JJ Millibeter
@millibeterjj.bsky.social
Amateur bird photographer, mostly Belgium, sometimes abroad
🪶🦉At the height of the covid lockdowns, I jumped on my bike a few ties in the driving rains, because this Red-necked grebe was spotted 10kms away. And because I needed to be outside. That too...
(Roodhalsfuut, Podiceps grisegena)
(Roodhalsfuut, Podiceps grisegena)
March 5, 2024 at 9:19 PM
🪶🦉At the height of the covid lockdowns, I jumped on my bike a few ties in the driving rains, because this Red-necked grebe was spotted 10kms away. And because I needed to be outside. That too...
(Roodhalsfuut, Podiceps grisegena)
(Roodhalsfuut, Podiceps grisegena)
Song thrush. It does what it says on the package. Sings and is thrush. (zanglijster, Turdus philomelos)
March 1, 2024 at 9:01 PM
Song thrush. It does what it says on the package. Sings and is thrush. (zanglijster, Turdus philomelos)
🦉🪶 'I want your clothes, your boots and your motor cycle!'
-"You forgot to say Please!"
This black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) failed the Terminator audition. Got the looks for a movie career, though. (Geoorde fuut)
-"You forgot to say Please!"
This black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) failed the Terminator audition. Got the looks for a movie career, though. (Geoorde fuut)
February 29, 2024 at 7:53 PM
🦉🪶 'I want your clothes, your boots and your motor cycle!'
-"You forgot to say Please!"
This black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) failed the Terminator audition. Got the looks for a movie career, though. (Geoorde fuut)
-"You forgot to say Please!"
This black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) failed the Terminator audition. Got the looks for a movie career, though. (Geoorde fuut)
🪶🦉 Great Crested Grebe. She is the lady your friends warned you for. A killer with the stiletto smile. You know you are going to suffer, but you can't turn your eyes away from so much beauty. (Fuut, Podiceps cristatus) Afrikaans: kuifkopdobbertje. Really.
February 28, 2024 at 12:25 AM
🪶🦉 Great Crested Grebe. She is the lady your friends warned you for. A killer with the stiletto smile. You know you are going to suffer, but you can't turn your eyes away from so much beauty. (Fuut, Podiceps cristatus) Afrikaans: kuifkopdobbertje. Really.
🦉🪶 The cuckoo. The bird that really spiked my interest in the natural history of species, and how they evolve. They are not very common in Belgium anymore, judging by how hard it is to hear their unmistakable call. (Koekoek, Cuculus canorus)
February 25, 2024 at 8:28 PM
🦉🪶 The cuckoo. The bird that really spiked my interest in the natural history of species, and how they evolve. They are not very common in Belgium anymore, judging by how hard it is to hear their unmistakable call. (Koekoek, Cuculus canorus)
🪶🦉 Just my luck that my favorite bird is probably the hardest to capture in a picture, and is only around in these parts for 100 days a year. Swift (Apus apus, gierzwaluw)
February 23, 2024 at 1:23 PM
🪶🦉 Just my luck that my favorite bird is probably the hardest to capture in a picture, and is only around in these parts for 100 days a year. Swift (Apus apus, gierzwaluw)
🦉🪶Common pheasant? Common Eileen! An imported species, but a beauty in itself. (fazant, Phasianus colchicus)
February 21, 2024 at 10:03 PM
🦉🪶Common pheasant? Common Eileen! An imported species, but a beauty in itself. (fazant, Phasianus colchicus)
🪶🦉I mean, why did they call all of our birds here the "common this" and the "common that"? This wonder of nature shouldn't be called a "common" crane. By the way, 50.000 of 'em are leaving Spain right now, to sail over France and hopefully Belgium on their way to Scandinavia. (kraanvogel, Grus grus)
February 20, 2024 at 7:51 PM
🪶🦉I mean, why did they call all of our birds here the "common this" and the "common that"? This wonder of nature shouldn't be called a "common" crane. By the way, 50.000 of 'em are leaving Spain right now, to sail over France and hopefully Belgium on their way to Scandinavia. (kraanvogel, Grus grus)
🦉🪶Almost that time of the year again, when the coots produce these carnivalesque chicks. Adorable. (meerkoet, Fulica atra)
February 19, 2024 at 10:23 AM
🦉🪶Almost that time of the year again, when the coots produce these carnivalesque chicks. Adorable. (meerkoet, Fulica atra)
🪶🦉Rose-ringed parakeet, enjoying some winter sunshine in an Antwerp park, where they established a feral colony in the last decade. They seem to perform assembly flights above the city at dusk, before roosting together.
