Bird Word: Oriental
Oriental: the region consisting of the Himalayas, India, SE Asia and Indonesia.
The term “oriental” refers to birds of a particular region of the world. It also happens to be the only region of the world I have visited outside of Australia. In 2005-06 I had a wonderful trip to Thailand and Nepal. You can read all about my adventures, including trekking near Mt Everest, on my blog called Trevor’s Travels.
Oriental can also be part of the name of some species. For example, the only one I can think of in the Australian context is the Oriental Cuckoo, also known as the Himalayan Cuckoo. It occurs in the northern and north eastern parts of Australia. This is one species on my “yet to see list.”
I and the bird #57
The latest edition of I and the bird #57 has been posted over at A DC Birding Blog. It contains many links to interesting articles about birds from all over the globe.
I missed out on making my submission this time around. I was rather occupied touring New South Wales on my way to visit my son and daughter-in-law in Sydney. That is where I am now – and using his very fast internet connection. Stay tuned for many articles about my birding experiences over the last week and for the next two weeks.
Birds in the News #96
The latest edition of Birds in the News #96 has been posted here.
A bonus – as usual – was a truly wonderful photo of a Bald Eagle at the beginning of the article.
There are the usual links to interesting articles about birds in the news from around the world. Two features of particular interest to me included an article about the decline of House Sparrows and another about the breeding of Superb Fairy-wrens (which included a magnificent photo of the male wren in full breeding plumage).
I and the bird #56 What I did on my summer vacation
Here Down Under in Australia we can only dream of summer vacations. The mornings are still quite frosty and the wind can be quite chilling. Summer is far off, but spring is just around the corner. We’ve had enough lovely sunny days over the last week or so to keep us hopeful of a lovely spring (if only we could get a little more rain).
The latest I and the Bird (issue #56) has been posted over at Big Spring Birds. The compiler, Vern, is celebrating the summer vacations drawing to an end in that part of the world. Through this carnival we are taken on a vacation throughout the world of birding.
Plenty of good reading as usual on a wide range of birding blogs.
Birds in the News #95
The latest edition of Birds in the News # 95 has been posted.
It contains links to many articles about birds in the news this last week. Plenty of good links to interesting blogs and news items about birds.
This edition features a lovely photo of a male Common Nighthawk. I’ve not seen a photo of this species before but it reminds me very much of the Spotted Nightjar of Australia.
Spotted Nightjar