Wild Bird Trust presents the Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs for this week. This week we feature species which are widespread like the Peregrine Falcon and those that have a much more restricted range like the Cyprus Warbler. We thank everyone for sharing their outstanding photographs with us and sharing the amazing bird diversity that your country has to offer. Keep up the good work! To be in the running for next week’s top 25 you can submit photographs on the Facebook page with species, location and photographer as the caption. Also follow us on twitter (@wildbirdrev) and instagram (@wildbirdtrust) for regular updates.
The Bar-headed Goose is particularly distinctive with the black bands on the back of the head. This goose is native to the highland wetlands of China and Mongolia but spends its winter in the comparatively warmer India. Photo by Ayan Guin
Souvik Pal captured this female Black-headed Bunting foraging. Male Black-headed Buntings have a bright yellow plumage with a black head but as is the case with most bird species, the female is comparatively drab.
The impact of cats predating on wild birds will vary between species. In the case of the Black Redstart population of Sweden, cat predation is estimated to reduce productivity by 12%. Photo by Tushar Tripathi T T
The Eurasian Hoopoe’s claim to fame is its status as National Bird of Israel. Photo by Ganesh Rao
The Cyprus Warbler has a very restricted range and breeds only in Cyprus. With such species there is always concern that they could become vulnerable to extinction. For this reason Birdlife International has designated ‘Endemic Bird Areas’ (EBA) to prioritize conservation efforts for these areas. The Cyprus Warbler falls within one of these EBAs. Photo by Antonis Tsaknakis
Greater Flamingoes have a varied diet, ranging from aquatic insects, to plant matter and crabs. Sometimes flamingoes will even ingest mud so as to digest the bacteria within it. Photo by Harish Kumar Kohli
Greater Yellow-naped Woodpeckers breed in cavities which are excavated by both the male and female. The female will lay between two and four eggs which will be incubated by both parents. Photo by Momita Bhattacharya
Both male and female Rufous Hummingbirds are strongly territorial. Males push females out of patches with denser flower density which is why females tend to hold larger territories with sparser flower densities. Photo by Jola Charlton
Here we have an Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher with prey. These vibrant birds feed mostly on insects but will also take lizards, frogs and fish. Photo by Nitin A Chavan
Pacific Golden Plovers breed in the Arctic tundra and then undertake a migration to south Asia and Australasia for the winter. One bird with a tracker was found to do a non stop flight of 4800km over 3 days! Photo by Carlo Galliani
The Purple-rumped Sunbird is endemic, that is to say unique, to the Indian Sub-continent. Within its range it is fairly common and is even thought to be increasing in parts of it. Photo by Sushil Khekare
Purple Sunbirds are usually seem foraging in pairs or small groups, in some cases larger groups of 45 to 50 individuals may form. Photo by Hemant Chhatre
Red-chested Pochard are known to occur naturally in Great Britain but captive releases have also contributed to the numbers of this species on the island. Photo by Sandipan Ghosh
The Rock Bush Quail’s is thought to be in decline, mainly due to high levels of hunting and habitat destruction. Photo by Chandrashekhar Shirur
The Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher prefer forests and scrubby habitats where they can be found foraging for insects in the undergrowth. Amit Kumar Srivastava photographed this one in Sattal, India
The Sarus Crane is one of the many waterbird species which is threatened by the loss of wetland habitat. This species has declined to such an extent that it is now listed as vulnerable on the IUCN redlist. Photo by Dipak Marfatia
Contrary to its name, the Siberian Stonechat’s range extends much further than Siberia, it breeds in much of temperate Asia and spends the winter further south. This one was photographed in central India by Goutam Mitra
Small Niltava nests are parasitised by much larger birds like Asian Lesser Cuckoos, Large Hawk-cuckoos and Hodgson’s Hawk-cuckoos. Photo by Amit Kumar Srivastava
The Small Pratincole is most active at twilight where they form large foraging flocks, these flocks catch insects on the wing, performing zig-zag flights much like swallows. Photo by Souvik Pal
Spot-billed Pelicans need to eat about a kilogram a day, their diet has not been well documented but is thought to consist mainly of fish. Photo by Sathya Vagale
The Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher is quite common in India and Sri Lanka. This beautiful male was photographed in Ganeshgudi, India by Vidya Vijay Kulkarni
A Whiskered Tern captured spectacularly in low light by Prasenjit Sarkar
The White-bellied Blue Flycatcher occurs only along the western Ghats of India, an area renowned for its avian biodiversity. Photo by Ram Vaidyanathan
This charming little White-cheeked Bushtit is native to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Photo by Wajahat Malik
While urbanization is threatening many species across the globe, the Peregrine Falcon has found a way to use the city to their advantage and are doing very well in one of the largest cities in the world, New York. Photo by Leslie Reagan
Edited by Christie Craig, Campaign Manager
Our mission is to build a global community around the freedom and beauty of birds in the wild as ambassadors for the natural ecosystems that they depend upon. They are the music, decoration and character of every terrestrial habitat on the planet and have been around since the dinosaurs. They are the witnesses and ambassadors of the awesome power of nature. The wide availability of good, cheap optics has opened their world to us for the last few decades. Amazing, affordable DSLR cameras with long lenses are delivery brilliant digital bird imagery to online communities.
We are in a day-and-age during which more bird species are threatened with extinction than ever before. The Wild Birds! Revolution aims to publish the “Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week” to 1 million people every week by the end of the year. That is a revolution that will change the world! Join thousands of other weekend naturalists, photographers, birders, experts, hikers, nature-lovers, guides, scientists, conservationists and artists that share the thousands of wild bird photographs submitted to the Wild Bird Trust website and Facebook page. Thousands of wild bird enthusiasts are going out everyday to photograph our planet’s beautiful birdlife. Pick up your camera, fill your bird feeder, open your heart, and join the Wild Birds! Revolution!!
Steve Boyes has dedicated his life to conserving Africa's wilderness areas and the species that depend upon them. After having worked as a camp manager and wilderness guide in the Okavango Delta and doing his PhD field work on the little-known Meyer's Parrot, Steve took up a position as a Centre of Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology. He has since been appointed the Scientific Director of the Wild Bird Trust and is a 2014 TED Fellow. His work takes him all over Africa, but his day-to-day activities are committed to South Africa's endemic and Critically Endangered Cape Parrot (Poicephalus robustus). Based in Hogsback Village in the Eastern Cape (South Africa), Steve runs the Cape Parrot Project, which aims to stimulate positive change for the species through high-quality research and community-based conservation action. When not in Hogsback, Steve can be found in the Okavango Delta where he explores remote areas of this wetland wilderness on "mokoros" or dug-out canoes to study endangered bird species in areas that are otherwise inaccessible. Steve is a 2013 National Geographic Emerging Explorer for his work in the Okavango Delta and on the Cape Parrot Project.
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