Bulletin 291 - 100 Birds to see before You Die - #2

I discovered this book "100 Birds to See Before you Die" by 2 Brits David Chandler and Dominic Couzens about 7 years ago while browsing in a bookstore on vacation. The sub title is "The Ultimate Wish List for Birders Everywhere". It sort of peaked my interest as a 'bucket list' of the rarest and most unusual birds in the world, according to the 2 authors.

It has the smallest (Bee Hummingbird)  and largest (Ostrich) birds, some of the most beautiful (Birds of Paradise) and some quite ugly (Shoebill) and strange (Hoatzin). There are birds on all the continents as well as Arctic and Antarctic regions. 

There are also a number of island endemics. In the south Pacific, there are entries for Hawaii (1), New Caledonia (2) , New Guinea (3), Sulawesi (1), Mindanao (1), and New Zealand (2). The Galapagos has 1 entry.  Madagascar has 3. The Caribbean is well represented with Cuba (1), Hispaniola (2) and Montserrat (1).

There are about 240 families of birds, so obviously they are not all represented on this list. There are 3 each of Birds-of-Paradise, Gulls and Terns, Cotingas, and Tyrant Flycatchers. There are several unique birds that are sole members of their family. These are the Hoatzin, Kagu, Oilbird, Crab Plover, Ibisbill, Wallcreeper and Shoebill, For those of us in North America, not a single New World Warbler is on the list.

Each entry has a full page photograph and facing page article of what makes the bird rare, unusual or interesting to warrant its inclusion.

This is the second group of 10 birds. The first installment is here.

Number 100 is the Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea). This is a small (14") tern that breeds in the Arctic around the world and winters in the Antarctic along the pack ice. They are a long lived bird 20-30 years or more and in their travels from pole to pole and back each year, they may travel 3/4 million miles. Because they spend the summer in the Arctic and winter in the Antarctic, they have perpetual daylight except during the migration. Thus these birds have more daylight in their annual cycle than any other animal species. They migrate through the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They don't appear in the Gulf of Mexico, so it is not a bird you will see in Texas. They are typical of tern plumage with a white body and a black cap on the head. The bill is described as 'blood red' and is the ID mark. This bird was photographed in Anchorage Alaska.

Arctic Tern

Number 92 is the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta). This is a grouse of the high arctic across all regions, North America and Eurasia. They are adapted for the cold with feathered legs and feet. They have 3 molts during the year to camouflage the birds on the ground. From all white in the snow in winter, to brown mottled in the summer and half and half in spring as snow is leaving. This bird was photographed in Alaska.

Rock Ptarmigan - male molting

Number 82 is the Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata). This is one of 3 puffin species and is a resident of the north Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. It is black bodies with a white face, red bill and yellow tufts behind the eyes in breeding plumage. This bird was photographed in Alaska.

Tufted Puffin

Number 75 is the Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus). They seek out white water rivers in the northern hemisphere to breed....Alaska, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and Siberia. The male has a gray head with several white patches. this bird was photographed in Alaska.

Harlequin Duck - male

Number 67 is the Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus). It is similar the common Cedar Waxwing that we see across North America. It breeds further north in the taiga forests of North America and Eurasia. It winters further south but they are very nomadic and don't always show up in the same place each year, thus it is hard to find.I did not see this bird in Alaska, despite looking on the tour. But I did find this bird in a flock wintering in Ely Minnesota by the Canadian border.

Bohemian Waxwing

Number 65 is the Broad-billed Tody (Todus subulatus). It is one of 5 species of Todies in the Greater Antilles. There are 2 endemic to Hispaniola. This 4.5" bird looks like a cross between a kingfisher and a hummingbird. It has a green back, pale gray underparts and red throat. The bill is red as well. I photographed this one in Dominican Republic.

Broad-billed Tody

Number 55 is the Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus). At 24 inches in length, it is the worlds largest falcon.Its range is the circumpolar in the tundra and taiga. Some move south in winter if food is scarce. They range in color from white to dark. The authors state the white one is the best to see, but all count. To see a white one, head to Arctic Greenland in summer or Iceland in the winter. brrrr. I photographed this bird on the nest about 50 miles outside Nome Alaska.

Gyrfalcon

Number 47 is the Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiaca). This large (26") white owl is a neighbor of the Gyrfalcon. Adults are pure white with yellow eyes. The juveniles have dark streaking on the white. I photographed a juvenile in Duluth MN in winter and this adult in Alaska.

Snowy Owl

Number 22 is the I'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea). This 6" bird is the iconic bird of Hawaii with red body, black wings and semicircular red bill. It feeds on nectar mostly of the Ohia tree. It is present on all the major islands and can be seen by most visitors if they take the time to go to native forest above 4000 feet elevation.

I'iwi

Number 12 is the Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno). This amazing bird was sacred to the native Americans in Central America. The male has long tail streamers. It is considered by many birders to be the most beautiful bird in the world and certainly up with the birds-of-paradise is beauty.

Resplendent Quetzal - male

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2017 David McDonald

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Bulletin #114 – Alaska #2 - Raptors, Owls and Bears

David McDonald Photography
Friendswood, Texas

July 2, 2010

 Bulletin #114 – Alaska #2 - Raptors, Owls and Bears



Hello friends,



I just returned from a great trip to Alaska with TOS (Texas Ornithology Society). They run an annual trip to Alaska in early June. We visited Anchorage, Nome, Barrow, the Denali Highway and had a pelagic trip out of Seward. It was a fantastic trip with most usual birds seen and photographed along with numerous mammal species.



