Most Beautiful Bird in the World, Cardinal

Beautiful Northern Cardinal/ Red Cardinal.

Cardinal one of the most recognized bird in the North and South America. Even though there are many species of Cardinal, perhaps the most beautiful one will be the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) for its bright red plumage. They also have something to offer instead of just beautiful appearances; their nice songs of calls – that totally will lift-up your moods.

There are 19 subspecies of Northern Cardinal alone and there many other in same family. The names of the Northern Cardinal refer to the cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, where the plumage color looks similarly to the red robes and caps. Northern Cardinal known as pet bird before it was protected by the ‘MigratoryBird Treaty Act of 1918, in the United States.

The female Northern Cardinal.

Pair of Northern Cardinal during winter.

With the size can be 20-23.5cm (7.9-9.3 in) in length and a wingspan of 25-31 cm (9.8-12.2 in) the Northern Cardinal is not the smallest in its family. Their colors are mostly red and also some black and darker colors on the back and wings compared to the females that has mostly grayish-brown tones and a slight reddish tint on the wings, crest and their tail feathers.

Northern Cardinal is very good in singing (they has a great songs). There’re numerous of Northern Cardinal calls and these calls also vary according to their region. There also different calls between male and females. You can find samples of their calls from some websites.

Northern Cardinal feed the female beak to beak.

When it comes to family, Northern Cardinal will mate for life. They will shows such great behavior such as offering food by the male and feeding her beak to beak, travelling together and sing together too. What such a wonderful bird after all?

For their diet mostly Northern Cardinal will prefer on seeds. They also prefer insects, beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers, snails, wild fruit and berries, corn and oats, sunflower seeds, the blossoms and bark of elm trees and maple sap. Their diets are mostly depending on the availability of the food source. Anyway Northern Cardinal always prefers to feed their young with insects.

Northern Cardinal in Angry Bird.

Northern cardinals are very popular to human. We can see it used in many logos, mascots and also in popular video games such as ‘Angry Birds’. 

Most Beautiful Bird in the World, Mandarin Duck

Mandarin Duck have such a beautiful plumage.

Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) also known as Mandarin, not like an ordinary duck they have a very beautiful plumage and choose to live in the wild than in captivity. The species of Mandarin Duck once widespread in eastern Asia include Russia, China, Korea and Japan. Today there also some wild Mandarin Ducks in Europe and United States after several of them escaped to the wild.

The size of mandarin duck can get around 41 – 49 cm long with 65 – 75 cm wingspan their size not as big as domesticated duck since they’re also migrating during the winter season. Chose to live in the tree hole near the water where they can easily bring their chicks soon after they hatched. This hole can be up to 10 meters (30 feet) high.

Symbolized as good marriage and fidelity.

Mandarin Duck will stay together for many mating seasons – in Chinese traditional, Mandarin Ducks symbolized a long marriage and fidelity. In fact the plumage of male and female duck is totally different in colors – and the male is exactly have the one who have the beautiful plumage and features. They also symbolized an “odd couple” – or the mixture of two different types of the same category.

There’re few main features in the Mandarin Duck that make it so special and the main feature is the “sail” in the back of their body, the orange crest, cream feathers and the eye-stripe. Their “sail” can easily be seen when they swimming in the pond. Compared to the female, the color is duller but still has the white eye-stripe just like the male but thinner.

Mandarin Duckling.

Their diets are pretty much the same like any other ducks such as water plants, rice, and other grains. Peoples try to breed them and most of them get escape and turn to be wild again. This is how the Mandarin Duck of Europe and United States came from.

Most Beautiful Bird in the World, Gouldian Finch

Beautiful group of Gouldian Finch.

Gouldian Finch (Erythrura gouldiae) also known as the Lad Gouldian Finch, Gould’s Finch or the Rainbow Finch is another beautiful mid-size bird. With combination of bright beautiful colors the Gouldian Finch can easily captures your intention to know more about them.

Native to Australia, Gouldian Finch origin is in the Northern Territory. Most of Gouldian Finchs were breeds in captive – since peoples love to keep them since long time ago. Their population decreases sometimes ago due to the diseases and the conservation process try to understand how they can help in order to put them back in numbers.

