Around the world, among the greens

Nop, this is not a travel post. But there was a ton of travelling involved for this contribution to this week's SMAP; the theme is Little Birds!

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Why travel, you might be wondering? Well, because I decided to bring you little ones from 4 different continents! Starting with Europe, and from my own country:

^{European greenfinch - Chloris chloris}

Greenfinches are fairly common here, even in urban parks; there aren't that many small birds with this smooth green colour, and the bright yellow on tail and wings makes it stand out, especially in flight. This couple was resting near Serra da Estrela: female on top, male on bottom.

Still in Europe, but in a higher latitude, mr. Great Tit was chirping in an urban park, somewhere in Budapest, Hungary.

^{Great tit - Parus major, male}

If you are lucky to see great tits (sorry, too easy of a joke to pass 😏😁), the black band in the front is the way to tell males from females: in males it goes all the way down, while in the female it narrows and stops higher in the abdomen.

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Flying away to Africa, more little ones!

^{Cape Verde sparrow - Passer iagoensis}

The small endemic sparrows of Cape Verde were all over the place, searching for food among the green grass: male in the left, because females are always right (see what I did here? I'm in a row! 😁)

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Moving on to America; Central America, to be more precise. This one was taken in Costa Rica, one of the top travels of my life: the amount of nature is just stunning!

Yet, with all the thick vegetation, I almost don't have photos of passerines from here. I could hear them, but it was really hard to capture photos among the canopy; here was one of the exceptions.

^{Black-faced solitaire - Myadestes melanops}

This little guy sang beautifully, but it sure was hard to spot! Fortunately, he couldn't keep quiet... so probably a female (ok ok, I'll stop with the lame jokes, promise! 😜) - kidding, sexes are alike, no way to tell them apart!

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And last, but not the least... Asia! Lots of little feathered ones here; the rice fields are a great place to spot a ton of species!

^{Scaly-breasted munia - Lonchura punctulata}

^{Javan munia - Lonchura leucogastroides}

Munias are gregarious birds, so you normally see a bunch of them; although I've picked solo birds here, there were plenty of them feasting in the fields.

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Yes, I know... I'm lacking Australia!!! Who knows, maybe in a future I'll be able to make a 5 continent SMAP post!

Happy birding everyone!

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