Welcome to my collection. My topic is birds and I collect mostly covers but I will show you a variety of philatelic material that is part my collection.

Thursday 15 July 2010


Today I will show this postcard from Belgium with a 2002 Flycatcher stamp. Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) is an Old World Flycatcher and it can be found mostly in Europe and Asia but also in Canada, Alaska and Greenland. It migrates to Africa. It has six subspecies. It feeds on insects but it can also eat berries.

Monday 12 July 2010

This set was issued in 1998 by USA.
Antillean Euphonia (Euphonia musica): This finch can be found in tropical and subtropical dry forests in islands of Antilles. It mainly eats berries.
Green-throated Carib (Eulampis holosericeus): This hummingbird is located in the Caribbean region. It has two subspecies.
Akohekohe or Crested Honeycreeper (Palmeria dolei): This finch is endemic to Hawaii's island Maui and it can be found in its wet forests. It feeds on nectar and insects. Its main source of food is the nectar of the Metrosideros polymorpha. It is an endangered species.
Cardinal Honeyeater (Myzomela cardinalis): It is located in Vanuatu, American Samoa, Samoa and Solomon Islands. It feeds mostly on nectar.

Friday 9 July 2010

This set was issued in 2009 and it is a joint issue with Bulgaria.
Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola): It can be found in temperate and subarctic Eurasia. Its main food is earthworms but its diet also includes insects and their larvae, seeds and freshwater molluscs. It is a game bird.
Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatilis): It can be found from southern Europe to central Asia to northern China. In winter it migrates south of the Sahara. It feeds on berries, insects and small reptiles.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Another cover from Malaysia. This one is registered and it traveled via Hong Kong. I also has a postmark "posted out of course" in both English and Malay. The bird stamp is coming from 2005 definitive set. Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) lives in northern and eastern Australia and in tropical southern Asia. It finds on seeds and fruit. It is the state bird of India's state Tamil Nadu.

Tuesday 6 July 2010


For today I chose this cover from Uzbekistan which I received a few days ago. The bird stamps are from 2009. In the second image you can see a postmark in russian that it was applied to the back of the cover. It translates:
RECEIVED WITH TRACES OF GLUE
MOSCOW MMPO
Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis): This endangered goose breeds in Arctic Europe and in winter it migrates south. It feeds on grass leaves and shoots.
Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus): See Finland
Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca): It is a medium-sized diving duck. It can be found in lakes and marshes in Asia and Europe. It migrates to North Africa. It feeds on aquatic plants, aquatic insects, small fish and molluscs.
Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus): It can be found in northernmost Asia and there is a programme for its re-introduction to Fennoscandia. It is an endangered species. It is herbivorous.

Sunday 4 July 2010

Here is another cover from Malaysia with a variety of bird stamps. From left to right:
White-faced Hill-partridge (Arborophila orientalis): This stamp is coming from 2001 Quail and Partridge set. This threatened pheasant can be found only in Indonesia's tropical and subtropical moist montanes.
White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus): I have already talked about it.
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta): The stamp was issued in 2006. This species lives in northern parts of Europe, Asia and North America. It eats plant food and small invertebrates. It is a migratory bird.
Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus): The stamps was also released in 2001. It can be found in China, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. This pheasant is the ancestor of the domestic chicken. Including the domestic one it has six subspecies. It is omnivorous.

In this post I just want to present two covers from Cyprus just to show the rates for domestic mail. For a normal envelope weighing 20-100g (1st envelope) the rate is o.34 euro plus the Refugee Fund stamp and for a registered envelope 2.05 euro plus the Refugee Fund stamp.
The 1st envelope was mailed from Larnaka to Nicosia and the 2nd one from Aradippou Post Office to the same address.
The first envelope was machine canceled and the S24/2009 commemorative slogan is used celebrating the World Post Day 9.10.2009. This slogan was used from the 5th of October until the 9th of the same month. The same slogan is used every year for this event.

Thank you Daniela for this excellent cover. The full 2006 Eurasian or Common Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) set is used. This species can be found in marshy wetlands in North Africa and in southern Eurasia. Most birds migrate to Africa for the winter. There are three subspecies. It feeds on fish, amphibians and crustaceans. It is a protected species.

Saturday 3 July 2010

I will now show you another of my self-made maxi cards. I used a 2009 stamp from Cyprus set Domestic Fowls.
Two things are wrong with the maxi card. The most visible is the quality of the postmark. This is due to the surface of the card which is not suitable for the ink used by the post office.
The second mistake is that while the stamp shows a Domestic Turkey the card shows a Wild Turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo) although they both are the same species.
Wild Turkey and specifically one of its six subspecies M.G.Gallopavo (South Mexican subspecies) is the ancestor of the domestic one. Wild Turkey is native to North America and it is omnivorous.

Friday 2 July 2010

In 2008 Azores issued a set of stamps and a variety of souvenir sheets devoted to the endangered species Azores Bullfinch (Pyrrhula murina). On the upper stamp of this s/s you can see the male and on the bottom stamp the female. It is endemic to Azores. It feeds on seeds, flower buds and fruit.

Thursday 1 July 2010


Here are two FDCs devoted to the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra). The first one was issued from Belarus in 2005 and it has the WWF logo on it. The second one was issued in 2006 from Algeria. It can be found in warmer Europe and it migrates in tropical Africa and India. It feeds mostly on insects, amphibians and fish.

Thank you Katrin for this great postcard from Estonia. For postage is used Estonia's 2010 Bird of the Year stamp. Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) lives in western Asia and most of Europe. It migrates to tropical Africa. It feeds on insects, small birds, small mammals and small reptiles. It is protected in the UK.