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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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  • Florida scrub jay
    Florida Birding Hotspots

    Cruickshank Sanctuary, Brevard County

    The Helen and Allan Cruickshank Sanctuary is located on Barnes Boulevard in Rockledge, Florida. It consists of 140 acres of pine flatwoods and scrub habitat. The biggest attraction at this location…

    May 13, 2020
  • King Rail, Viera Wetlands
    Florida Birding Hotspots

    Viera Wetlands, Brevard County, Florida

    Note: Viera Wetlands is currently COMPLETELY closed. It is expected to reopen in December of 2023 to walkers and bikers, but it’s not expected that cars will be allowed to drive…

    April 2, 2020
  • Florida Birding Hotspots

    Black Point Wildlife Drive, Brevard County

    If you want to bird in Florida, one of the best places you can choose is the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The land is owned by NASA, but operated by…

    April 2, 2020
  • Swallow-tailed kite in flight over Wildwood, Florida
    Bird Species Featured Posts

    Species Spotlight: Swallow-tailed Kites

    Every spring around March/April, Florida birders get really excited to see the first Swallow-tailed Kites come through. Because they migrate to South America, they aren’t here year-round. But when they are,…

    March 19, 2020
  • Northern Gannets at Bempton Cliffs, England
    Birding Travels

    My Whirlwind Tour of London, Birdfair, Norwich, and More

    My first trip to Europe last August was an absolute dream. My friend Rochelle asked if I would like to accompany her to Birdfair, the largest birding festival in the UK.…

    March 19, 2020
  • General Birding

    Why are Juvenile Birds So Difficult to ID?!?!

    Many species of birds have babies that look an awful lot like their parents. A young male cardinal is less red than an adult, but clearly a cardinal. Baby egrets are…

    March 19, 2020
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thehelpfulbirder

Mr. and Mrs. Harlequin Duck 🖤🖤🖤 Mr. and Mrs. Harlequin Duck 🖤🖤🖤
Eurasian Oystercatchers are very common in Iceland Eurasian Oystercatchers are very common in Iceland. I don’t see their American cousins very often, so I delighted in these sightings.
This White Wagtail is a species I had seen in othe This White Wagtail is a species I had seen in other European countries, but they’re awfully cute and usually deserving of a snap or two. What I really liked about this sighting in Iceland is the moss it’s foraging in. Moss is prevalent in Iceland, often on top of lava rocks. It can be very delicate and slow-growing, so people are advised not to walk on the moss or otherwise disturb it. (That’s one of many reasons that stacking stones is discouraged.)

It’s ok to walk on their moss if you’re a bird, though!

#whitewagtail #icelandbirds #thingvellir #þingvellir #þingvellirnationalpark
Peek-a-boo 🫣🐧🧡 Atlantic Puffin in the rain. Heima Peek-a-boo 🫣🐧🧡

Atlantic Puffin in the rain. Heimaey, Westman Islands, Iceland.

#atlanticpuffin #iceland #puffin #westmanislands #heimaey
Basic human needs: 1. water 2. oxygen 3. more puff Basic human needs:
1. water
2. oxygen
3. more puffins than I can count, on a cliff overlooking the sea
Having a little fun with these adorable seals! I b Having a little fun with these adorable seals! I believe they are both harbour seals (aka common seals), one of two species that pups in Iceland. According to the Icelandic Seal Center, there are four other species that are frequent visitors.

The only place we saw seals on our 13 day trip was at Ytri Tunga Seal Beach on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula north of Reykjavik. It was rainy and incredibly windy, so I was really happy to get a few photos of them resting on the rocks.

#iceland #seals #sealspotting #icelandseals
I’m really excited to finally get to see a Great B I’m really excited to finally get to see a Great Blue Heron (white morph) yesterday! And a bonus for getting to see it in action when it caught this fish. 

I drove two hours to find it, but once there it was an easy spot. Thank you to the friend who told me its whereabouts. (I don’t want to share their name or the location publicly so that I protect it.)

This subspecies is normally found in the Florida Keys and sometimes in southern mainland Florida. It’s sometimes called a Great White Heron, and is easily mistaken as a Great Egret. However, the egret would be smaller and have a completely yellow bill.

Hope you enjoy! 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

#greatwhiteheron #greatblueheron #floridabirds
These two Atlantic Puffins are exhibiting a behavi These two Atlantic Puffins are exhibiting a behavior called “billing”. It’s thought to strengthen a pair bond throughout the breeding season, particularly when they return from sea and it’s time to get reacquainted.

If you turn up your volume you’ll hear the clacks made by their beaks making contact.

Bonus: the buzzing sound near the end of the video is the winnowing sound of a Common Snipe, a prominent species throughout Iceland. 

#puffinsofinstagram #atlanticpuffins #icelandbirds #seabirds #puffins
A series of Black-tailed Godwits in the rain. We s A series of Black-tailed Godwits in the rain. We saw this species in a couple of places so I do have some photos of individuals that look less bedraggled. In addition to the rain this particular afternoon, the wind was gusting about 35mph, so I didn’t stay out very long!

When I birded extensively in England I learned that these are nicknamed “blackwits”, and the Bar-tailed Godwits are called “barwits”. There are no barwits in Iceland, though, so they likely just call them either godwits or something entirely unpronounceable!

#icelandbirds #birdingiceland #vik #blacktailedgodwit #godwit
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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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