Birds N' Stuff. :)

I will be posting some pictures of my past and current adventures. All will probably be out of order and wacky to sort through. But hey that's life. No animals or plants were harmed before, during, or after photo taking.

[nijijagaimo]

This piece was made using chicken wings (bones and feathers) and I arranged it in a shape of a butterfly. The little bone piece in the middle is some sort of hip bone I found on the beach. I just used yarn and glue to hold it up on the board and last minute decided to decorate with shells and sea glass. Some people may find this disgusting (and I can understand why), but sometimes I try to look past the dark thoughts and dread that traps me in my own insecurities and see there is some humor and playfulness to most bleak situations. Sometimes painful things happen and all you can do is smile, laugh, and move on. Life isn't fair and you cannot win every battle even if you do play all your cards correctly with gusto and determination. #taxidermy #amateurtaxidermy #begginer #chickenwings #chickenfeathers #chicken #rooster #art #weirdart #creepy #funny #painful #life #cringe (at Songsong, United States)

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A Hawaii Amakihi browsing through Mamane flowers :). A couple years back I was working as a bioacoustic intern and was recording wild Palila vocalizations in the field. Most of the time when I was searching for Palila I would often see Amakihi flitting about the mamane-nail dry forest strands. Resulting in some great Amakihi photos. #amakihi #mamane #mamanenaioforest #puulaau #hawaiibirds #hawaii #bigisland #birds #honeycreepers #palila #bioacoustics #flowers #avians #cute #pretty #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #life #science (at Puu Laau)

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Night Blooming Cereus (Epiphyllum). Unsure of which species this is, since there is 19 species within this genus. I once got a small cutting of this plant from a high school biology teacher I highly respected and looked up to, and since then they've flourished in my yard and I now have 9 different pots full of giant epiphyllums!!! These are probably my second favorite flower, the first being tulips :). It is lots of fun seeing the unopened buds in the day time and staying up all night anticipating the full bloom to happen. #nightbloomingcereus #cereus #ceroidcacti #epiphyllum #whiteflowers #flower #cactus #cacti #floweringcactus (at Oahu)

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My personal taxidermied butterfly collection. Just a small collection from around the world, some I got while visiting places, some butterflies I tried to pin myself, some I saw online and thought was a good deal. I love dead things, I think taxidermy is a beautiful artistic form to preserve and honor life after death and also serving its purpose to educate future generations on certain species by preserved specimens. There is more to my collection just not able to mount them on the wall. Some of my favorites are the Ulysses, blue morphos, sunset Madagascar moths, peacock butterfly, euploia, and the common mapwing. #taxidermy #butterflies #butteflycollage #collection #taxidermybutterfly #mountedbutterfly #insects #art #entomology #rhopalocera #science #casualcollection #casualtaxidermy #taxidermycollection (at Oahu)

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The Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus). Pictures take four years ago in Australia. Some interesting facts about the rainbow bee eaters are highly social birds-roosting in groups in dense undergrowth. As the name implies they c such flying insects but prefer to catch and eat bees and are actually immune to the stings of bees and wasps. They- like all bee eaters actually nest in the ground, the female builds burrows into the ground with her bill while the male brings her insects. Three to seven eggs are laid and incubated for about 24 days until hatching, 30 more days until the hatchlings fledge. Cane toads are known to prey on nestlings. #beeeater #australia #queensland #wildlife #bird #aves #avifauna #rainbow #rainbowbeeeater #merops #pretty #cute #nature #naturephotography #birdphotographer #wildlifephotography #awesome #science #zoology (at Queensland)

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I forgot I had this video. Haven't done a Dorito Drongo update in a while...Might as well post it :) Dorito only cheeps like this around people- he doesn't crack out those crazy drongo vocalizations until he thinks he's the only one in the room. He must be too shy. #drongo #drongoofinstagram #birdbaby #wildlife #bird #petsofinstagram #petbird #blackdrongo #snapvideo #beingsilly (at Rota Cnmi)

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Another awesome sunset. Sitting at the beach with some awesome people :). #rota #friends #beach #chilling #sunset #beachsunset #moon (at Songsong, United States)

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Mangrove monitor (Varanus indicus). Saw this guy climbing over the washing machine haha. I'm still not sure how it got in the house. 🤔 He is so small he might of hatched a couple weeks ago probably. It was about 8inches in hand. Shame I wish I could have kept it as a pet. #lizards #varanus #mangrovemonitor #monitorlizard #lizardsofinstagram #cute #baby #hatchling #chill #wildlife #adorable #rota #animalhandling (at Sinapalo, United States)

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Death by pool floaties. -insert touristy talk here- Went back to hotel to recoup before next adventure- went out to a little island with a pool floaties tied to a kayak and almost got swept to sea, it was hilarious.

