Victoria Crowned Pigeon

photographed in Artis, Amsterdam Zoo - Feb. 11, 2012

“The Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Goura victoria, is a large, bluish-grey pigeon with elegant blue lace-like crests, maroon breast and red iris. The bird may be easily recognized by the unique white tips on its crests.

It is distributed in the lowland and swamp forests of northern New Guinea and surrounding islands. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, figs, seeds and invertebrates. The female usually lays a single white egg.

Due to continuing habitat loss, being tame and easily hunted for its plumes and meat, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is evaluated as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. ” (Source: Wikipedia)

It’s a beautiful bird indeed –

Due to the light reflection, the normally red eye turned partially purple here… amazing…

 

 

 

And this is the black-and-white version…

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Big Eyes…

Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) photographed in Artis Amsterdam Zoo today – Such a warm and soft plumage, and such big eyes…  – cute little thing 🙂

Of course I made a lot more photo’s but this was one of the first ones I edited, so, liked to share it here already..

Two boys and the wolves

It’s already a few weeks on Saturdays that I’ve been following a photography course in Artis Amsterdam zoo. Last Saturday, it was the 3d out of 4 meetings, and our assignment of the day was to make a photo-story with a series of images. We had the first snow just a day before, so it was a special occasion to make photo’s on a snowy but sunny day in Artis. I had hoped that maybe I could go make some pics at the Arctic wolves’ enclosure that day, because I knew that a new group of wolves had arrived at the zoo some time last year, and some months a go, the news had been spread that three young wolves were born. So since I hadn’t been able to go see them yet, this assignment would make for a great opportunity to go see what was happening at the wolves’ .

I must say, I really was lucky with the photo-opportunities, and enjoyed my afternoon with the wolves, and those two boys, they did too 😉 …

“Two boys and the wolves…”

– Artis Amsterdam Zoo – a photo-story … :

Safely hidden behind a wooden wall and a fence grown with ivy, there’s the wolves’ enclosure.

Usually, it’s rather quiet there for the little group of arctic wolves, but today…

… something is happening near the fence

Two boys have started throwing snowballs …

and they seem to have attracted the wolves’ attention

… after all, this snow is new for these young wolves too! It’s giving them a snowy nose!

Then one of the boys discovers a crack in the wall, and straight away a stick goes in…

That too draws the curiosity of the wolves

Finally, it’s time for the boys to move on, and for the wolves to withdraw

… after all, this is *THEIR* territory