The top 10 most beautiful Passerine birds in your opinion.

Those big whistling thrushes are highly predatory

 

It is interesting for me as I thought they would be mainly insectivorous / mulloscivorous / frugivorous like most thrushes.

But I just read a little more about the ecology of the blue whistling thrush in the wild and it has been recorded preying on smaller birds.

Perhaps this aggressive behaviour towards cage mates that ended in killings that @vogelcommando mentioned was just this birds natural innate behaviour.

 

Even Blackbirds will take newts, tadpoles and small fish.

 

Yes, but the blue whistling thrush seems to sometimes behave and in fact actually looks like a black bird on steroids.

Most birds will raid the nests and nestlings of other birds but Myophonus caeruleus from just my brief reading on the species will on occasion actively prey upon and kill other adult birds.

All the same it is a really handsome looking bird and I'm glad I now know that it exists out there in the world.

 

So now the last of my 4 Top 10-lists, this time species I've seen only in the wild ( not completly true but at least close because some species I may have seen and others seen for sure but only briefly in captivity ) :
- Yucatan jay - Cyanocorax yucatanicus. One of the most beautiful species I saw for the first time during my Mexico-trip 2013-2014. Could be I had seen them before at some dealers -places in The Netherlands / Belgium but I can't remember that.

Angry .........euh Hungry bird by vogelcommando posted 12 Mar 2014 at 11:04 PM

- Copper sunbird - Cinnyris cupreus. During a journey through the Gambia I saw a number of Sunbirds but most of them I had seen before. I could'nt remember having seen this one before in captivity but in the wild it was - with natural sunlight on it - a real beauty to observe !
- Long-tailed bushtit - Aegithalos caudatus. Already listed by several other ZooChatters and alway a surprise to discover a small group of them in a bush or tree !

long-tailed tit by vogelcommando posted 27 Mar 2013 at 5:56 PM

- Black redstart - Phoenicurus ochruros. A species I've seen surtainly also in captivity but my wild encounters with this beauty are alway enjoyable happenings
- Red-capped manakin - Ceratopipra mentalis. Also seen with surtain in captivity but here also the first ( and only ) encounter with this species in the mountains of Mexico made a real impression on me !

Red-capped manakin by vogelcommando posted 27 Jan 2014 at 10:51 PM

- Rufous-chested swallow - Cecropis semirufa. With this one I'm sure I had never seen it before and when I discovered the first ones in the Gambia in 1999 I was surprised to see a swallow which was not black and white like about 90 % of the Dutchs swallows and martins I had seen before ( the remaining 10 % are the brown Sand martins ). I realy enjoyed watching this species.
- White-spectacled bulbul - Pycnonotus xanthopygos. 2017 we ( my wife, daugther and I ) made a trip to Turkey and hoped to see a lot of birds. Big dissapointment as I saw less then 20 species in 7 days time ! THE highlight however was the White-spectacled bulbul which I watched for several days and from which I was convinced it was the Common bulbul. Just discovered by checking my photos this evening that I was wrong.

Common bulbul by vogelcommando posted 20 Jun 2017 at 4:28 AM

- Yellow-throated warbler - Dendroica dominica. New World warblers are rare in European collections and therefor I'm quite sure that the beautiful Yellow-throated warblers I saw in Mexico were the very first of their species I've ever seen. Large number of nice species in this family but I liked this one most.

Yellow-throated warbler by vogelcommando posted 14 Jan 2014 at 9:31 PM

- Scissor-tailed flycatcher - Tyrannus forficatus. Seeing this species flying over marsh-area somewhere in Mexico was a real experience. The fluttering tail is realy a very special sight and althrought the actual bird is not a real beauty ( althrough I like it ) its flight is the most beautiful among the songbirds I've seen.
- Orchard oriole - Icterus spurius. Seen a good number of New World oriole-species both in the wild and in captivity but from the species seen in Mexico I liked the Orchard oriole the most. The black and redish-chestnut-red combination makes it IMO to a real beautiful bird !

Orchard oriole by vogelcommando posted 14 Jan 2014 at 5:25 PM

This was the last of my Top 10 list of this thread and as said before, there are so many species that I must have missed a good number of other species which actualy also belong on one of the 4 lists !

 

The regent honeyeater is a spectacular bird, in ways a small regent bowerbird. It is a very confiding bird in the aviary, happy to fly around you, perch right next to you, take mealworms from your hand, even nest and raise chicks right next to the public walkway. And of course it is critically endangered.

 

Gorgeous looking bird too, must be amazing to work with and really look amazing in a mixed species aviary.

 

I already made my list, but since I've already seen the Goulidan finch listed on there I would like to add a replacement with a bird that I completely forgot about while making my list. This picture is from Ebird, but for some reason I like the blend of different colors for this animal, with the brown wings, white belly, and those pepper colored cheeks. Also, the "Parrot bill" itself is a good contrasting color. I don't know, a lot of people will probably skip this one of the most beautiful, but
It's just my opinion.

 

Great addition Luke ! Very intriguing looking bird

 

Yes, very fond of the Black hat.

 

What species is that?

 

Black-headed parrotbill Psittiparus margaritae

 

Oh my gosh I completely forgot to add the name.
Thats so embarrassing .
but yes, its the Black-headed parrotbill.
lol, Im so dumb .

 

In no particular order

1. Northern cardinal
2. Blue jay
3. Blackburnian warbler
4. Black-throated blue warbler
5. Hooded oriole
6. Western tanager
7. Steller's jay
8. Paradise tanager
9. Many-colored rush tyrant
10. Blue tit