Scandinavian sights, Part 1: Copenhagen birds

I'm back from my adventures abroad, and I come bearing pictures of wildlife! :P I don't have a huge amount of things to share -- we did a LOT, but it wasn't a super long trip and unfortunately there wasn't a lot of time for walking in the woods. But still, we did see some interesting things, so I'm happy to share. :D

I've been to Europe a few times before, but never to Scandinavia, and not at all since I started paying attention to birds. So just about everything I saw was new and exciting. It was especially cool seeing what birds were around in a city like Copenhagen. There were the normal city birds like Rock Pigeons, of course, but also weird takes on our familiar North American birds -- we saw some birds, for instance, that were clearly related to our crows, but with strange gray markings mixed in with the black. There were these Jackdaws with their glaring pale eyes:

And Hooded Crows made a strong presence as well:

These Wood Pigeons were bigger and chunkier than the Rock Pigeons that were also wandering the streets:

And Magpies strutted around in the parks and on palaces, like they owned the place (and from what I've read, Magpies are incredibly smart -- so who knows, maybe they did):

In a small pond in the city's botanical gardens, we found this Grey Heron, preening itself and looking very similar to our Great Blue Heron:

This Eurasian Coot and its chick were swimming in another small pond -- I just love that baby's bright red head:

There were also gulls aplenty, but since I still haven't figured out North American gulls, I don't think I'll try my hand at identifying European gulls just yet. :P

I'll have more pictures of exotic European wildlife tomorrow -- from Norway this time -- so stay tuned!