#TantalisingTextures for #BirdOfTheDay: a coal tit finding nice things amid hard things. #birds #WildlifeBrandenburg

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Gulls, a kittiwake having its tonsils examined. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Triplets, more female mandarins. #birds

For the #BirdofTheDay theme #ScreenFiller, the underrated female mandarin. #birds #WildlifeBrandenburg

Tough to choose my favorite #Corvidae for #BirdOfTheDay, but here's one of our neighbours. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #SingersAndWingers, a skylark borb with wings resolutely closed.

Cheating slightly for the #BirdOfTheDay alt theme #NewLife, an old photo of a new starling. #birds

For the BirdOfTheDay theme #ButtShotts, a goshawk doing what a goshawk's gotta do. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #UpAndDown, a red-backed shrike contemplating this vale of tears. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay alt theme #Contortionist, a pair of jackdaws expressing their emotions. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #BathTime, an Antarctic Skua on spin cycle. #birds

A tough #BirdOfTheDay theme, as my most recent #Lifer photos are distant smudges. But I can offer a glossy ibis in Oxfordshire, and a European shag.

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Orange, a pair of redstarts: one common, one black, both orange. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Cutie, a long-tailed tit trying to look fierce. #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay #WildMotion, a white wagtail beating its prey to death. #birds

An old one for the #BirdOfTheDay theme #RedBeakFeetEyes: a saddle-billed stork presenting his bill. #birds

I finished eight books this month, five for my monthly theme (Spain), four by women/POC, and one each in German and Portuguese. chinese-poems.com/blog/?p=3008

For #BirdOfTheDay #BestOfJune26, a white-tailed eagle seeking shade in a dead tree. #birds

White-tailed eagle looking for something to fill his bill. #birds #WildlifeBrandenburg

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #LifelnTheBalance, a good bad photo: an osprey shading her chick from the sun this morning. #birds

This king penguin may appear #Rotund, but would like you to know it's all muscle. #BirdOfTheDay #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #GreyDay, a slightly blurry grey-headed albatross (I blame the blur on the rolling ship). #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #LittleBrownBirds, a nightingale failing almost completely to hide.

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Birds&Buds, with a little #Birds&Bokeh for good measure, a long-tailed tit trying to hide behind one of those buds.

I think covering both #BirdOfTheDay themes -- #Feather&Light and #BirdsInTheirElement -- a male mandarin illuminated against his greeny-brown river.

Rob wanted #RedBeaks for #BirdOfTheDay.... #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme of #Raptors*, the same secretary bird I posted a few days ago is now ready for her close-up. *Not what one first thinks of as a raptor, but genetically and behaviourally absolutely counts!

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #OutForAWalk, a curlew making one last excursion before sundown.

Pushing at the edges of the #BirdOfTheDay theme #Black, but it is a Black Kite! (As we know, black birds are really very very dark brown, and I like when they let us see their true colours). #birds

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme #LongLegs, a secretary bird preparing to strut. (Not in the wild -- photographed at a rehab centre). #birds