Mockingbird

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds, often loudly and in rapid succession. Mockingbirds also have a reputation of being fierce defenders of their nests. Both male and female mockingbirds will attack or feign diving attacks on both domestic and wild felines, canines, crows and other birds, as well as humans who venture too close to their nest. Other defensive tactics involve aggressive vocalizations and adults acting wounded on the ground as a lure to draw predators away from the nest site.
Most species are tropical, but the Northern Mockingbird breeds throughout the United States and Canada. There are about 17 species in three genera. These do not appear to form a monophyletic lineage: Mimus and Nesomimus are quite closely related; their closest living relatives appear to be some thrashers, such as the Sage Thrasher. Melanotis is more distinct; it seems to represent a very ancient basal lineage of Mimidae.(Hunt et al. 2001, Barber et al. 2004)

Wood Thrush

The Wood Thrush, Hylocichla mustelina, is a North American passerine bird. It is closely related to other thrushes such as the American Robin and is widely distributed across North America, wintering in Mexico and Central America. The Wood Thrush is the official bird of the District of Columbia.[2]
The Wood Thrush is a medium-sized thrush, with brown upper parts with mottled brown and white underparts. The male and female are similar in appearance.
The Wood Thrush is an omnivore, and feeds preferentially on soil invertebrates and larvae, but will also eat fruits. In the summer, it feeds on insects continuously in order to meet daily metabolic needs. It is solitary, but sometimes form mixed-species flocks. The Wood Thrush defends a territory that ranges in size from 800 to 28000 square meters. The Wood Thrush is monogamous, and its breeding season begins in the spring; about 50 percent of all mated pairs are able to raise two broods, ranging in size from 2 to 4 chicks.[3]

Sand Martin

The Sand Martin, (Riparia riparia) is a migratory passerine bird in the swallow family.
It has a wide range in summer, embracing practically the whole of Europe and the Mediterranean countries, part of northern Asia and also North America, where it is called Bank Swallow. It winters in eastern and southern Africa, South America and South Asia (where it is called the Collared Sand Martin).
The subspecies diluta of southern Asia, northern India and southeastern China is sometimes split as a separate species, the Pale Martin, Riparia diluta. It has paler grey-brown upperparts and a less distinct breast band. It winters in Pakistan and southern India.
The Sand Martin appears on its breeding grounds towards the end of March, just in advance of the Barn Swallow, as the first of its family, flitting over the larger sheets of water in search of early flies.
Its brown back, small size and quicker, jerkier flight separate it at once from Swallows and House Martins. Later parties accompany Swallows, but for a time, varying according to weather, the birds remain at these large waters and does not visit its nesting haunts.
The 12 cm long Sand Martin is brown above, white below with a narrow brown band on the breast; the bill is black, the legs brown. The young have rufous tips to the coverts and margins to the secondaries.
The twittering song is continuous when the birds are on the wing, and becomes a conversational undertone after they have settled in the roost. The harsh alarm is heard when a passing Kestrel, Carrion Crow or other suspected enemy requires combined action to drive it away.
The food consists of small insects, mostly gnats and other flies whose early stages are aquatic.
The Sand Martin is sociable in its nesting habits; from a dozen to many hundred pairs will nest close together, according to available space. The nests are at the end of tunnels of from a few inches to three or four feet in length, bored in sand or gravel.
The actual nest is a litter of straw and feathers in a chamber at the end of the burrow; it soon becomes a hotbed of parasites. Four or five white eggs are laid about the middle of May, and a second brood is usual.
The Sand Martin departs early, at any rate from its more northerly haunts. In August, the gatherings at the nightly roost increase enormously, though the advent and departure of passage birds causes great irregularity in numbers.

