By Nico Arcilla and Maren Hackmann-Mahajan

For our inaugural post, please visit:

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2019/03/13/birdwatchers-corner/

1 – Platte River, Great Plains: Red-winged Blackbirds and Sandhill Cranes (by Nico)

2 – San Francisco Bay: Raptors (by Maren)

Welcome to another edition of Birdwatcher’s Corner! This time we would like to take you away on a trip to Africa and Asia – Ghana and India, to be precise! This time, Nico’s photos are birds in the hand – or “mug shots” of birds who were very brief captives during an investigation of the impacts of logging on forest birds in Ghana. For this research, Nico and her team used “mist nets” as a method to capture and count birds, and then photographed them immediately before releasing them back into the forest. Generally we hate to disturb birds from their natural activities, but this method allows us to make a record of their beauty in addition to collecting data to highlight their conservation needs! Lacking Nico’s excellent excuse for canoodling with cute owlets and other heavenly creatures, Maren admired the birds of India (Delhi, Bharatpur) only from afar. But while the quality of those distant images leaves much to be desired, at least they were obtained in the ideal way, by not disturbing the birds at all!

3 – Ghana (by Nico)

4 – India (by Maren)

White-bellied Kingfisher

Grey-headed Bristlebill

Red-bellied Paradise Flycatcher

African Goshawk

Western Bluebill

Blackcap Illadopsis

Red-chested Owlet

Forest Robin

African Dwarf Kingfisher

Blue-billed Malimbe

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Black Kite

Hoopoe

Pied Kingfisher with egret and cormorants

Sarus Cranes

White-eared Bulbul

Indian Peacocks

Rufous Treepie

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Eagle