Long Legs

For tagging pictures, I classify birds sometimes by science and sometimes by something I make up. Cardinals and other songbirds are passerines, which is common shorthand for the order Passeriformes. Pigeons and doves are in the order Columbiformes. I call birds "waders" if they wade in water or look like or are related to birds that wade, even if they stick to land. The great majority of birds in this category that I have photographed have long legs. There are many small shorebirds, but I don't have pictures of them, so I haven't separated them from long-legged birds.

I didn't plan my tags much beyond bird / insect / mammal / reptile. As I have accumulated thousands of photos I've added categories and subcategories so that I can find, for example, long-legged birds.

saddle-billed stork (Cincinnati Zoo)

white-faced ibis (Columbus Zoo)

white-faced ibis (Columbus zoo)

Caribbean flamingo (Columbus Zoo)

hamerkop (Columbus Zoo)

sunbittern (Cincinnati Zoo)

killdeer (Columbus Zoo)

sacred ibis (Columbus Zoo)

Columbus Zoo July 22

My visit was actually July 23, but "three" doesn't rhyme with "zoo."

dromedary camel

The signage says common ostrich, but the website says blue-neck ostrich.

Saddle-billed storks dance.

At the Columbus Zoo, North America is adjacent to Heart of Africa, so it was no trouble to walk.

A cedar waxwing. This is one of my favorite birds because of its cool sunglasses and jaunty hairdo.

A scarlet tanager, in nonstandard plumage. These guys are supposed to be red all over with black wings. Females are yellowish.

Caterpillars on the bald eagle enclosure. I hadn't noticed these, but another visitor pointed them out, and the white ones were crawling all over the fencing.

A trumpeter swan takes a drink.

A honey bee at work