⭕️Penguin 2014

From left to right :

Macaroni Penguin (馬可羅尼企鵝) ; Adelie Penguin (阿德利企鵝)

Chinstrap Penguin (南極企鵝) ; Gentoo Penguin (巴布亞企鵝)

Emperor Penguin (皇帝企鵝)
British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

Of the 17 different species of penguin the emperor and Adélie make the Antarctic continent their true home, whilst the chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni breed on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, where conditions are less harsh. 

Penguins are the most common birds in the Antarctic with the total number of breeding pairs in the region estimated to be about 20 million. They were once thought to be the most primitive of birds. Members of Captain Scott’s famous expedition went on what they described as “the worst journey in the world” in the Antarctic winter to obtain an emperor penguin embryo to prove this point. But they were wrong — penguins are highly evolved to be able to live in the coldest of places.

Whilst penguins cannot fly they have evolved into the most efficient swimmers and divers of all birds. Some species spend 75% of their time at sea and one female emperor penguin was recorded at an astonishing depth of 535m.

As penguins are rarely seen underwater our main impression of them is confined to how they appear on land. With their legs set far back for efficient movement underwater, the penguins walk awkwardly in a very upright position. This is possibly the reason for their extraordinary appeal — they look like funny little people.

Emperor Penguin (皇帝企鵝)
British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

Adelie Penguin (阿德利企鵝)

  British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

Macaroni Penguin (馬可羅尼企鵝)

  British Antarctic Territory (2014)
19th November, 2014. Singy

⭕️Extra definitive stamps of Ireland

Mute Swan (疣鼻天鵝) ;
Great Spotted Woodpecker (大斑啄木鳥)

 Ireland (2015)
1st September, 2015. Dublin

An Post increased the standard domestic letter rate again from 68c to 70c on 2015. As the new rate effective on July 1, An Post released couple of new coils and booklet stamps, those stamps still as well as Biodiversity definitive series. However An Post did not have special postmark to match those stamps, here are the maxicard and cover of the stamps.

Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. Measuring 125 to 170 cm in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange bill bordered with black. It is recognisable by its pronounced knob atop the bill.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker can be found in both broadleaved and coniferous woodlands and forests and recently has been spotted in gardens and parks. They feed on seeds, invertebrates, and occasionally bird eggs and nestlings. During spring they can be heard ‘drumming’; a sound produced by rapidly pecking on a dead branch or other resonant object.

Mute Swan (疣鼻天鵝) 

Ireland (2015)

1st July, 2015. Dublin

⭕️Singapore Botanic Gardens UNESCO World Heritage Site

Singapore Botanic Gardens (新加坡植物園)

Singapore (2015)
7th August, 2015. Killiney Road

Established in 1859, the Singapore Botanic Gardens played an important historical role in the introduction and promotion of many plants of economic value to Southeast Asia, including the Para rubber tree.

Over the years, the Gardens has continued to introduce and rejuvenate its horticultural attractions while continuing its mission of connecting plants and people.

Today, the 74-hectare Gardens is a key civic and community space, and an international tourist destination. Attracting an annual visitorship of more than 4.4 million, it is also an important institution for tropical botanical and horticultural research, education and conservation.

The Gardens showcases the best and most spectacular of tropical flora, including more than 10,000 types of plants and the region’s most significant living collection of documented palms, orchids, cycads and gingers. Its historic 19th century garden landscape is well preserved and includes the earliest ornamental designed lake in Singapore. Home to numerous heritage trees and a tract of primary rainforest, the Gardens is less than a 10-minute walk from the shopping belt in Orchard Road. The Gardens was inscribed as Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.

Up : Oriental Pied Hornbill (冠斑犀鳥)
Bottom : Lesser Whistling Duck (栗樹鴨)

Singapore (2015)
14th August, 2015. Tanglin

Singapore Botanic Gardens (新加坡植物園)

Singapore (2015)
7th August, 2015. Singapore

Golden Oriole and Golden Plover

From left to right :
€1,42 : Eurasian Golden-Plover (歐金斑鴴) ; €0,71 : Golden Oriole (金黃鸝)
Latvia (2015)
28th June, 2015. Liepaja

Golden Oriole is the only member of the oriole family of passerine birds breeding in Northern Hemisphere temperate regions. It is a summer migrant in Europe and western Asia and spends the winter season in central and southern Africa. Golden orioles have an extremely large range with large populations that are apparently stable. Therefore, they are evaluated as least concern by BirdLife International.

