Paphos Life

I have quite a lot of small pretty black and white birds hopping around in the garden and they have a nice song. Difficult to take a photo as my cats chase them away. Does anyone know what they are called please?

aphrodite wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:03 pm I have quite a lot of small pretty black and white birds hopping around in the garden and they have a nice song. Difficult to take a photo as my cats chase them away. Does anyone know what they are called please?

Perhaps these one's Aphrodite? In this case it is the Cyprus wheatear....



Max

Yes Max, that is the one, thank you for photo. Do you know if they are a common bird as I have not seen them before?

One thing I have noticed, the magpies have disappeared!

They are not particularly rare in Cyprus and they are an endemic species, which means this is the only place they breed, although they are found across into Israel and NE Africa.

aphrodite wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:56 pm Yes Max, that is the one, thank you for photo. Do you know if they are a common bird as I have not seen them before?

Since I have built some breeding boxes they are using them, even when "experts" told me they will not accept them....


and how they look one week after they fledged... 4 of them in one nest... so cute


Max

bromerzz wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 1:11 pm They are not particularly rare in Cyprus and they are an endemic species, which means this is the only place they breed, although they are found across into Israel and NE Africa.

They are breeding two times per season and this year there are more of them, unlike last year when I could not see one....

Max

Well done Max, that is a great thing to do.

aphrodite wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:56 pm Yes Max, that is the one, thank you for photo. Do you know if they are a common bird as I have not seen them before?

Found another photo: young and parent....


Max

20 minutes ago hundreds of bee-eaters high in the air, on their way down to the river valleys.... Great news for me

Max

I said to the OH just yesterday that I hadn't seen/heard any bee eaters this year. Still haven't !

We heard the bee eaters yesterday morning on our walk, and again today over our house.

Thank you everyone for your information and photos of these lovely little birds. I still have quite a few coming into the garden. I haven’t heard (I usually hear them before I see them) any Bee Eaters yet, can’t wait. I have had a lot of large buzzing creatures which I thought might be hornets but they turned out to be large black flying beetles, horrible things! I will be looking for the shooting stars tonight and Venus at its brightest,

Ah Venus took this the other night - bit of a letdown really but it is a long way off.[img]

Yep -it does, but it ain't.

I still have never seen a bee eater, hopefully one of these days, but I have seen two of those huge black buzzy beetles flying around, one sent me screaming into the house last week lol...love all the pictures of the birds totally fabulous.

Cherry345 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:56 am I still have never seen a bee eater, hopefully one of these days, but I have seen two of those huge black buzzy beetles flying around, one sent me screaming into the house last week lol...love all the pictures of the birds totally fabulous.

It's a carpenter bee which is a very important pollinator and does you no harm. You can see some photos I did 2 years ago when playing with the camera. There is one plant they really love, but don't ask me about the name...

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6245


Max

Good to know Max, I will try not to scream next time one comes flying past me lol, I really enjoyed those pics, and the plant that smells like joy,, thanks for the link.