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A wild Mariana Crow (Corvus kuvayari). Called the 'Aga' in the Chamorro language. Native to the island of Rota, and to Guam until the brown tree snake extirpated its population. There is less than 200 individuals left on Rota, a 95% decrease in its population size since the 1980's. The main culprit is predation of first year subadults by cats. These crows forage in the canopy and on the ground in limestone forest, the Aga had evolved without any natural land based predators and do not exhibit any vigilance behaviors when on the ground, thus leaving themselves susceptible to sneak attacks by cats. The Aga are very shy and secretive and rarely venture out into human habituated areas. The Aga generally do not form large flocks- they pair up during breeding season and are mostly monogamous. Laying about 2-3 clutches s year and laying around 2-4 eggs per clutch. Besides being extremely intelligent like most corvids, the Aga are known to be the only corvids that preys upon hermit crabs. They have developed a unique strategy of pecking apart and prying hermit crabs out of their shells.

[nijijagaimo]

Decided to try out the tourist district of Guam, we parked our car sneakily, and walked behind an old building to have one last adventure together.

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Bare foot beach. July sunset.

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Small Island sunset, Luta 2017. A gathering full of good people, and memories being made. -insert sentimentality here- #sunsets #scenery #sceneryshot #islandsunset #smallisland #rota #luta #nature #elements #sky #clouds #beauty #lovelife (at Small Island)

[nijijagaimo]

Most likely a ghost crab or Hagu’ui or Arigh in the native language. Tried looking for a species identification for this little guy and I think he is the horned ghost crab (Ocypode cerathopthalma). Which can be found around the Indo-pacific and pacific regions, east of Africa to the Philippines, and from Japan to the Great Barrier Reef. The horned ghost crab possess eyestalks extending beyond the eyes into long points, which are longer in adults, and shorter (or even absent) in juveniles. They can scurry up to 2.1m/s on sand. So granted it took me a while to catch up to him and give him a little poke. :) #ghostcrab #ghostcrabs #hornedghostcrab #cnmi #crab #littlecrab #crabonsand #nature #beach #beachcritters #critters #invertebrates #marineinverts (at Mochong Beach)

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Great bower bird (Chlamydera nuchalis), photograph taken in northern Queensland, Australia. As with most members of the bowerbird family, breeding considerations dominate the lifecycle: females nest inconspicuously and raise their young alone, while the males spend most of the year building, maintaining, improving, defending, and above all displaying from their bowers. Only a male with a successful bower can attract mates. The great bowerbird is the largest of the bowerbird family and is 33 to 38 cm long and fawny grey in colour. Males have a small but conspicuous pink crest on the nape of the neck. What is unique about this species, that is unlike most bower birds, a group of juvenile males will attend a single bower concurrently, "practicing" their bower building skills prior to establishing their own bower. #bowerbirds #greatbowerbird #queensland #australia #bird #birds #bowerbird #bowers #nature #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nofilter #canondslr (at Townsville, Queensland)

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1st pic: "Psst, come here I have a secret for you" 2nd pic: "Did you know that I think you are the cutest!?" 3rd pic: "Give me a kiss!" Haha this is a bunch of canoodling rainbow lorikeets that I've encountered a couple years ago when I was studying abroad in Australia. I'll probably be uploading tons of old photos. So bear with me! #happiness #australia #jcu #rainbowlorikeet #bird #cutebirds #rainbow #lorikeet #kissingbirds #canoodling (at James Cook University Townsville)

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At the Honolulu Zoo in the afternoon, most animals were napping.

2016