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The Helpful Birder

Featured Posts General Birding

Where to Find Birds

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Featured Posts General Birding

Not All Blue Birds are Bluebirds

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Featured Posts General Birding

How Nature Reuses Its Resources

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Bird Species Featured Posts

Species Spotlight: Swallow-tailed Kites

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  • How to Photograph Birds in Flight
    Bird Photography

    How to Photograph Birds in Flight

    One of the hardest things to photograph in nature is a bird in flight. It’s a technique that takes both study and practice. If you’d like to improve your bird in…

    February 7, 2022
  • judging the size of a bird
    General Birding

    Why the Size of a Bird is Such a Difficult Field Indicator

    One useful way to identify a bird is by size. Everyone knows an eagle is bigger than a sparrow, a mallard duck bigger than a cardinal. In fact, it’s a great…

    January 12, 2022
  • Where to find birds
    Featured Posts General Birding

    Where to Find Birds

    Birds are everywhere, right? That’s totally true, except when you’re armed with your field guide, a pair of binoculars, a packed lunch, and a camera. Then they’re nowhere to be found.…

    January 6, 2022
  • Eastern bluebird, Flagler County, Florida
    Featured Posts General Birding

    Not All Blue Birds are Bluebirds

    For beginning birders, the easiest way to identify a bird is by color. Northern Cardinals are red, American Goldfinches are yellow, Eastern Bluebirds are blue. (After all, that’s why they’re called…

    January 6, 2022
  • Featured Posts General Birding

    How Nature Reuses Its Resources

    I find it fascinating how resources are reused by nature in many ways. One example of how nature reuses things is a basic hole in a pine tree. I have really…

    August 2, 2020
  • Florida Scrub-Jays
    Bird Species

    Species Spotlight: Florida Scrub-Jays

    Many of us here in eastern North America know and love (or hate) the beautiful Blue Jay. But there are many other jays present in the US as well, and one…

    May 27, 2020
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thehelpfulbirder

A majestic elk for this mammal Monday - 13 points? A majestic elk for this mammal Monday - 13 points? I’m not sure how you count them. This guy was huge and he kept everyone in check. Humans included. 

#mammalmonday #elkcountry #ruttingseason
A few of my favorite things! #caterpillars #puffi A few of my favorite things!

#caterpillars #puffins #butterflies #flycatcher
My first encounter with an Arctic Tern in Iceland My first encounter with an Arctic Tern in Iceland - or anywhere for that matter #lifer They’re very common all around the island, and aggressively defend their nesting grounds. I’ll post a story about that too. These birds migrate further than any other species in the world: 44,000 to 50,000 miles (70,000 to 80,000 km) round trip!

#arctictern #icelandbirds #tern #seabirds
I’ll just be gone an hour, no more… back in a jiff I’ll just be gone an hour, no more… back in a jiffy…

Florida Scrub Jay

#birding #birdhumor #floridascrubjay #backsoon #floridabirding
I loved seeing Razorbills for the first time while I loved seeing Razorbills for the first time while in Iceland. Please swipe for a second image showing the complete photo, which looks like the Razorbill is a lead singer and the three Common Murres are his backup.
Redshanks calling while in flight (photo 1) and pe Redshanks calling while in flight (photo 1) and perched (photo 2). I think this might be the most common bird species in Iceland. If not in sheer numbers like the puffins, then at least in the frequency of places we saw them.

#redshank #iceland #icelandbirds #icelandwildlife #birdingphotography
I’ve now discovered firsthand what people mean whe I’ve now discovered firsthand what people mean when they say to use scientific names rather than common ones. In Iceland, I saw a lot of what we in North America call Common Murre, shown here in the first photo nesting on cliffs visible from the ferry as we approached Heimaey. The scientific name is Uria aalge, and elsewhere the common name is Common Guillemot.

The second photo is very distant, but this is a Black Guillemot. This common name is the same in Europe and North America. Cepphus grylle is the scientific name.

While related, these are two species who share a similar habitat but belong to in different genera. Now, try birding in Iceland where the people around you speak a different language - in the specific case I experienced it was French - and you’re trying to figure out which one you’re looking at and talking about.

Lesson learned: study ahead, bring a real guide book, or learn French. 😜

#icelandbirding #heimaey #commonmurre #guillemot #icelandphotography
Graylag Goose, scroll to the second photo for two Graylag Goose, scroll to the second photo for two goslings. The third photo is the famous Almannagjá Gorge in Þingvellir National Park in Iceland. These birds were nearby, after we walked past these rocks.

#graylaggoose #iceland #icelandbirds #thingvellir #þingvellir
I was so excited to find this mama Eared Grebe wit I was so excited to find this mama Eared Grebe with two babies tucked into her wings. And then lo and behold, the dad shows up too!

We get Eared Grebes occasionally in Florida, but in winter the plumage is much different. Still pretty but not this dramatic.

I was not prepared to shoot video, so please forgive the shakiness (it was handheld) and the need to rotate your phone.

#earedgrebe #iceland #myvatn #icelandbirding
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Red-cockaded woodpecker foraging for food in the woods at St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge in Wakulla, Florida (not far from Tallahassee)
Red cockaded woodpecker
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Recent Posts

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