European Golden Plover is a largish plover. This species is similar to two other golden plovers. American golden plover, Pluvialis dominica, and Pacific golden plover, Pluvialis fulva, are both smaller, slimmer and relatively longer-legged than European golden plover, and both have grey rather than white axillary feathers.

⭕️Iraqi birds

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (藍頰蜂虎)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

Nature Iraq conducts scientific studies on biodiversity including birds, plants, mammals, and other taxa. In addition, through the laboratories and field staff of Blue Horizons, a private lab that Nature Iraq helped to establish, Nature Iraq has conducted sampling of water quality physical and chemical parameters and conducted sediment and bacterial analysis.

Also Nature Iraq has helped to build civil society networks to activate grassroots support for the protection of the environment, particularly the marshlands of southern Iraq and the watersheds of Kurdistan, northern Iraq. Further, Nature Iraq strives to build capacity within Iraq, both in government and in academia, to help restore and protect the environment.

European Robin (知更鳥)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

 Common Kingfisher (普通翠鳥)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

Tree Sparrow (麻雀)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

European Goldfinch (紅額金翅雀)
Iraq (2015)
21st January, 2015. Iraq

⭕️Wildlife in Oman

First row :
Indian Roller (棕胸佛法僧) ; Arabian Scops Owl (阿拉伯角鴞)
 Sooty Falcon (烟隼)
Second row :
Bruce's Green Pigeon (黃腹綠鳩) ; Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (藍頰蜂虎)
 Rüppell's Weaver (麗臉織布鳥) 
  Oman (2014)
26th August, 2015. Ruwi

Oman witnesses huge swarms of migratory birds during their seasonal journey between their nesting habitats and the places where they spend winters, especially those birds migrating from Europe and East Asia. Many birds, especially water fowl, migrate from faraway regions like northern Siberia, and travel about five thousand kilometres.

Visitors can see many species of birds in each of Oman’s different regions. Al Hikman Peninsula, Masirah Island, Al Wusta Governorate beaches, the Lagoons, the beaches and springs in Dhofar are ideal places for bird observation. Many of these species live in Dimaniyat Islands and in Musandam.

Indian Roller (棕胸佛法僧)
Oman (2014)
7th July, 2015. Ruwi

Birds of Tunisia

100m : White-headed Duck (白頭硬尾鴨) ; 600m : Ferruginous Duck (白眼潛鴨)
600m : Moussier's Redstart (摩希爾氏紅尾鴝) ; 600m : Marbled Duck (雲石斑鴨)
Tunisia (2004)
29th May, 2015. Bardoc

Tunisia is a country much undervisited by birders in the spring. It has plenty to offer both for bird-lovers and history-lovers, plus comfortable tourist resorts. white-headed duck is a small stiff-tailed duck. Adult males have a grey and reddish body, a blue bill and a largely white head with a black cap and neck. Adult females have a grey-brown body with a white face and a darker bill, cap and a cheek stripe. Length is 43–48 cm and weight is 580–750 g. Ferruginous Duck breeding habitat is marshes and lakes with a metre or more water depth. These ducks breed in southern and eastern Europe and southern and western Asia. They are somewhat migratory, and winter farther south and into north Africa. The adult male is a rich chestnut colour with a darker back and a yellow eye. The pure white undertail helps to distinguish this species from the somewhat similar tufted duck. The female is similar but duller, and with a dark eye.

Moussier's Redstart is a small passerine bird in the genus Phoenicurus, formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, but is now classified as an Old World flycatcher. It is an endemic resident breeder in the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa. Its habitat is open woodland in rocky areas from sea level up to 3000 m altitude in the mountains. Marbled Duck is a medium-sized duck. It used to be included among the dabbling ducks, but is now classed as a diving duck. The scientific name, Marmaronetta angustirostris, comes from the Greek marmaros, marbled and netta, a duck, and Latin angustus, narrow or small and rostris billed.

