BIRDS FROM BURKINA FASO

For these Sunday Viridian proposed us to write about bird stamps. 
Lately I have received a nice set and I was curious to find out more. The stamps are from Burkina Faso, formerly the French colony of Upper Volta. They achieved independence in 1960, and the name of the country was changed to Burkina Faso in 1984.


Burkina Faso is home to an impressive number of species of birds that vary from residents, that stay all year around, to breeding birds, that spend a good part of the growing season in Burkina Faso to raise their young, migrants who pass through Burkina Faso with the seasons, to wintering birds who like to spend a good part of the winter in Burkina Faso to escape colder conditions up north. 
Here are four stamps from 1996 (received from Haomin Zhu). On their tabs you can also see the area where each bird can be mostly found.

They illustrate as follows: 500f Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Peregrine Falcons catch medium-sized birds in the air with swift, spectacular dives, called stoops. In cities they are masterful at catching pigeons. Elsewhere they feed especially on shorebirds and ducks. They often sit on high perches, waiting for the right opportunity to make their aerial assault.

750f Brown Eared Pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum) It is a large-size fowl genus, with a body length of about 96 centimeters. The body feathers are mainly deep brown. The head and neck are splendid black, with auriculars in white clusters and silicle-shaped. The remiges are light brown. The waist and the base portion of rectrices are white. Brown-eared Pheasant inhabits in bushes with much grass or arbor areas in the woods, and lodge on frondose twig during nights. It feeds on seeds, leaf buds and burgeons of pines, rubber trees, etc. It builds nests in sunken areas between pines, birches, or bushes. 1000f Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) It is a wild goose, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body. Its nest is usually located in an elevated area near water such as streams, lakes, ponds and sometimes on a beaver lodge. Its eggs are laid in a shallow depression lined with plant material and down. It is a migratory bird. Canada Geese flying in V-shaped formation signal the transitions into spring and autumn. 1500f Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus cripus)

It breeds in swamps and shallow lakes. The nest is a crude heap of vegetation. This is the largest of the pelicans, averaging 170–190 cm in length, 11–15 kg in weight and just over 3 m in wingspan. This pelican migrates short distances. In flight, it is an elegant soaring bird, with the flock moving in synchronous. This pelican eats fish and small birds.


Oficial website of the Burkina Faso Post Office: http://ecommerce.sonapost.bf/

Don´t forget to check out the other posts about BIRDS here:

Title: Endangered Birds

Date of Issue: 25 June 1996

Country: Burkina Faso

Source: wikipedia

Denominations: 500f, 750f, 1000f, 1500f