Urban birds

It seems every large tourist city one can visit in Europe needs to have a lot of pigeons for the enthusiastic passers-by to play with; Amsterdam is no exception. There are dozens of pigeons everywhere, from the Dam Square to every single little street. However, the pigeons here are only a little part of the great bird “collection”. The most common species one can encounter are pigeons, ducks, seagulls, swans, crows, different types of geese, and some black, bad and very crazy aquatic birds (I’m no bird expert but I promise to find out what they are called and capture them in a few photos).

For a bird lover this will be Paradise, but if one suffers from ornithophobia they should be very careful around the canals or in the park. Most birds are quite friendly and when approaching the water they all come quickly, hoping for some food. I was amazed to even see wild green parrots flying around (I know in the UK these birds have already become a familiar part of the local fauna).

An ornitho-zoo in the middle of town can be fun, however I preferred the winter time — ever since spring has arrived with it’s longer days, the trees are filled with singing birds and it seems all of them have to perform a prima donna concert early in the morning, each on its own schedule. It became veeery difficult to sleep since the warm weather returned…

Well, maybe that will be a good thing for me — I’ll manage to take more pictures in that wonderful morning light!