Anton, a good friend of mine, is into bird photography and took these lovely pictures on a recent trip to Xinjiang. He’s super nice and let me post some. : )

Here’s a European bee-eater:

This is the very same bird from a different point of view:

How spiffy is that? Amazing how beautifully formed every part of it is..

This fellow below, a greenish warbler, defines dapper. It could attend a wedding or luncheon pronto, right off the cuff (/wingtip), don’t you think?

Now for gorgeous shades of blue on an azure tit:

A soaring black-eared kite:

A vermilion bird / rosefinch (both exceedingly pretty names):

A pied avocet, with its elegantly curved beak (that reminds me a little of Salvador Dalí’s moustache…)

Next is a Eurasian nightjar (‘nother snazzy name). According to Anton, it’s an expert at camouflage —you can tell from its mottled colouring— and is quite difficult to get a photograph of. This one had been resting on the ground when Anton, totally unaware of its existence there, accidentally startled it. It then flew up to this branch, where it subsequently got its portrait taken.

Doesn’t it look SUPER sleepy? This may be my new go-to Monday-morning-feeling graphic representation. Wikipedia says nightjars are ‘crepuscular’, or mainly active during dawn and dusk. (Poetic birds, aren’t they.)

And last but not least, here’s Anton! Photographing birds is serious business, folks. : )