Andrew Trundlewagon's photos with the keyword: black

A black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) butterfly flitting through clover.

The photo is blurry; it was very dark, and the bird was flitting around. This is a scarlet tanager. They are not uncommon but rarely seen as they spend most of their time hidden in the upper branches of the trees.

Rose-breasted grosbeak (cardinal a poitrine rouge) visited the garden recently.

The snow has only just gone here so there are still no garden flowers. This is an indoor plant. The flower only lasted two days but it was nice while it lasted.

The dark prince (or princess). A black swallowtail butterfly about to fly away.

I don’t expect too many people to care for this one. First, it’s a beetle, second, it’s a black beetle. It is an oil beetle, (Genus Meloe, there are several species and they all look the same to me). When threatened they pump out a fluid from between their leg joints that contains cantharidin, a compound that is more than a little nasty. In small doses it is reputedly an aphrodisiac, the famous Spanish fly is based on cantharidin, but consume too much, (and by all accounts, a little is too much), and a grim, writhing, agonizing, death ensues. Their reproductive habits also tend toward the macabre. The female lays eggs in burrows. The first generation of larvae hatch, crawl up plant stalks to settle in flowers. Here they are picked up by bees. In fact, some oil beetles emit pheromones that attract male wild bees. The larvae climb aboard the bee. The male bee mates with a female bee, and the larval oil beetles are transferred to the female. One web-site referred to this transfer as 'six-legged venereal disease', which is a troubling comparison but apt. The female bee lays her eggs and stuffs the nest with pollen. Meanwhile, the oil beetle larvae having dropped off the mummy bee, set about to eat the pollen. Then they eat the larval bees. Then they make themselves scarce without so much as a thank you note.

An orange peeled.

A helmeted curassow from the Biodome in Montreal. These birds originate from the mountains of "western Venezuela and northern Colombia" (Wikipedia)

A male cardinal, colour for a winter's day

A Burnet moth, on the South Downs near Devil's Dyke in Sussex, UK

A comorant at rest on a branch, Lac Seigneural, St Bruno near Montreal.

A rose breasted grosbeak in flight - Don Mills parkland, Toronto, Ontario.

A rose breasted grosbeak - Don Mills parkland, Toronto, Ontario.

This is a large black and red butterfly from an exhibition of butterflies that is held every year in the Botanic Garden, Montreal, called "Papillons en liberté"

A swamp milkweed beetle