The ABCs of Birds - F

[Patti from Kentucky]

Woo-hoo, after midnight in the Eastern US!

I'm excited to start the letter F because F is for Frigatebird, and I have two lovely shots of a male Great Frigatebird.

We took these in the Galapagos.  The first photo shows the male doing his courtship display...he puffs out his chest, flaps his wings, and utters a strange call when any female flys overhead.

The second photo shows a male incubating eggs.

[dale]

that courtship display scares the heck out of me. Good thing I'm not a frigatebird.
crazy pictures, Patti.

[Patti from Kentucky]

F is for Finch...there are many different finches, but the photos below show two of the finches collectively known as "Darwin's Finches", since they formed part of the evidence Charles Darwin used when describing how species evolve through natural selection/adaptation.

The first photo is a Vampire Finch.  This bird is a subspecies of the Sharp-beaked Ground Finch in the Galapagos.

Excerpted from Wikipedia:
"This bird is most famous for its unusual diet. The Vampire Finch occasionally feeds by drinking the blood of other birds, chiefly the Nazca and Blue-footed Boobies, pecking at their skin with their sharp beaks until blood is drawn (Schluter & Grant 1984). Curiously, the boobies do not offer much resistance against this. "

The second photo is another species of Darwin's Finch, but I don't know which one...

[Patti from Kentucky]

Up next...the Franklin's Gull

I took this photo in Southeast Arizona; the only wetland in that arid region big enough was a wastewater holding pond, which is where this bird is!

[Annette]

Fieldfare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fieldfare


Francolin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francolin

[anneintoronto]

F is for Field Sparrow

Field Sparrow: Medium sparrow, rufous back with dark streaks, unstreaked, buff breast. Gray-brown rump. Gray head, rufous cap, and white eye-ring. Pink bill, legs and feet. Forages on ground or low shrubbery. Short flights, alternates rapid wing beats with brief periods of wings pulled to the sides. [whatbird.com]

It's fun to watch these little ones flying madly off in all directions!  They are not energy efficient!

They have a lovely little song (once they've caught their breath!).  Just in case you were wondering: A group of field sparrows are known as a "crue" of sparrows.

Anne in Toronto 

[dale]

Two F Nightjars:

FRECKLED NIGHTJAR - Great name, huh http://www.flickr.com/photos/jboyles/4820259555/in/photostream/

FELINE OWLET-NIGHTJAR - That's 3 beasts for the price of one.
2 photos: http://www.birdtourasia.com/westpapuareport2009.html
...that's if you can scroll down past the Wilson's Bird of Paradise. Scroll down.
The nightjars look like owlets and cats and a few other things.

[anneintoronto]

Two F Nightjars:

FRECKLED NIGHTJAR - Great name, huh http://www.flickr.com/photos/jboyles/4820259555/in/photostream/

FELINE OWLET-NIGHTJAR - That's 3 beasts for the price of one.
2 photos: http://www.birdtourasia.com/westpapuareport2009.html
...that's if you can scroll down past the Wilson's Bird of Paradise. Scroll down.
The nightjars look like owlets and cats and a few other things.

All I can say is WOW!!!  Nature does have quite the fashion sense!!!

Anne in Toronto

[annieinelkhart]

OH OH OH!!  So far no one has said F for FALCON!!!!   YEAH I will!   The super cool raptor that caught my attention on the internet, right after we got our first computer!  It has lead me to a whole lot of super cool people and information!   
I even got my first tattoo last year and it is a peregrine falcon!

[MAK]

Flicker(Northern)
Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump. (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

[dale]

I even got my first tattoo last year and it is a peregrine falcon!

Wow!!! Where is it???  Just don't say it's in Elkhart.

[Dumpsterkitty]

Flicker(Northern)
Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump.

I had one of these land on my bird feeder last weekend.  At first I couldn't see what it was, I just knew it was HUGE compared to the titmice & chickadees that are regulars.  Who knew bug eaters like an occasional sunflower seed snack!

[Donna]

F is for Flamingo: Pretty in Pink



Nearly everyone knows what flamingos look like ---pink birds with long legs. You can see them at just about every zoo. You can find them in storybooks. Alice uses flamingos as croquet mallets in Through the Looking Glass (by Lewis Carroll). Images of flamingos, standing under palm trees, appear in paperweights and snow globes. Plastic flamingos make colorful lawn ornaments!! But did you know that some flamingos live high up in the Andes Mountains of South America? Flamingos can swim, and flamingos can fly.

Ornithologists (scientists who sturdy birds) spent many years arguing whether flamingos are more like ducks, or more like storks, until they decided that flamingos belong in a group by themselves.

[MAK]

Francolin

The francolins are birds of the genus Francolinus. They are members of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. This genus is the most diverse of the Galliformes, having by far the most members. Francolins are terrestrial (though not flightless) birds of the Old World that feed on insects, vegetable matter and seeds. Most of the members have a hooked upper beak, tails with fourteen feathers and in many of them the male has tarsal spurs.[1] Of the 41 extant species, 36 are exclusive to Africa.(Wikipedia)

Here are 2 of them:

[dale]

A little reminder about copying and pasting text from other people's websites without attribution ... what people write in their bird sites is copyrighted, and even wikipedia should be cited, as far as I understand. Hard to remember, but important!

I like those francolins.