Why do we love birds?

A rhetorical question to ask on this — National Bird Day. They are colorful, sing some pretty (if repetitive) songs, perform amazing aerial tricks, are delicate, fierce, strong, bold, and relatively easy to find and see. Plus there is an amazing diversity of them. They are all around us and we take them for granted, but the world would be a sad place without them. This day was created to raise awareness of the difficulties many avian species face because of loss of habitat, climate changes that put them out of sync with their food supply, lethal chemical added to their environment, etc. The list of perturbations to their normal existence is long and is taking its toll on their numbers. So to honor the Birds, I showcase some of them taken from this year’s photos (some of which were sadly lost in the masses of photos that I took!).

Great Gray Owl, northern Minnesota

Great Egret flying over a pond at Hilton Head, SC.

The elusive and much sought-after male Elegant Trogon, Portal AZ

European Raven from Extremadura region, Spain

Roadrunner attacking a lizard, Green Valley AZ

Speckled Tanager, Costa Rica

Rufous (or Allen’s) Hummingbird, Batiquitos Lagoon, CA

Black Kite, Extremadura region, Spain

Hooded Oriole, Green Valley AZ

Female, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, first bird seen in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Brown Boobies, seen somewhere along the Pacific coast of Central America

Snowy Egrets in Huatulco, Mexico

Serin finch, Extremadura region, Spain

Red Kites, Extremadura region, Spain

the rare Iberian Magpie, Doñana National Park, Spain. One of the birds most threatened by climate change.

Black-necked Stilt, Alameda Island, CA

Breeding plumes of the male Great Egret, Hilton Head, SC

Scarlet-rumped Toucanet, Cartagena, Colombia

Griffon Vulture, Extremadura region, Spain