🪶🦉At the height of the covid lockdowns, I jumped on my bike a few ties in the driving rains, because this Red-necked grebe was spotted 10kms away. And because I needed to be outside. That too... (Roodhalsfuut, Podiceps grisegena)

Song thrush. It does what it says on the package. Sings and is thrush. (zanglijster, Turdus philomelos)

The IEA just published two fascinating reports Here are some of the best charts 1/ Clean energy is growing twice as fast as fossil fuels

🦉🪶 'I want your clothes, your boots and your motor cycle!' -"You forgot to say Please!" This black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) failed the Terminator audition. Got the looks for a movie career, though. (Geoorde fuut)

🪶🦉 Great Crested Grebe. She is the lady your friends warned you for. A killer with the stiletto smile. You know you are going to suffer, but you can't turn your eyes away from so much beauty. (Fuut, Podiceps cristatus) Afrikaans: kuifkopdobbertje. Really.

A tūturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterel) chick. So cute. So vulnerable to predators. There are only 2,500 adults left, which makes them rarer than kiwi. If the sign at the beach says keep your dog on a leash - don’t think you know better. Keep your dog on a leash.

🦉🪶 The cuckoo. The bird that really spiked my interest in the natural history of species, and how they evolve. They are not very common in Belgium anymore, judging by how hard it is to hear their unmistakable call. (Koekoek, Cuculus canorus)

🪶🦉 Just my luck that my favorite bird is probably the hardest to capture in a picture, and is only around in these parts for 100 days a year. Swift (Apus apus, gierzwaluw)

🦉🪶Common pheasant? Common Eileen! An imported species, but a beauty in itself. (fazant, Phasianus colchicus)

🪶🦉I mean, why did they call all of our birds here the "common this" and the "common that"? This wonder of nature shouldn't be called a "common" crane. By the way, 50.000 of 'em are leaving Spain right now, to sail over France and hopefully Belgium on their way to Scandinavia. (kraanvogel, Grus grus)

🦉🪶Almost that time of the year again, when the coots produce these carnivalesque chicks. Adorable. (meerkoet, Fulica atra)

🪶🦉Rose-ringed parakeet, enjoying some winter sunshine in an Antwerp park, where they established a feral colony in the last decade. They seem to perform assembly flights above the city at dusk, before roosting together. (halsbandparkiet, Psittacula krameri)

🦉🪶 The common moorhen, indeed quite common around here year round, will soon start claiming their breeding territories. Which can be a feisty shakedown. (waterhoen, Gallinula chloropus)

🪶🦉 Looking at the business end of the grey heron, it is clear that if they were 5x bigger, or we were 5x smaller, there wouldn't be 8 billion of us. I beg you not to google "heron impaling rat/mole". (Blauwe reiger, Ardea cinerea)

Imagine your scientific name sounding as cool as Nycticorax nycticorax. In English, they call you not just the Night Heron, but even the Black-Crowned one! YOU ARE A SUPERVILLAIN! And then Dutch just call you: "kwak". KWAK. And you don't even quack...🦉🪶

🪶🦉Almost as beautiful, the little egret isn't really that much smaller than yesterday's great egret. Especially if you keep in mind the cattle egret, which is chicken-sized. Getting more common in Belgium every year. Lovely. (Kleine zilverreiger, Egretta garzetta)

I used to forget all the time, but Bluesky has this cool feature where you can get it to remind you. If you go to setting on the left hand menu you will see a toggle labelled "Require alt text before posting". If you toggle it to 'ON' it tells you when you haven't entered alt text 🧪

🦉🪶 Once, at a guided group tour of a local nature reserve, I spotted a great egret, which we call a "great silver heron", and the boomer woman beside me confidently corrected me: "no, he's white, not silver, I can see it quite clearly." I couldn't argue with that. (grote zilverreiger, Ardea alba)

🪶🦉 one more spoonful, you say? Here you go, a spoonbill in the nature reserves around the port of Antwerp... (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)

🪶🦉oh, the English and their stupid habit of inventing specific words for gatherings of a specific animals! What is this then, a drawer of spoonbills? (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)

