Little Green Bee-eaters (Merops orientalis) sandbathing, Gujarat Province, India. Picture by J. M. Garg. This image has a creative commons attribution 3.0 licence.

Cheering up Birds- Rufous Fantail and New Zealand Fantail

Good Morning! Today's Cheering up bird is the Rufous Fantail, Rhipidura rufifrons; an Australasian insect-eating bird. The image above is by Brett Donald and has a creative commons attribution share alike 2.5 licence- you can find details of that [here]

There are more details about this active little bird on wikipedia [here] and about its relatives - the fantails of Asia and Australasia -[here]

The obvious birds of New Zealand are things like the various Kiwi species, Apteryx spp, the Kakapo, Strigops habroptila, and the Kea,Nestor notabilis, but the country also has some fan-tail species, including the aptly named New Zealand fantail, Rhipidura fuliginosa (pictured below).


Pied fantail (also called New Zealand fantail)- picture by Tony Willis. This image has a creative commons attribution share-alike 3.0 licence- you can find details [here].

Cheering-up bird 23-Ruff

This week's cheering-up bird is the ridiculous male Ruff, Philomachus pugnax. It is a medium sized bird and only the males have the ruff and then only in the breeding season. It is a wading bird and migrates over large distances.

This picture is by Arjan Haverkamp, who originally posted it here- http://www.flickr.com/photos/46956042@N00/3554767058
This image is reproduced here under a creative commons 2.0 licence- you can find the licence and further details here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philomachus_pugnax_-Diergaarde_Blijdorp-8c.jpg - this url was the source of the image.

Cheering-up bird 21- Macaroni Penguin

Good morning and Happy Monday to you.

Today's cheering-up bird is the Macaroni Penguin, Eudyptes chrysolophus.

Adults of this species are around 70cm (28 inches)tall/long and males have a mass of around 3.3kg (7lbs) after incubating their egg to around 6.4kg (14lbs) before moulting (females are a little lighter). This dramatic weightloss shows the strain that incubating the egg (and being unable to feed during this time) puts on the birds. More detailed information on this species is available here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_penguin

This image, taken on Livingstone Island, off Antarctica is by Jerzy Sterzelecki and was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macaroni_%28js%291.jpg, where you can view the image licence (creative commons attribution 3.0 unported).

Cheering-up bird 20- California Quail

Good morning! Sunday greetings! Today's cheering up bird is the "state bird" of California- the California Quail, Callipepla californica. This is a male, photographed in Golden Gate park. The photographer is Mila Zinkova.

You can find the image source and licence (creative commons attribution share alike 3.0) here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:California_Quail_mail_in_Golden_Gate_Park.JPG

Cheering-up bird 19- Comb-duck (=knob-billed duck)

Greetings! Welcome to Weridbeautiful! Today's cheering up bird is the Comb duck (also known- for obivous reasons- as the knob billed duck), Sarkidiornis melanotos. It is a tropical speices found in parts of Africa, Asia and South America.
This image is by Bs Thurner Hof, the source is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amerikanische_H%C3%B6ckerglanzgans_Sarcidiornis_sylvicolor_05_%281%29.jpg , where you can also see the licence (creative commons attribution share alike 3.0)