Matt (I post birds)
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mcpdx.bsky.social
Matt (I post birds)
@mcpdx.bsky.social
280 followers 710 following 51 posts
I'm Matt. I like birds and I dislike fascism.

Photos by me.
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mcpdx.bsky.social
I'm as guilty as any birder of "just"-ing locally common birds. "That's just a great blue heron."

Well, this was just a really cool pose.

Great blue heron, photographed March 2025 in Forest Grove, OR.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a great blue heron perches on a snag with one wing extended
March 14, 2025 at 12:29 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Snow geese in flight. Photographed 3/1/25 on Sauvie Island, OR.

🪶📷 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
March 3, 2025 at 1:49 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
The US is in the midst of a hostile fascist takeover by an unelected oligarch and we're starting trade wars with our closest friends. Support organizations like @democracydocket.com to fight back.

Anyway, here's a belted kingfisher.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography #antifascism
February 2, 2025 at 7:18 PM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Taking a brief break from posting birds to point out that, yes, you saw Elon Musk repeatedly do a nazi salute. Believe your eyes.

Back to bird photos soon, promise.
January 21, 2025 at 3:53 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Diving bufflehead. Photographed yesterday in Yaquina Bay, Newport, OR.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
January 20, 2025 at 12:36 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Uncropped/cropped. A mess of shorebirds (mostly red knots, dunlins, and ruddy turnstones with a number of untold other peeps).

Photographed May 2024 near Cape May, NJ.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
January 6, 2025 at 12:33 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
New World warblers are my weakness. When you travel to see them, you get the weather you get. But, better to have good birding with bad weather than the reverse!

Prothonotary warbler - photographed on a rainy day in May, 2024 - Belleplain State Forest, NJ.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a protonotary warbler sings while perching on a branch
December 22, 2024 at 1:35 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Unlike most sandpipers, purple sandpipers are usually found foraging along rocky shorelines.

I spotted this one in May, 2024, near Cape May, NJ.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a purple sandpiper forages for food along a rocky shorline
December 19, 2024 at 12:36 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Since people seemed to enjoy the barred owl photos I posted yesterday, here are a couple of different poses. This was a very cooperative owl! It was probably 5 feet off the trail.

Barred owl - photographed June, 2024, in Portland, OR.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography #owls
barred owl barred owl
December 18, 2024 at 1:02 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
I walked right by this barred owl on a busy trail and didn't even see it. My partner pointed it out.

It was only worried about us enough to open one eye. I wonder how many people walked right by without noticing.

Photographed June, 2024, in Portland, OR.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
December 17, 2024 at 12:35 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
A pair of black-crowned night herons tend to their nest.

Photographed May, 2024, in Ocean City, NJ.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a pair of black-crowned night herons tend to their nest
December 15, 2024 at 11:11 PM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Birding in new regions is exciting even when you don't spot your target birds. I had hoped for a trove of warblers on this day, but was delighted to see my (then lifer) great-crested flycatcher.

Photographed May 2023, Indiana Dunes National Park

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a great-crested flycatcher perches on a branch
December 14, 2024 at 1:13 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
"Phainopepla" comes from the Greek for "shining robe" which refers to the appearance of the male of the species.

For some reason, though, the females have seemed more cooperative when I try to photograph them.

Photographed January, 2023, in Las Vegas, NV.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a female phainopepla perches on a branch a male phainopepla perches on a branch
December 13, 2024 at 12:30 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Semipalmated plover. One of the most adorable shorebirds out there.

Photographed May 2024 near Cape May, NJ.

🪶📸 #birds #birding #nature #photography #njbirds
a semipalmated plover stands on one leg on a beach
December 12, 2024 at 12:40 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Hummingbirds: tiny, cute, and, most of all: mean. They defend their food sources with a ferocity belied by their diminutiveness. Luckily, their ire is mostly reserved for other hummingbirds. Mostly.

Allen's hummingbird - spotted November 2022 in Imperial Beach, CA.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #photography
December 11, 2024 at 12:23 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Common murres spend most of their time at sea, only coming to shore to breed where they gather in dense (and often large) colonies on rocky cliffs and islands.

Common murre colony - photographed July 2024 in Newport, OR.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
December 10, 2024 at 1:01 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
The western meadowlark is the state bird of 6 US states, including my home state of Oregon where I spotted this one.

Western meadowlark - photographed December 2022 in Newport, OR.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a western meadowlark perches on a rock
December 9, 2024 at 1:42 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Are blue birds actually blue?

Not really. Birds that appear blue look that way because of the way their feathers scatter light that reflects off them. There is no bird that produces blue pigment.

Indigo bunting - photographed May 2024 near Cape May, NJ.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #nature #photography
an indigo bunting perches on a small branch
December 7, 2024 at 1:05 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
An island full of whimbrels. Photographed May 2024 in Cape May, NJ.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography #newjersey
a group of 7 wimbrels stand on a small island
December 6, 2024 at 12:48 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Hummingbird gorget feathers are iridescent, which means the apparent color and luminance change depending on the angle light reflects off them.

These were taken less than a second apart.

Anna's hummingbird - photographed January 2021 in Forest Grove, OR.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
Anna's hummingbird perches on a branch with its gorget brightly lit anna's hummingbird perches on a branch with its gorget not catching the light
December 5, 2024 at 12:48 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
After years of birding, this still happens to me sometimes.

"What is that little bird? It looks like a bushtit but it has a yellow face. Could it be something rare?!"

No. It just has pollen on its face.

Common bushtit - photographed March 2024 in Albany, OR.
#birds #birding #nature #photography
a common bushtit with its face stained yellow from pollen
December 4, 2024 at 12:15 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
White-throated sparrows are a winter visitor where I live. There is a tan-striped form I had never seen before, until I spotted this one!

White-throated sparrow (tan-striped form) - photographed December, 2024 on Sauvie Island, OR.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a white-throated sparrow stands among sticks, lichens, and dead leaves
December 3, 2024 at 12:27 AM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Birding on a foggy morning, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love high ISO.

Fox sparrow - photographed today on Sauvie Island, Oregon.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a fox sparrow stands on the ground among sticks and dead leaves
December 1, 2024 at 11:53 PM
mcpdx.bsky.social
No matter how many times I see them, I still can't believe nature came with something that looks like wood ducks do.

Photographed today in Gresham, Oregon.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
December 1, 2024 at 9:44 PM
mcpdx.bsky.social
Little blue heron in all-white juvenile plumage. Photographed September, 2024, in San Diego.

🪶 📸 #birds #birding #wildlife #photography
a wading juvenile little blue heron is reflected in the water
November 30, 2024 at 11:19 PM