(halsbandparkiet, Psittacula krameri)
(halsbandparkiet, Psittacula krameri)
February 17, 2024 at 8:46 AM
🪶🦉Rose-ringed parakeet, enjoying some winter sunshine in an Antwerp park, where they established a feral colony in the last decade. They seem to perform assembly flights above the city at dusk, before roosting together.
(halsbandparkiet, Psittacula krameri)
(halsbandparkiet, Psittacula krameri)
🦉🪶 The common moorhen, indeed quite common around here year round, will soon start claiming their breeding territories. Which can be a feisty shakedown. (waterhoen, Gallinula chloropus)
February 15, 2024 at 9:58 PM
🦉🪶 The common moorhen, indeed quite common around here year round, will soon start claiming their breeding territories. Which can be a feisty shakedown. (waterhoen, Gallinula chloropus)
🪶🦉 Looking at the business end of the grey heron, it is clear that if they were 5x bigger, or we were 5x smaller, there wouldn't be 8 billion of us. I beg you not to google "heron impaling rat/mole". (Blauwe reiger, Ardea cinerea)
February 14, 2024 at 11:47 AM
🪶🦉 Looking at the business end of the grey heron, it is clear that if they were 5x bigger, or we were 5x smaller, there wouldn't be 8 billion of us. I beg you not to google "heron impaling rat/mole". (Blauwe reiger, Ardea cinerea)
Imagine your scientific name sounding as cool as Nycticorax nycticorax.
In English, they call you not just the Night Heron, but even the Black-Crowned one!
YOU ARE A SUPERVILLAIN!
And then Dutch just call you: "kwak".
KWAK.
And you don't even quack...🦉🪶
In English, they call you not just the Night Heron, but even the Black-Crowned one!
YOU ARE A SUPERVILLAIN!
And then Dutch just call you: "kwak".
KWAK.
And you don't even quack...🦉🪶
February 12, 2024 at 10:10 PM
Imagine your scientific name sounding as cool as Nycticorax nycticorax.
In English, they call you not just the Night Heron, but even the Black-Crowned one!
YOU ARE A SUPERVILLAIN!
And then Dutch just call you: "kwak".
KWAK.
And you don't even quack...🦉🪶
In English, they call you not just the Night Heron, but even the Black-Crowned one!
YOU ARE A SUPERVILLAIN!
And then Dutch just call you: "kwak".
KWAK.
And you don't even quack...🦉🪶
🪶🦉Almost as beautiful, the little egret isn't really that much smaller than yesterday's great egret. Especially if you keep in mind the cattle egret, which is chicken-sized. Getting more common in Belgium every year. Lovely. (Kleine zilverreiger, Egretta garzetta)
February 11, 2024 at 9:08 PM
🪶🦉Almost as beautiful, the little egret isn't really that much smaller than yesterday's great egret. Especially if you keep in mind the cattle egret, which is chicken-sized. Getting more common in Belgium every year. Lovely. (Kleine zilverreiger, Egretta garzetta)
🦉🪶 Once, at a guided group tour of a local nature reserve, I spotted a great egret, which we call a "great silver heron", and the boomer woman beside me confidently corrected me: "no, he's white, not silver, I can see it quite clearly." I couldn't argue with that. (grote zilverreiger, Ardea alba)
February 10, 2024 at 5:49 PM
🦉🪶 Once, at a guided group tour of a local nature reserve, I spotted a great egret, which we call a "great silver heron", and the boomer woman beside me confidently corrected me: "no, he's white, not silver, I can see it quite clearly." I couldn't argue with that. (grote zilverreiger, Ardea alba)
🪶🦉 one more spoonful, you say? Here you go, a spoonbill in the nature reserves around the port of Antwerp... (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)
February 9, 2024 at 6:15 AM
🪶🦉 one more spoonful, you say? Here you go, a spoonbill in the nature reserves around the port of Antwerp... (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)
🪶🦉oh, the English and their stupid habit of inventing specific words for gatherings of a specific animals! What is this then, a drawer of spoonbills? (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)
February 7, 2024 at 6:21 AM
🪶🦉oh, the English and their stupid habit of inventing specific words for gatherings of a specific animals! What is this then, a drawer of spoonbills? (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)