Anna's Hummingbird

These birds are glossy green on the back and grey below with green flanks. Their bill is long, straight and slender. The adult male has a glossy red crown and throat and a dark tail. Anna's is the only hummingbird species with a red crown. Females and juveniles have a green crown, a grey throat with some red marking and a dark tail with white tips.
Their breeding habitat is open wooded or shrubby areas and mountain meadows along the Pacific coast from British Columbia to Arizona. The female builds a large cup nest in a shrub or tree, sometimes in vines or on wires. The nest is round and about 1 1/2 to 2" in diameter. The nest is built of very small twigs, lichen and other mosses, and often lined with downy feathers or animal hair. the nest materials are bound together with spider silk or other sticky materials. They are known to nest early as mid-December and as late as June.
These birds are permanent residents in parts of their range. Some birds may wander north to southern Alaska, south to Mexico or move east from California after nesting season. Some individuals have been banded as far east as Alabama and Florida.
These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue or catch insects on the wing. While collecting nectar, they also assist in plant pollination. They sometimes eat tree sap.
Unlike most hummingbirds, this bird sings during courtship. They are very territorial.
This bird was named after Anna Massena, Duchess of Rivoli. A hybrid between this species and Allen's Hummingbird has been described as Floresi's Hummingbird, "Selasphorus" floresii (Ridgway, 1909; Taylor, 1909); the hybrid with the Black-chinned Hummingbird was called "Trochilus" violajugulum.

Adelie Penguin

The Adélie Penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae is, together with the Emperor Penguin, one of the only two types of penguin living on the Antarctic mainland. This species is common along the entire Antarctic coast and nearby islands. Aside from the storm petrel, they are the most southerly distributed of all seabirds. In 1830, French explorer Dumont d'Urville named them for his wife, Adélie. Ross Island supports a colony of approximately half a million Adélie penguins.
These penguins are very fat and about 60 to 70 cm (24-28 in) long and are around 4.5 kg (10 lbs) in weight. Distinctive marks are the white ring surrounding the eye and the feathers at the base of the bill. These long feathers hide most of the red bill. The tail is a little bit longer than other penguins' tails.

Young Adélie Penguinsin Antarctica
Adélie Penguins arrive at their breeding grounds in October. Their nests consist of stones piled together. Sometimes the competition for breeding sites gets so fierce that mothers will steal stones from neighbors' nests. The males summon the females with a low guttural noise followed by a loud cry. A female typically lays two eggs which are brown or green in color. In December, the warmest month in Antarctica (about -2°C), the parents alternate periods of incubating the egg; one goes to feed and the other stays to warm the egg. The parent who is incubating does not eat. In March, the adults and their young return to the sea. Ellie gall sucks This penguin feeds mainly on crustaceans, such as krill, and fish.

Acorn Woodpecker

The Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) is a medium-sized woodpecker, 21 cm long with an average weight of 85 g.
The adult has a black head, back, wings and tail, white forehead, throat, belly and rump. The eyes are white. The adult male has a red cap starting at the forehead, whereas females have a black area between the forehead and the cap.

Common Kestrel

The Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European Kestrel, Eurasian Kestrel[1], or Old World Kestrel[2]. In Britain, where no other brown falcon occurs, it is generally just called "the Kestrel".
This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America. The Common Kestrel is small compared with other birds of prey, but larger than most songbirds. Kestrels have long wings as well as a distinctive long tail like the other Falco species. This bird's plumage is mainly brown with dark spots. Unlike most hawks they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having a blue-grey head and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All Common Kestrels sexes have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.

Common Kestrel eggs
Common Kestrels measure 34–38 cm (~13–15 in) from head to tail, with a wingspan of 70–80 cm (~27–31 in). The average adult male weighs around 155 g (~5½ oz) with the adult female weighing around 190 g (~6½ oz).

