I found a colony of these colourful birds, called Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) at small river's bank in Bulgaria. They are very common around the whole country and small colonies can be found around most of the rivers, where they dig holes for their nests in the banks. The only problem with them is that they are very timid and don't leave people to get close.
From Wikipedia:
As the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps, and hornets. They catch insects in flight, in sorties from an open perch. Before eating a bee, the European bee-eater removes the sting by repeatedly hitting the insect on a hard surface. It can eat around 250 bees a day.
Even though London is overcrowded city it its parks can be seen some pretty interesting birds. These many parks with their artificial lakes are like magnet for different species of waterfowl and some other animals. I like to spend time in them and observe these otherwise difficult and rare to see in the wild birds.
These for example are Barnacle Geese (Branta leucopsis), which is a species from the genus of the so called "black geese". Their range is from the North parts of the Atlantic (Greenland, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya) during the breeding season down to Netherlands during the wintering.
There were very strange legends about that bird, which was believed to be essentially the same creature as the barnacle. This gave rise to the English name of the barnacle goose and the scientific name of the brant. It is sometimes claimed that the word comes from a Celtic word for "limpet", but the sense-history seems to go in the opposite direction. The barnacle myth can be dated back to at least the 12th century. Gerald of Wales claimed to have seen these birds hanging down from pieces of timber, William Turner accepted the theory, and John Gerard claimed to have seen the birds emerging from their shells. The legend persisted until the end of the 18th century. In County Kerry, until relatively recently, Catholics could eat this bird on a Friday because it counted as fish. In Judaism birds that grow on trees are not kosher.
The Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) is an interesting Arctic bird, which superficially resemble seagull, but is in fact related to the Petrels. Unlike the Seagulls, the Fulmars have stiff wing action when they fly.
On the Shetland Islands I found them to be abundant, mostly around places with safe from cats and rats cliffs and rocks. The subspecies I filmed is Fulmarus glacialis auduboni (the one living closer to the North Pole is F. g. glacialis) and the morph is the light one, which is typical for this subspecies.
It is only few seconds long video, but that was all I managed to snatch of the Shetland Wren after chasing them for 3 months. Its not that they are particularly uncommon, but they move a lot and normally while I'm getting my camera out they are gone and I feel really unlucky with them.
So the Shetland Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes zetlandicus) is not a separated species of wren, but rather endemite subspecies living on the Shetland Islands. There is also another subspecies living on the Fair Isle, but I didn't had to go there and missed the opportunity to see it. And as the Wikipedia says the differences from the more common T. t. troglodytes are its darker and more rufous-brown colouring, with a heavily barred underside, the barring extending from belly to breast and the bill is stouter and longer and it has stronger legs. An estimate of the population, from the start of the 21st century, was of 1500–3000 breeding pairs.
These small birds called European Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis carduelis) are very common across whole Europe, but nonetheless very beautiful and often overlooked. They start building their nests in the branches of the trees during spring time. The nest itself is hemispherical and very neatly woven and lined with fine fluff. Another interesting thing about the goldfinches is that they have typical sweet high pitched warble and are often hybridised with canaries which produces vigorous offspring with pleasant song.
I'll try this year to find singing goldfinch with nest, but for now that is all I could get.
European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis carduelis) in London
European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis carduelis) in London
European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis carduelis) in London
European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis carduelis) in London
I spotted this nice tropical duck in the St James's Park somewhere around Christmas. It is called Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) and is normally seen in Africa, South America or India and I guess it felt a bit cold in the chilly England winter.
To make sure it is not its cousin the Lesser whistling duck take note of the black strip on the back of its neck and the light creamy feather above the tail (the Lesser one has them in reddish chestnut colour)
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England from the front
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England frontal view
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England. From the back, note black strip on the neck
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England. From side, note light creamy feathers above tail.
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England
Fulvous whistling duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) at St James's Park, England with a Coot for size comparasion