Alison Meier's photos with the keyword: birds

Variation on a Theme.

Kingdom - Animalia Phylum - Chordata Class - Aves Order - Ciconiiformes Family - Ciconiidae Genus - Ephippiorhynchus Size and Height: 129 – 137 cm Wing span: 230 cm Status: Classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List 2004 Description: The black-necked stork is a huge wading bird with a spectacular and distinctive plumage. Easily recognised by its striking black-and-white markings, this bird possesses a jet-black head, wing bar and tail, which contrast against the white plumage of the rest of the body. Other characteristic features include an iridescent neck that appears green, blue or purple depending on the angle, a massive black bill and long, coral-red legs. Sexes are identical except for the colour of the iris, which is yellow in the female, brown in the male. Juveniles are brown instead of black-and-white, and sub-adults resemble adults, but the white plumage is duskier and the legs are black. Range: The black-necked stork ranges from South and Southeast Asia to Australia, occurring in Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Irian Jaya, (Indonesia), Papua New Guinea and Australia. Source: Arkive.org www.arkive.org/black-necked-stork/ephippiorhynchus-asiati...

The male bird differs from the female in that he has a dark brown eye instead of a bright yellow eye. Kingdom - Animalia Phylum - Chordata Class - Aves Order - Ciconiiformes Family - Ciconiidae Genus - Ephippiorhynchus Size and Height: 129 – 137 cm Wing span: 230 cm Status: Classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List 2004 Description: The black-necked stork is a huge wading bird with a spectacular and distinctive plumage. Easily recognised by its striking black-and-white markings, this bird possesses a jet-black head, wing bar and tail, which contrast against the white plumage of the rest of the body. Other characteristic features include an iridescent neck that appears green, blue or purple depending on the angle, a massive black bill and long, coral-red legs. Sexes are identical except for the colour of the iris, which is yellow in the female, brown in the male. Juveniles are brown instead of black-and-white, and sub-adults resemble adults, but the white plumage is duskier and the legs are black. Range: The black-necked stork ranges from South and Southeast Asia to Australia, occurring in Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Irian Jaya, (Indonesia), Papua New Guinea and Australia. Source: Arkive.org www.arkive.org/black-necked-stork/ephippiorhynchus-asiati...

Camera: NIKON D80 Lens: AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G IF-ED Focal length: 300 mm (equiv. 450 mm) Aperture: F5.6 Exposure time: 1/250" ISO speed rating: 400/27° Program: Aperture priority Metering Mode: Center-weighted average White Balance: Sunny Focus Mode: AF-S Image Stabilizer: On Noise Reduction: Off Flash: Flash did not fire This tree is alive with sparrows and waxeyes at this time of year. They work hard at the ripe apples, reducing then to thin, eaten out shells before they drop to the ground. This is a female, but not sure if it's house or hedge. There was quite bright back-light in this that detracted from the subject, so I selected the sparrow and apple, inverted the selection and reduced the brightness of the background. There was also quite a bit of noise as I had to shoot at ISO 400, and a de-noise was also applied to the background.

I looked out at that same tree this morning and it was swarming with wax-eyes. These fragile wee birds disappear if great, gallumping sparrows come near. The wax-eyes were my original "hope for" yesterday, but they quickly flew away when the sparrows arrived. Wax-eyes are hard to catch - they move very quickly and "flitter" their wings often when feeding, like babies. There was a bit more light today, and less noise than the sparrow image yesterday. This wee one stayed on the apple long enough for me to catch her. Notice that the apple is much more hollowed out than yesterday and there is some light shining through the skin. Creation date: 2/07/2010 12:11 Camera: NIKON D80 Focal length: 230*mm*(equiv. 345*mm) Aperture: F5.6 Exposure time: 1/400" ISO speed rating: 400/27° Program: Aperture priority Metering Mode: Center-weighted average White Balance: Manual Flash: Flash did not fire