• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Recent content by pianoman

  1. pianoman

    How do birds identify at distance what is edible?

    I think it has something to do with birds' infinitely better colour vision than ours. It's not just that they see ultraviolet it is that they have 4 different fully functional types of cone receptors to our 3 (really 2 1/2 because our yellow cones aren't as fully developed as the red and blue...
  2. pianoman

    Robin in my outhouse

    And just for fun: "Bog" is an Irish or Scots Gaelic adjective meaning "Soft". Only in English is it used as a noun to refer to a marsh, wet peat area, or indeed an outhouse... Edit: Back to the robins Macey - wishing them and you every success this season :-)
  3. pianoman

    A Change Of Luck.

    Nice - is that a Wigeon X Teal, or is it just a trick of the light?
  4. pianoman

    Netherlands - common snipe or jack snipe?

    Ah yes I see them all now, including the "candidate" bird. Realize now that pic 1 is a zoom of pic 2. I'd hazard that it looks somewhat smaller but agree that it really is almost impossible to tell
  5. pianoman

    Netherlands - common snipe or jack snipe?

    In the second picture, allowing for the optical illusion caused by the zoom, the frontmost snipe is approx the same size as the definite Common Snipe to the right of the Coot. And yes I think you can just make out the vertical flank barring on the frontmost snipe. So on balance, Common for me...
  6. pianoman

    Sticky rubber on numerous consumer products, not aimed at specific birding optics companies

    The handlebars of my electric bike developed stickiness within a couple of years of buying it. Some plastics degrade and become brittle or powdery, but the plastic used for grips of various products seems instead to go sticky with age. I'm not sure what polymer this rubber-like substitute is.
  7. pianoman

    Pied, or a White Wagtail?

    Yellowish face implies a juvenile, which will complicate the ID. But even so, I think I see enough difference between the dark crown and the lighter mantle to hazard White. Far from certain though
  8. pianoman

    Europeans, which American bird would you most like to see?

    Rereading this thread and realized that I didn't have long to wait; saw plenty at my brother's feeders in Florida just a couple of months later in Nov.
  9. pianoman

    Merlin Identifies as House Sparrow but not heard this before ?

    I would agree that the main call (something like "hooweet.......tseeooo") is most likely Coal Tit. I hear a similar call quite often on walks and it used to puzzle me untill I got a good view of the Coal Tit making the call.
  10. pianoman

    Robins with or without grey faces?

    There's something else about Delia's photo - the bluish tint to the grey parts may partly be a photo artefact but I can sometimes see this in real life. I have a feeling that if you had the enhanced colour vision of a bird, that grey would show as quite a bright colour. And many relatives of...
  11. pianoman

    Scary

    It often occurs to me that the features animals use to impress their own species also impress us Homo Sapiens too. THere must be a universal language of cool :cool:
  12. pianoman

    UK Long-eared Owl survey

    Yes Males call in the spring but there is a certain amount of luck in being there to hear them. The fledged juv calls in July (my local forest anyway) are quite constant and far-carrying so you would likely hear them. Of course this won't find adults that did not breed that year, and won't...
  13. pianoman

    UK Long-eared Owl survey

    A pretty reliable way at least to identify the presence of breeding LEO is to familiarize yourself with the juvenile calls, then wander through suitable woodland in early to mid July at dusk. If LEO is breeding in that wood, you will hear the calls pretty reliably. You may also be able to...
  14. pianoman

    Nyjer seed not attracting goldfinches ?

    Also if you have other feeders for different species, the general activity round the feeders tends to attract the goldfinches in.
  15. pianoman

    Magpie or?

    Interesting - Perhaps there is a significant difference, listening to this: Black billed magpie I haven't heard my local magpies making a sound like that.
See more
Back
Top