Beautiful bright colors of Gouldian Finch.

Medium in size Gouldian Finch measures around 13 – 14 cm long, that quite nice to put in your palm. They have variation in colors even though both male and females can have the same plumage. The male have a bright color of purple in their chest though. That’s how the male always have the brighter colors or shinier plumage.

There’re two types of most significant different between types that is their head’s color. Some have the bright red color or black. The young Gouldian Finch has different colors from their adult. The mature plumage will soon come out when they’re ready for the mating period.

Relaxing on the twig.

Diet mostly from various types of seeds can range from grass seeds to sorghum seeds. There’s also an evidence of insect consumption – found in their stomach. These seeds can be varies since their availability differs during seasons such as dry and raining. So Gouldian Finch chooses their seeds depend on the seasons too.

Become one of the beautiful birds peoples admire them and try to keep them as pet. Instead some companies use them as their logo – such as ViewSonic. Perhaps their also appear in the movies sometimes. 

Most Beautiful Bird in the World, Crowned Crane

Crowned Cranes performing their ritual dance.

Crowned Crane is too beautiful to be in crane species since the crane families usually play in mud for hunting their prey. Native to African land of Natal, Namibia, Kenya and Uganda they flourish in the grasslands, marshes and the flooded fields.

There are two sub-species of Crowned Cranes, the black-crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) and the grey-crown crane (Balearica regulorum) where the grey species are more vulnerable to extinction. The best feature for Crowned Crane is the crown on its head makes it looks totally different from any other crane species. Instead their plumage consists of various colors compared to many other crane species with one or two dominant colors.

Flying Crowned Crane showing their beautiful plumage.

Crowned Cranes are omnivores and can eat almost anything they can found on the swamp or the grassland their hunting grounds. Their wide ranges of diet consist of plants, seeds, grains, insects, frogs, worms, snakes, small fish and even the eggs of aquatic animals. They also sometimes following the herds of antelopes or gazelles to take their chances on disturbed insects or any other small creatures.

The grey-crowned crane had been threatened to extinction by human activities such as drainage, overgrazing and pesticide pollution. In fact the crowned crane is one of the oldest species that flourished the earth since the Eocene period some 54 to 38 million years ago.

The size of adult grey-crowned crane is about 1 m (3.3 ft.) tall and weighs 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs.), with a wingspan of 2 m (6.5 ft.). They have the same plumage for both sexes while the males tend to be slightly larger.

Another best thing about the crowned crane is their dance ritual – in fact some other crane species have a quite similar dance ritual. Even though this dance used as part of the courtship, it also will be done at any other time of the year. During the dance they can jump for several feet in the air. Once they touch the ground they will run around each other and start all over again. Should it be nice event to see!

Most Beautiful Bird in the World, Blue Jay

Blue Jay on the branch of tree.

Photo Credit: hoganphoto

Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) can be easier to see for peoples who live in the eastern and central United States and southern Canada. With and adaptation to the live among peoples population this bird don’t have much problems to survive until today – they also choose to stay near residential areas sometimes.

Blue jay has a great blue in color with a remarkable blue crest with a white chest and underparts. With some black color that form U-shaped around its neck, on their wings and the bright white color in mixing. Both male and female have the same plumage – in this case usually the male will have shinier plumage than the female.

Their sizes can get to 22 – 30 cm (9 – 12 in) from bill to tail and weighs 70 – 100 grams (2.5 – 3.5 oz) and the wingspan of 34 – 43 cm (13 – 17 in) wide. That’s pretty big for a bird actually. So in the ecosystem they can be both the predator and the prey at the same time. They can be a predator for other small birds while they also become a prey for an eagle.

Blue Jay during the winter.

They’re many types of Blue Jay across the United States and they’re also migrating between north and south. Anyway their migrating is not persistent each year. So they will migrating or not are up to them. Some of the types of Blue Jays are northern Blue Jay, coastal Blue Jay, interior Blue Jay and Florida Blue Jay. Most significant different between types is sizes.

