The blue-eared pheasant is a large pheasant endemic to China. Although rare, it is regarded as the least concerning species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is a large gray terrestrial bird with an elegantly frilly tail. Its bright red face and upswept white facial plumes (“ears”) are unique in its range—this one at Sylvan Heights Bird Park.
Blue-eared Pheasant
Flamingos spend about 15% to 30% of their time during the day preening. This is a large percentage compared to waterfowl, which preen only about 10% of the time. Flamingos preen with their bills. An oil gland near the base of the tail secretes oil that the flamingo distributes throughout its feathers.
Here is a Lesser Flamingo preening at Sylvan Heights Bird Park.
Lesser Flamingo Grooming
Male peacocks, also known as peafowl, are easily recognizable by their vibrant blue or green plumage and long, ornate tail feathers, also known as trains. This long tail is a key feature for courtship displays to attract peahens (female peacocks). The term “peacock” refers to the male bird, while the female is a peahen, and the whole group is called peafowl.
Here is one looking away at Sylvan Heights Bird Park.
Peafowl
A parakeet is any one of many small- to medium-sized parrot species, in multiple genera, that generally have long tail feathers. The two basic parakeet color types are green and blue.
Parakeets at Sylvan Heights Bird Park are in a small protected enclosure where visitors can feed them, and the birds sit on the visitors’ hands or heads.
Parakeet
Parakeet Grooming
Budgerigar or Parakeet
Low water levels in the river in Bera expose the rocky landscape, but still provide pockets of water for a black-headed Ibis – a large wader with a white body and bare black head and neck. Males and females look similar and both have grayish tail feathers.
The Indian leopard has strong legs and a long well-formed tail, a broad muzzle, short ears, and small, yellowish-grey eyes, light grey ocular bulbs. Its coat is spotted and rosetted on a pale yellow to the yellowish-brown or golden background. Leopards are elusive, and solitary animals. They are active mainly from dusk till dawn but in some regions, they are nocturnal.
Here is a leopard on the move, crouching low to the ground as if stalking something in Gir National Park.
It wasn’t only swans and irises at Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, SC. Captured this squirrel posing on a tree branch showing off its wide open eyes and bushy tail. Colorful bokeh effect in the background.
The King Vulture is an uncommon, large, and spectacular bird of lowland tropical forest, mainly in wilder areas and not around human habitation. Most often seen soaring overhead in mid-late morning, often fairly high up; rarely seen perched. Striking adult has a colorful head and neck, piercing white eyes, and mostly white plumage with a black trailing edge to the wings and tail. Here is a captive, perched vulture at Carolina Raptor Center, North Carolina.
King Vulture
The red-shouldered hawk is a medium-sized hawk. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. With large, broad wings with long tails and heavy bodies, female red-shouldered hawks are larger than males. Here is a female fluttering its wings at Carolina Raptor Center, North Carolina.
Red-shouldered Hawk Female Fluttering Wings
Red-shouldered Hawk Female Fluffing Wings
The Eurasian eagle-owl is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Eurasia. It is one of the largest species of owl, and females can grow to a total length of 30 inches, with a wingspan of 6 ft. 2 in, with males being slightly smaller. This bird has distinctive ear tufts, with upper parts that are mottled with darker blackish coloring and tawny. The wings and tail are barred and the underparts are a variably hued buff, streaked with darker coloring.
Here is a male Eurasian eagle-owl at the Carolina Raptor Center, North Carolina.
Eurasian Eagle Owl Male
Eurasian Eagle Owl Male Piercing Eyes
Outstandingly maneuverable, Lanner Falcons use their large tails and relatively low wing loading to perform exceptionally to the lure and can take a range of small birds as prey. The piercing eyes of a Lanner Falcon at the Carolina Raptor Center, North Carolina.
Eyes of a Lanner Falcon Male
Lanner Falcon Male Closeup
“Mares of Diomedes” by Gutzon Borglum at Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.
Horses race forward, bodies pressed together. All are wildly excited, ears laid back, nostrils distended, and mouths open gasping for breath. The bodies are truthfully modeled without insistent detail to give a dynamic sense of rushing movement, enhanced by the rhythmic play of muscles and the backward flow of loose masses in the manes and tails.
Trio of Horses
“Alligator Bender” by Nathaniel Choate at Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet.
A nude man seated on the back of an alligator, his legs gathered under him. His left hand grasps the jaw, his right arm curves around the tail, bending the creature’s body in a semi-circle.
Fighting a Gator
Unique kites with their tails flying at the International Kite Festival in Vadodara, India on January 8, 2020
Vibrant Tail
Tail Higher than Kite
Kite Above the Palms
Flying With Tails