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Birdway has a Bird of the Week email list. A free photo is emailed to members of the list each week. The file size of the photo is kept to less than 100KB but, with a resolution of 640 x 500 pixels, is larger than the photos on this site, which are about 500 x 360. This list is a Google Group to which only Ian can post. If you wish to join this list, you can either write to Ian at ian@birdway.com.au or simply enter your email address in the box on the right and click the Subscribe button. |
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Ian uses the bird of the week email to keep list members up to date with developments, such as improvements to the website. Your email address will not be revealed to anyone else nor used for any other purpose.
Ian reports:
Here's the first Bird of the Week from California. Naturally, I've been taking plenty of photos, so it was a difficult choice, but I settled on this one of a pair of busy Forster's Terns (Sterna forsteri) making serious preparations for the nesting season.
This is California, I know, but even so I was surprised that these bird
seemed content to go through the entire performance with me
photographing them from a distance of about 5 meters. It was a
fascinating display and I took many photos; this is one of the less
explicit ones but it perhaps has more style. The female appeared to
initiated the whole event by calling in a begging posture with her
tailed raised and the male didn't seem to be very interested at first,
but maybe he was just playing hard to get.
Forster's Tern is very similar to the Common Tern (S. hirundo) except
for the orange, rather than red bill and legs, and is the same length
(37cm/14.5in). Both species occur in the USA but the Forster's Tern
breeds in western and central districts, while the Common Tern tern
breeds in central and eastern states.
Ian reports:
My apologies for a late Bird of the Week, but I've just arrived in San Francisco at the start of a 2 month visit to California (6 weeks) and Alaska (2 weeks) and the last week before my departure was rather hectic. You can expect some North American Birds of the Week in the near future, but in the meantime, here is an Australian Crake, the White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea).
You may remember that we had the Australian Spotted Crake (Porzana fluminea) several weeks ago. It has a fairly widespread distribution in Australia, but the White-browed is a tropical species, and Townsville in North Queensland is at the southern end of its distribution. Like all crakes, it is a shy species and easily spooked, but it often ventures out into open water and has very large feet, adapted for walking on aquatic vegetation such as water lilies. This one has just found a tasty morsel at Tyto Wetlands in Ingham, 110km north of Townsville.
