misc. bird photos - take a look!

[Alika]

My uncle came to my aviary and took some pictures of *my* birds a week or so ago. We brought them out for him and set them up in nice backgrounds. These are some of the lower quality shots... but still, please, do not use any without permission... they are not mine, they are his, and he is trying to build a name for himself as a professional photographer. I almost didn't upload any, but there are a few I know he won't be selling and at least on this website the logo gets put in the corner.

Enjoy!

Hayden, our 10-year-old green-winged macaw, emerges from his hole. He is trained to come out of that hole, walk down a branch, and fly to a trainer in our show.



Our sulfur-crested cockatoo is trained to open his wings on command. In this photo, he's only half opened, so it's not the best shot.



This is our female harris' hawk who flies in our show:



One of our two male great-horned owls. This particular bird goes to schools in the winter time and is trained to fly in the school shows.



Our black vulture. He is one of my all-time favorites! He's so much fun to work, because he can get really close to the public and still be safe and he is both worked by flying back and forth and running on the ground. Like the owl above, he goes to school shows in the winter time.



Finally, we went out back and I let him watch me give our emu a bath. In the first picture, he's getting me all wet :)

[RachelLynn]

Great pics. I love the first one and the ones of the emu getting a bath.

[tiger2]

Cool! It must be fun working with all those birds! I love the owl, I've always been fasinated by them.

[Alika]

Thanks. Here are a few more:

Our red-billed toucan. She is old and has arthritis, so she is retired.



One of our six american white pelicans. I can only tell them apart in real life, so I don't know which one this is. There are three that we use in our summer shows. We separate them from the flock in the spring and move them to a closer pond. They are trained to come over to bird show at the beginning of each day and go back to their pond at the end of the day. In the winter, they are moved back to the big pond to be with the other three.



This is Nizhoni, our golden eagle. Her name is a native american word meaning 'beautiful'. She is one of two eagles in our show; the other is a bald eagle. Nizhoni is about as big as golden eagles get. She weighs about 14 lbs in the winter.



Another one of my favorites: this is our american crow. Corvids are considered to be the most intelligent of birds. They have been known to make and use tools in the wild, much like chimpanzees do. She's in horrible feather in this picture; she was in the middle of a molt. Unlike parrots, corvids tend to molt in patches, so they look terrible when they are molting.



This is our barred owl, Cypress.



And this is one of our swainson's hawks. This is a dark morph, not easily identifiable as a swainson's.



And, finally, the peregrine falcon we are getting next month. It's not the greatest picture. The only reason I have a picture at all is because my sister happens to work at the rehab we're getting him from and she sent me a picture. The reason he's all stripedy is because he is an immature bird.

[kp_in_scott]

Thanks for posting those beautiful photos! Especially the cockatoo. Now I know what one is SUPPOSED to look like. This is what I thought they looked like. LOL

[Tiki]

Wow, those are beautiful shots, Alika! Stunning birds!

[cfulhage]

Nizhoni is so beautiful! They all are! What a great job, being able to work with all of those birds every day!

[Spinnergirl]

Wow thanks for taking the time to post all those pictures!!

I think it's safe to say it is very much appreciated!! I always try to see any bird shows I can I love watching them.....little secret here, I cry every time when the eagle comes out..it is just so majestic.

Question, how much does a macaw weigh (abouts)?? I mean I am trying to compare it to the eagle at 14lbs.

kp-in-scott I was LOL very funny!

[FeathersNFur8]

Beautiful pictures, they are all gorgeous! My favoroite, the GWM

Karen

[Alika]

Originally Posted by Spinnergirl

Question, how much does a macaw weigh (abouts)?? I mean I am trying to compare it to the eagle at 14lbs.

Our green-winged usually holds around 1500 grams.

There are about 450 grams in a pound, so I guess that's about 3 lbs.

The eagles are HEAVY. Oh. My. Goodness. There are a lot of things that are difficult about handling them, but their weight is the worst. I feel like such a wuss after just 10 minutes. When I do eagle courts, I have to last for at least 20 minutes... that is a LONG time to hold a 14 lb bird!

We like to ask people how much they *think* the eagles weigh when we have them out in the public. People usually guess 40-50 lbs. Now THAT would be a heavy bird... a heavy bird that couldn't fly :)

Goldens and balds don't get much heavier than 14 or 15 lbs, but the largest of eagles, the harpy, can get up to 20 lbs! I've seen pictures of people handling those birds and while they are AMAZING, I don't think I could do it.