Any Birders Here?

pannaking22

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Out of curiosity, is there anyone here on AB who birds as well?
 

Najakeeper

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Well, my father is the president of the Canary and Cage Bird Federation in Turkey so I grew up around them. Dad still has a collection of a few hundred and in fact is in Portugal right now for the world competition.

I never liked the small bird but intelligent animals like Congo Grey Parrots or the modern dinosaurs like birds of prey are super interesting. Currently, snakes take all my time but if I reduce my collection, I may get a parrot.
 

Chris LXXIX

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Dec 25, 2014
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Well, not exactly, but if for birds we can count Bats -- c'mon, they fly too lol -- i have four on my farmhouse in the garden, i use those against mosquitoes btw, and Pavo cristatus (but my cousin keep them because i live in the city, even if i'm pretty isolated lol, he's in the country on the other hand) then yes.
 

CobaltWrangler

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I have a male Goffin"s cockatoo, adopted him from his previous owner 3 years ago. He's my "interactive" pet :).
 

pannaking22

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Very cool all, thanks for sharing! I don't have any birds, but I enjoy going out on the weekends and bird watching. Might get a bird someday, but that'll be when I have a bigger place with a lot more space lol.
 

Illusion

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I don't bird-watch, but I certainly enjoy seeing birds out in the wild, always have done. Where I live now we get some crazy sea birds, i've seen birds i'd never ever seen before, including artic terns, puffins and oyster catchers, it's fab.

Pet birds wise, I have 2 birds of prey, an owl and a European buzzard
 

dementedlullaby

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May 8, 2014
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I figured you meant bird watching. I have a passing interest. Depending on the time of year I do go out and watch sometimes.

I also own six smaller parrots. They're a pain but I love 'em.
 

Dark

Arachnobaron
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Do I bird watch? Not really but I do look at every bird that passes me in the sky (and since I've been doing it noticed a lot more than I used to). I've seen two owls flying at night which was fairly surprising as I'd never seen one in the wild before. I've seen more hawks than I can count and I see my own birds everyday. I have 7 pigeons and 5 doves (although technically they're all doves). Birds are incredible, no other animal group that I know of ranges from hummingbird size to ostrich size.

Eric
 

pannaking22

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I don't bird-watch, but I certainly enjoy seeing birds out in the wild, always have done. Where I live now we get some crazy sea birds, i've seen birds i'd never ever seen before, including artic terns, puffins and oyster catchers, it's fab.

Pet birds wise, I have 2 birds of prey, an owl and a European buzzard
That's awesome that you get to see those sea birds! I'm surrounded by a sea of corn and soy so my birds are a little different lol, but I still enjoy going out maybe once a week to see what I can find (actually just documented species #102 a couple weeks ago). I picked up birding late last fall to give me something to do when the bugs aren't out and I'm glad I did.

Do I bird watch? Not really but I do look at every bird that passes me in the sky (and since I've been doing it noticed a lot more than I used to). I've seen two owls flying at night which was fairly surprising as I'd never seen one in the wild before. I've seen more hawks than I can count and I see my own birds everyday. I have 7 pigeons and 5 doves (although technically they're all doves). Birds are incredible, no other animal group that I know of ranges from hummingbird size to ostrich size.

Eric
Congrats on seeing the owls! I've heard a couple species calling, but haven't gotten lucky enough to see one yet. I have seen both hummingbirds and ostriches in the wild though and both were certainly a treat!
 

Fishcrunch

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I've been getting into bird-watching this past year or so, outside of arachnids and some insects it's definitely become a large part of my life. I actually plan on doing some research on Green Kingerfisher (Chloroceryle americana) distribution and ecology in west-central texas, checking out the Devil's and Llano rivers.
 

pannaking22

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I've been getting into bird-watching this past year or so, outside of arachnids and some insects it's definitely become a large part of my life. I actually plan on doing some research on Green Kingerfisher (Chloroceryle americana) distribution and ecology in west-central texas, checking out the Devil's and Llano rivers.
It's a fun off season hobby that I'm planning on continuing when things warm up and all the migrants return. Best of luck on finding the green kingfisher! I want to visit Texas at some point for a couple weeks of birding and bugging!
 

tonypace2009

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photo-6.JPG photo-6.JPG This is charlie I had her for over 15 years. She passed away 3 months ago. Some birds are very long term pets.
 

Fishcrunch

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It's a fun off season hobby that I'm planning on continuing when things warm up and all the migrants return. Best of luck on finding the green kingfisher! I want to visit Texas at some point for a couple weeks of birding and bugging!
I find it rather peculiar that half of my time spent outside I'm either frantically flipping rocks/checking trails for inverts (Especially that darn Phyrnus operculatus), or i'm frozen in place, inspecting a stationary Blue Grosbeak or some Towhees. Texas is truly the best of both worlds, lol.
 

pannaking22

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View attachment 205346 View attachment 205346 This is charlie I had her for over 15 years. She passed away 3 months ago. Some birds are very long term pets.
Sorry for your loss! Birds can make very long term pets and I've heard it's the long-lived ones that can be really great to bond with.

I find it rather peculiar that half of my time spent outside I'm either frantically flipping rocks/checking trails for inverts (Especially that darn Phyrnus operculatus), or i'm frozen in place, inspecting a stationary Blue Grosbeak or some Towhees. Texas is truly the best of both worlds, lol.
I would say that Illinois is the same, but there's not much going on in central Illinois for birds or bugs so I usually have to travel a little bit to get the good stuff lol.
 

Tigrosa

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Oh hell yes! Bird nerd here. I'm not as good as I used to be (when I was ten I could identify pretty much every native bird by their calls alone) before I caught the reptile bug, but I absolutely love birds and bird watching.

Hard to beat raptors as far as just... a sheer force of nature. They're incredible.
 

Fishcrunch

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Oh hell yes! Bird nerd here. I'm not as good as I used to be (when I was ten I could identify pretty much every native bird by their calls alone) before I caught the reptile bug, but I absolutely love birds and bird watching.

Hard to beat raptors as far as just... a sheer force of nature. They're incredible.
West Texas certainly has its diversity of raptors! I'm still fairly rusty at IDing most Buteos, though pointing out the more uncommon species like the Zone-tailed and Common Black isn't too difficult.....if you can find them of course, lol.
 

Tigrosa

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Very cool!! I live on the southern coast of New York state... I don't get to see many different Buteos. :/ redtails are relatively uncommon, but we do have sightings. I saw a red-shouldered hawk in NYC a few years ago, in the dead of winter.

We do have Cooper's and sharpies, and I've also had the occasional peregrine sighting.

I also have spots for great horned owls and eastern screech-owls :D with at least one barn own sighting. We've yet to actually lay eyes on any of the owls... except for one awesome occasion where my friend managed to call two eastern screech owls over to us, haha.
 

Fishcrunch

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That's insane! It's funny how receptive many birds are to their own calls! I can tell you how much fun it is to stroll up to a towhee or cactus wren and play their calls back at them and watch them flip out! They sometimes will get within a foot of you and scream at your phone as it plays the call, lol. But yeah we definitely see some red-shouldered frequently around here, I'd love to see a peregrine though.
 

Tigrosa

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Strangely enough, most of the peregrine sightings around here occur near municipal bridges. They like to nest among the rafters.

They sure like pigeons :D
 
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