bird envelop: kingfisher

bird envelop: kingfisher

Image by petesimon
Art created for the front of an envelop. petesimon.blogspot.com/

Thanks to ianmichaelthomas user for the reference picture: www.flickr.com/photos/7533960@N02/3198250675/

Birds at the Birdfeeder

Image by dmolsen
Geez, You can barely see them in the thumbnail. Check out the larger image for them. They're on the left side of the picture. The bird feeder was put up by c.

Masked Lapwing

Image by Sweet One
This bird was running around near the waterfront in one of the parks. It has a very unique/distinct yellow bit of skin on its face (view Large to see it)

Unknown Bird

Image by Velo Steve
This awful little picture is the best I got of this bird. I wonder if it's the same species as the one whose feathers are in the previous shot ("Unknown Feathers").

Picture A Day October 28, 2009 - Colima Warbler of the Chisos Mountains

Image by mlhradio
My best guess at identifying this bird is that it is the Colima Warbler, whose range in the United States is limited exclusively to the single mountain group in west Texas, the Chisos Mountains. I did take some other pictures, but this was the clearest I could get - the bird was very active and flitting all over the bush - and in some of the other pictures some of the light yellow coloration is slightly more visible under the rear feathers.

This was spotted in a small bush deep within the canyon leading to the Window View in the Chisos Mountains. The Chisos are an isolated stand of mountains rising abruptly half a mile into the sky in the center of Big Bend National Park, forming an island of green in the sky, with small remnant plant and animal species left over from the last ice age that used to cover the entire region when the planet was cooler. The Chisos form a big basin, and the only drainage (when there is enough rain to actually produce running water) leads through a narrow slot in the mountains called 'The Window' or the 'Window Pouroff'. There were a pair of small birds jumping between two flowering bushes deep in the shadows of the canyon. Exceptionally friendly little birds, they allowed me to get within just a few feet - although they were almost constantly in motion the entire time. I must have spent ten minutes moving around them trying to get a clear shot.

The Colima Warbler ranges only in the upper reaches of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico, plus the tiny island of the Chisos Mountains. In fact, it was not even identified in the United States until 80 years ago. While an exceptionally uncommon bird by national standards, it is actually fairly common within Big Bend.

You can view more photos from my 2009 'Picture a Day' set at: www.flickr.com/photos/matthigh/sets/72157625855768121/

And the fun continues with a Picture a Day through 2010 at: www.flickr.com/photos/matthigh/sets/72157620610035860/