Netherlands Kingfisher overlooked!

 A correspondent informed me that I had overlooked a Kingfisher on the Landgoed Haarzuilens sheet issued in August. I could not see it, but found a better image of the sheet which confirmed that there is such an image on the right side, 4th stamp down. The shape is good, but the colours are all wrong.

Surprisingly, this is the first occurrence of this species on a Dutch stamp. Hopefully, a collectable example will appear in a future issue.

Vanuatu and PCi

Commonwealth Stamps Opinion informs us that Vanuatu Post has fallen into the clutches of Philatelic Collector Inc, and so it is unlikely that any more indigenous birds will appear on future stamps.

A sheet of six stamps celebrating the Smithsonian has one bird Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus), which may well be my last mention of Vanuatu.

Birds of the World from PCi

  Commonwealth Stamps Opinion has listed various issues produced by Philatelic Collector Inc. in their Birds of the World series. They are published on behalf of Cook Islands and Tonga, but probably do not feature birds of those islands. I do not intend to list these, but ignore them as I also ignore those from Stamperija.

Unidentifiable birds on new stamps from Finland

Finland has issued two stamps commemorating the Posti Art Prize 2020. One of the stamps has silhouettes of two birds perched in a tree. I contacted the designer, Janne Laine, for help in identifying the birds, and here is his response: "Unfortunately I have no idea what the bird was. Actually its the same one with different poses. Photoetching is also unsharpening the bird. And although the stamps are representing the Finnish forest and birdlife, the bird might be photographed in Australia."

Malawi Domesticated Birds (2018/9)

When I listed this issue, I assumed that the Quail was Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix). However, Tino Mischler found the source image used for the stamp, which confirms that the species is actually of a female Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). I did not collect this stamp.

Colombia 2002 Hidden Parrot identified

In 2002, Colombia issued a set of 8 stamps featuring Natural Resources of the country. The stamps were illustrated by Cesar Landazabal and my initial analysis of the set left 4 birds unidentified. Three of these were soon identified, but a partially hidden parrot in flight was still unidentified.

 My correspondent in Colombia has consulted Cesar Landazabal who provided a copy of his artwork for "B" and who confirmed that the partially hidden parrot is Indigo-winged Parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi).

Guinea-Bissau Small Birds, 1996

A correspondent found a set of 4 stamps and souvenir sheet apparently issued by Guinea-Bissau in 1996 which is not listed on my site, nor on Kjell Scharning's. He informed me that the MICHEL catalogue lists it as No. 1243-1246 and MS 299 (containing MICHEL No. 1247). Stanley Gibbons online catalogue does not list any issue for this country for 1996. I found an Ebay sale with the souvenir sheet, but at US$99, I considered it too expensive!

The species featuring in this issue are not named on the stamps, but appear to be Cardinal Woodpecker, Crimson Seedcracker, Pied Kingfisher, Red-fronted Parrot and Village Weaver. Any help with Guinea-Bissau 1996 identifying these birds or any information about the issue would be most welcome.

UPDATE Tino Mischler has identified the red bird as Crimson Seedcracker. As most of the birds occur in Guinea-Bissau, I will list them, but probably not collect them. Why are they so expensive?