The Bird Thread

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  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    edited November 2019
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    Birds are awesome.  Here's one of may favorite bird pictures:


    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • ISO

    Nutsack Vulture

    Image result for pearl jam nutsack vulture
  • rgambs
    rgambs Posts: 13,576
    I came across these dickheads a month or so ago....Turkey Vultures I believe


    Yep.
    We call them buzzards around here.

    Bird law is not governed by reason.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • dankind
    dankind Posts: 20,841
    edited November 2019
    I have been trying to identify a particular bird for years and cannot figure out what it is.  A few summers ago during a kayak trip, this small, white/grey bird flew by my boat, It was so sleek, gliding perfectly just above the water. It made these really cool laser-like sounds when it chirped/sang, like a Star Trek phase gun kinda sound.  I've looked up bird calls, several different taxonomy sites, field guides... and I can't find anything.  I can usually find birds that look slightly similar, but their calls are nothing like what this one gave out. 
    Do we have any bird experts here?
    Any pictures?
    Nope, phone was in the dry bag.  Though I think I might've made a breakthrough and it could be a tufted titmouse.  The colors & markings are in line with what I saw, and I just found this set of calls. The call I heard was pretty close to the 3rd-to-last and last ones listed.  I think this could be it.

    Lol. I did a google search on "small white gray bird" and that was one of the first ones in the results.
    This is why I hope Google burns to the fucking ground one day!!  It never once came up in my results.
    That's OK. @markymark550 just searches for "tits" a lot more than you do.
    I SAW PEARL JAM
  • HesCalledDyer
    HesCalledDyer Maryland Posts: 16,491
    dankind said:
    I have been trying to identify a particular bird for years and cannot figure out what it is.  A few summers ago during a kayak trip, this small, white/grey bird flew by my boat, It was so sleek, gliding perfectly just above the water. It made these really cool laser-like sounds when it chirped/sang, like a Star Trek phase gun kinda sound.  I've looked up bird calls, several different taxonomy sites, field guides... and I can't find anything.  I can usually find birds that look slightly similar, but their calls are nothing like what this one gave out. 
    Do we have any bird experts here?
    Any pictures?
    Nope, phone was in the dry bag.  Though I think I might've made a breakthrough and it could be a tufted titmouse.  The colors & markings are in line with what I saw, and I just found this set of calls. The call I heard was pretty close to the 3rd-to-last and last ones listed.  I think this could be it.

    Lol. I did a google search on "small white gray bird" and that was one of the first ones in the results.
    This is why I hope Google burns to the fucking ground one day!!  It never once came up in my results.
    That's OK. @markymark550 just searches for "tits" a lot more than you do.
    :rofl:  I'm more of an ass man.  Or is it.. I'm more of an ass, man!
  • dankind
    dankind Posts: 20,841
    :whistle:
    I SAW PEARL JAM
  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,216
    dankind said:
    I have been trying to identify a particular bird for years and cannot figure out what it is.  A few summers ago during a kayak trip, this small, white/grey bird flew by my boat, It was so sleek, gliding perfectly just above the water. It made these really cool laser-like sounds when it chirped/sang, like a Star Trek phase gun kinda sound.  I've looked up bird calls, several different taxonomy sites, field guides... and I can't find anything.  I can usually find birds that look slightly similar, but their calls are nothing like what this one gave out. 
    Do we have any bird experts here?
    Any pictures?
    Nope, phone was in the dry bag.  Though I think I might've made a breakthrough and it could be a tufted titmouse.  The colors & markings are in line with what I saw, and I just found this set of calls. The call I heard was pretty close to the 3rd-to-last and last ones listed.  I think this could be it.

    Lol. I did a google search on "small white gray bird" and that was one of the first ones in the results.
    This is why I hope Google burns to the fucking ground one day!!  It never once came up in my results.
    That's OK. @markymark550 just searches for "tits" a lot more than you do.
    :rofl: Just don't show my wife my search history.
  • Jason P
    Jason P Posts: 19,294
    I saw a pretty cool barred owl last week around six in the morning.  I was walking down a hillside with one bright security light shinning and I heard it make its who-cooks-for-u call and spotted it in a dead poplar tree surveying the valley.  I made a call back to it but before I could get my camera out it got spooked and flew off.  Still pretty cool.  
    Be Excellent To Each Other
    Party On, Dudes!
  • dankind
    dankind Posts: 20,841
    Took a good three hours to figure out that the flightless bird in my yard today was a bobwhite. I'm glad I didn't call the wildlife rehabilitation people about the orphaned turkey chick I thought it was for a while.
    I SAW PEARL JAM
  • rgambs
    rgambs Posts: 13,576
    Jason P said:
    I saw a pretty cool barred owl last week around six in the morning.  I was walking down a hillside with one bright security light shinning and I heard it make its who-cooks-for-u call and spotted it in a dead poplar tree surveying the valley.  I made a call back to it but before I could get my camera out it got spooked and flew off.  Still pretty cool.  
    I am an avid outdoorsman and have somehow never spotted an owl!
    I've even seen a mink!  No owls yet, though.
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    I'm guessing we're not supposed to post pictures of the elusive Double Breasted Skinnydipper here. 
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • HesCalledDyer
    HesCalledDyer Maryland Posts: 16,491

