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whistberry.northsky.social
Here's a silver-eared Mesia for #birbfest based on a photo by user wildreturn on inaturalist

I know birds don't smile but this one looks like it is!
#BirbFest2026
Digital painting of a silver-eared Mesia in profile facing left as it perches on a large gray rock. It is a colorful medium-small bird with black head, white cheeks, yellow to pea green to silver tones on the body with red and yellow highlights on its wings and otherwise dark gray tail. The background is a muted light teal with blurred values to indicate the rippling surface of a body of water.
January 14, 2026 at 2:05 PM
whistberry.northsky.social
Red-bearded bee-eater looks a little muppety (complimentary)...

#birbfest #BirbFest2026 #SciArt

reference photo by user wildreturn on inaturalist
Digital painting of a medium-small bird whose large head and thick neck give it an inverted V-shape. It is perched on a large gray branch facing the viewer except its head is turned to the left in profile. A mostly green bird with highlights of a vivid orange pink around face and neck and a long dark gray, pointed beak. It has some yellow on its tail feathers with black tips. The background is blue sky at top transitioning to a pinkish glow toward the bottom.
January 27, 2026 at 1:29 PM
bidaia.bsky.social
#ItzuliBasatia #WildReturn
#FuenteDé #FuenteDe
#KantabriakoMendiak #CantabrianMountains
#ArnasaGarbi #FreshAir
#MendikoIsiltasuna #MountainSilence
#BerdeBizia #VividGreens
#Mendialdea #Highlands
#EuskalArgazkilaritza #LandscapeLover
#KlikBasatia #NatureCapture
#MendikoBegirada #art
May 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
A maple swamp in southern Ontario; sunny, 10C. A turkey vulture glides overhead, wings a perfect V. Flickers call tree to tree. Red-winged blackbirds buzz in the reeds. A yellow-bellied sapsucker flies from trunk to trunk. Coltsfoot flowers at the path's edge. #birds #nature

Photo credits Alt Text.
Male yellow-bellied sapsucker on a trunk: Photo by Wildreturn, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Coltsfoot blooming among dead leaves. Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Red-winged Blackbird male, Point Pelee National Park, Ontario, Canada. Photo by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Northern Flicker on a bare branch. Photo by Image by Veronika Andrews from Pixabay
April 13, 2024 at 10:38 PM
inaturalist.bsky.social
Contestants, part 2:
"Most observed from South America: Black Witch, Ascalapha odorata. Looks like it could kill you. Is a cinnamon roll. Wingspan of a small bat." Four photos of a large dark patterned moth and its long brown caterpillar, credited to alehaguilar, raymecarvalho, nicosalino, and treegrow on iNaturalist. "Most observed from North America: Isabella Tiger Moth, Pyrrharctia isabella. Caterpillar can come back to life from freezing near-solid in the winter (?!?!?!)" Four photos of an orange moth and its black-and-rust woolly bear caterpillar, credited to littlelegofan, wildreturn, surresea, and cdale_mortonarb on iNaturalist. "Most observed from Europe: Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. Business up top, party underneath, intrepid traveler." Four photos of a brown moth with bright orange hindwings and a pale striped caterpillar, credited to beethoven242, pg18, mnerrie, and kylejhorner on iNaturalist.
July 15, 2026 at 7:16 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
A clear night, so few migratory birds stopped to feed. A rusty blackbird creaked on a log in Wild Goose Woods; high in a maple, a Nashville warbler alternately sang & fed. On the forest floor, a carpet of red & white trilliums; in the wetland, marsh marigolds glowed. #birding
Photo credits alt text.
Rusty Blackbird: photo by Wildreturn, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Nashville Warbler (cropped): by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Red trillium (Trilllium erectum) and white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) flowering together on either side of a fallen log. My photo. Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) in full flower. My photo.
May 1, 2024 at 8:54 PM
marianlthorpe.bsky.social
First, crows. Calling loudly from a lamppost by a grove of trees. Then the grackles came, to dive into the foliage. Blue jays followed; soon starlings, house sparrows. A barrage of alarm calls. What roosted there? My bus arrived; I couldn't go to look. #birding

Photo credits alt text.
Crow on a lamppost. Valerie Everett, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Common Grackle: Wildreturn, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Blue Jay: Pheanix, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Male house sparrow: Ken Billington, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
June 9, 2024 at 3:38 PM
christophejenny.bsky.social
Musa monticola by wildreturn at #iNaturalist (www.inaturalist.org/observations...), seen in Kota Belud, #Saba #Malaysia, October 2024. Add your observations to our #BanaBioMap project (bit.ly/MusaDivMapping)! #CitizenScience #Musa #Banana #Diversity #MusaOfTheDay
Musa monticola
Musa monticola from Kinabalu Park, Power Station Road, Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia on October 19, 2024 at 12:08 PM by Chrissy McClarren and Andy Reago
www.inaturalist.org
November 27, 2024 at 12:47 PM