Rowan Wakefield

Europe’s smallest bird species, along with the yellow-browed wabler and the firecrest, is one of the small, dainty garden birds that have benifited due to the mild winter.  This year, this 9 centimetre garden bird with a birght gold head and a greeny-brown body has been seen in many more gardens than usual in the yearly Garden Bird Watch in January.  Long-tailed tits, a pink, black and white bird with the smallest body of any bird in Britain relative to its size(this is only a 14cm long bird and its body is only a tiny 6cm).  The sightings of these cute-looking, fluffy tits have become more common in gardens and…

These tiny little javan scops owl chicks have made a makeshift umbrella out of a leaf to shelter from the torrential downpoor.  These tiny scops owls, which are only 15cm tall, are some of the smallest in the world. They were caught on camera by Tanto Yensen in a rainforest in Indonesia.  He was walking home when he spotted the tiny little scops owl chicks.

A seabird spotted in 2008 has been confirmed as Britain’s 600th bird species.  the yelkouan shearwater, a native of the Mediterranean and other parts of Europe, was spotted by Mike Langman in Devon in 2008.  But it has taken bird records till recently to confirm it as a first for Britain.  The pair of shearwaters travelled alongside a crabbing boat for food.  Shearwaters usually feed by diving under water for food such as crabs, crustaceans and small fish.  The eight year delay was due to the confusion between another shearwater, the minorcan.

This jackal must have thought it had got a free meal until this lappet-faced vulture, just one of its wings as long as the jackal, swooped in to steal the jackal’s bone.  The 7kg bird flapped its massive wings in an attempt to scare of the jackal but this was the day of the jackal. The feisty animal clung to the wildebeest bone, which was nearly as long as itself, not willing to give it up to the massive bird.  The bone was really big enough fore the two powerful predators but decided to fight over it as it was not in a very generous mood.  The fight was captured…

Having a cheetah lick your toes to clean them doesn’t seem the safest way to do it.  But luckily for wildlife photographer Kim Wolhuter, this young cheetah seemed to enjoy the job.  Kim had been busy taking pictures of the cub, its mother and the rest of her brood in Hashatu game reserve in Botswana.  The inquisitive youngster sidled up to the 57 year old and started to nibble Kim’s toes as he sat on the ground.  Luckily Kim had had six weeks filming this family of cheetahs and had slowly gained the animal’s trust.