This is a tricolored heron (Egretta tricolor) also known as the Louisiana Heron in the USA. As this bird was stalking its pray I was stalking it with my camera. Obviously I am not as good of a stalker as this bird, since it noticed me and elongated its neck and moved its head from side to side as if it was giving each of its eyes a chance to look at me. The fact that this is one of most colorful of the large birds here in Florida might actually help it hide from its predators; as you can see in the picture, its color lets it blend very well with the swampy/water background. The colors that make this bird unique are blue, yellow, brown, black, and white; more than three if you ask this obviously non photonics / optics / lights expert.

The White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) is a very funny looking bird that you might find in many places here in Tampa. The bird in the picture was among ducks that were being fed by a student in a pond at USF. When the bird grabbed whatever the fellow student gave it, it (the Ibis) ran quickly to the edge of the water and soaked his/her grab in water before degluting it. This operation gave no chance to the ducks around to snatch the precious meal from the Ibis. You can find more information about this bird from "The Wild Ones" which is a trust for wild life conservation.

These birds are seen here in Tampa everywhere; they seem to be very good at fishing. While resting in between sessions of a conference held at the Tampa Conference Center I couldn't resist the temptation to get close and photograph this Cormorant just facing the wind in the company of some seagulls. The name Cormorant comes from the Latin contraction corvus marinus which means "sea raven"; the raven is a similar bird which this species was confused with. These birds are interesting regarding their nesting behavior; they gather just about anything for making nests including plastic debris, and even parts of dead birds. It seems they sometimes confuse pebbles that they bring into their nests and just proceed to treat them as eggs. More interesting facts about Cormorants can be read from the Cornell University Bird Guide.

Black vultures have to be one of the scariest birds I have ever seen. They are usually in groups much larger than the one shown in this picture feeding at a garbage dumpster behind a local Tampa Restaurant called Moe's. If you just drive by or walk by the birds, they don't notice you. But, if you approach them as I did with the camera they start flying one by one in a chain reaction as if the nervousness spread. Some of these nervous birds were even regurgitating (reflux of food out from their beaks) their food from the dumpster. Turns out, the regurgitation seems to be a behavior that both scares would be predators, and makes them lighter for a faster take-off and flight. A good article on black vultures can be found at Wikipedia.

These Laughing Gulls (Larus atricilla) were caught at a tailgate party before a USF (University of South Florida) Bull's game against the University of Conneticut. They were being fed airborne potato chips by a fan at a parking lot near the Raymond James Stadium at Tampa. It is amasing how these birds communicate about a source of food and how in such a short time tens of seagulls aproximating a hundred joined the feeding frenzy even headsmashing like the ones in this photo. A good article on the Laughling seegull is here in Wikipedia. I had a hard time finding the exact place where these gulls were seen, the reason is that the parking lot where this was shot is located where the Tampa Bay Center Mall was demolished no more than a year ago (2005).

This smaller bird's name comes from its ability to imitate other birds and known to mimic dog's barking, pianos and sirens!. Its common name is the mockingbird, its Genus (scientific naming), the Mimus means to mimic or copy in latin. As it happens, the mockingbird is the state bird for several States:

• Tennessee
• Texas
• Mississippi
• Arkansas, and
• Florida

This bird was found wandering around the plants section of the North Florida Home Depot. A good reference to these birds can be found in the U. Michigan Museum of Zoology.

This is a white little bird that reached almost extinction in the 19th century because its feathers were used to decorate lady's hats for Sunday church. While this bird is similar to the white heron, it is different in that its peak is mostly black with yellow near its eyes, and while it is difficult to see in the picture, it has bright yellow pads. An interesting fact is that females of this species lay greenish eggs worthy of Easter egg hunt; you can read more about the Snowy egret at the Assateague Island website.

These gulls were spotted off the coast of Orcas Island in the Puget Sound. They were seen nesting on top of a guide for the Washington State Ferries. The female bird was tending to the nest while the male bird looked on. He became agitated as the ferries docked. These gulls had orange feet and yellow beaks. They are one of over ten gull species in vicinity of the San Juan Islands.

The Little Blue Heron really catches your attention with its grey-blue feathers. This little funny blue bird spends a lot of its time in the banks of ponds, lakes and rivers, just feeding of insects, crustaceans, and fish. It is much more shy than other water birds like the like its cousin the Great Blue Heron or the Sandhill Cranes. You can read more about the little blue heron from Nature Works, and more about common water birds from the University of Florida.

This was about a 10 turkey flock that was right there on the Flatwood Park's bicycle trail just feeding and not minding the bikers and joggers. I am not sure if they were truly wild or just some rogue turkeys that fled a nearby turkey farm on Morris Bridge Road. They truly look like they are made for running in the rough terrain of the park, since their legs look absolutely muscular and very large in proportion to their size. When you look for online resources for these birds, you will find that most of them are hunting sites; this is to expect, since they look really easy to hunt given their size and the fact that they are very widespread across North America.