I have a Formosan whistling thrush that comes to our patio at 11am every day to steal the catās food. Even when me, the dog and the cat are there. Right up close. Google it. What a beautiful bird. Six feet away. I love where I live.
Interesting, I just had one pop onto the awing of the apartment behind me this morning (about 4m from my balcony). Never seen one back there till today. Usually itās magpies or drongos. Drove the cats wild. I thought they were going to take a leap at it across the chasm.
[quote=āNuitā]Nice bird then. I feel a Birds of Taiwan book might be in the offing.
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Actually a Birds of Taiwan is being worked on by Helm Field Guides. This is due out some time next year, I have very high expectations for it. In the the meantime, there are plenty of decent books currently available.
The neighbouring yellow bittern came to our garden for the first time today!
Deep excitement in the Nuit household, which needs a better camera.
[quote]The Yellow Bittern is a small (36 cm) heron with a rufous brown neck and back, a black cap and heavy buff streaking against whitish underparts. The tail and flight feathers are black, the latter being very conspicuous on the flying bird. The bill is greenish-brown, sharp, and slightly longer than the head. The iris is yellow and the pupil round rather than bar-shaped as in the similar Cinnamon Bittern. The bare skin around the eye is greenish yellow, as are the legs.
The Yellow Bittern is secretive and solitary, and is most active at dawn and dusk. It prefers freshwater marshes, riverside shrubs, swamps, rice paddies and flooded fields. It feeds on a variety of aquatic insects, small fish, frogs, crustaceans and molluscs. Its nest is usually built less than 1 m above the water or mud, and consists of a light platform of grass and leaves. The female usually lays 4 eggs, and the young hatch in about 22 days.
The Yellow Bittern is a common resident of Taiwan at low elevations.[/quote]
I love how those Malayan night herons (é»å éŗ»é·ŗ) strut while twisting their neck from side to side. Have no idea why they do it, but it looks hilarious.
The bittern continued to feed in our garden all through dusk. Pulling long worms from the ground and chomping them down (at least 4).
All hail ye, yellow bittern, cute water bird.
Upupa epops, a.k.a. Hoopoe (ę“å). Itās a migratory bird, very common in Kimmen. Didnāt know they have those in Green Island. Itās a mascot of Kimmen, and national bird of Israel.
Many thanks for the Id, not seen one before. Guess it was transiting through or wintering in Green Island then.
We hung out for about 5 mins together on the east coast part of the main road. It hopped around & wasnāt at all shy.
I fixed up an old coffee shop in the mountains in Bei-Pu. It is right on the river and a bird watching paradise. It has big glass windows all around. Today I was startled by two loud bangs on the glass. Closer inspection yielded two dead Taiwan Barbets. These are really pretty birds, and I was sad to bury them. But then I noticed a 3rd one, dazed and confused, and I guess it hit the glass as well. After a while it took off. I am interested as to their behavior, do they live in groups / families, and what can I do to keep this from happening? Any ideas would be appreciated.
The one time Iāve had a good long look at them, it was a decent-sized group (a dozen or so?) that were sticking together, so I guess living in groups is typical for them.
But sorry, I donāt know how you can keep the impacts from happening. Theyāre certainly lovely birds.
Maybe you can hang shiny objects inside and outside the window, just so that the birds know somethingās there. If CDs are too tacky, maybe crystal wind chimes? Also, is the place private or are you starting a business? If the latter, how do I get there