Looked like a whole lot of wet snow to me here.

I love all these yellow birds.

Patti - that third yellow-crowned night heron, that's a hilarious and wonderful picture!!!!

All the main bird parts are visible...with none of the filler!

Thanks!!!   dale

Wishing you a more joyous season and happier new year than this little one seems to be having!

http://tinyurl.com/24knvqt - see it low-tech
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html - NASA sez

a rat that behavous like a bird.
greetings Aafke[/size][/font]

cool rat picture, Aafke. Is that a pet rat or a rat-rat?
I like rats.

Those photos are incredibly dramatic angles!
I figure one can get used to anything, but that beak is a lot of plastic to carry around attached to one's head...

[Excellent]

Xipholena punicea (english Pompadour Cotinga)

no...way.  No....way. Never seen that. Looks like maybe something a flamingo would dream.

Excellent find, Annette!

and kudos on Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, Aafke and Patti. FINE-looking critter.

dale

Gayle had a Willet
Paul

"Has just scored" is a funny and nice picture. Mr. Willet occupies all of it.
I don't know willets, at all, so this is all new.
thanks, Paul.

dale

I love that second video - again, both the quirky sound and how we're right in the middle of things.
Beautiful!!! Thanks!
Only it makes me itch for some reason.

dale

WHIP-POOR-WILL

A "goat-sucker," caprimulgus, just like the nighthawks/nightjars, and just as incredibly exotic-looking.

There are a couple of very nice photos here, but this site, terrifyingly, offers both more and less than you ever want to know about anything:
http://www.uniprot.org/taxonomy/57400

It describes birds - not as birds, not as vertebrates…but as PROTEINS
…in fact it describes all of us that way. You too:

 http://www.uniprot.org/taxonomy/9606 check out the photos!!!!!!

dale

very cute. thanks.

That's a really splendid crop of cool birds, ladies!  A bunch of winners!!!
Excellent job and some terrific photos.

I'm kind of impoverished here, but Cedar WAXWING of course, is a good W:

Before I understood about some birds fledging onto the ground and living there for days, and that one just needs to move the baby a bit out of the way to a safer spot where the parents can still feed it, I found a baby cedar waxwing on the ground while on a walk with my dad and his dogs -- this baby was not only right at the water's edge on a rainy day but right in the middle of a walking path where dogs and raccoons come. He was perfect, spunky and strong and vocal. And really great with his tail dipped in bright yellow and his fuzzy crest and his mask. I moved him over a little and he perched on my hand, all wobbly. He was happy about that too, or at least OK with it. If I had a really fancy thing like that I wouldn't leave it on the ground, but that just goes to show that I don't get it.  I made the common mistake of bringing it in and calling a rescue place. They told me to just put it back near where I found it, off the path, of course, and that ithe adults would definitely find it.

Then, a courting adult cedar WAXWING photo by minette lain (wiki)

Dale

Follow up the Veery song...the original page where I found the video is here: http://www.musicofnature.org/home/veery_thrush/
If you scroll down the page there is another sound recording that is even more wonderful!

I listened to all 4:25 of that. It is breathtaking. Thank you

Did anyone mention the Vireo yet?  There are several types of these birds.

I posted one, only.   dale

Alright!  I'll bring some more of my TV's to the "V" party to have a good time with Patti and Dale's TV's!  

.

Gayle's vultures and Paul's vultures came too. My vultures are all underage, unfortunately. These two vultures Patti met on the road offered to make them fake IDs, but I'm not sure. Even without them, it's a TV party, if you will (Don't click this unless you can tolerate hardcore punk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9KmZRN6j_o).