Showing posts with label zoo birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zoo birds. Show all posts

Monday, May 3, 2010

Colorful Animal Kingdom

The Wrinkled Hornbill or Sunda Wrinkled Hornbill (Aceros corrugatus) is a medium-large Hornbill which is found in forest in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. It has sometimes been placed in the genus Rhyticeros together with most other species generally placed in Aceros


The West African Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina pavonina) is a striking and colorful bird with golden feathers on top of its head that resemble a Roman helmet. It changes plumage once a year, except for the remiges, which are shed every two years simultaneously, preventing flight for a few weeks. Both male and female birds have similar plumage. The west African species has its red patch beneath the white patch on its cheek.


The Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America that is also the national bird and symbol of the United States. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed eagle. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.


The Southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a large, flightless black bird with stiff plumage, a brown casque, a blue face and neck, red nape, and two red wattles hanging down its throat. The three-toed feet are thick and powerful, equipped with a lethal dagger-like claw on the inner toe. The plumage is sexually monomorphic, but the female is dominant and larger with a longer casque and brighter-colored bare parts. The immature bird has plain brown plumage.


The Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna), also known as the Blue-and-gold Macaw, is a member of the macaw group of parrots which breeds in the swampy forests of tropical South America from Panama south to Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Trinidad. It is an endangered species in Trinidad.


Lories and lorikeets are small to medium-sized arboreal parrots which comprise the subfamily Loriinae. They are widely distributed throughout the Australasian region, including southeastern Asia, Polynesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Lories and lorikeets have specialized brush-tipped tongues for feeding on nectar and soft fruits. They can feed from the flowers of about 5,000 species of plants and use their special tongues to take in the nectar. The tip of their tongues have tufts of papillae (extremely fine hairs), which collect nectar and pollen.


The Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) is a wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. It is a mainly resident breeder in South America, the Caribbean, and the Gulf coast of the USA.


Violet Plantain Eaters (Musophaga violacea) fly down at meal time they display spectacular red flashes on the outer 1/3 of their wings. The turacos in our gardens are about 17 inches long with unusually silky plumage. The main body and tail color is purple, with red on top of their heads, red on lower edges of wings (male only), and a white horizontal stripe under the yellow eye surround. No eyelashes. Heavy bill is yellow with orange at the tip and has a horny plate extending from the upper mandible to the forehead.


The Visayan warty pig, Sus cebifrons, is a critically endangered species of pig. The Visayan warty pig is endemic to two of the Visayan Islands in the central Philippines, and is threatened by habitat loss, food shortages and hunting - these are the leading causes of the Visayan Warty Pig's status as critically endangered. Due to the small numbers of remaining Visayan Warty Pigs in the wild, little is known of their behaviors or characteristics outside of captivity.


Cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, are most abundant in east and southern Africa.


Hi my friends,

These are for now the last pictures from my recent visit to the zoo. They had also some Giraffes but they were hiding out somewhere in the back, in the shades. Next time maybe I will be able to capture some shots of them too, I hope :)

Thanks for all your kind comments to my "Wordless Sunday" photo from yesterday.
Stay tuned, have a wonderful day and I'll see you soon!
Susanne



Friday, April 30, 2010

The American Flamingo

A group of Flamingos by the entrance of the Zoo in Melbourne FL


Flamingo portrait


The American Flamingo breeds in the Galapagos Islands, coastal Colombia and Venezuela and nearby islands, the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, and in the northern Caribbean in the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Cuba and Turks and Caicos. Most sightings in southern Florida are usually considered to be escapees, although at least one bird banded as a chick in the Yucatán Peninsula has been sighted in Everglades National Park, and others may be genuine wanderers from Cuba.

Its preferred habitats are similar to that of its relatives: saline lagoons, mudflats, and shallow brackish coastal or inland lakes. Like all flamingos, it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound, between May and August; incubation until hatching takes from 28 to 32 days; both parents brood the young for a period of up to 6 years when they reach sexual maturity. Their life expectancy of 40 years is one of the longest in birds.

The American Flamingo is 120–140 cm in length; males weigh 2.8 kg and females 2.2 kg. Most of its plumage is pink, giving rise to its earlier name of Rosy Flamingo and differentiating adults from the much paler Greater Flamingo. The wing coverts are red, and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black. It is the only flamingo which naturally inhabits North America.

The bill is pink and white with a restricted black tip, and the legs are entirely pink. The call is a goose-like honking.

The American Flamingo is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.



Hi my friends,


I promised you yesterday some bird photos... here they are.... and there will be some more coming :) I hope you like them. I captured them by my recent visit to the Zoo in Melbourne, FL.

Thanks for all the comments yesterday to my new avatar :) don't take it too serious... I've decided not to look in the mirror anymore in the morning...*smile*... to keep my illusion to be still "young and beautiful"...LOL...


Have a wonderful day!
Susanne




Buy my photography printed, framed or stretched on Canvas here








Thursday, April 29, 2010

A new self portrait...

Hi, how do you feel today????


Hi my friends,

that's how I look and feel sometimes early in the morning, looking in the mirror....LOL.... :)

I was yesterday in the Zoo shooting some animals, with my camera of course!
I always loved these funny looking animal faces, like this one of the Emu above. He looks like he is smiling and for the most I like the hair style - or the no hair style at all. I'll show you more pictures in the next few days with other animals I have photographed - before I bore you to much with my ZEN photography.

Thanks for stopping by, thanks for liking them anyway and thanks for all the wonderful compliments!
See you again - on the same spot, at the same time, right? ;)

Susanne



Buy my photography printed, framed or stretched on Canvas here