Blue Jay’s diets are varies from fruits and nuts to insects and even other small birds. They also have different calls with loud sounds with capability to imitate other birds call such as hawk. This ability is used whether to check on if there’s another hawk around or scaring other birds for foods – pretty clever!

When it comes to parenting issues, Blue Jay will choose the same mate for their entire life, so both of them will work together for their nest. As many other birds that live among peoples population, Blue Jay also can make their nest almost anywhere they find safe – this can be in abandoned mailbox too. Even though Blue Jay is considered as a common bird they still looks attractive for most of peoples. 

Most Beautiful Bird in the World, The Blue Bird of Paradise

Blue Bird of Paradise hanging on the tree.

Photo Credit: tenseofthousands.blogspot.com

Bird-of-Paradise consists of many types of birds and all of them are stunningly beautiful.  The Blue Bird of Paradise is one of the species that have eyes catching properties in many ways. Perhaps one of the most profound factors is the tails.

Blue bird-of-paradise living in the same continent where all others bird-of-paradise can be found in the deep forest of Papua New Guinea. This remote island is the only home of these miraculous species where they can’t ever be found in somewhere else.

There’re rumors in surrounding islands about these birds. Taking them as mythical creatures with superstitious power of healing or story such as, they even didn't ever touch the ground. While some travelers might had caught them and bring it home, but they never told their folks of the original stories. In fact they use it to gain something from the peoples. Well, I hope the myths should be gone now.

Back to our blue bird plumage are pretty much likes the peacock with the properties of ‘optical interference Bragg reflection’. You can see the color changes depend on the light hit the feathers, but the main color is still looks blue. There also black color that dominant in their features and yellowish brown fluffy feathers in its tails. These characteristics are rare in other species that we can find in any other places that make it really ‘out of this world’. They also not a migrating type – so we can only see it in their homeland (don’t let the birds’ trafficker get the ideas).

Blue bird of paradise getting ready for the mating calls.

The beautiful plumage used in spectacular dance for the mating calls. All types of bird-of-paradise have their own specials dance ritual for their mating calls. While for the blue bird they are not going just to show their plumage but also dance and sings – yes, they’re irresistible unless there’s other competence males around.

We should take a look at more of bird-of- paradise in later articles. To see more of them is only by conserve their territories from human invasion. Sure beautiful things are better let untouched.

Most Beautiful Bird in the World, Scarlet Macaw

Pair of beautiful Scarlet Macaws.

Scarlet Macaw not just beautiful in colors but they also have more interesting things to offer for human to love them. With the size slightly bigger than ordinary birds they can be great companion as pet. They often caught in videos playing with others domestic pets such as cats and dogs.

Pet macaw can be as gentle as any other pets. More surprising some of them even can say simple words such as “hello”, “good morning” and even any other words trained to them. Everything they do will be nice to watch. Most of the time they have the happy expression in their face that making you want to touch it and give pat at their back.

Macaws are native to tropical forest of South America deep in the jungle from south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil. They usually found at gathering spot for a claylicks in a large group, while actually scarlet macaw mate for life and making their nest in the tree cavity. They often fly in pair looking for fruits in the dense jungle canopy.

With a size up to 81 centimeters (32 in) long that included with their tail and the average weight is about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb.). The main color for the plumage is scarlet where it’s got its name from, but there also shades of blue for its tail and wings with mixing of yellow. These bright colors combination make the scarlet macaw the most stunning in the macaw’s family.

Macaw feeding on jungle fruits.

Macaws prefer fruits in their diet. Most jungle fruits, nuts and seeds even large hard seeds as you can see that macaw’s beak are built to crack even the hardest shell of nuts. This also will remind you to avoid from touching this birds in shock or you’ll need to bear the price of their powerful beak or claws. Anyway they always look lovely and beautiful – so keep it that way.

The populations of macaws are getting smaller caused by the illegal birds trafficking. Even though they can easily keep in captivity that doesn't mean that we should let their home being destroyed. There’re many things that we can’t provide them as what their natural home can.

So if you really want to know how beautiful and gentle is the scarlet macaw is? Maybe you can pay them a visit at the local zoo or somewhere that keep this birds in live. By knowing them, maybe you’ll understand how important is for us to ensure that they’ll never get extinct.