European Roller

The European Roller, Coracias garrulus, is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its range extends into western Asia and Morocco. It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in southern Africa.
It is a bird of warm open country with some trees. The European Roller is a stocky bird, the size of a Jackdaw at 29-32 cm in length with a 52-58 cm wingspan, but it is mainly blue with a warm brown back. Rollers often perch prominently on trees, posts or overhead wires, like giant shrikes, whilst watching for the large insects, lizards and frogs that they eat.
This species is even more striking in its strong direct flight, with the brilliant blue contrasting with black flight feathers. Sexes are similar, but the juvenile is a drabber version of the adult.
The display of this bird is a lapwing-like display, with the twists and turns that give this species its English name. It nests in an unlined tree or cliff hole, and lays up to six eggs.
The call is a harsh crow-like sound.

Nilgiri Wood-pigeon

The Nilgiri Woodpigeon (Columba elphinstonii) is a bird endemic to moist deciduous forests and sholas of the Western Ghats in southwestern India. They are identified in the field by the checkerboard pattern on their napes.
This pigeon species qualifies as vulnerable owing to its small, declining population, restricted range and widespread destruction of its forest habitat.[1] A few relict populations survive on the high altitude hills of the peninsula outside the Western Ghats formation including the Biligirirangan Hills and Nandi Hills near Bangalore.
The binomial commemorates the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859).

African Grey Hornbill

The African Grey Hornbill, Tockus nasutus, is a hornbill. Hornbills are a family of tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World.
The African Grey Hornbill is a widespread and common resident breeder in much of sub-Saharan Africa and into Arabia.
This is a bird mainly of open woodland and savannah. The female lays two to four white eggs in a tree hole, which is blocked off during incubation with a cement made of mud, droppings and fruit pulp. There is only one narrow aperture, just big enough for the male to transfer food to the mother and the chicks.
When the chicks and the female are too big to fit in the nest, the mother breaks out and rebuilds the wall, then both parents feed the chicks.
This species is a large bird, at 45cm in length, but is one of the smaller hornbills. It has mainly grey plumage, with the head, flight feathers and long tail being a darker shade. There is a white line down each side of the head and one on the back which is visible only in flight. The long curved bill is black and has a small casque and a creamy horizontal stripe.
Sexes are similar, but the male has a black bill, whereas the female has red on the mandibles. Immature birds are more uniformly grey. The flight is undulating. The similarly sized Red-billed Hornbill has uniformly grey plumage.
The African Grey Hornbill is omnivorous, taking insects, fruit and reptiles. It feeds mainly in trees.

Collared Kingfisher

The Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the family Halcyonidae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as the White-collared Kingfisher . It has a wide range extending from the Red Sea across southern Asia and Australasia to Polynesia. It is a very variable species with about 50 different subspecies.

South Polar Skua

The South Polar Skua, Stercorarius maccormicki, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. An older name for this bird is MacCormick’s Skua. This species and the other large southern hemisphere skuas, together with Great Skua, are sometimes placed in a separate genus Catharacta.
This is a large bird at 53 cm length. It breeds on Antarctic coasts, usually laying two eggs in November and December. Like other skuas, it will fly at the head of a human or other intruder approaching its nest. It is a migrant, wintering at sea in the Pacific Indian and Atlantic Oceans. In the eastern North Atlantic it is replaced by the Great Skua.
The South Polar Skua eats mainly fish, which it often obtains by robbing gulls, terns and even gannets of their catches. It will also directly attack and kill other seabirds.
Like most other skua species, it continues this piratical behaviour throughout the year, showing less agility and more brute force than the smaller skuas when it harasses its victims.
Distinguishing this skua from the northern hemisphere Arctic, Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas is relatively straightforward. The large size, massive barrel chest and white wing flashes of this bird are distinctive even at a distance. The flight is direct and powerful.
Identification of this skua is more complicated when it is necessary to distinguish it from the closely-related Great Skua of the North Atlantic, and the other large southern hemisphere skuas.
Adult South Polar Skuas are greyish brown above, and have a whitish (pale morph) or straw-brown (intermediate morph) head and underparts, and the contrast between head and body makes it easy to separate from similar species with good views.
Juveniles and adult dark morphs are harder to distinguish from their relatives, and more subjective or difficult-to-observe criteria, such as the colder brown plumage and blue bill base, must be used.
Identification problems make claims of any southern hemisphere skua in the eastern North Atlantic problematic, and few records of South Polar Skua have been accepted in Western Europe. Similar problems occur, of course, with extra-limital claims of Great Skua.
This bird is named after the naval surgeon Robert McCormick, who collected the type specimen.