🦉🪶 A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching several kingfishers speardive for a few hours... WHAT A SPECTACLE ! Even without the extraordinary colors of its plumage, anything but a "common" kingfisher. (Ijsvogel, Alcedo atthis)
February 5, 2024 at 3:35 PM
🦉🪶 A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching several kingfishers speardive for a few hours... WHAT A SPECTACLE ! Even without the extraordinary colors of its plumage, anything but a "common" kingfisher. (Ijsvogel, Alcedo atthis)
🪶🦉 It seems somebody was determined to get this cutie going with a massive inferiority complex. I mean, naming it the "lesser" spotted woodpecker, just because YOU ran out of inspiration ? Much rarer, and discreter, than the Great and Middle SWP's. (kleine bonte specht, Dryobates minor)
February 4, 2024 at 12:12 PM
🪶🦉 It seems somebody was determined to get this cutie going with a massive inferiority complex. I mean, naming it the "lesser" spotted woodpecker, just because YOU ran out of inspiration ? Much rarer, and discreter, than the Great and Middle SWP's. (kleine bonte specht, Dryobates minor)
🦉🪶 After the great, the middle. Difference in size not that big. Red cap is the tell-tale sign, but juvenile GSWP have that as well, which could confuse. Much more discrete. I was superstoked to make this picture in my own garden. (middelste bonte specht, Dendrocoptes medius)
February 3, 2024 at 10:28 PM
🦉🪶 After the great, the middle. Difference in size not that big. Red cap is the tell-tale sign, but juvenile GSWP have that as well, which could confuse. Much more discrete. I was superstoked to make this picture in my own garden. (middelste bonte specht, Dendrocoptes medius)
🪶🦉Time for some woodpeckers! The most common species around here (North-Belgium) is clearly the great spotted woodpecker. Not very shy, comes for the peanuts just outside my kitchen window. And usually announces itself loud and clearly. (grote bonte specht, Dendrocopos major)
February 2, 2024 at 9:12 PM
🪶🦉Time for some woodpeckers! The most common species around here (North-Belgium) is clearly the great spotted woodpecker. Not very shy, comes for the peanuts just outside my kitchen window. And usually announces itself loud and clearly. (grote bonte specht, Dendrocopos major)
🪶🦉Some birds seem to defy the laws of physics, just to be amazingly beautiful. How can a black-winged stilt have such incredibly long legs, and walk around -without snapping 'em- in the mud the whole day and still look like it's going to the prom? (Steltkluut, Himantopus himantopus)
January 31, 2024 at 9:18 PM
🪶🦉Some birds seem to defy the laws of physics, just to be amazingly beautiful. How can a black-winged stilt have such incredibly long legs, and walk around -without snapping 'em- in the mud the whole day and still look like it's going to the prom? (Steltkluut, Himantopus himantopus)
🦉🪶 And stop calling us "common terns"! We are Top Gun terns! Aren't we, Iceman?!? And WE ARE DANGEROUS!
(visdief, Sterna hirundo)
(visdief, Sterna hirundo)
January 25, 2024 at 10:36 PM
🦉🪶 And stop calling us "common terns"! We are Top Gun terns! Aren't we, Iceman?!? And WE ARE DANGEROUS!
(visdief, Sterna hirundo)
(visdief, Sterna hirundo)
🪶🦉European herring gulls. Clearly not in the mood to be misidentified. And I am not very good at gull determination. We call 'em "silver gulls" but never to their face. We're not crazy, you know... (zilvermeeuw, Larus argentatus)
January 24, 2024 at 9:47 PM
🪶🦉European herring gulls. Clearly not in the mood to be misidentified. And I am not very good at gull determination. We call 'em "silver gulls" but never to their face. We're not crazy, you know... (zilvermeeuw, Larus argentatus)
🦉🪶 From afar, the lapwing looks like a black-and-white bird with a flying disorder, but up close, it is far more colorful. Still unable to fly straight, tho. (kievit, Vanellus vanellus)
January 23, 2024 at 8:08 PM
🦉🪶 From afar, the lapwing looks like a black-and-white bird with a flying disorder, but up close, it is far more colorful. Still unable to fly straight, tho. (kievit, Vanellus vanellus)