A few years ago, during a visit to Kruger Park I saw this Poicephalus cryptoxanthus. Although the species is listed under a conservation status of Least Concern, it ‘is increasingly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation with illegal capture for the bird trade of concern in Mozambique‘ (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22685317/0).
Phalcoboenus australis is classified as nearly threatened. I met this individual on Carcass Island which is part of the Falkland Islands.
In the background, you can see that even on the fairly remote Falklands there’s plenty of (plastic) rubbish on the beach.
This Corvus corone was indulging in a meal of fish at Farmoor reservoir near Oxford. Carrion crows are highly intelligent and social birds. If you’d like to learn more about them and other corvids, you should read Esther Woolfson’s excellent book Corvus.
This Streptopelia turtur was making the typical gentle purring noises to find a mating partner when we saw him at the RSPB reserve, Otmoor, last week.
Turtle doves are classified as a vulnerable species. Main dangers are farming practices and hunting, in particular spring hunting in Malta.
This Numenius arquata flew over the reedbeds of the RSPB reserve Otmoor. The reserve is very close to Oxford, just a bit more than 6km, so if you’re on holiday in Oxford and you feel energetic you can actually walk there. Otherwise you’d need a car as there is no public transport.
These two Urolestes melanoleucus are also called African long-tailed shrike. I saw them in Kruger National Park, and the tails still amaze me.
This lovely Mimus saturninus was very vocal in Buenos Aires’s Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve. It’s great place to walk and go birding, and it was a marvellous start to our trip to Antarctica, almost three years ago.
