IMPORTANT NOTE

This Web Blog will be discontinued beginning TODAY! I'm very sorry for our visitors but my original blog "My Backyard Visitors" demands most of my time, I suggest that you visit that blog where you will find a more complete plethora of information and hundreds of exclusive pictures taken by me for the blog.

Thank you very much for you kind visits! You are invited to see more about birds here!

Field Sparrow - Photo Album

Carolina Chickadee - Photo Album

Weekly Photo Art

Great Blue Heron in High Falls, Ga.

The other day I went on a trip visiting a great place to do camping or for just picnic. This such place is High Falls Pk. in Jackson, Georgia.

I have been there before in several occasions, I love the scenery! Also is the place where I saw my first Great Blue Heron! I could take only one picture at that time. So I've been trying to see if they are nesting in that area. Exactly as I wished! In this particular visit I saw not one but two!! :) and you can imagine. I had a feast with my telephoto lens. I bring you 4 shots taken that day. I'm happy now!
Photographs are © H.J. Ruiz - "My Winged Pals"

"Avian Architecture" - Book Review

Princeton University Press has just released a new book: “AVIAN ARCHITECTURE” How Birds Design, Engineer & Build  by author PETER GOODFELLOW.

"Avian Architecture

“I found this book extremely fascinating! People generally are reading about birds, their colors, shapes and sizes, however, there’s more beyond seeing birds fly around. This bring us the questions: How do they live, where do they live and how do they build their nests? Well, Mr. Goodfellow has done a heck of a job with his book that answers all these questions. Descriptions, photos, illustrations, schematics, comparisons and analysis give a clear comprehensive account of the process for building the bird’s nests.
Interesting and informative from beginning to end, this is a great book I recommend”
Book Review made by H.J. Ruiz - “My Winged Pals”  - June 2011

Chilean Flamingos - Photo Album

Purple Finch in Atlanta

A few days ago I was in downtown Atlanta. I went to the Atlanta Aquarium in company of my cousin, it wasn’t the first time I went to see this great aquarium, but it was the first for my cousin. After we spent a few hours in that huge building and had a great time looking at all the sea creatures, we decide to take a walk around the park that is next to the aquarium. While strolling in the park I saw some birds flying around. I took my camera and took some shots. These are the photos that I took of a Purple Finch.

Photographs are © H.J. Ruiz - "My winged Pals"

Superb Starling

Superb Starling - Spec. Name: Lamprotornis Superbus

Superb Starling

This is a member of the starling family of birds. It can commonly be found in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Used to be known as Spreo superbus

This species is 18 to 19 cm (7–7.5 inches) long. Adults have black heads and iridescent blue-to-green back, upper breast, wings, and tail. The belly is red-orange, separated from the blue breast by a white bar. The undertail coverts and the wing linings are white. Juveniles have duller plumage with no more than a suggestion of the white breast band. Their irises are brown, later grayish white, eventually the adult's cream-color.

The Superb Starling has a long and loud song consisting of trills and chatters. At midday it gives a softer song of repeated phrases. There are several harsh calls, the most complex of which is described as "a shrill, screeching skerrrreeee-cherrrroo-tcherreeeeeet."

This species feeds on the ground.

The Superb Starling is similar to Hildebrandt's Starling also found in East Africa. The Superb Starling is distinguished by having white eyes, as opposed to red eyes in the Hildebrandt's.

Photographs are © H. J. Ruiz - "My winged Pals"
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"My Winged Pals" - Vacation

"MY WINGED PALS" BLOG WILL BE BACK FROM VACATION ON JUNE 4th, 2011

H.J. Ruiz

A well deserved bath! Photo Album

This European Starling is taking a refreshing bath, after all the temperature is well over 90 degrees! He's been busy foraging for some food but the heat is making it difficult to continue.

Weekly Photo Art

Red-headed Woodpecker - Photo Album

Red-headed Woodpecker

Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide

James Lowen is the author of Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor’s Guide.
He has in a very smart way compiled a plethora of information about wildlife in the form of birds and mammals that thrive in the remote locations of Antarctica, also known for being one of the coldest places in the world.

Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide

This book is a genuine true guide for any person interested in wildlife for that part of the planet.  He has identified and categorized the different species and described with great precision not only the species in question but provides also the locations where to find them whether it is any bird or any mammal. This makes it a no guessing situation for any traveler. I must say that I was very impressed with the excellent photography and the digital work done for this book. I believe that is was a good idea placing images of species next to each other digitally, offering the reader a great sense of scale and way for size comparison. Very smart idea indeed.
After reading about all these icy remote places where you brave such low temperatures I couldn’t help but to think:Thank you Mr.Lowen for being so brave and endure such harsh environment to provide us with this great guide. I will recommend it to all my friends, in Peru, Argentina and Chile as well as in the USA. They’ll be thrilled to read it.
Review made by: H.J. Ruiz “My Winged Pals” - May 2011
Book published by: Princeton University Press

Birds flock to the shores of the Sahara Desert - © BBC

Eared Dove

Eared Dove - Spec. Name: Zenaida Auriculata

Eared Dove

This is a New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder throughout South America from Colombia to southern Argentina and Chile, and on the offshore islands from the Grenadines southwards. It may be a relatively recent colonist of Tobago and Trinidad. It appears to be partially migratory, but details are little known, although migration may be driven by food supplies.

It is a close relative of the North American Mourning Dove. With that species, the Socorro Dove, and possibly the Galápagos Dove it forms a superspecies. The latter two are insular offshoots, the Socorro birds from ancestral Mourning Doves, the Galápagos ones from more ancient stock.

The Eared Dove is 8 inches long with a long wedge-shaped tail, and weighs normally about 112 g. Adult males have mainly olive-brown upperpart plumage, with black spots on the wings. The head has a grey crown, black line behind the eye, and the blue-black on the lower ear coverts. These black markings give the species its English and specific name. The underparts are vinous, and the tail is tipped with cinnamon. The bill is black and the legs dark red.

Photograph taken in Lima, Peru © H.J. Ruiz - "My Winged Pals"

Weekly Photo Art

"The Birds of New Jersey" - Book Review

"The Birds of New Jersey"

Knowing that Princeton University Press was inviting me to do a review to a new book by William J. Boyle Jr. titled “The Birds of New Jersey” filled me with excitement and the anticipation was tremendous, especially since I had lived in New Jersey most of my life.
When I received the book, I immediately began reading it. This is what I found:

• I was surprised to find out  that New Jersey had such a variety of birds!
• It was very easy  to get a brief yet accurate description and  relevant  information about the species and their habitats.The pictorial samples are a complement in vivid color.. All these is accompanied by a location map quite helpful to know the appropriate habitats, maps are coded in various colors, -“They are better color coded and make more sense that our Homeland Security’s Warning codes”.- I was delighted to find how comprehensive and easy was to read, without going into so deep research or study you learn the most relevant facts right away. For my next trip to New Jersey I promise you that this book will be in my backpack. I believe that Mr. Boyle had a “vision” and wrote the book in a way that was not an exclusivity for the elite Ornithologists but for anybody that loves birds and needs information about them. Good work Mr. Boyle!

Reviewed by: H. J. Ruiz -"My Winged Pals"

Neotropic Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant - Spec. Name: Phalacrocorax Brasilianus

This bird is 64 cm long with a 100 cm wingspan. Adults males weigh from 1.1 to 1.5 kg, adult females 50 to 100 grams less. Birds of the southern populations tend to be bigger than the more northerly birds. It is small and slender, especially compared to the larger, heavier-looking Double-crested Cormorant. It has a long tail and frequently holds its neck in an S-shape. Adult plumage is mainly black, with a yellow-brown throat patch. During breeding, white tufts appear on the sides of the head, there are scattered white filoplumes on the side of the head and the neck, and the throat patch develops a white edge. The upper wings are somewhat greyer than the rest of the body. Juveniles are brownish in color.

Its diet consists mainly of small fish, but will also eat tadpoles, frogs, and aquatic insects. Information about its prey is sparse, but inland birds seem to feed on small, abundant fish in ponds and sheltered inlets, less than 10 cm in length, with an individual weight of a gram or two, such as Poecilia spp. especially the sailfin molly Poecilia latipinna. This cormorant forages for food by diving underwater, propelling itself by its feet. Its dives are brief, between 5 and 15 seconds. It is also known to forage in groups, with several birds beating the water with their wings to drive fish forward into shallows.

Neotropic Cormorants

Neotropic Cormorants are monogamous and breed in colonies. The nest is a platform of sticks with a depression in the center circled with twigs and grass. It is built a few metres above the ground or water in bushes or trees. Up to five chalky, bluish-white eggs are laid. Most pairs lay 3 eggs, but the mean number hatched is less than 2. The eggs soon become nest-stained. Both sexes incubate for about 25–30 days, and both parents feed the young until around the 11th week. By week 12, they are independent. One brood is raised per year.

Unlike other cormorants, this bird can often be seen perching on wires.

This bird is largely a permanent resident, with some birds occasionally wandering north in the warmer months.

Photos are © H.J. Ruiz - “My Winged Pals”


Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Happy Mother's Day!

My sincere salute to all the mothers of the world! I wish them a happy and wonderful day!

From: H.J. Ruiz - "My Winged Pals"