Eurasian bullfinch (or “Gimpel” “Dompfaff” how we call them) is a red, round bird with an quite small beak. Hed feeding on buds and seeds (on trees). This pair visited us near a observation point while we waited for Great Bustards to appear.
Tag Archives: bird
Bathing
House Sparrows taking a bath in a small puddle formed by a recent rainshower.
Photos taken in Charlottenburg, Berlin.
Aaand I am outta here!
Great Egrets
A pair of great Egrets. The acme of white. The perfect animal for an advertisment for laundry detergent . Taken in Stangenhagen, Brandenburg.
Nuthatch
A nuthatch from the Schlosspark Charlottenburg. Pics were taken on 2 different days. Nuthatchs can walk overhead and climb in any position. They re-use old woodpicker holes but make the entry alot smaller by using a “glue” of spittle and mud.
European robin
European robin, or just “robin” (Erithacus rubecula). This one was enjoying some sun in the Schlosspark Charlottenburg. It feeds mostly on insects. They played a big role in the discovery of the Magnetoreception. I quote from wikipedia:
The avian magnetic compass of the robin has been extensively researched and uses Vision-Based Magnetoreception, in which the robin’s ability to sense the magnetic field of the earth for navigation is affected by the light entering the bird’s eye. The physical mechanism of the robin’s magnetic sense is not fully understood, but may involve quantum entanglement of electron spins.
Eurasian wren
Today in the big Schlosspark Charlottenburg. Just laying there and waiting for birds to come by. This Eurasian wren is only 7cm in size. What a small bird!
Cranes at the Sun
A flock of cranes in front of the early sun. Shot in Linum, Germany.
Hen Harrier
Hen Harriers, like the other members of the family “Circinae” are easily distinguishable from other birds of prey because of their interesting style of hunting. The are flying quite low over the ground and do rather “random” movements with sudden stops, turns and hits to the ground. This is one of the females. The male was in the area, too – but was too far away for me.
Great Bustard
Currently no mating season, so this great bustards don’t “display” themselves yet. But next month they will “dance” for their hens and show the full beauty of their plumage. Shoot a little west of Ribbeck in Brandenburg.
Milvus Milvus
What a surprise. This Red Kite isn’t suppose to be here, yet. I am not sure if he never left for the wintering place or is already back. But whatever, its nice to see him.
Mr and Ms Tufted
This bird above is Ms Tufted Duck. Her Husband is down here. They are currently chilling on the Tegeler See in Berlin. They belong to the diving ducks.
Kestrelness
OR.. Female Kestrel. Falconerin… You get the idea. Because the most falcon pics in my Blog are of tercels.
In German its just “Weib”.
Cormorants
Cormorants are somewhat hard to take pictures of. There are rather shy in my area so you cant get close to them. Additionally they are mostly black, which is hard to take pics of, too. Currently I really try to take pics of then.The first one on the top is in the late evening at Lake Tegel in Berlin.
Cormorants are really good at diving for fish.
Calm Lake
Late evening. We had finally some clear skys. Now that the sun nearly left there is only a soft haze of orange left.
Rarity – Snow Bunting
A snow bunting!. In the first moment I couldn’t relate this to anything. This bird don’t belong here and is a rarity in Germany. IF then they visit the Baltic Sea in small flocks, but not this abandoned airport in Brandenburg. This one was especially weird as it was totally alone.
I laid down on the landing runway and waited. After some time of distrust it began to accept my proximity and fed on the grass which broke up the pavement.
The Mandarin
You can easily tell that they don’t belong here. With only a few exceptions we really don’t have those intense colorful birds. Beautiful colored by the late evening light they really stand out of the rather greyisch boring surrounding here at Tegeler Lake.
(thanks to Dadriel for finding them)
Tree Sparrow
What a small fluffball. Good that they are making alot of noise, otherwise i just had walked past them.
Hunting Kestrel
A male common kestrel. Looking around for food. Its an cold day and the earth is covered in snow. This male is looking around for mice to hunt.
Apparently he found something interesting. Starting in to the Air!
A few beats of his wings later hes up in the air, hovering above a promising area of mice pee.
Touchdown!. Hes hiding his prey so we can’t see if he was successful. But, a nice back you have there.
But, he really has something. Thats nice. Only 20% of every try is successful. But this male is quite experienced.
A good day for a falcon. A rather bad day day for the mouse.
Kladow – Berlin
Kladow, a small village between Berlin and Brandenburg is a perfect breeding spot for cormorants. They just started to fight for the nests and get a partner. I didnt see much of them yet, but I guess there will be more to see in the next weeks. Hopefully with good weather. The place has more than just them. I guess I go a little bit wild on the sun reflection from the Water ;)
Angry Hooded Bird
Hooded Crows looking somewhat like Angry Birds. The first nice day in “weeks” (a little bit exaggerated ;)). There are still lots of crows on the Tempelhof Airfield.
