What a great initiative from the Feathered Friends community: bird contests! I've missed the first round, but no way I would miss the second one! For those still unaware of the contest, please check the original post here!
So, this week's theme is Bird on Wire. I do have quite a few of those photos, but honestly, I don't like posting them that much, because I tend to prefer the photos where there is no trace of human presence. Nevertheless, some birds are just waiting to be photographed, and birds perching on wires normally provide easy photos! I had some doubts on which photo to use of the contest, and since a one photo post is not to my liking, why not just display a collection of them? 😉
And for starters, here goes this cutie:
Kingfishers are of of my favourite bird families. I don't see them that often, and here in Portugal I'm yet to take a photo of one, only saw them flying by! But here, they appeared so often! this photo was taken near Tangalle, in the south part of Sri Lanka. There are seven species of kingfishers in the country, but this was the only one I saw. To compensate, I've saw a buch of them! This is my favourite photo, with the green in the background, but I had to convince him to pose, he was shy at first:
Most of the others weren't. They stood perching in plain sight.
And this one even faced the camera, probably wondering why the hell I kept taking photos (it was the first time I was seeing kingfishers in the country, so I was taking photos like a crazy man!).
And before going to the next species, another photo so you can see the cool colours in the back:
Off to smaller species! This is another one of my favourite bird-on-wire photos, and this is the photo I'm submiting to the contest. Unfortunately, I can't identify the species. It was also taken in Sri Lanka, a few dozen miles to the west where I saw the kingfishers. I would have liked more colour in the background... but how lucky was I on the timing??
I couldn't finish the post without selecting a couple national ones. These were taken near my grandparent's village; it's a special place for me for a number of reasons, but also because it was the first place I've started birdwatching on my own! Being a small village, there is a lot of nature and crops all around, so a lot of birs spotting opportunities. And these ones are quite common:
The reddish breast, brown back and grey head make it fairly easy to recognize, and although they are common in this location, I haven't captured them on photo that often.
As for this last one, it was the first (and only!) time I've seen it here! Their cousins black redstarts are increasingly common in urban areas, at least where I currently live (maybe covid-nature sparing effect??); but the common redstart is a lot more colourful, and harder to see.
I know, he's not on a wire... but there are wires in the photo and the bird is cute, so it stays! 😁
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