Red-and-Yellow Barbet

The red-and-yellow barbet is also named “Trachyphonus erythrocephalus” belongs to the African barbet family. This bird can be found in eastern Africa, in woodlands, scrubland and savannah, where it regularly forages on the ground near trees or bushes. The Red-and-Yellow barbet is approximately eight or nine inches long. Red and Yellow barbet has a long, strong, pointed red bill, and has red, yellow black and white upper parts and yellow under parts. The male bird has a black crown and a black chin stripe. The female bird has a red crown with black spots.

Moreover; the bird habitually build nests inside termite mounds (termite nests), using their strong, heavy beaks to break into the mounds. They like to eat fruits, and are mostly fond of figs. They also eat seeds, insects, lizards, small birds and eggs. These birds are generally comfortable around humans, but they eat food, such as bread, that people waste. Some people keep red-and-yellow barbets as pets. The Masai use the feathers of red-and-yellow barbets as clothing decorations.

Therefore; the breeding pair will often belong to a group that comprises of the pair and from 1 to 5 "helpers" who support the breeding pair to raise their young. These helpers are habitually younger birds, but there may be 1 or 2 additional adults in the group. The breeding pair in a group will often sing a long & loud duet, which sounds like the words "red and yellow" being repeated over and over. The helpers sometimes join with them in singing with breeding pair for a short while. Moreover; termite mounds are often used as nesting sites. 

However; the barbets dig a tunnel, which is about 16 inches long, inside a termite mound. They build a nesting chamber, lined with grass and feathers, at the end of this tunnel. The female lays between two to six eggs. Both the parents help chicks feed as a diet of mostly insects, which are responsible for the newly hatched birds with the big amounts of protein that they need. When the chicks grown up, and able to leave the nest, they’ll normally stay close to their parents and become helpers themselves, assisting their parents in raising the next brood.

Grass Green Tanager: A Distinctive Small Passerine Bird

The striking Grass Green Tanager is a small passerine bird, belongs to tanager family. This is beautifully distinctive and well-named bird and the only member of the genus Chloronis. The bird is 20 cm in length and weighs 53g and it lives in and around subtropical and found temperate forests in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru at elevations of 1500–3350 m.  This bird is often seen in mixed species flocks, and usually travels in pairs or in groups of 3-6 individuals. It forages mostly on upper half of short trees and eats fruits and insects. It is recognized as perch almost horizontally, and its nest is made of mosses and ferns, and its eggs are gray with light purple-grey dots. Almost the full bird is clad in bright green, relieved only by the chestnut face mask and ventral region, while both the chunky bill, and the legs and feet are deep red. It is one of the most impressive tanagers in the cloud forest.          Source: Charismatic Planet

Forest of the Yew

This forest is called "Forest of the Yew" or "Tosande Forest." It is one of the largest concentrations of Tejos the world. This tree inspired by the terrifying ghost tales of talking trees. There Quoits has a face. They twist themselves as distant tree that you see, he is one of the very young (has 400 years). The "Tosande Forest" is located just 5 km from, Cervera de Pisuerga, Palencia, Spain.

Ruddy Kingfisher

When you’re a beginner, and you get excited about seeing beautiful birds of any kind. However when you’ve been photographing or bird watching for some time, it's all about ticking off groups of birds. Well, the attractive ruddy kingfisher also called Halcyon Coromanda is an average sized tree kingfisher which is commonly distributed in east and Southeast Asia, ranging from South Korea and Japan in the north, south through the Philippines to the Sunda Islands, and west to China and India. It is a migratory bird in the northern part of the range migrating as far south as Borneo during winter.

In the vicinity of southern parts of its range, the ruddy kingfisher is uncommon in Japan, where it is extremely sought after by birders. The global population size has not been computed, but the species is reported to be extensive but usually rare and uncommon. Ruddy kingfishers inhabit forested areas from the temperate to tropical zones, often in thick jungles and rainforests. The bird size is reaching approximately 25 cm; the ruddy kingfisher has a very big, bright red bill and equally red legs. The body is rust red, usually deepening to purple at the tail. There is slight sexual dimorphism though some sources state that male birds are somewhat brighter in plumage.

Such as kingfishers, ruddy kingfishers usually feed on fish, crustaceans, and big insects; however in areas with less running water, they’re famous to take frogs and other amphibians. The population is suspected to be in decline owing to loss of coastal mangroves as well as occasional collisions with lighthouses and collection for taxidermy Due to its preference for heavily forested areas, the kingfisher's high, descending call is more often heard than the bird itself is seen, and these birds usually travel singly or in pairs. The binomial name recalls the Coromandel Coast of India.

The len ticular cloud formation creates a breathtaking image over the conical-shaped Klyuchevskaya Sopka mountain in east Russia.

The len ticular cloud formation creates a breathtaking image over the conical-shaped Klyuchevskaya Sopka mountain in east Russia. (Photo: Ivan Dementievskiy). Klyuchevskaya Sopka is a stratovolcano, the highest mountain on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia and the highest active volcano of Eurasia. The volcano is part of the natural Volcanoes of Kamchatka UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Wine Glass Vine (Ceropegia)

Ceropegia is a genus of plants within the family Apocynaceae, native to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus.