My favorite extant birds

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lkpinette

a colorful bird perched on top of a tree branch next to green leaves and branches

Nest Building

Suoimanga sunbird. While not particularly interesting taxonomically, it is one of two sunbirds which are Madagascar near-endemics (it also inhabits a fear small islands near Madagascar but not under its jurisdiction), which makes it interesting to me.

Orange-breasted sunbird. While the sunbirds are a widespread family, the orange-breasted sunbird is in a monotypic family and endemic to the Cape Floristic Kingdom, plus it looks stunning, making it one of my favorite members of the family.

a blue and white bird sitting on top of a moss covered tree stump in the forest

Irrisor à tête blanche - Phoeniculus bollei - White-headed Wood Hoopoe

White-headed woodhoopoe. Woodhoopoes are small insectivorous African birds related to the true hoopoes. I think the white-headed and forest woodhoopoes are the coolest looking.

a small bird sitting on top of a tree branch next to a person's hand

Dapplethroat. The Modulatricidae are a small and enigmatic passerine family of three birds in three genera. The dapplethroat is limited to the Eastern Arc of Kenya and Tanzania.

a large bird with its wings spread out in the middle of an open field,

Sagittarius Serpentarius

Secretary Bird

Secretary bird, the only member of its family and pretty damn cool.

two large black birds sitting on top of rocks

Abyssinian ground hornbills. The two species of ground hornbill are really interesting birds, and though the Southern ground hornbill is endangered and therefore a priority for conservation, I find the Abyssinian ground hornbills to be the more attractive species.

a black and white bird sitting on top of a tree branch in a jungle area

White-crested hornbill. I love hornbills, and this is probably my favorite African species (not counting the ground hornbills).

four green parakeets are perched on the branches of a tree against a blue sky

Love Birds

Two By Two

The gray-headed lovebird, a Madagascar endemic, is the second most genetically distinct lovebird as well as one of three sexually dimorphic species of lovebird.

a hummingbird perched on top of a flower

File:Cape Sugarbird (Promerops cafer).jpg

Cape sugarbird. The two species of sugarbird represent one of several evolutions of nectorivory in birds (along with the hummingbirds, sunbirds, honeyeaters, and the sunbird-asities of Madagascar). The Cape sugarbird is a near-endemic to the Cape Floristic Kingdom, an interesting floral region which has few endemic or even near-endemic fauna.

Antipodes Island parakeet | New Zealand Birds Online

Antipodes parakeet by David Boyle. The Antipodes parakeet is, with Reischek's parakeet) the second-most-southerly species of parrot, after the Austral parakeet, and one of only five ground-nesting parrots. Though it shares these attributes with Reischek's parakeet, it is slightly more genetically distinct, and also slightly more visually distinct from the red-fronted kakariki. I have a weird love of all-green parrots.