This bird is blind in one eye. He has learned to compensate for it but cannot catch wild prey. They are too quick and in tests they always got away. I have photographed this bird before (and published numerous photographs).
Above you can see how the bird can fly and get food if it is stationary.
This hawk is more than happy to fly, and is fitted with a small transmitter should he go on an adventure.
Photographs taken at The Center For Birds Of Prey, South Carolina.
A stubborn Night Heron. This bird, I assume it’s the same one, finds a location under some branches and ignores everything else.
More scenes from the old cemeteries.
Bubo is a subspecies of Owls. Bubo are the very big Owls, also considered Eagle Owls. In North America we have the Bubo virginianus which is the Great Horned Owl. Big.
What happens when an Owl is named the ‘Bubo Bubo’? I think that means ‘Big Big’ Owl, or ‘Big A__’ Owl. This is the Eurasian Eagle Owl.
It is the largest species of Owl. A full grown bird is around 3 feet (90 cm). The wing span is over 6 feet, and makes not a sound in flight. How’s that for nightmare stuff.
They breed in parts of Europe and Southeast Asia with many different subspecies with the Bubo group.
This bird also has the characteristic orange Bubo eyes. And like everything else, they are really really big. They can live to 20 years, I sure hope they stopped growing somewhere in there.
I do not know, nor want to know, what or who they eat.
I have wanted to photograph a Caracara for a long time. Somehow I thought they were bigger.
They are a member of the falcon species but even full grown don’t really look like one. The furthest north these birds live is the southern end of Florida…and this baby in South Carolina.
Raptors are raised in the Center For Birds Of Prey here so why not a Caracara.
Click here for more Caracara details.
Not something I see every day. Not a native bird, his true home is New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. However, Sumter, South Carolina, has plenty with more on the way based on nests and young I saw.
I didn’t try, but I’m sure it was locked.
I would have like a little peek though.
I was out in a large Wildlife Management Area in search of big wading birds, maybe Spoonbills. So of course I find a 9 inch (23 cm) Kingbird. Perched in a spot as good as it gets.
This bird was in a small scrub pine hanging over open water. Pine cones, spider webs, all the props I could ask for.
Click, or double tap, to view the gallery.