🦉🪶 A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching several kingfishers speardive for a few hours... WHAT A SPECTACLE ! Even without the extraordinary colors of its plumage, anything but a "common" kingfisher. (Ijsvogel, Alcedo atthis)

🪶🦉 It seems somebody was determined to get this cutie going with a massive inferiority complex. I mean, naming it the "lesser" spotted woodpecker, just because YOU ran out of inspiration ? Much rarer, and discreter, than the Great and Middle SWP's. (kleine bonte specht, Dryobates minor)

I wonder if this Golden-crowned Kinglet is dreaming of spring? 🪶🌿

🦉🪶 After the great, the middle. Difference in size not that big. Red cap is the tell-tale sign, but juvenile GSWP have that as well, which could confuse. Much more discrete. I was superstoked to make this picture in my own garden. (middelste bonte specht, Dendrocoptes medius)

🪶🦉Time for some woodpeckers! The most common species around here (North-Belgium) is clearly the great spotted woodpecker. Not very shy, comes for the peanuts just outside my kitchen window. And usually announces itself loud and clearly. (grote bonte specht, Dendrocopos major)

🪶🦉Some birds seem to defy the laws of physics, just to be amazingly beautiful. How can a black-winged stilt have such incredibly long legs, and walk around -without snapping 'em- in the mud the whole day and still look like it's going to the prom? (Steltkluut, Himantopus himantopus)

The Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis) bred in the millions on the N. American #tundra, but was also hunted in the millions. It's now most likely #extinct, with the last confirmed record in 1963. Thus, ghosts for #BirdsOfTheDay in National Museums 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿's research collections. 🪶 #birds #ornithology 🧪

🦉🪶 And stop calling us "common terns"! We are Top Gun terns! Aren't we, Iceman?!? And WE ARE DANGEROUS! (visdief, Sterna hirundo)

🪶🦉European herring gulls. Clearly not in the mood to be misidentified. And I am not very good at gull determination. We call 'em "silver gulls" but never to their face. We're not crazy, you know... (zilvermeeuw, Larus argentatus)

🦉🪶 From afar, the lapwing looks like a black-and-white bird with a flying disorder, but up close, it is far more colorful. Still unable to fly straight, tho. (kievit, Vanellus vanellus)

It would be totally wild if the very first experimental deep-sea mining project came within a half marathon of dredging up the world's largest cold water coral reef. A reef we wouldn't even know existed for 4 more decades. Anyway, that's exactly what happened.

🪶🦉Black-tailed godwit. Sounds like a Captain Haddock profanity. We just call it "grutto", and the Dutch consider it their national bird. (Limosa limosa)

🦉🪶 Beautiful in red, white and black. And quite noisy when they're nesting just overhead on your office roof. But I love the sound. Reminds me of the beach, even 120km inland. (scholekster, Haematopus ostralegus)

🦉🪶 He probably doesn't know that his parents named him after a sanderling, but there you go, Idris Elba... (drieteenstrandloper, Calidris alba)

🦉🪶 whimbrel, wondering where his next lunch is hiding. (regenwulp, Numenius phaeopus)

Who called it defiantly baking with a sourdough starter rather than the path of yeast resistance?

Rise of fascism vs climate change, I just can't pick a side they're both so exciting

🪶🦉A ruddy turnstone, in winter plumage. Very active, not very shy, chipping away at the moss on the pier. (Steenloper, Arenaria interpres)

🪶🦉Another designer bird, the beak seems to be drawn by a calligraphist, and even the name suggests finesse: the avocet. *Vincent Vega-voice:* Mademoiselle l'Avocet. (Kluut)

Meanwhile:

🪶🦉If he is really into feeding you all the fish your heart desires, Miss Tern, you should refer to him as "common" but rather as "Mr Right and Right-now" tern! (Visdief, sterna hirundo)

🪶🦉Mister plova plova! Little plover, I guess. I al not very good with these little waders.

TODDLER: MINE! MINE! MINE! ME: I hope someday you can see past your obsession for physical possessions. Greed is a-- *explodes* TODDLER: I tried to warn him.

Happy trump wanted to hang Mike pence day to all who celebrate

🦉🪶 Brent goose, barely recovered from the whole 50 shades of grey frenzy. (Rotgans, Branta bernicla)