Monday, May 03, 2010

Colorful Animal Kingdom

The Wrinkled Hornbill or Sunda Wrinkled Hornbill (Aceros corrugatus) is a medium-large Hornbill which is found in forest in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. It has sometimes been placed in the genus Rhyticeros together with most other species generally placed in Aceros


The West African Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina pavonina) is a striking and colorful bird with golden feathers on top of its head that resemble a Roman helmet. It changes plumage once a year, except for the remiges, which are shed every two years simultaneously, preventing flight for a few weeks. Both male and female birds have similar plumage. The west African species has its red patch beneath the white patch on its cheek.


The Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America that is also the national bird and symbol of the United States. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed eagle. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.


The Southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a large, flightless black bird with stiff plumage, a brown casque, a blue face and neck, red nape, and two red wattles hanging down its throat. The three-toed feet are thick and powerful, equipped with a lethal dagger-like claw on the inner toe. The plumage is sexually monomorphic, but the female is dominant and larger with a longer casque and brighter-colored bare parts. The immature bird has plain brown plumage.


The Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna), also known as the Blue-and-gold Macaw, is a member of the macaw group of parrots which breeds in the swampy forests of tropical South America from Panama south to Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Trinidad. It is an endangered species in Trinidad.


Lories and lorikeets are small to medium-sized arboreal parrots which comprise the subfamily Loriinae. They are widely distributed throughout the Australasian region, including southeastern Asia, Polynesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Lories and lorikeets have specialized brush-tipped tongues for feeding on nectar and soft fruits. They can feed from the flowers of about 5,000 species of plants and use their special tongues to take in the nectar. The tip of their tongues have tufts of papillae (extremely fine hairs), which collect nectar and pollen.


The Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) is a wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. It is a mainly resident breeder in South America, the Caribbean, and the Gulf coast of the USA.


Violet Plantain Eaters (Musophaga violacea) fly down at meal time they display spectacular red flashes on the outer 1/3 of their wings. The turacos in our gardens are about 17 inches long with unusually silky plumage. The main body and tail color is purple, with red on top of their heads, red on lower edges of wings (male only), and a white horizontal stripe under the yellow eye surround. No eyelashes. Heavy bill is yellow with orange at the tip and has a horny plate extending from the upper mandible to the forehead.


The Visayan warty pig, Sus cebifrons, is a critically endangered species of pig. The Visayan warty pig is endemic to two of the Visayan Islands in the central Philippines, and is threatened by habitat loss, food shortages and hunting - these are the leading causes of the Visayan Warty Pig's status as critically endangered. Due to the small numbers of remaining Visayan Warty Pigs in the wild, little is known of their behaviors or characteristics outside of captivity.


Cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, are most abundant in east and southern Africa.


Hi my friends,

These are for now the last pictures from my recent visit to the zoo. They had also some Giraffes but they were hiding out somewhere in the back, in the shades. Next time maybe I will be able to capture some shots of them too, I hope :)

Thanks for all your kind comments to my "Wordless Sunday" photo from yesterday.
Stay tuned, have a wonderful day and I'll see you soon!
Susanne



23 comments:

Patty said...

Hi Susanne,

Nice to meet you. I really enjoy your photos. I live on the left coast of Florida. Florida is such a photogenic state. I'm a web design major at Southwest Florida College but I also enjoy photography. One day I hope to utilize both as my vocation.

Once again thank you for sharing your beautiful photographs.

S-V-H said...

Thank you so much for your kind words to my photography, I'm so glad you like it, Patty.

Nice to meet you :)

nothingprofound said...

When I see these photographs, and am reminded of all these magnificent creatures, I can't help thinking: "Isn't it wonderful to be alive?"

S-V-H said...

You're so right, Marty! It IS wonderful to be alive - in any ways!

Thanks for commenting.

Anonymous said...

i wanted to ask as to where you snapped all these beautiful creatures, on reading further of course where else but the zoo. I've seen the real hornbills in our bird park, they are one huge bird. Very nice photos Sue.ch

S-V-H said...

Thanks for liking them too, Hans! :)

Yvi said...

Hi Susanne,

wunderschöne Vogelbilder zeigst Du hier...

Und auch nochmal Glückwunsch zu deinem Award, hatte ich gestern gesehen!

LG
Yvi

S-V-H said...

Ich danke dir, libe Yvi fuer denen Kommentar. Ja, und auf den Award bin ich maechtig stolz! :)

Trotter said...

Hi Sue! Wow! What a gorgeous set of pictures!! Excellent!!

What about Ephesus? Blogtrotter Two has it... ;) Enjoy and have a great week!!

S-V-H said...

Thanks Manuel! I'll be visiting your blog soon :)

Donald Swarbrick said...

Wow! Your photos get better and better.

S-V-H said...

...*smile*... thanks Donald!

A Lady's Life said...

I love that blue headed parrot!
He is gorgeous!Nice shots!

Patty said...

Susanne,

I also wanted to ask you what time of day you took these photographs? If it was during the sun's highest time of the day, how do you avoid washed out colors and loss of detail due to dark shadows? Most zoos don't open until 10am and close too early so you have to shoot at some of the worst times of the day.

Thanks in advance.

S-V-H said...

Hi Patty,

yes you are right about the best times for shooting are indeed the mornings or the early evenings. We were the LAST visitors when they closed at 5.30p.m.on that day.

In a small Zoo it's time enough to take some shots, but not in a big one, I know... you have then to visit twice or more :)

Thanks for your compliment to my photos, Patty. ;)

The Retired One said...

stunning birds and animals..loved these!

S-V-H said...

You as a bird lover and great bird photographer, I thought you will like these photos :)

Thanks for the comment, Joan!

Kybipix said...

Wunderschöne Aufnahmen, einfach zum Geniessen. Wie schön doch die Natur ist!
Gratuliere, dass Dein Blog zu den besten 47 Photoblogs gehört. Rang 37 ist doch schon eine Leistung!
Liebe Grüsse aus der regnerischen und kalten Schweiz!

S-V-H said...

Ich bedanke mich bei dir, lieber Peter, fuer deine netten Worte zu meiner Photography und zu meinem "award", auf den ich sehr stolz bin!

Das war fuer mich eine sehr schoene Ueberraschung! :)

myonlyphoto said...

Susanne my favorite post. Wow what a nice bird collection, and then you add an ant eater, lol. Thanks for sharing your trip, now I got to go to mine. Anna :)

S-V-H said...

There was an anteater too, but he was walking to fast in circles and my camera batteries were going to slow to the end of my visit...you can imagine now how the pictures looked in the end, right? :)) nothing to post here...LOL...

Have you been in the Zoo with little Matthew??

Thanks for commenting.

myonlyphoto said...

Not yet Susanne, but I think he is ready, lol, he likes animals. Anna :) ps if you up to, there are some photos of Matthew on my blog.

S-V-H said...

Yes, go and show him all those wonderful animals, Anna. My kids loved to go to the zoo in all ages :)

Thanks for commenting!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin