#514 Redwing
Today Beth and I drove back to Reykjavik to visit the zoo and Botanical Gardens, and do a bit of shopping. The zoo’s definitely worth a trip. It specializes in Icelandic animals, native and otherwise: Icelandic foxes, horses, mink, goats, cows, pigs, Gyrfalcon, etc. I couldn’t count the captive Gyrfalcon, but I couldn’t avoid Redwing if I tried. There were dozens everywhere:
Apparently they’ve been increasing in urban areas of Iceland as more and more trees are planted, and the Gardens were perfect for them. Also present were:
- Graylag Goose
- Mallard
- Rock Pigeon
- Wren
- Eurasian Blackbird
- European Starling
- Common Redpoll
The Wren was a special surprise. It flew right into the focus of my camera as I was trying to get a shot of a Redpoll.
Total Iceland list now stands at 26.
October 19th, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Don’t forget that the Wren that you saw is a Eurasian Wren — now considered a separate species from the two North American species. Does that make it #513 for you?
October 19th, 2010 at 2:14 PM
No, I’ve seen Wrens in Europe before so I already counted that one. :-)
October 19th, 2010 at 4:10 PM
So when you see a native bird in a zoo, that counts as long as it’s not in captivity?
October 19th, 2010 at 6:33 PM
Yep, a bird that flies into the zoo under its own power is as countable as one that flies into the park next door. Sometimes they’re even the same bird. On occasion you get an extreme edge case like the Ovenbird that got itself trapped in the Prospect Park Zoo aviary a few years ago. However that’s only likely to happen with a species that’s common in the area anyway. The real question is whether you count that species on the Christmas Bird Count after all other conspecific individuals have long since headed south. :-)