Western Birds
Here are some pictures of the beautiful fauna and flora on the West Coast.
Here is an American Bittern (Swan Lake). This very well camouflaged bird lives in reeds in marshy areas. A member of the Heron family, it eats frogs and small fish.
A spectacular male Bufflehead at Esquimalt Lagoon. This pretty diving duck is fairly common. Below is a female Bufflehead.
An American Coot at Swan Lake. Following is a Coot near Duncan and a British Coot (with white forehead) in London UK.
A European coot and her very flashy chick in a Burgundy river.
Double-crested Cormorants at Swan Lake.
A Great Cormorant at Beaconhill Park
A Pelagic Cormorant at Sidney Harbour.
Sandhill Cranes at the George Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Vancouver
An American Dipper looking for fish.
An American Dipper. This Robin-sized bird "flies" underwater to catch fish or shellfish. Here is another one at Goldstream Park.
A Long-billed Dowitcher (Witty's Lagoon)
A Barbary duck (Mexican duck) near Palm Springs
A male Canvasback Duck
A female Gadwall at Albert Head
A male and a female Harlequin Duck at Cattle Point in Victoria
Long-tailed Duck (Oldsquaw), San Diego
Here is a spectacular male Mallard whose colorful feathers should please any female! Below is a female.
A male Northern Shoveller at Cedarhill Golf Course. Below is a female Northern Shoveller. Check out the beak.
A Red shoveller in London UK
A nervous Pintail on pond ice.
A Pintail Duck at Esquimalt Lagoon. The following picture shows a male and a female.
A Redhead Duck in a London UK pond
A male Ring-necked Duck. Following is a female Ring-necked Duck and a male Greater Scaup.
A Ruddy Duck in San Diego
A male Tufted duck in London UK. Below is a female.
A male red-headed pochard from London UK
An A male American widgeon
A male and a female Eurasian Wigeon at Beaconhill Park in Victoria BC. This bird is rare in Canada.
A female Wood Duck at the Cedar Hill Golf Course. Next are pictures of male Wood Ducks.
The two males above are stretching their necks to attract the attention of females.
Here are two Wood Ducks in their molting phase : male, then female.
Here is a female White-cheeked Pintail, a wild duck from the Bahamas, in Victoria's Beaconhill Park. It probably escaped from captivity since
it is not normally found in Canada .
The same duck in a seductive (for a duck) pose.
Bald Eagles
A Crow is dive-bombing a Bald Eagle that is protecting its nest. Crows hate Bald Eagles because they eat Crow chicks.
This eaglet is just about ready to fledge from his nest located near the Oak Bay Firehall.
This is the mother of the eaglet above, being harassed by a crow. Perhaps the crow is mad at her for raiding her nest.
A Cattle Egret from Maui.
A Great Egret, Salton Sea
A Snowy Egret in Chula Vista, California. The following one is hunting for crabs by beating seeweed with its paw.
A Marbled Godwit in Chula Vista.
Male Common Goldeneye
Female Common Goldeneye
A Barnacle goose near a Burgundy lake. It's much smaller than a Canada goose.
A Bar-headed Goose at Esquimalt Lagoon.This is the highest flying type of bird: it reaches 10.2 km to cross the Himalaya
Range in its migrations. This bird is very rare in Canada and probably escaped from captivity.
Canada geese at Esquimalt Lagoon
This Canada goose, seen at Esquimalt Lagoon, is a hybrid between a domestic goose and a Canada Goose.
A family of Egyptian geese in London UK
A Pink-footed goose from Kew Garden
This Nene, a rare bird in Maui, is a distant relative of the Canada Goose. It is the State Bird of Hawaii.
Snow Geese in the Fraser River Delta in Vancouver. Adults birds are pure white and younger geese have darker colours. Below is a flock of Snow Geese in flight.
There are many thousands of Snow geese on the shore in Vancouver. They spend the winter near the Fraser River and migrate to a Siberian island to breed in the summer.
A Black Brant Goose at Island View Beach, Saanich
A White-fronted Goose at Mirror Lake near Mount Hood in Oregon
A pair of Great Crested grebes on Lake Luzern in Switzerland are doing a nuptial dance.
A Horned Grebe, San Francisco
A Pied-billed Grebe at Blenkinsop Lake
A Western Grebe in Lake Utah.
A Pigeon Guillemot in breeding colours at Sidney Harbour.
A juvenile Pigeon Guillemot near the Victoria Breakwater
A Heermann's Gull in San Diego.
A young Glaucous Gull with its favorite seafood
A Black-crowned Night Heron from Maui
A Great Blue Heron at Victoria's Swan Lake.
A Great Blue Heron in Victoria. Below is a confused Heron on pond ice.
A Gray heron in London UK
A Kingfisher at Maple Bay.
A molting Pacific Loon at the White Rock Pier
A Red-throated Loon (winter colours) at a local beach.
A Common Loon at a Saanich beach
A male and a female Common Mergansers near Jordan River in BC. Below is a female at Swan Lake in Victoria.
The Hooded Merganser is a strange-looking bird. The one above has raised its hood. The one below has folded it.
Here is a close-up of a Hooded Merganser. One can see how its serrated beak can easily capture and grip small fish.
This male is taking off. The female Hooded Merganser below is much less flashy than the male.
A male Red-breasted Merganser (San Diego).
A female Red-breasted Merganser at a Saanich beach.
A Moorhen from London UK
An Ancient Murrelet some distance off the Victoria Lighthouse. This is not a very sharp picture but it is good enough to identify this rare (in Victoria) bird.
An Osprey looking for prey
An Osprey in Gyro Park in Victoria. It's ready to pounce on a fish.
Here is a web page on an osprey family at the University of Victoria (UVIC).
Click HERE
A Black Oystercatcher on a Sooke beach.
Brown pelican in San Diego
White Pelicans at Salton Sea in California
A Black-bellied Plover in Saanich.
A Pacific Golden Plover in Maui.
A Dunlin Sandpiper.
A Sanderling Sandpiper
These Sanderlings race after a receding wave to catch small creatures, on a San Diego beach.
A Spotted Sandpiper in San Diego.
A Rock Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpipers
A pair of Lesser Scaups at Esquimalt Lagoon.
A male Lesser Scaup at Esquimalt Lagoon. A female is shown below.
A male White-winged Scoter in a Whidbey Island pond.
Four male Surf Scoters in White Rock near the US border
Two female Surf Scoters
A Black-headed Seagull in winter coat at Victoria's Swan Lake.
A Bonaparte's Seagull (First year's colours)
A Heermann's Seagull.
A Herring Seagull on the thin ice of Swan Lake
Here are two pictures of a strange bird we glimpsed in our garden. Although, technically, these are not
very good pictures, they clearly show that this is a Common Snipe. This sandpiper-like bird has
characteristic white stripes down its back.
A Black-necked Stilt at Salton Sea in January 2017
A Surfbird in Victoria. Compare this with the Black Turnstone below. The Surfbird has a patch of yellow at the base of its beak.
A pair of Mute Swans at Esquimalt Lagoon. Following is a nice Mute Swan about to take off.
Trumpeter Swans at Esquimalt Lagoon.
A Female Blue-winged Teal (Witty's Lagoon). Below is a male bird.
Two male and a female Green-winged Teal in Victoria.
A young Arctic Tern at our local beach. The Arctic Tern is an incredible flyer that migrates from the Actic to the Antarctic.
A Caspian Tern at Esquimalt Lagoon.
A Gull-billed Tern in San Diego.
A Least Tern in San Diego.
A Royal Tern (San Diego)