Ruddy Kingfisher

The Ruddy Kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda) is a medium-sized tree kingfisher which is widely distributed in east and southeast Asia, ranging from South Korea and Japan in the north, south through the Philippines to the Sunda Islands, and west to China and India. It is migratory, with birds in the northern part of the range migrating as far south as Borneo during winter. Locally common in southern parts of its range, the Ruddy Kingfisher is rare in Japan, where it is highly sought after by birders. Ruddy Kingfishers inhabit forested areas from the temperate to tropical zones, often in thick jungles and rainforests.
Reaching approximately 25cm, the Ruddy Kingfisher has a very large, bright red bill and equally red legs. The body is rust red, generally deepening to purple at the tail. There is little sexual dimorphism though some sources state that male birds are somewhat brighter in plumage.
Like other kingfishers, Ruddy Kingfishers generally feed on fish, crustaceans, and large insects, though in areas with less running water, they are known to take frogs and other amphibians. Due to its preference for heavily forested areas, the kingfisher's high, descending call is more often heard than the bird itself is seen, and these birds generally travel singly or in pairs.
The binomial name recalls the Coromandel Coast of India.

Red-wattled Lapwing

The Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus), (local names: Hindi: titeeri, titai, titori, Sindhi: tAteehAr, Gujarati: titodi Kashmiri: hatatut, Assamese: 'bAlighorA', Telugu: yennappa chitawa, Tamil: alkati) is a lapwing or large plover, a wader in the family Charadriidae. It is sometimes called the did-ye-do-it bird due to its unmistakable call.

Willow Grouse

The Willow Grouse (Europe) or Willow Ptarmigan (North America), Lagopus lagopus, is a medium-sized gamebird in the grouse family. It is a sedentary species, breeding in birch and other forests and tundra across northern Eurasia, and in Alaska and northern Canada. It is the state bird of Alaska. During the last ice age, the species occurred in continental Europe (Tomek & Bocheński 2005).

The spring male is brown above with a reddish neck and white wings and underparts. The female is similar, but lacks the pure white belly. In winter, both sexes' plumages become completely white except that the tail is black. They can be distinguished from the winter Ptarmigan by habitat (not venturing above the treeline), larger size, thicker bill, and lack of black between the eye and bill in the winter male.

The distinctive British subspecies, the Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) has sometimes been considered a separate species. It is a moorland bird, and is basically reddish brown in all plumages, never going white.

The male's song is a loud "go-back go-back".

These are hardy vegetarian birds, but insects are also taken by the developing young.

The male Willow Grouse is unique in its nesting behaviour. In all other species of grouse, only the female takes responsibility for the young. However, the male Willow Grouse often takes responsibility of the young by staunchly defending his territory and his young. Males have even been documented to have attacked a Grizzly Bear and will attack humans who distract their young.

Great Indian Bustard

The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) is a bustard found in India and possibly Pakistan. It is a large, brown and white bird, the male is about 122 cm (48 in) in length and the female 92 cm (36 in). It lives in arid and semi-arid grasslands.
The current population is estimated at less than 1,000. The main threat to its existence is habitat loss. The bird is found in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh states of India. Ghatigaon and Karera santuaries in Madhya Pradesh had sizeable population earlier but now there is no Great Indian Bustard seen in Karera wildlife sanctuary in Shivpuri district. The Great Bustard was identified in 1978 at Nanaj, 18 km from Solapur in Maharashtra by Mr B.S. Kulkarni. Nearly 24 bustards are now seen in Nanaj sanctuary. There has been some assaults recently on the habitat of the bird.and one bird was found injured and eventually died.

Black Francolin

The Black Francolin, Francolinus francolinus, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds.
It is one of the few francolins to have a range outside Africa. It is a resident breeder from Cyprus and south-eastern Turkey eastwards through Iran to southwest Turkmenistan and northeast India. Its range was formally more extensive, but over-hunting has reduced its distribution and numbers. There have been a number of introductions, but most have failed to take root.
This bird is found in scrubby habitats with plenty of low cover. It nests in a bare ground scrape laying 8-12 eggs. Black Francolin takes a wide variety of plant and insect food.
The Grey Partridge-sized male is mainly black, with white spotting on the back and flanks. It has a chestnut neck collar, white cheek patches and brown wings. The legs are red. The female is mainly brown, but has a chestnut hind neck.
This is a very unobstrusive species, best seen in spring when the male sings a mechanical kik-kik-kik from a mound. It has a Pheasant's explosive flight, but prefers to creep away unseen.
The easiest place to see this bird is on and around Paphos International Airport in Cyprus, the only country with a recovering population. However, this is also a military base, so people creeping around the perimeter with telescopes and binoculars may attract interest from the police.

Little Black Cormorant

The Little Black Cormorant, Phalacrocorax sulcirostris, is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It is common in smaller rivers and lakes throughout most areas of Australia. It is around sixty centimetres long, and is all black with blue-green eyes.

Eurasian Woodcock

The Eurasian Woodcock, Scolopax rusticola is a medium-small wader. This species is the woodcock found through most of temperate and subarctic Eurasia. Northern and Asian populations migrate to southern Europe or south Asia respectively. Birds in milder western European countries are resident. This woodcock is replaced in the new World by the very similar but slightly smaller American Woodcock.
Adults are 33-38 cm in length, including the 6-7 cm long straight bill, and have a 55-65 cm wingspan. The Woodcock's body is patterned cinnamon on top and grey underneath. It has large eyes located high in the head. The wings are rounded and the legs are short and pinkish. This bird does not show the obvious mantle stripes of its American relative in flight.
Their breeding habitat is damp wooded areas. They nest on the ground in an open wooded location. These birds forage by probing in soft soil in thickets, usually well hidden from sight. They mainly eat earthworms and insects, also plant material. They are crepuscular, being most active at dawn and dusk. This species is generally solitary.
The male performs a display flight called 'roding' at dusk during courtship. Flying with a flickering action and downward pointing bill. It utters several croaks followed by a sharp squeak during this performance.
In many countries Woodcock are hunted as game. This is particularly popular in the UK, where their size, speed and flight pattern makes them a very challenging shot. A witnessed "right and left", in which a Woodcock is downed with each barrel of a shotgun, affords the shooter membership of the Shooting Time's prestigious Woodcock Club.

Houbara Bustard

The houbara bustard, Chlamydotis undulata, is a large bird in the bustard family. It breeds in the Canary Islands and north Africa and Pakistan. The Asian former subspecies has now been split as a separate species, Macqueen's bustard, Chlamydotis macqueenii. These are the only members of the Chlamydotis genus.
The dividing line between the two species is the Sinai peninsula. The houbara bustard is largely resident in its range.
This species breeds in deserts and other very arid sandy areas.
The houbara bustard is 60 cm long with an 140 cm wingspan. It is brown above and white below, with a black stripe down the sides of its neck. In flight, the long wings show large areas of black and brown on the flight feathers. It is slightly smaller and darker than Macqueen's bustard.
Sexes are similar, but the female is smaller and grayer above. It is vocally almost silent.
Like other bustards, this one has a flamboyant display raising the white feathers of the head and throat and withdrawing the head. 2-4 eggs are laid on the ground.
This species is omnivorous, taking seeds, insects and other small creatures.
The houbara bustard is widely prized in Arabia and Pakistan for its meat; widespread hunting has almost put it on the endangered list.