Chris Hail

Photo of two little corellas perched in a tree. They are medium-sized parrots, with white feathers all over their bodies, and a hint of pink around their eyes and beaks. Their eyes are surrounded by a patch of blue skin, and they have relatively small crests on the tops of their heads.

Photo of a galah perched on a bare branch. It is a medium size parrot, with light pink feathers on its front and neck, and light grey on its wings and tail. Its bill is mostly obscured by its feathers, and the top of its head is white in colour.

Little corellas are almost all white. Long-billed corellas are closely related, but have more pink and red on their faces, with that long hooked bill. Galahs are pink on the front with light grey on their backs. Pics of little corellas and a galah for comparison.

That's a great capture, but the bird is a long-billed corella.

Photograph of a small honeyeater perched on the stem of a Corymbia bud with flowers on either side. The flowers are bright red with yellow centres. The bird is shades of brown, orange, and black, with dark eyes and a long curved beak.

The young Eastern Spinebill lets me get a little closer each day while it's in the Corymbia.
#birds

Photo of male red-backed fairywren perched on a twig with green bokeh background. It is a very small bird with the long tail feathers unique to these types of birds. Its tail feathers are held vertically, and are longer than the entire body of the little bird. It is black, with a reddish-orange band around its shoulders and back, and light brown edges on its wings.

Red-backed fairywren 🪶 (bright male). Ipswich region, QLD
#wildoz #ausbirds

Photo of a calm sea with rugged pointy mountain peaks in the distance. A wedge-tailed shearwater is flying low over the water in the foreground. It is a dark-coloured seabird, with long thin wings and a small stubby tail.

Wedge-tailed shearwater 🪶 in the north of Moreton Bay, with the Glass House Mountains beyond.
#ausbirds #wildoz

Photo of a calm sea with rugged pointy mountain peaks in the distance. A wedge-tailed shearwater is flying low over the water in the foreground. It is a dark-coloured seabird, with long thin wings and a small stubby tail.

Wedge-tailed shearwater 🪶 in the north of Moreton Bay, with the Glass House Mountains beyond.
#ausbirds #wildoz

Young Tawny Fogmouth staring at me from around a tree roost spot.

Tawny Frogmouth at the local wetlands reserve. The juveniles are always very curious about what one is up to when walking under their daytime roost spots. #birds #ausbirds #yalikuwillamnaturereserve #wetlands #tawnyfrogmouth #natureinteraction #australia #naturephotography

Photo of a ticket for a Valentines Day luncheon train, set to depart at the famously romantic hour of 11am.

Plenty of seats available for the lunchtime train ride!

I reckon that's a healthy ringtail possum

"Taking Cassandra to The End of The World Party" by Fear Before the March of Flames

Photo of a turtle dove with its feathers ruffled up against a chilly breeze. It is a medium-sized dove, with feathers ranging in colour from light tan to dark brown. It is perched on a branch in front of bright yellow and orange fall foliage.

Turtle dove 🪶 in Kyoto, Japan from last November.

Photo of a spot-billed duck in profile. It is a medium sized duck with light brown feathers on its head and neck, and mottled darker brown on its body. It has a dark stripe across its eye and a black bill, which is bright orange at the tip.

Spot-billed duck, Ueno Park Tokyo
#birds #鳥

I'm sure that Tom Burns was a great politician, but I've always thought it was weird to put his name on a bridge, of all things

Breeding male superb fairy wren showing off his spectacular blue plumage while holding nesting material in his mouth.

The male Superb Fairy Wren's blue colour comes from microscopic structures on the feathers that scatter light. The blue plumage reflects UV light extremely strongly, making it even more spectacular to other fairywrens whose colour vision extends into the UV spectrum.

#birds #aussieBirds #nikon

Male Spotted Pardalote standing at a bird bath. These tiny birds earned the beautiful nickname "diamond bird" because of their jewellike white spots that sparkle across their black head and wings.

The Spotted Pardalote's name is actually "spotted" twice. The word "pardalote" comes from ancient Greek pardalōtos, meaning "spotted like a leopard," and its scientific name Pardalotus punctatus also means "spotted".
#BirdOfTheDay #speckles&spots #birds #australianBirds #australia #spots #wildBird

A portrait photograph of a female galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) illuminated by the sun on a dark green and blurred background. Her eyes are a vibrant red, surrounded by fleshy grey-pink eye rings as this is the south-eastern subspecies (E. r. albiceps). The galah is an attractive cockatoo with a white crest and crown, bone-white beak, pink belly, neck and chest and light grey feet, back, wings and tail. Photo taken in the Greater Sydney Area in September 2023

Fun fact: You can tell whether an adult galah (Eolophus roseicapilla) is male or female by looking at their eyes. Males have dark brown eyes, while females (like this one pictured here) have red eyes.

