The Curious Compendium 2023 Tour Finale: Peacocks and first ratites!

Beautiful eagles! I love your white-bellied sea eagle repaint!

Thank you both!

@Andreas, it is a NECA brand model included in a figure set from a popular video game. Assassin's Creed Eagle Vision

Great variety of esgles.congrstulations

Thank you, so it is another good example for very very interesting Action toys animal figures

Thank you my friends. :)

More mixed eagles and friends!
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The harpy eagle makes enormous nests! They can be the size of a double bed, 100 feet or more off the ground, and have been recorded as using up to 300 branches to create!

The harpy eagles are my favorite

I remember watching a documentary some years back where they filmed a harpy eagle pair and their nest. It was in a massive tree and they wanted to get a camera up in the nest. So they put one of the crew in a bullet-proof vest and a police helmet, and hoisted him up into the tree. The female actually swooped down and hit him a few times. But they got the camera up and it showed the progression of the chick growing up. It was really fascinating. The pair used certain leaves to ward off flies from carcasses.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Thank you my friends. :)

More mixed eagles and friends!
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The harpy eagle makes enormous nests! They can be the size of a double bed, 100 feet or more off the ground, and have been recorded as using up to 300 branches to create!

Do you have any photos for all Harpy Eagles together?

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Thank you both!

@Andreas, it is a NECA brand model included in a figure set from a popular video game. Assassin's Creed Eagle Vision

Maybe you could make a pic for TAW ?  

What are these please?
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I would love to get some photos for TAW!

The osprey on the rock is a custom repaint osprey of a Nayab bootleg figure, the little one in front is also an osprey, either PV or K&M, I forget which right at the moment.

As for the harpy eagles, those are all the ones I have; I am only missing the Colorata figure. Did you mean that you want a close up of only them?

The small flying is K&M

Thank you Andreas!

Smaller birds of prey!
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Peregrine falcons have been clocked reaching speeds og up to 260+ mph while in a stoop (their hunting dive). They are also the chosen wild bird mascot for the windy city; Chicago.

Nice again

Beautiful falcons!

Thank you both!

Flamingos!
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These are the national bird of the Bahamas. The first zoo animal was hatched at Zoo Basel in Switzerland in 1958 (it was a Chilean Flamingo). One lived to be 83 years old in the Adelaide Zoo in Australia, passing in 2014.

So pink! I love those flying ones. Wow I didn't know they lived that long

Thank you all!

Some more sea birds.
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The great auk went extinct in the 19th century, but it could be on the list for de-extinction by taking recovered DNA and splicing it with their one known relative; the razorbill. Their remains have been found as far south as Florida! Native Americans also hunted these birds (seemingly with a bit more respect than later colonizers) and used their bones, feathers, etc. for rituals and household items.

I'm honestly surprised there aren't more gull figures. I only have Schleich & Safari's. Very interesting about the auk!

Love the puffins! What brand is the tufted one?

The tufted puffin is a Kaiyodo. I agree, but in this case its either because people see them pests (at least in my experience) or they are so commonplace they aren't as popular (sort of like the "backyard birds" concept).

Aaaand another double post!

Some water lovers:
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Nicknamed the "bushman's clock", the kookaburra often calls during dawn and dusk hours. This announces the area as their territory. These guys kind of behave like wolves in an unusual way, older offspring may hang around and help raise new chicks. Eventually, they will fly off to start their own families.

And now some tropical friends.
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My fun fact is turacos: they are the ONLY bird with true pigment in their feathers that comes from a copper substance. When it is green its called "turacoverdin" and when it is red its called "turacin". If a red feather is submerged in water for 2 or 3 days, it will leach this pigment out and turn pink. I could not find if the green did the same...

Interesting bird species? Are some figures repainted, like the kingfisher in the middle?

Yes, that was another cheap Nayab copy I turned into a custom dwarf kingfisher.