The Great-tailed Grackle is a large black bird from the Icteridae family. Both males and females have long tails, but the sexes differ in color, with females dusky brown and males shiny black. Males are also slightly larger. The birds have a variety of calls that make them considered noisy pests by some. This is our totally cute version of the Great-tailed Grackle.
The latest parrot to be added to Birdorable is this lovely Green-cheeked Parakeet from South America. These small parrots live in Mato Grosso, a western state of Brazil, and across Bolivia and Northern Argentina. In aviculture they are also known as Green-cheeked Conures and they love to eat fruit like bananas. Check out this cutie sitting on a banana tree in Brazil:
The Azure-winged Magpie is a bird in the crow family and has the overall shape of a European Magpie, but it is a bit more slender and has a proportionally smaller bill and legs. The most striking feature of these beautiful birds are their black caps and azure blue feathers. In Europe these birds only live in the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula, which is quite a small area. What's amazing, though, is that another population of Azure-winged Magpies live more than 5,000 miles away, in eastern Asia! Their range covers China, Korea, Japan and Mongolia. The huge separation of both populations is a mystery. Perhaps their range used to be continuous from Europe to Asia and was broken up by an Ice Age, or perhaps early explorers took the birds into Spain and Portugal from the Far East? Recent genetic analysis shows that both populations are from a common ancient ancestral stock, but that they were separated before European exploration of the Far East began. We saw lots of Azure-winged Magpies on our trip to Andalusia, Spain, this year. The pictures below are from our visit to El Acebuche Visitor Center in Parque Nacional de Doñana in May 2007:
Seeing these birds in Spain inspired us to make a Birdorable version of the Magpie. Meet the Birdorable Azure-winged Magpie.
The Great Tit lives across Europe and Asia and are very common there. Check out this cute Birdorable Great Tit in Paris:
Budgerigars, nicknamed Budgies, are small parrots native to Australia. They live in the drier parts of the continent. There are at least 32 color mutations in Budgies. They have been bred in captivity for over 150 years and are among the most popular pet birds in the world. This is our Birdorable cute version of the Budgerigar, available in four different colors.