⭕️Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler (琵嘴鴨)
Belgium (2015)
30th May, 2015. Monk

Northern Shoveler is unmistakable in the northern hemisphere due to its large spatulate bill. The breeding drake has an iridescent dark green head, white breast and chestnut belly and flanks. In flight, pale blue forewing feathers are revealed, separated from the green speculum by a white border. In early fall the male will have a white crescent on each side of the face. In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake resembles the female.

The female is a drab mottled brown like other dabblers, with plumage much like a female mallard, but easily distinguished by the long broad bill, which is gray tinged with orange on cutting edge and lower mandible. The female's forewing is gray.

They are 48 cm long and have a wingspan of 76 cm (30 in) with a weight of 600 g.

⭕️Birds of Slovenia II

From left to right :
€0,01 : Great Crested Grebe (鳳頭鷿鷈); €0,02 : Stock Dove (歐鴿)
€0,05 : Black Stork (黑鸛) ; €0,20 : Kentish Plover (東方環頸鴴)
€0,50 : White-winged Snowfinch (白斑翅雪雀)
Slovenia (2015)
7th July, 2015. Službeno, Maribor

Slovenia continuous its bird definitive series on 2015, five stamps are Great Crested Grebe, Stock Dove, Black Stork, Kentish Plover and White-winged Snowfinch. Great Crested Grebe is the largest member of the grebe family found in the Old World, with some larger species residing in the Americas. They measure 46–51 cm long with a 59–73 cm wingspan and weigh 0.9 to 1.5 kg. It is an excellent swimmer and diver, and pursues its fish prey underwater. The adults are unmistakable in summer with head and neck decorations. In winter, this is whiter than most grebes, with white above the eye, and a pink bill. Stock Dove is the largest within the pigeon family, and has the widest distribution. Its members are typically pale grey or brown, often with white head or neck markings or iridescent green or purple patches on the neck and breast. The neck feathers may be stiffened and aligned to form grooves, but these are absent in this species. The stock dove is less grey in plumage than other pigeons in Europe.

With a body length of 90–100 cm, the black stork is slightly smaller than its cousin the white stork. The black stork is a shy bird that is highly sensitive to human presence and lives inwoodland in the vicinity of small streams or ditches. It builds its large nest in old trees, usually oak, in lowland wooded areas, forests. Occasionally it will build a nest on a suitable rock. It has one brood consisting of three to five chicks. Kentish Plover is 15 to 17 cm long and can be distinguished from the little ringed plover, which also nests in Slovenia, by the dark patches on the side of the breast and, in the male bird, by a sandy-brown cap. Generally speaking it has less black on its body than related species. It nests on the coast, in areas safe from floods, on salty soil with scant vegetation. The nest is simply a hollow in the
ground.

With a body length of 17–19 cm, the snowfinch is the largest passerine species in Slovenia. It inhabits inhospitable areas of rocky grassland and screes above the treeline; it is unconcerned by human presence. It likes to build its nest in crevices close to areas where the snow remains on the ground for a long time and surrounded by steep rock faces. It lays clutches of four to five eggs and has one to two broods a year.

Great Crested Grebe (鳳頭鷿鷈)
Slovenia (2015)
7th July, 2015. Službeno, Maribor

⭕️Antarctic Tern

Antarctic Tern (南極燕鷗)

French Australia and Antarctica Territories (2015)
1st January, 2015. Dumont D’Urville

Antarctic Tern is a typical tern. It ranges throughout the southern oceans. It is very similar in appearance to the closely related Arctic tern, but is stockier, and the wing tips are grey instead of blackish in flight. It is, of course, in breeding plumage in the southern summer, when the Arctic tern has moulted to its non-breeding plumage.

Breeding takes place from mid-November to early December. Chicks hatch from December to February. Skuas and jaegers are the primary predators of this bird's eggs and young.

The total global population of this bird is around 140,000 individuals.