Study Of Birds - Tumblr Posts

#Rose-breasted Grosbeak

No one can really be sure around here when Spring Season has officially arrived with all these temperature variations.

But when Grosbeaks appear with their beautiful colored breast then, we officially know.

#CanadianWildTurkey

Looking for a secure tree to spend the night.

#HairyWoodpecker

The thing with Hairy Woodpeckers is that their beaks are really not adapted to open seeds. So while they're looking for the easy one, the feeding station gets empty real quick.

But that's part of the game.

#NorthenRaven

This is our very good friend Diane. She's about 5 to 6 years old; a wingspan of appr 47", a height around 30" and a mass between 2 to 3 pounds. She's the largest and the heaviest in her species.

And right now she needs a hand to feed her kids. The Spring season has just started; the wildlife and breeding Season isn't complete yet for most animals. So the Ravens have practically nothing to eat and to feed their kids. Even Ducks, the Mallards, have been coming here every night for the last 4 weeks to eat sunflower seeds dropped on the ground by birds.

Now everybody knows what Ravens eat, so it is pretty easy to imaging that during Winters Ravens have nothing to eat. They're not small cities Crows eating garbage, fast food or whatever. Many people feed birds, in general, but no one helps Ravens. Probably because it's expensive or they just don't care. They have survive because of their independence. So it is precisely why we decided to help them.

It took us over a year to attract this couple, Jack and Diane, in our land. We've been helping them survive for over 3 years now with 2 of their past generations. These guys adore chicken eggs, chicken hearts, fresh pork meat, pork liver, pieces of whole wheat bread and unshelled peanuts.

It's like having pets except they live outside. Wild and free.

#RavensTerritory

… with all these traces/remains on the ground, we’re definitely trespassing a Raven’s territory. These guys are omnivorous, so they eat practically anything. If I wouldn’t be known by them I wouldn’t stay here much longer. The nesting season have just ended and they are extremely protective of their family.

It is said that Crows have been shown to have the ability to visually recognize individual humans and to transmit information about “bad” humans, to their offspring by squawking. Which I can totally certified.

We’ve been feeding some of them for a while now and they have the habit to visit us in the morning to get some pork meat, liver, and sometimes chicken eggs which they just love.

By the way, this is my longest feather found of a Raven and will definitely be added to my collection. This feather is 15 inches long and makes me very happy.

#Anting

Not Sunbathing but Anting.

The first picture is not in a very good quality since it was taken in a rush but, still had the time to catch this Blue Jay practicing his favorite activity which is, Anting; get rid of some ectoparasites using ants. I thought the bird was dead.

Apparently many birds have this common activity. Like over 200 species are known to “ant”.

#NorthernRaven

Even by helping them to survive for over 3 years now, with 2 of their past generations, Ravens are still teaching their siblings to be extremely mistrustful/distrustful toward humans. Every time youngsters approach the land, a squawking sound by one of the parent, from the big dead spruce, can be heard. Meaning, go away!

Who can blame them!!!

They trust us, but kids have to learn the basic rules about Ravens and Humans. And if you have read the history of Ravens vs Humans, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

#NorthernRaven

Smile, you're on camera!

#NorthernRaven

Morning visit from Mother Raven with 2 youngsters Male.

#NorthernRaven

At 9 weeks old, young brother and sister experiencing their first hot sweaty Summer day.

#Fireworks

The issue with fireworks is that some people are not aware or simply just forget that fireworks have a huge negative affect on wildlife and even on domestic animals. Especially when living in the countryside. Our dogs for example get crazy, act completely irrational and even endanger themselves.

Fireworks greatly disturb wildlife around here, cause fear, stress and anxiety to poor animals. They panic, abandon their nests, burrows, logs, trees and flee their natural environment leaving their young behind without any chances to survive on their own. Also fireworks are always of course, initiated at night when birds can’t fly. Why can’t they fly? Because they just don’t see in the dark. So they’re panicking; flying around and don’t know where to land, get short of breath, hit trees or buildings, have heart attacks to finally die and fall down on the ground.

That is very, but very cruel.

It does not only happen in my countryside but also in cities everywhere around the World.

So before initiating fireworks people, please have a special attention of what’s living around you.

It happened before, it still happening and will happen again.

Related link: Hundreds of dead birds cover Rome street on 2021-01-01.

#Breakfast

Three youngsters completely wet finishing their breakfast (fresh pork meat, pieces of whole wheat bread and chicken eggs) under the rain.

#BlueJays

The molting period for Northern Blue Jays has started. Sometimes they lose their feathers progressively and some other time, it's their entire head at once.

#AtlanticPuffin

Encounter with an official pair of Atlantic Puffins, symbol for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, while on our way to visit some friends.

Even if the Atlantic Puffin has a large population with a wide range, this species declined rapidly resulting in it being rated as vulnerable by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

What helps them is that colonies are mostly on islands, with no terrestrial predators.

#TurkeyBuzzard

Beautiful visit this morning from a Turkey Buzzard which has probably been attracted by the Raven's breakfast.

Due to the rough climate around here, Vultures in the Northern Hemisphere are larger in size than the neotropics one. It forces them to have more meat on their shoulders. They can weight up to 5 pounds. Their wingspan is around 70 inches and even with no wind, like this morning, they're able to hoover for kilometers just like that.

These guys are very impressive.

#MourningDove

Even Mourning Doves are staying the entire Canadian Winter with us; as long as seeds can be found.

#BlueJays

Rush hour for Northern Blue Jays.

You're lucky if you see these birds in the city; they're extremely wild and prefer secluded coniferous forests. Around here it's easily a hundred of them daily and even more during Winter Seasons, when the food is scarce.

If you wish to attract them to your feeding stations well it's quite easy. They're part of the Corvidae family so are very intelligent and omnivorous. They eat practically anything and sometimes they even steal Raven's food (meat & eggshell). But what's best and less expensive is black oil sunflower seeds and unshelled peanuts, which they really adore.

But these guys come with a price. They are beautiful but very territorial, extremely aggressive (Borderline Psycho) and will scare away birds from their own size down to smaller ones.

#RavensDeserveRespect

At 32c below 0 at dawn, when most quadrupeds hide in their shelters, Jack is near me romancing gently my ears (eyes closed) while I'm dressing the rock with some steamy porc meat for him and life partner Diane.

Ravens deserve respect.

#NorthernRaven

So finally, here's the Grande Valley Northern Devil; I mean Jack.

That is one exceptional occasion for me to see him closely, and I don't mean with a "high quality zoom camera", but just in front of me. This big guy is extremely wild and really doesn't like civilization. I didn't provoke any kind of situation and it took like 3 years to finally have the chance to see him so close.

He's a magnificent 6 to 7 years old male at a minimum of 1/3 of is life and I love him as much as Diane, even if I see her more frequently on my deck. They truly bring a lot of joy in me life.

So long life to them.

#LetThemComeNaturally

Now. The thing is that we never run after wildlife or provoke any kind of special situation; to...

They always come naturally when they are hungry or need a little help, to survive.

Then, we provide...

#NorthernRaven

So finally, here’s the Grande Valley Northern Devil; I mean Jack.

That is one exceptional occasion for us to see him closely, and I don’t mean with a “high quality zoom camera”, but just in front of us. This big guy is extremely wild and really doesn’t like civilization. We didn’t provoke any kind of situation and it took like 3 years to finally have the chance to see him so close.

He’s a magnificent 6 to 7 years old male at a minimum of 1/3 of is life and we love him as much as Diane, even if we see her more frequently on our deck. They truly bring us a lot of joy in our life.

So long life to them.