Black-billed Amazon Parrot

Black-billed Amazon (黑嘴亞馬遜鸚鵡)

Jamaica (2006)

5th January, 2009. Kingston

It is second mail with parrot stamps from Caribbean, thanks for Jamaica Philatelic Bureau kindly helpful. The last one is from Cuba which is also WWF issue has been shown in here before. Same as Cuba Parrot, Black-billed Amazon is a sub-species of Amazon Parrot and they are endemic in Cuba or Jamaica separately. Amazon Parrots are commonly in green colour however their bill or head is in different colours. In recent years, it is very common to find them in pet markets, they are very beautiful but noisy enough.

Christmas Island Imperial-Pigeon and Hawk-Owl

(L) Christmas Island Imperial-Pigeon (聖誕島帝鴿) and

(R) Christmas Island Hawk-Owl (聖誕島鷹鴞)

Christmas Island (2002)

8th August, 2008. Christmas Island

A beautiful gutter block appears on the envelope cancelled by special cancellation of Christmas Island which illustrated Christmas Red Crab (聖誕島紅蟹). Those three species are only can be observed in Christmas Island and its neigbourhood Cocos (Keeling) Islands, these two area are overseas territories of Australia located in eastern Indian Ocean, south of Indonesia. They have their own stamps inscriptions are Christmas Island or Cocos (Keeling) Islands separately. However those stamps are valid for postage in Australia mainland.

Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin (南極企鵝)

South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (2008)

10th July, 2008. King Edward Point (First day special postmark)

9th September, 2008. King Edward Point

via Falkland Islands and London

7th October, 2008. Hongkong

One of new WWF issues in 2008. A cute penguin species in the world which normally seen in South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, South Orkney Islands, and islands around Antarctic Circle. They also call Ringed Penguins or Bearded Penguins as they are look like wearing black helmets. Cover is not sent on first day of issue due to the transport problem, it bears a regular postmark on the back side with one 90p Chinstrap Penguin and 5p definitive stamps.

Caribbean's birds (3) - Cuba

Cuban Conure (古巴小鸚哥)

Cuba (1998)

21st December, 2007. Havana

24th January, 2008. Hongkong

A special cover from secret country, the country closed over 50 years but now it beginning open to the world. Cuban Conure only breeding and living in Cuba, the population fewer than 5,000 individuals. However, from the data of BirdLife, it still appears on domestic market for trading. On the meantime, two domestic bird stamps also appear on the cover, they are Wild Turkey (野火雞) and Helmeted Guineafowl (珠雞). Seem all the birds can be found in Cuban markets.

African Buffalo

African Buffalo (非洲水牛)

Guinea-Bissau (2002)

2nd December, 2008. Bissau

A WWF issue again, this buffalo is different than Asian species which is domestic animal, they can't be eat or make cheese from their milk. African Buffalo can be found in grasslands and floodplains located south of Sahara and Namibia. This envelope I sent on August of 2007 and just came back few days ago, it spent near 1.5 years.

European Roller

European Roller (藍胸佛法僧)

Lithuania (2008)

8th September, 2008. Vilnius (First day special postmark)

6th October, 2008. Vilnius

11th October, 2008. Hongkong

A very common and large globe population bird in the old days, which can be found from Eurasia to North Africa, estimated 100,000 pair recorded in Europe. However the amount decreasing largely in following years, nowadays only 30 pairs can be observed in Latvia and Lithuania and no record of Estonia and Central Asia. The conservation states now is near threatened. This first day cover sent after a month of issue day, beside these 4 nice European Rollers, two bird stamps franked on the back side, which they are Great Snipe (巨鷸) and Corn Crake (長腳秧雞) separately.