Wood Duck

Warsaw 2014

The wood duck or Carolina duck (Aix sponsa) is a species of perching duck found in North America. It is one of the most colourful North American Waterfowl.

Thick-billed Warbler

RECORD SHOT (Manipur 2013)

The Thick-billed Warbler (Iduna aedon) is an Old World warbler that breeds in temperate east Asia. It is migratory, wintering in tropical south east Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.

This passerine bird is a species found in dense vegetation such as reeds, bushes and thick undergrowth. 5-6 eggs are laid in a nest in a low tree.

This is a large warbler, at 16–17.5 centimetres (6.3–6.9 in) long nearly as big as Great Reed Warbler. The adult has an unstreaked brown back and buff underparts, with few obvious distinctive plumage features. The forehead is rounded, and the bill is short and pointed. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds are richer buff below. Like most warblers, it is insectivorous, but will take other small prey items

Scarlet Minivet

RECORD SHOT

The Scarlet Minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus) is a small passerine bird. This minivet is found in tropical southern Asia from the Indiansubcontinent east to southern China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are common resident breeding birds in forests and other well-wooded habitats including gardens, especially in hilly country. While the male of most subspecies are scarlet to orange with black upper parts, the females are usually yellow with greyish olive upper parts. Several former subspecies have been elevated to species status in recent works. These include the Orange Minivet. All subspecies have the same habits of gleaning for insects and are often seen in mixed-species foraging flocks, usually foraging in small groups, high up in the forest canopy.

White Stork

The White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on its wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average 100–115 cm (39–45 in) from beak tip to end of tail, with a 155–215 cm (61–85 in) wingspan. The two subspecies, which differ slightly in size, breed in Europe (north to Finland), northwestern Africa, southwestern Asia (east to southern Kazakhstan) and southern Africa. The White Stork is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from tropical Sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa, or on the Indian subcontinent. When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing the Mediterranean Sea and detours via the Levant in the east or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, because the air thermalson which it depends do not form over water.

European Green Woodpecker

The European Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) is a member of the woodpecker family Picidae. There are four subspecies and it occurs in most parts of Europe and in western Asia. All have green upperparts, paler yellowish underparts, a red crown and moustachial stripe which has a red centre in males but is all black in females.

The European Green Woodpecker spends much of its time feeding on ants on the ground and does not often 'drum' on trees like other woodpecker species. It is a shy bird but usually draws attention with its loud calls. A nest hole is excavated in a tree; four to six eggs are laid which hatch after 19–20 days.

Mandarin Duck

The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata), or just Mandarin, is a medium-sized, East Asian perching duck, closely related to the North American Wood Duck. It is 41–49 cm long with a 65–75 cm wingspan.

Common Starling

The Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), also known as the European Starling or in the British Isles just the Starling, is a medium-sizedpasserine bird in the starling family Sturnidae. It is about 20 cm (8 in) long and has glossy black plumage, which is speckled with white at some times of year. The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer; young birds have browner plumage than the adults. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts and other gregarious situations, with an unmusical but varied song. Its gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare.

Common Chaffinch

The Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), usually known simply as the Chaffinch, is a common and widespread small passerine bird in the finch family. The male is brightly coloured with a blue-grey cap and rust-red underparts. The female is much duller in colouring but both sexes have two contrasting white wings-bars and white sides to the tail. The male bird has a strong voice and sings from exposed perches to attract a mate.

Eurasian Jay

The Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) is a species of bird occurring over a vast region from Western Europe and north-westAfrica to the Indian Subcontinent and further to the eastern seaboard of Asia and down into south-east Asia. Across its vastrange, several very distinct racial forms have evolved to look very different from each other, especially when forms at the extremes of its range are compared.

Great Crested Grebe

The Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display.

Eurasian Coot

The Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra), also known as Coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.

Great Reed Warbler

The Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) is a Eurasian passerine in the genus Acrocephalus. It used to be placed in the "Old World Warbler" assemblage, but is now recognized as part of the marsh and tree-warbler family (Acrocephalidae). A. arundinaceusare medium-sized birds and are the largest of the European warblers. They breed throughout mainland Europe and Asia and migrate tosub-Saharan Africa in the winter. Great reed warblers favor reed beds as their habitat during breeding months, while living in reed beds, bush thickets, rice fields, and forest clearings during the winter. Great reed warblers exhibit relatively low sexual dimorphism, and both genders of the species are similar in appearance. This species mates both polygynously and monogamously.

Eurasian Blackcap

RECORD SHOT at Gliwice, Poland in April 2014

The Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) usually known simply as the Blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small. Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female. The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps. The Blackcap's closest relative is the Garden Warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song.

Yellowhammer

RECORD SHOT at Gliwice, Poland in April 2014

The Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae native to Europe and Asia, as well as being introduced to New Zealand. It is common in all sorts of open areas with some scrub or trees and form small flocks in winter.

European Goldfinch

RECORD SHOT from Gliwice, Poland in April 2014

The European Goldfinch or Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), is a small passerine bird in the finch family

Common Tern

RECORD SHOT at Gliwice, Poland in April 2014

The Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspeciesbreeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical andsubtropical regions. Breeding adults have light grey upperparts, white to very light grey underparts, a black cap, orange-red legs, and a narrow pointed bill. Depending on the subspecies, the bill may be mostly red with a black tip or all black. There are a number of similar species, including the partly sympatric Arctic Tern, which can be separated on plumage details, leg and bill colour, or vocalisations.

Tufted Duck

RECORD SHOT at Gliwice, Poland in April 2014

The Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) is a medium-sized diving duck with a population of close to one million birds.

Garganey

RECORD SHOT 

The Garganey (Anas querquedula) is a small dabbling duck. It breeds in much of Europe and western Asia, but is strictly migratory, with the entire population moving to southern Africa, India (in particular Santragachi), and Australasia in winter

Northern Lapwing

RECORD SHOT

The Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), also known as the Peewit or Pewit (imitative of its cry), Green Plover (emphasising the colour of the plumage) or (in the British Isles) just Lapwing (which refers to its peculiar, erratic way of flying), is a bird in the plover family. It is common through temperate Eurasia. It is highly migratory over most of its extensive range, wintering further south as far as north Africa, northern India, Pakistan, and parts of China. It migrates mainly by day, often in large flocks. Lowland breeders in westernmost areas of Europe are resident. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America, especially after storms, as in the Canadian sightings after storms in December 1927 and in January 1966

Common Pheasant

RECORD SHOT

The Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). It is native to Asia and has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe (where it is naturalized), it is simply known as the "pheasant". Ring-necked Pheasant is both the name used for the species as a whole in North America and also the collective name for a number of subspecies and their intergrades which have white neck rings

Common Reed Bunting

RECORD SHOT 

The Common Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. It breeds across Europe and much of temperate and northern Asia. Most birds migratesouth in winter, but those in the milder south and west of the range are resident. It is common in reedbeds and also breeds in drier open areas such as moorland and cultivation. For example it is a component of the Purple moor grass and rush pastures, a type of Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acidic soils of the lowlands and upland fringe. It is found in the South West of England, especially in Devon

Common Linnet

RECORD SHOT 

The Common Linnet (Carduelis cannabina) is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its scientific name from its fondness for hemp and its English name from its liking for seeds of flax, from which linen is made.

Corn Bunting

RECORD SHOT

The Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. It is usually placed in the genus Emberiza, but some taxonomists place it in the monotypic genusMiliaria