains, the Wallcreeper breeds at elevations ranging between 1,000–3,000 metres (3,300–9,800 ft). It is largely resident across its range, but is known to move to lower elevations in winter, when it is occasionally found on buildings and in quarries. Birds have wintered as far afield as England and the Netherlands, where one spent two consecutive winters between 1989 and 1991 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. The species is resident across much of the Himalayas, ranging across India, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of Tibet.



The Wallcreeper is an insectivore, feeding on terrestrial invertebrates—primarily insects and spiders—gleaned from rock faces. It sometimes also chases flying insects in short sallies from a rock wall perch. Feeding birds move across a cliff face in short flights and quick hops, often with their wings partially spread.

Pictures- wikipedia and Google images.



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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Last Song for Migrating Birds - You have to read this

This is an article from Jonathan Franzen for National Geographic and I really think that more people need to read it .

"In a bird market in the Mediterranean tourist town of Marsa Matruh, Egypt, I was inspecting cages crowded with wild turtledoves and quail when one of the birdsellers saw the disapproval in my face and called out sarcastically, in Arabic: “You Americans feel bad about the birds, but you don’t feel bad about dropping bombs on someone’s homeland.”

I could have answered that it’s possible to feel bad about both birds and bombs, that two wrongs don’t make a right. But it seemed to me that the birdseller was saying something true about the problem of nature conservation in a world of human conflict, something not so easily refuted. He kissed his fingers to suggest how good the birds tasted, and I kept frowning at the cages.

To a visitor from North America,..."

Source - National Geographic

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) nest with eggs

On my last trip to Veshtica my father showed me very interesting nest. It was a Blackcap nest with five eggs in it. Very interesting thing was the fact that both the male and the female were seen in the nest . I've managed to take pictures of the nest and the eggs when the parents weren't there and now I would like to share them with you.

The nest with the five eggs

As you can see the nest is not very high from the ground.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Great Tit (Parus Major) Breeding- Infographic

Today I made my first infographic about birds and I want to share it with you. It is about Great tit (Parus Major) and it describes the breeding process of that species.

I hope that you are going to like it and I will be happy to hear your opinion in the comments below .


Sunday, May 19, 2013

Pictures for National Geographic

My brother sent me those amazing pictures of European green lizard / Lacerta viridis/. He made them with his cellphone ,but I think that some of them are quite amazing ,so I've decided to share them with you. I hope that you will like them.








Saturday, May 18, 2013

Turdus Philomelos nests

After so many post about other wildlife , I can finally make one about birds. Last week I found some time to make a short walk near Veshtica and the results were very interesting.For the ony hour walk I found two Turdus Philomelos nests and one Coccothraustes coccothraustes nest with nesting female in it.

I think that if I had more time, I would find many more nests ,but for now I am very happy with those and I hope that they will hatch soon.

This is the first nest..


and this is the second one.

I couldn't take pictures of the Hawfinch nest ,because I was afraid that I will scare the mother..

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Some more turtle pictures

Yesterday I made another walk near Veshtica .The weather was very cloudy ,but warm.I was searching for nests ,but I will talk about them in the other post. So for the 2 hour walk we saw many birds and one turtle. It was very shy ,but I took some pictures of it. Couple of days ago me and my brother saw a snake ,but we couldn't catch it ,because it was too fast.I think that with the warm weather much more reptiles will become active and I hope that soon I will be able to make some pictures of snakes.




Friday, May 3, 2013

Spring Photo - Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius)

In the first day of my vacation, I went to Veshtica with my brother. I couldn't find time for ringing , but my brother took this amazing picture of a  Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius).

Here is some more information about this beautiful creature:
"The Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) is a Palearctic swallowtail butterfly found in gardens, fields and open woodlands. First described by Linnaeus in 1758, it is found in places with sloe thickets and particularly orchards. It is also called Sail Swallowtail or Pear-tree Swallowtail. The Southern Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthamelii), is sometimes treated as a subspecies. Despite the name ('scarce'), this swallowtail is quite common.

It is widespread throughout Europe with the exception of the northern parts. Its range extends northwards to Saxony and central Poland and eastwards across Asia Minor and Transcaucasia as far as the Arabian peninsula, India, and western China. A few specimens of the Scarce Swallowtail have been reported from central Sweden and the UK but they were probably only strays and not migrants. The scarcity of UK migrants is responsible for the English common name. In the Alps it can be found up to altitudes of 1600 m.
The presence of Iphiclides podalirius in the floodplain of the Morava River in the Slovak Republic have been found to be a good indicator of relatively well preserved xerothermic grassland habitats with forest-steppe vegetation, which have no cutting history."

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Bat rescue

My brother continues to send me great and interesting pictures. The last ones are pictures of little bat. My brother told me that he had found the bat fallen in the jar of water. As you can see on the first pictures the bat is very wet. After he rescued the bat my brother dried it with towels . He told me that took the bat inside for the night just to be sure that it won't freeze to death. On the other evening my brother has successfully released the bat.