With all the wide open spaces in Alaska, I expected to see numerous hawks and eagles. Needless to say, I was surprised that we found only single specimens of Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk, Peregrine, and Merlin. These were basically flyovers.



There were about 2 dozen Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as I expected. The best photos were of this bird perched on a channel marker in Seward harbor as we returned from the pelagic trip. He allowed the boat to completely cruise around him as we all eagerly took photos from 50 feet away. This was by far my closest encounter with this magnificent bird.

And here he is looking at us and not showing any sign of concern.

The other raptor that I was able to photograph was our largest falcon at 22", the Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolis). Fortunately for the tour group, a pair was nesting under a bridge on one of the roads out of Nome. All you had to do was drive up to the bridge and park alongside the road. This was a life bird for me and most of the tour group. Here is a parent in the nest with chicks. The gray color is the most common, but they also come darker and also white. The white birds tend to be in Greenland or Iceland. The Gyrfalcon is #55 in the book '100 Birds to See Before You Die'. The authors state that you have to see the rare white birds however to count it!

4 Owl species were another treat for the trip. One species we missed was the Northern Hawk Owl. Fortunately I had seen it in Duluth MN in February (photo1, photo2). Of course with the almost 24 hour daylight during the summer, these birds are much easier to find. A Boreal Owl was heard only, but we never could locate it.



Here is a Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus). This medium sized (15") owl was seen twice on the trip. Both times, it was on the ground.

The best bird of the entire trip was a Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa). This is our largest owl at 27" in length, but it tends to be uncommon and hard to find. I was fortunate to see it on my second attempt (I missed it in Duluth, MN in February). It was a lifer for almost everyone on the trip including the guide! To see the bird on the nest was an extra bonus.

We saw 4 Snowy Owls (Nyctea scandiaca), all in the Barrow area. They were always on the ground. I would have expected to see some on power poles etc, but we never did. This all white adult bird on the snow is a treat to see.

In Barrow was this sign at the site of an ancient village, in use for 2000 years. The settlement was called "The Place Where We Hunt Snowy Owls" in the Inuit language. It seems hard to believe that people would eat these noble birds, but they did and still can. Barrow is one of a number of places in Alaska that allows subsistence hunting by the natives. This means that they still hunt and eat whales, seals, birds etc any time of the year.

There are 3 species of bears in North America with all 3 present in Alaska. Unfortunately we missed the polar bears, but did get the other 2.


The Black Bear (Ursus americana) is the smallest at about 6 feet in length and 200-450 pounds in weight. It is also the most widespread of the species. We actually saw this bear on the pelagic trip out of Seward. He was climbing down a steep cliff, apparently to get at the eggs of nesting seabirds and gulls.

Here he is climbing back up.

Then he settled down in a patch of wildflowers that look like lupines, similar to our Texas Bluebonnets.

The Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) is the large brown bear of the west. It is up to 7 feet in length and 850 pounds in weight. The coastal Alaskan bears are a different subspecies and can be much larger up to 1500 pounds. When we first saw him outside of Nome, he was perhaps 1/2 mile away on the far side of an inlet. We watched as he slowly made his way around the end of the inlet and started coming towards us. When he got to within 150 yards we all got into the vans for safety sake. He continued to come closer and closer. He stopped about 40 yards away. Our driver called out to him and he started running right at us. When he was 15 yards away, we started the van to get away and he stopped dead in his tracks. These photos of him are uncropped. What an amazing encounter!

When he was walking around the lagoon, he found a piece of paper trash on the ground. It must have had food smell or residue on it, as it seemed to be like catnip for him. I was taking the still photos of him when this performance started and we all laughed as we watched him at play with this piece of paper. Here is a slide show of the bear at play. Click the link, then set the speed at 1 second.

I will be leading a 9 day bird photography tour to Costa Rica in conjunction with Lillian Scott-Baer of Baer Travel March 3-11, 2011. We have worked out an itinerary to visit La Selva Preserve, Savegre Mountain Hotel in the central mountains for Resplendant Quetzal and other montane species and Wilson Botanical Gardens (Las Cruces). We have also retained the services of local guide Rudy Zamora to accompany us and locate and ID the birds for us to photograph. We will also have beautiful flowers and hopefully some mammals - tamanduas, monkeys etc.

I will be giving several talks in the evening on bird photography, Photoshop etc.


The price will be $1960 double to $2380 single. This includes hotels, all meals, guide, transportation in Costa Rica etc. The only other cost will be airfare and personal purchases (alcohol, souvenirs etc) . Space is limited to 10 persons to maximize our opportunity to see and photograph the birds. I have birded in Costa Rica previously. It is a wonderful country to visit and the bird life is exceptional. I hope that you can join us.


Here is the schedule of payments for the trip.


$ 25 reservation fee (not refundable)
$ 575 due April 30, 2010
$ 600 due July 30, 2010
$ 740 due January 15, 2011
Please send deposits to:


ScoBar Inc.
34 Galway Place
The Woodlands, TX 77382


Note - we will try to pair up singles and triple would be $1890 per person.


There are only 2 spaces left for this trip as of today, so please email me, if interested.


All comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciated.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

email: davidkmcd@comcast.net

photos copyright 2010 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask for subscribe.