#birdphotography #Australianbirds #parrots #galah #photography #nature #naturephotography

Photo of a fish-owl standing on a rock, looking directly toward the camera, with a small fish in its beak. It is a large owl, as big as an eagle. It's a very dark scene, with the owl's bright yellow eyes and the shiny silver skin of the fish standing out in the centre of the frame.

My favourite photo from last year. A Blakiston's fish-owl with a small fish at a weir just outside of Rausu (羅臼町) in Hokkaido, Japan. These are large eagle-sized owls which fish at night, osprey-style, by jumping into the water and grabbing fish with their claws.
#birds #鳥

Photo of a fish-owl standing on a rock, looking directly toward the camera, with a small fish in its beak. It is a large owl, as big as an eagle. It's a very dark scene, with the owl's bright yellow eyes and the shiny silver skin of the fish standing out in the centre of the frame.

My favourite photo from last year. A Blakiston's fish-owl with a small fish at a weir just outside of Rausu (羅臼町) in Hokkaido, Japan. These are large eagle-sized owls which fish at night, osprey-style, by jumping into the water and grabbing fish with their claws.
#birds #鳥

Black‑shouldered Kite sitting quietly

Black‑shouldered Kite sitting quietly, calmly scanning the ground below for movement.

Taken with #nikon3500 70-300mm

#birds #birdPhotography #birdsofBlueSky #aussieBirds #australianBirds #aussieBirds #birdsofPrey #Raptors #nikon #naturePhotography

Photo of a grey heron, an oriental white stork, a little egret, and a great egret all in one frame. The gray heron at left is a tall and slender bird with grey feathers on its body and black along the edges of its wings. The stork at centre of the photo is twice as tall as the heron, and is white in colour with a long black beak and a black tail. At the right and in the background is a little egret, all white with a black beak, and a good deal smaller than the heron, though with a similar body shape. In the foreground is a great egret, also all white, but taller and sporting an orange beak. Its neck is the longest of all of these birds, and is held in a characteristic 's' shape.

Here's one for @everyheron.bsky.social - Heron, stork, egret, egret. (Gray, Oriental white, little, and great, from left to right)

Object on ground is a camera dome at the Hachigoro Toshima Wetland nature preserve.

Last month in Kinosaki, Japan

#birds #鳥

Lysenkoism had several tenets that were all equally bogus but strongly believed. I've always been fascinated by how long it persisted, given how demonstrably wrong it was.

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​A clear side-profile photo of a Buff-banded Rail standing among tall marsh grasses. The bird has a striking white stripe above its red eye and a rich chestnut band running from its beak to the back of its neck. Its chest features a bold orange band above a belly covered in fine black and white horizontal stripes. The background shows soft-focus reeds and green foliage.

I was asking Google a question about Buff-banded Rails as I was taking a break, and I looked up and one was before me. 🪄✨ Like magic.

#BirdOfTheDay #birds #birdphotography #nature #birding #birdwatchers #wildlife #wildlifephotography #Canon #Australia #R5

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this. They were trying to be Big Scary Terrorists, but that image kept getting spoiled by passers-by who just walked up to them and took their rifles away. There's so much power in the refusal to live in fear.

A Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) caught on camera just as its about to leap from its branch on to the ground in search of seed

Ready for launch

A Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) caught on camera just as its about to leap from its branch on to the ground in search of seed

#bird #finch #zebra finch #australianBirds

Photo of a black kite flying in a blue sky. It is a medium sized raptor, mostly light brown in colour. The shot is taken from the right side of the bird, so the wings aren't visible except for the upturned feathers on their ends. The kite's eye is visible between two of those feathers.

Sidelong view of a black kite, Oakey, QLD 🪶 #ausbirds #wildoz

Slender sun orchid (Thelymitra pauciflora) and pink sun orchid (Thelymitra carnea) flowering close together near the Genoa River, East Gippsland, VIC.

Slender sun orchid (Thelymitra pauciflora) and pink sun orchid (Thelymitra carnea) flowering close together near the Genoa River, East Gippsland, VIC. These two small sun orchids combine to form some interesting hybrids at this location but I didn't see any out this year on my quick visit #orchids

Photo of a white-bellied sea eagle in flight in a bright blue sky. It is a large eagle, mostly white as seen from below, with dark brown feathers on the trailing edges of its wings.

It's time to post raptors!

White-bellied sea eagle 🪶 at Eagle Hawk Neck, Tasmania.

Photo of an adult male paradise riflebird perched on a post. It is a small bird, solid black in colour, with bright metallic blue father's on top of its head and around its neck. It has a hint of bright yellow around the base of its beak, which is used as part of its elaborate mating dance.

Male paradise riflebird 🪶 Mt Glorious QLD
#ausbirds #wildoz

An Australasian Gannet twisting in mid air to go from horizontal to vertical and from cruising to warp speed in the fraction of a second.

You have to twist your brain a little to understand this one 😆. An Australasian Gannet twists as it starts its dive to plummet into the water after a fish. #birds #birdphotography