    I saw this thing in Florida and swore it was a real life turducken. Turns out it’s called a Muscovy duck. 
  • Jason P
    Jason P Posts: 19,294
    rgambs said:
    Jason P said:
    I saw a pretty cool barred owl last week around six in the morning.  I was walking down a hillside with one bright security light shinning and I heard it make its who-cooks-for-u call and spotted it in a dead poplar tree surveying the valley.  I made a call back to it but before I could get my camera out it got spooked and flew off.  Still pretty cool.  
    I am an avid outdoorsman and have somehow never spotted an owl!
    I've even seen a mink!  No owls yet, though.
    I had one that lived in my neighborhood for a few years.  It used to sit in a pine tree in my neighbors yards looking for foolish chipmunks.

    I had a great horned owl fly over me while in the backcountry in the Sierra Nevadas.  Just got done taking a toke, laid back on a granite cliff-side and it soared about ten feet overhead and then into a valley stretching 3000 feel below.  It was a most excellent night.  
    Be Excellent To Each Other
    Party On, Dudes!
  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    brianlux said:
    Birds are awesome.  Here's one of may favorite bird pictures:


    Pretty.
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,662
    One of my favorite birds is the wild turkey.  No, not the whiskey, the actual, real (should be) National Bird of the United States, the wild turkey.  They are so damn dumb but my god, they are just too cool.  We had one tom that used to come around and eventually I was able to get it to eat grain out of the palm of my hand. 

    I find it bizarre that people still hunt these rather gamey tasting (so I'm told anyway) birds, and even more absurd that there are actually whole books written on how to hunt wild turkeys.   They walk around most rural and semi-rural neighborhoods.  What is there to "hunting" them? (I don't really want to know- just a rhetorical question.)

    I wish I had photos but our local turkey seem to be nowhere to be found lately.  Yeah, I know, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I just hope they're not so dumb after all and have taken to the high country to wait out the season. 

    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • rgambs
    rgambs Posts: 13,576
    brianlux said:
    One of my favorite birds is the wild turkey.  No, not the whiskey, the actual, real (should be) National Bird of the United States, the wild turkey.  They are so damn dumb but my god, they are just too cool.  We had one tom that used to come around and eventually I was able to get it to eat grain out of the palm of my hand. 

    I find it bizarre that people still hunt these rather gamey tasting (so I'm told anyway) birds, and even more absurd that there are actually whole books written on how to hunt wild turkeys.   They walk around most rural and semi-rural neighborhoods.  What is there to "hunting" them? (I don't really want to know- just a rhetorical question.)

    I wish I had photos but our local turkey seem to be nowhere to be found lately.  Yeah, I know, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I just hope they're not so dumb after all and have taken to the high country to wait out the season. 

    Turkey hunting is on the difficult end of the scale.  They have to be called in and their eyesight is excellent, so movement has to be super slow and deliberate.  I know you said the question was rhetorical, but knowledge is always good!
    Monkey Driven, Call this Living?
  • rgambs said:
    brianlux said:
    One of my favorite birds is the wild turkey.  No, not the whiskey, the actual, real (should be) National Bird of the United States, the wild turkey.  They are so damn dumb but my god, they are just too cool.  We had one tom that used to come around and eventually I was able to get it to eat grain out of the palm of my hand. 

    I find it bizarre that people still hunt these rather gamey tasting (so I'm told anyway) birds, and even more absurd that there are actually whole books written on how to hunt wild turkeys.   They walk around most rural and semi-rural neighborhoods.  What is there to "hunting" them? (I don't really want to know- just a rhetorical question.)

    I wish I had photos but our local turkey seem to be nowhere to be found lately.  Yeah, I know, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I just hope they're not so dumb after all and have taken to the high country to wait out the season. 

    Turkey hunting is on the difficult end of the scale.  They have to be called in and their eyesight is excellent, so movement has to be super slow and deliberate.  I know you said the question was rhetorical, but knowledge is always good!
    These damn things are tough to hunt.  They fly too.  Add that to their 360 degree sight and you have a challenge on your hands!