Jochen Roeder was born in Germany and raised to be a birder. He also spent a number of years abroad, just so he could see more birds. One of his most astounding achievements is the comprehension that Yellow-crowned Night-herons do not exist, as he failed to see any despite birding in North America for more than two years. He currently lives near Heidelberg, one of the most boring places for a birder to live, a fact about which he likes to whinge a lot. When he is not birding or trying to convince his teenage son that patiently scanning some fields for migrants is more fun than staring at a smartphone, he enjoys contemplating the reasoning behind the common names of birds. He first became famous in the bird blog world on Bell Tower Birding.
Not for nothing, but these look a whole lot like those “Ivory-billed” Woodpecker photos. And we all know what became of them…
Is that paint or natural colouring? 🙂
Aaaarrrrrgggghhhh!!!!!
@Nate: Busted! Darn!! Okay, so you see: I went to Florida recently and got these great images of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. I was just about to publish them and go for fame and fortunes, when Corey mentioned his belief in Black Woodpeckers being nothing but a hoax. I therefore quickly got my priorities straight and photoshopped these Ivory-billed Woodpecker images into “Black Woodpecker” images.
@Clare: It is paint and not natural colouring. Trees in Germany have blue trunks with pink leaves. Hey, at least we have trees! 🙂
@Corey: Do I need to mention a certain wood-warbler on January 1st? Do I?
Ouch! #burn
@Jochen: You mean this one?
Hey, I saw one of those in Queens a while back.
Knock it off, Clare! 🙂
@Tai Haku: well, he asked for it, right?
@Corey: well, actually this one was a good compensation, too:
http://10000birds.com/baby-ibisbills-a-short-picture-story.htm
@Clare: yeah, I had brought one over in 2005 and always wondered why no one saw it after my releasing it. Glad to know there is at least ONE decent birder in North America, even if there seem to be none in Queens.
@Corey: they are so common, common, common, common,…