Screamers, rollers, flycatchers, cock-on-the-rock, white-eyes, bee-eaters and sunbirds. Sounds like kinds of people that enjoy roller-coasters?! We need to do everything we can to make sure that our children get to see, hear and photograph birds in the wild. Everywhere we go birds are the color and song that you remember. It seems the more we disturb or destroy natural habitat, the less colorful and diverse the bird species become. We cannot manage for diversity or accommodate beautiful birds in our biggest cities. This needs to change. We need to bring nature back into our cities. The “Wild Bird Revolution” is a social movement that celebrates the amazing beauty and wonder of birds in the wild. Amazing lenses and high resolution cameras in our phones and tablets. New, cheaper, widely available DSLR cameras and “point-and-shoots” that get stunning results. Just 50 years ago digital photography had not yet been imagined and very few people even had binoculars. Birds were flashes of color in the forest and fast-moving silhouettes high in the sky. This campaign brings the color and vibrance of wild birds into your life to share with your friends and family!
We are in a day-and-age during which more bird species are threatened with extinction than ever before. The Wild Bird 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 Bird Revolution!!
Please help us continue our work by donating to the Wild Bird Trust: http://www.wildbirdtrust.com/donations/ Go to the new Wild Bird Trust website to learn more about our research and conservation projects in Africa. Your wild bird photographs can now be submitted at:
www.wildbirdtrust.com/top25
Include #greatnature #wildbird when posting new photos!
“Vertical landing” Acacia pied barbets prefer the semi-arid savanna, grasslands, fynbos, and agricultural areas of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. (Louis Groenewald)
“Mom and baby” African crakes are fairly common throughout SubSaharan Africa and are resident breeders in the tropics and summer migrants in the subtropics. (Richard & Eileen Flack / www.theflacks.co.za)
“Miniature perfection” African pygmy kingfishers are found in the woodlands, savanna and coastal forests of tropical and subtropical Africa. (Peter Chadwick)
“Outrageous hairstyle” Andean cock-of-the-rocks are considered to be the national bird of Peru and are distributed in the Andean cloud forests of S America. (George Scott)
“Yellow hunter” Common Ioras prefer the found in scrub and forest habitats of of the tropical parts of the Indian Subcontinent. (Bhanu Singh)
“Moustached pheasant” Brown-eared pheasants are considered Vulnerable to extinction and are endemic to the mountain forests of N China. (China Wild Tour)
“Leaf-gleaner” Chestnut-bellied nuthatches prefer the subtropical or tropical dry, moist lowland, and moist montane forests of the Indian Subcontinent. It is seen in Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Tibet. (Pinaki Baidya)
“Eurasian forester” Great spotted woodpeckers have one of the widest distributions of any woodpecker species and are found throughout Europe and the N parts of Asia. (Fabio Usvardi)
“Andean giant” Hooded mountain tanagers are one of the largest tanager species and are found in the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. (George Scott)
“Supermodel” Lilac-breasted rollers are distributed throughout E and S Africa from the Red Sea coastlines of Ethiopia and NW Somalia all the way down to Angola and the N parts of South Africa. (Chris Krog)
“Favourite perch” Masked trogons are a fairly common, but very popular, sighting in the humid highland forests of S America with largest populations in the Andes and Tepuis. (George Scott)
“Little woodsman” Snowy-browed flycatchers are found in the subtropical or tropical moist lowland and montane forests of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. (Adi Sugiharto)
“Colour flash” Rainbow lorikeets have a wide sistribution in Austaliasia and are found in Australia, eastern Indonesia (Maluku and Western New Guinea), Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. (Doug Gould)
“Odd couple” Oriental white-eyes and ashy bulbuls are found from the Indian SubContinent all the way to SE Asia, preferring open woosland areas and tropical and subtropical montane forests respectively. (Swethadri Doraiswamy)
“Confusing sparrowhawk” Shikras were a favourite among falconers in India and Pakistan due to ease of training, and are widely distributed in Asia and Africa. (Nithya Purushothaman)
“Love birds” Mute swans are indigenous to most of Europe and Asia, as well as a rare winter visitor to N Africa. They have been introduced to the Americas, Australia, and S Africa. (Jilly Sidebottom)
“Little brown job – LBJ” Brown-cheeked fulvettas are a little-known babbler that breeds on the Indian Subcontinent and SE Asia. (Murali Krishna)
“Masked American” Montezuma oropendolas are a sought-after sighting and resident breeder in in the Caribbean coastal lowlands from SE Mexico all the way to central Panama. (Melissa Penta)
“Auctioneer bird” Southern screamers are known for their loud calling during the breeding season and are found in southeastern Peru, northern Bolivia, Paraguay, southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina. (Trevor Kleyn)
“Just cruisin’” Spot-billed ducks have a wide distribution from Pakistan and India all the way to S Japan with some N birds migrating S to SE Asia. (Hrishikesh Jadhav)
“Plum-coloured gem” Violet-backed starlings are sexually dimorphic and monogamous, and are found throughout SubSaharan Africa (except the S and W parts of South Afrca and Namibia. (Richard & Eileen Flack / www.theflacks.co.za)
“Aerial insectivore” White-fronted bee-eaters are distributed throughout the savanna biome of Africa S of the equator. (Chris Krog)
“Forest tenor” Woodland kingfishers are migratory away from the equator and are widely distributed throughout SubSaharan Africa. (Ed Raubenheimer)
“Big beach-bum” Beach stone-curlews are considered to be one of the world’s largest shorebirds and occur in Australasia, the islands of SE Asia. (Yuyun Yanwar)
“Forest red” Temminck’s sunbirds are found in the tropical lowland forests and subtropical montane forests of Borneo, Sumatra, Malaysia and SW Thailand. (Markus Lilje / www.rockjumperbirding.com)
The Wild Bird Trust would like to thank Swarovski Optik for helping to make the “Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week” a possibility! Go to the new Wild BirdTrust websitefor a chance to WIN a pair of amazing Swarovski binoculars by donating $10!
See last week “Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #60″:
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/10/top-25-wild-bird-photographs-of-the-week-61/