Showing posts with label Blackbird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blackbird. Show all posts

Carib Grackle

Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
Carib Grackle

Order : Passeriforme
Also known as Passerine’s or perching bird’s. Any member of the largest avian order which includes more than 5,700 species, more than half of all living birds. Passerine’s are true perching birds with four toed feet, three toes facing forward and one larger toe facing backwards.

Family : Blackbirds (Icteridae)
The Icteridae is a family made up of 88 species of diverse songbirds from across the Americas including blackbirds, grackles, orioles, cowbirds, meadowlarks, and oropendolas. The majority of Icterids have black in the plumage with yellow also being a predominant colour in many species. Males are usually decidedly larger than females.

Name :Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
Length : 24 - 27 cm ( 9½ - 11 in)
Local Names : Blackbird, Bequia-sweet, Merle.

The male is a glossy purple black with a conspicuous yellow eye and the tail is long and keel-shaped. The female is smaller than the male and duller with a regular shaped tail, while juveniles are brown or mottled brown-black with brown eyes. The species roost and nests colonially building large cup shaped nests often high in palm or other trees. The call is a series of harsh clucks and squeaks often ending with a ringing bell like note. They feed mainly on insects, though they are known to eat seeds, and will readily take scraps, being just as much at home in open restaurants as in their more natural habitat of fields and mangroves.

#Carib Grackle #Quiscalus lugubris #Blackbirds #Icteridae #Passeriforme #Blackbird # Bequia-sweet #Merle #songbird #bird #birds of Tobago

Bird identification picures

Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)

Brown Noddy

Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)
Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)
Brown Noddy

Order : Charadriiformes
This is a diverse order which includes about 350 species of birds in all parts of the world. Most Charadriiformes are strong flyers, some species performing the most extensive migration of any birds. Most live near water and eat invertebrates or other similar small animals and most nest on the ground. the order is split into 3 main suborders; Charadrii (about 200 species including Sandpipers, Plovers and Lapwings ), Lari ( about 92 species including Gulls, Turns, Skimmers and Jaegers), and Alcidae ( about 21 species including Auks, Guillemots and Puffins)

Family : Gulls and Turns (Laridae)
The Laridae family compromises two distinct subfamilies Lari (Gulls) and Sterninae (Turns). Gulls account for over 40 species, and are heavily built web footed scavengers that take insects, molluscs, crustaceans, fish and garbage from beaches and shorelines, worms and grubs from fields, and some will even take eggs and chicks of other birds including their own. Turns account for about 40 species of slender water birds that often form large breeding colonies nesting on the ground on remote Islands sometimes numbering millions of individuals. Many Terns are long distance migrants covering thousands of kilometres in just a few days.

Name :Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus)
Length : 37 - 38 cm ( 15 in )
Local Names : Egg Bird, Blackbird

This dark Tern occurs throughout the Caribbean, one of the largest concentrations being some 2 - 4,000 pairs that breed in the Virgin Islands. As it’s name suggests it is brown all over with a grey to white forehead and crown, and darker wing tips and tail, which is wedge shaped. Immature are whitish on the forehead only. The Brown Noody nests in trees, on the ground, or on bare rock or cliff edges, the nest is either a shallow depression or a rough nest of twigs where a single egg is laid. It spends most of it’s time off shore where it feeds on fish taken at the surface.

#Brown Noddy #Anous stolidus #Turn #Laridae #Sterninae #Charadriiformes #Lari #Egg Bird #Blackbird #Sea Birds #seabirds #Caribbean #birds #birds of Tobago

Bird identification pictures

Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus) Seabird Birds of Tobago
Brown Noddy (Anous stolidus) Turns (Laridae)