Little guys!

It's not the first time we have this theme in the Show Me A Photo contest, but it's always a good theme: Small birds!

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Small birds are also normally easy to see, despite their size, since even on urban areas we tend have them all around! Some of them are sneaky, thow: easily heard, hard to see!

^{Madeira firecrest / Bis-bis (PT) - Regulus madeirensis}

These ones add to that characteristic, the fact of being really small! Madeira firecrests only exist in Madeira island, and they're a subspecies of the common firecrest. An adult doesn't have more than 10 cm! And if that's not small enough... here's a juvenile for you!

If the adults hadn't been chirping all around, I wouldn't have found them among the foliage; I'm so glad I did!

These next ones are more easily found, since they're widespread: we have tits all over the place! 😁

^{Great tit / Chapim real (PT) - Parus major, male}

Great tits are very easy to recognise, and are a common presence in our urban parks. Although I identified this cutie as a males, it's not that apparent in this photo.

But here it's clear: that black band goes all the way down and widens at the abdomen in the males, while stopping and narrowing in the abdomen in the females.

^{Long tailed tit / Chapim rabilongo (PT) - Aegithalos caudatus}

In this tit there's no sexual dimorphism, although the real difficulty with them, is trying to get them still to snap a photo! They're usually not shy, but hardly stop moving, jumping from branch to branch!

^{Common house martin/ Andorinha dos beirais (PT) - Delichon urbicum}

Common house martins make urban birdwatching easy. At least in Portugal, some spots have dozens of their nests, and as summertime approaches, there's a guaranteed show of the adults feeding the little ones, that keep poking their heads through the nest opening, waiting impatiently for their next meal.

Next little one? Probably the first passerine that I learned to recognize by their singing.

^{European serin / Chamariz (PT) - Serinus serinus}

They have a very fast and continuous singing, and normally choose high places to do so, being easy to spot; and their colours make them easy to identify too! But with some practice, you won't even need to look to identify them.

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And that's all in the little feathered friends department for today!

Have a great week everyone.

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