Wild Birds of Europe

Levina said:
A wallcreeper?! This is a first for me. He would blend into the background perfectly, if it weren't for the red wing. Do you have them in the UK, Jason?
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No, they only reach the UK as an exceptional vagrant; I can't remember when the last one was. They are a high mountain species. I shot this one in the Cantabrian mountains in Spain, which is probably as far north as they occur. They they do come down to lower levels in winter. During the winters of 1989/90 and 1990/91 one wintered on the buildings of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, which seems a very strange record.
 
Jack Dawe said:
No, they only reach the UK as an exceptional vagrant; I can't remember when the last one was. They are a high mountain species. I shot this one in the Cantabrian mountains in Spain, which is probably as far north as they occur. They they do come down to lower levels in winter. During the winters of 1989/90 and 1990/91 one wintered on the buildings of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, which seems a very strange record.
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That does seem strange. Although those higher buildings here are popular with certain raptors as some breed on them.
 
JohnPD said:
Aggressive like no other I believe.
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They can be aggresive indeed, have shot them fighting amongst each other in the past, but do not have those photos at hand. I know from discussions from the past, that I ain't the only one who witnessed coots fighting . If it is more agressive than other species I'm not sure of, appearently some cute little songbirds can be quite agressive as well, but never seen it myself :bat:
 
I came home from just an hour in the park, 876 pics! I'm going to shoot at a lower frame rate.
Rather dark out, bad light. Testing things.

Rose-ringed parakeets near a feeder down the street.
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I wonder if this is a touch of rolling shutter or just a normal bend of the wing. I was testing that specifically today.
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It's really nuts. The EXIF was missing below my parakeet shots. I edited them just by removing them from the post and then clicking on the existing thumbnails to insert the full images again. And there the EXIF is. I don't get this at all.
 
Jack Dawe said:
Ah, so you have them too. This is one of several on a country house estate near us.
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We do have them indeed, and many consider them an annoyance as they are pretty loud and not an original species here. For bird photography it is some fun to have such a coloured bird for a change. I do see, and hear :whistle: , lots of them when I cycle to work. But they are not hanging around in the areas I usually go to shoot some birds. Here are some I shot a while back in a nearby park area. They brought some color to a rather dull december morning.

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Jan1977 said:
They can be aggresive indeed, have shot them fighting amongst each other in the past, but do not have those photos at hand. I know from discussions from the past, that I ain't the only one who witnessed coots fighting . If it is more agressive than other species I'm not sure of, appearently some cute little songbirds can be quite agressive as well, but never seen it myself :bat:
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Coots are very aggressive. They are very territorial. I have a resident pair below my window in the canal. They attack any other coot that happens to come into their territory. And they are vicious. They usually will not just attack, bite, but will also try to drown the invader. I took some footage of a fight just last week or so. I will try to find time to edit it and post it here.

The only bird coots are afraid of are mute swans.
Jan1977 said:
We do have them indeed, and many consider them an annoyance as they are pretty loud and not an original species here. For bird photography it is some fun to have such a coloured bird for a change. I do see, and hear :whistle: , lots of them when I cycle to work. But they are not hanging around in the areas I usually go to shoot some birds. Here are some I shot a while back in a nearby park area. They brought some color to a rather dull december morning.
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They're thriving here, in our cities. I quite like them, but they are indeed noisy.
 
Levina said:
Coots are very aggressive. They are very territorial. I have a resident pair below my window in the canal. They attack any other coot that happens to come into their territory. And they are vicious. They usually will not just attack, bite, but will also try to drown the invader. I took some footage of a fight just last week or so. I will try to find time to edit it and post it here.

The only bird coots are afraid of are mute swans.

They're thriving here, in our cities. I quite like them, but they are indeed noisy.
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They are also very destructive if you have fruit trees.
 
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