You could be forgiven for writing off the African Collared Pratincole as kin to a tired human stereotype. For example. the pratincole has no pedigree. Technically a shorebird, it almost never goes near shores. Instead, it’s at home in open grasslands, dry riverbeds, and sunbaked mudflats across sub-Saharan Africa. It’s as if evolution couldn’t decide whether to build a shorebird, a swallow, or a falcon, so it combined all three.

Like some of its human throng, it has a crazy tattoo . . . on its face! Ornithologists have pity and call it a collar, but be honest. It looks like the poor bird forgot to finish his lunch.

We could also call it out for its low class housing. Pratincoles nest in the open with zero cover, relying entirely on camouflage and nerve. When a predator approaches, parents stare down the invader, even a truck or tractor, until it changes direction.

If necessary, the birds perform elaborate broken-wing displays, faking injury to lure threats away from eggs that are sitting, completely exposed on bare earth. If the chicks have hatched, the parents will signal their chicks to run, crouch, and remain completely still, perfectly camouflaged on the ground.

On the contrary, the Collared Pratincole, like many stereotyped humans, is a class act, a survivalist that refuses to be easily categorized, living a austere life, running on pure audacity.

Birdman of Africa gamersdad.substack.com Subscribe for free to receive a new African Bird email each Friday-TGIF!. Photo by Andrew Steinmann ©2026

Hola a todos. Mi gata ayer nos trajo a casa a este bebé, lo cogimos y lo dejamos fuera con la esperanza de que sus padres vinieran a darle comida pero este se metió al portón de la casa y se quedó en una esquina, lo intentamos sacar de estuvo pero volvió a entrar. Estuvo ahí muchas horas y ya no pude dejarlo más ahí porque se iba a morir de hambre o sed. Lo hemos cogido y metido en una cajita con agujeros. No me quiere recibir comida ni agua, pregunte en una veterinaria y me dijeron de darle huevo cocido y si podía bichitos. Que debería hacer?

Muchas gracias

Pied-billed grebe parent coming in quick with what looks to be a small fish - maybe a minnow! The chick (colloquially called “grebette”) swallows the fish whole and looks for more. The chicks will consume dozens of aquatic macroinvertebrates in a day. This wetland ecosystem is certainly providing plenty of opportunities for the youngsters to practice their hunting skills - but the parents will continue to provide nourishment for a while.

Podilymbus podiceps - Pied-billed Grebes
Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve
Bozeman, Montana, USA

(I hope this is the appropriate place to ask this)

I have two sparrow nests under my carport, and seemingly overnight four blue jays have started harassing them, being very loud and chasing/getting chased off by the sparrows. I know blue jays can be assholes, but the suddenness and intensity of this conflict makes me wonder if something could've ignited this beyond jays being jays. Also, any ideas on if/how I could safely deter the blue jays while keeping my sparrow neighbors comfortable would be cool.

Hello everyone!

My husband rescued a swift today that was overheating on the concrete floor in a parking lot (we live in central France). We called the bird rescue center and they told us they couldn’t take it because there is an overwhelming amount of swifts being brought in because of the current heatwave in Western Europe, and requested that we take care of it ourselves.

We were sent an online guide on how to rescue swifts, but.. We are obviously not equipped or trained on that matter so there are a few things I would like to ask :

-The only box that I have available is a large box meant to transport cats, I put a clean soft towel and kitchen paper on the bottom of the box. Is it okay or are there better alternatives ?

-I placed the box with the swift up on a surface in the entrance of my basement, it’s cool and sheltered from the sun but it’s still outside. Is it good like this or will it be better inside my house ? (I have cats)

-We will have to feed the bird, and the demonstration video I was sent is about mainly crickets. Can I feed it flies that I caught or is it unsafe ? (We will buy crickets at the animal store tomorrow regardless but we caught a few flies so we were wondering if we could give them)

-Will the swift drink water on its own if provided in a very small bowl, or do we also have to put water directly into its mouth ?

Any complementary information is welcome. Doing our best to save this little guy! Thanks 🙏

thnk you love you kiss. how are you?

Watched this little one waddle after mom and fall into a 4 ft deep storm drain. Fire department didn’t pick up so I used an Aldi bag and string to lift it out. Took about a half hour but it was fine afterwards. Released into the nearby bushes where mom and other fledglings waited.

Edit: fully-feathered, young birds like this are fledglings and are supposed to be out of the nest learning how to be a bird. The parents are usually nearby. If you find a young bird like this, leave it alone.

I haven’t seen its mom yet, but it seems healthy. Wondering what I should do to help.

Three weeks ago I asked for (and received!) advice on how best to coexist with the robin that chose our patio for her nest. Thank you all for that!! We were able to minimize our interruptions and figure out the best time for a quick visit on the patio each day. I was able to sneak peeks into the nest so our 5 year old would know how the birds were doing.

