Unsure if this is the right sub to ask.. Didn't appear sickly or anything.

Walking around my College Campus when I sat down and saw this nearby. I’m pretty sure it’s a black-crowned night heron but thought it was cool to see on campus and wanted to share it with all of you here! If I’m wrong, feel free to correct me since I want to learn as much as I can.

Says someone finds a sick bird at the feeder, correct thing to do is take down sanitation, and wait a few weeks before setting it up again. But during that time could someone safely scatter food in the grass for “free feeding”. I ask because my squirrels are free fed and the birds have been landing and eating seeds from squirrel snacks in the grass even with the feeder in quarantine. Thanks in advance!

Found this female who let me get uncomfortably close this morning. No obvious deformities or masses when I did a quick glance, but severe conjunctivitis and she seemed out of it. Should I shut down my feeder?

Also, if I can catch her, anything I can do to help or is she beyond help?

I am a birder/ nature student that has a question about bird colours. Why are most of the European bird species dull colored? I noticed that even in countrys like canada/usa the species there are much more brighter and flashier than in Europe where they tend to have more dull/brown tints.

I have a mated pair of crows that I’ve been feeding for over a year. They’re very comfortable with me and will hang around in the yard when I’m there. Recently I’ve seen them joining up with another pair of crows to mob birds of prey, as there has been a lot of raptor and owl activity. Today all four have been hanging out in the yard, and I can’t tell if they’re fighting with each other or getting along. They’ll sometimes chase each other and seemingly swoop on each other, but then I’ll see all four of them sitting together on a branch or the power line. They’re also constantly cawing. Is it possible they’ve joined up for autumn/winter since there’s increased bird of prey activity? Or are they having a territorial dispute? I can’t even tell which are my original pair because they all seem comfortable with me, and they’ll all sit in various combinations of pairs without fighting. But then at other times they seem to chase each other. I’m very confused.

Could someone help me determine what type of bird this is?

Not a traditional question, and not sure if it has been asked before, but as a bird nerd and an aspiring ornithologist, there are often inaccurate representations of birds in media that just bother me. For example, my TikTok is currently rife with woefully inaccurate bird or “angel” wings that are part of Halloween costumes- you know, the ones that just have feathers plastered all over them with no clear pattern. Any representation of feathered wings like that has always irked me SO much for some reason.

So I figured I’d ask, what other avian inaccuracies bother the heck out of you, if any?

Today I saw two owls in my NW Iowa yard. Didn’t get a great look at them but I did see some details and am hoping someone can help me ID them. While walking through the tree row next to my farm house two owls got up off the ground and flew away. They were within 20ft of me, but there was brush in between us. They were within 20ft of each other a flew within seconds of each other. The first one had a grey/black and white wavy or checkered chest. All I saw. The second one I only saw from behind. The tail feathers were brown on top and white towards the bottom or tail end. The brown stripe at the top 1/3 was apparently all I could focus on, it really stood out.

Wish I had better details but a small dog and a cat were play fighting between my feet. When we spooked them. Please let me know what to google, it’s hard to images of owls that don’t focus on the face.

Greetings from Japan.

I came across this handsome fellow on the way to drop my kid off at daycare. It was raining and I didn't have my DSLR with me, but I managed to snap a few pics with my phone before he flew away (sorry for the low quality). What exactly is going on here? Is it a crossbreed or just a pigeon with some sort of pigment mutation? There is a forest near here so there's lots of birds, including pigeons and Oriental turtle doves.

https://preview.redd.it/04sx9rk5dsxd1.jpg?width=1305&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=43bdd4d2528a75d8d7767f60cce0ea6ab8648eae

https://preview.redd.it/cigci527dsxd1.jpg?width=1735&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8cab6b463de75d49d970c7a01c7bf45aac6b168

https://preview.redd.it/u64kbdl8dsxd1.jpg?width=2212&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=041fa8954580e54994ef68a838250fe8e6116bd6

I'm just curious as to why we drew the species boundaries this way. Is it genetic? The great blue heron and grey heron seem more similar to me in terms of plumage obviously, but they are distinct species. I also read that great blues can interbreed and produce viable offspring with grey herons because they are closely related. Just want an answer from someone who know more than me!

(Asking on behalf of my Spanish boyfriend)

Hello, I am from Spain but I live in the UK and have travelled a fair bit around Europe.

I've always noticed that in most Northern/Central Europe crows are really common to see, even in the cities. You see them and hear them constantly in cities, towns, parks, countryside, etc.

But in Spain, they are extremely rare to see in a city. I have only seen them very occasionally in the countryside. Why is that? Is it because Spanish cities have much less trees/green areas than the rest of Europe? And is that also like that in other southern European countries like Italy or Greece? Thank you in advance

Hello Reddit, thank you for taking time to look at my question! My wife and I moved into a new build (NE Ohio) a few months ago and recently ran into an issue with a woodpecker sitting on our house numbers and pecking at one of our cedar porch posts. The woodpecker is small and black and white, and after a Google search I think it's a Downy woodpecker. We wrapped the post in aluminum foil to deter the bird and I haven't seen or heard it in over a week.

My question is, how long should we keep the alumni foil on the post? Our hope is that it's moved on to some other place to peck and we can take down the foil and patch the annoying holes in our new post. It's a brand new house so I really don't think it's trying to get bugs, rather it's marking its territory or trying to nest. Thanks!

What is the maximum height or altitude at which Eurasian Sparrowhawks have been found to fly at ? I'm not asking about the hunting glide it makes coz that's quite low.

What appears to be a small barred owl is perched in a very conspicuous part of my town (South Carolina, USA).

Humans are appraoching within 3 feet and the bird is not noticing them. Humans can graze the bird with their hand and the bird hardly pays attention.

This is a busy few blocks where there is a high chance of impact from cars, rat poison, etc.

This is a clear instance where a human should intervene and bring to a rehabber, no? Any thoughts from those with more experience?

Or is this classic baby owl behavior? I personally wouldn’t have imagine.

Note: this is a town that has both urban and remote forest within close proximity. It appears to bird is hunting what emerges from the sewers.

(30mins later) UPDATE: The bird appears to have become more alert. It has moved to a higher perch a few times before returning to the same conspicuous area but it is clearly more alert and pouncing on what is likely palmetto bugs (roaches) on the sidewalk.

At this point i’m not sure the bird would allow my to get close enough even if there is a risk of poisoning but i would still alert a rehabber if people think there is an issue.

Are there any birds that have an observed triangular flocking pattern? I don’t mean the V, I mean two birds in front, one behind. I’ve seen this twice now so it may just be a coincidence, but what I noticed both times was that they were in a group of three, swapping positions, but always staying in a relatively triangular shape.

It would be in the opposite direction of the V as well, hence why I’m calling it a triangle. There is no opening opposite the direction they’re flying. Is this an actual thing, or just coincidence?

I’m not entirely sure what bird I observed this with, too far away to tell. Maybe European Starlings, or something of the sort. Small black passerine bird if I had to assume?

Hi, I have a 400ish gallon water garden with a bog and waterfall that birds like to bath in and drink from. Primarily house finches, bushtits, house sparrows, canyon towhees, spotted towhees and curved bill thrashers but I’ve also seen lesser goldfinches, golden crowned kinglets and assorted warblers as they pass through.

It has a couple species of minnows that do best with a little salt but I keep the concentration low, at .1%, because that’s the most plants can tolerate.

Can birds tolerate salt at that level? I monitor it and other water conditions.

If not, is there a lower salt concentration they can tolerate?

What kind of bird flies so high? There was dozens of them but in no formation, all circling in their own individual patterns

Location is Los Angeles