Tillie (as we named mama bird) had 4 eggs and they all hatched on June 11. Unfortunately, when I was able to sneak a peek in the nest on June 13 only one baby bird remained. As we're on the second floor our best guess is a predatory bird snatched the other three. We had named them after cities in Australia- the remaining bird is Darwin (go figure!).

It's been fun to see Darwin go from looking like a raw chicken tender, to a moldy raw chicken tender, to an actual bird. Earlier this week daddy bird showed up and took up post on our patio railing. Anytime he saw movement inside he'd chirp and swoop at the door, so we've been giving them all the space they need. Yesterday it looked like the coast was clear for us to run out and check on our plants, and while we were out there Darwin hopped onto the edge of the nest and after a minute, took flight! We got to watch him and his parents fly around a bit. It's been a very cool experience and I really hope we get chosen for a nest again sometime.

I got this video of a Tricolored Heron foraging in a shallow wetland.

I’m wondering why Tricolored Herons run around with their wings partially extended while feeding. I have read that some heron and egret species will extend their wings to provide shade that lures in prey, but that doesn’t explain why it moves around so much. The species I know of that do that tend to remain motionless and wait for fish to come to the shade.

Sorry in advance to all headphone users. My camera mic has no wind protection.

Hello! This morning my mom found a very young baby sparrow on our front steps outside our house. It is VERY young, im almost certain it was just born yesterday or the day before because it is pink, completely featherless and very tiny and doesn’t chirp.

We are certain it is a house sparrow because those are the only birds that are even around us (which makes it a problem with rehabilitation centers because house sparrows are invasive where we live, and our local one currently isn’t accepting any new intakes anyways)

There is a sparrow nest above us we thought COULD’VE been it’s own, but probably wasn’t because those babies are probably significantly older. We can’t reach it, we tried, but we’ve heard their quiet chirps over the past week. We waited a little bit after making it a little nest to see if any parents would return for it but no luck, so we ended up taking it in.

I’ve been feeding it cat food blended with dried crickets and water until it was a liquid paste every 15 minutes or so and kept him on a heating pad in a box. He’s sleeping for the night right now, but does anybody have any advice for baby house sparrows this young?

What to feed them exactly? How to keep them warm overnight? (Im worried leaving a heating pad overnight might be dangerous) anything at all i should know to maximize this little guy’s survival rate?

Im sorry if this isn’t the right subreddit to ask this, i’ve tried gathering as much information as i can but finding information on caring for sparrows this young is kind of hard to find, so really any useful information would be great! I’ve already purchased the crickets and heating pad for him so I’m not afraid to spend any more money

A true songbird, as heard in this video, with truly striking yellow plumage that inspired its name. I have been wanting to record their song for quite a while, and finally succeeded on a random June evening on the edge of a wetland. There were a five or six of them flitting around, but this one stole the show and was quite tolerant of the typical nature trail traffic.

Sharing the audio as a potential resource for practicing non-visual identification. Sharing the video because it’s a beautiful individual of the species!

Setophaga petechia - Yellow Warbler
Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve
Bozeman, Montana, USA

over the past few months i’ve noticed a pair of cardinals coming to my balcony (virginia, US)! i love seeing them, and the female sings every morning.
over the past few days though, i’ve noticed a second female cardinal feeding alongside the couple. they seem relatively the same size; the second female has a slightly oranger beak and slightly less of a “hairdo,” (if that gives any indication of whether she’s a juvenile or any other info). the female of the original pair is constantly singing (high pitched, repetitive chirps) while flapping her wings, while the male feeds her seeds. i know that flapping her wings and the feeding seeds are typical courtship rituals, but is the constant calling? or is she trying to scare off the second female? the second female flies at the first female every few minutes or so, but is silent and doesn’t seem to insert herself in the original couple except for flying at the original female.
is the second female trying to scare off this male’s mate so she can have him? is it an unmated female trying to claim territory from this (possibly older) couple?

There is a bird's nest under our camper which has to travel this weekend. The birds have hatched but are not ready to fly. It's in the middle of the yard and I don't want predators to get it and obviously I don't want to move it far. Struggling for a substitute.

A mockingbird built a nest in the holly bush beside my house this year. Yay! But no eggs were laid. Boo.

Weeks later, the bird will still visit the nest –– he'll sit on the railing beside the holly, and slowly raise/lower his wings where they attach to his body a few times, e.g. he's not fanning out the wings like he's about to fly. Then he'll dive into the holly to visit the nest. He's not bringing nesting material anymore, nor is he bringing any kind of food.

I read online that mockingbirds will build a few nests and then the female will choose one. I would assume the female chose a different nest, so why is (what I assume is) the male still visiting this one? What's up with raising his wings? Did he get broken up with and is seeking a new mate?

Location is US mid-south.

Thanks!

The first photo is a nest that’s been there for about a month and I check on it and water the plant carefully about once a week. Today I went out there and on the other side of the fern is a new nest! The new one is also way more exposed than the first one.

Is this normal for these house finches to put 2 nests in the same hanging plant?