JoeGBirder
Photography and birding enjoyer
there are quite a lot of bird facts i always thought were a certain way, and assumed- sometimes even shared, for quite a while. so i'll keep track here.
feel free to share yours below!
feel free to share yours below!
- I thought the Pileated Woodpecker was the world's largest extant species of woodpecker. It's actually the third, the Black Woodpecker in second and Great Slaty Woodpecker in first. I mean, it's in my username. How did I mess this up?!
- I thought nuthatches were the only birds that could climb down a tree while facing down as well. Actually, there are species that can do this, but nuthatches are the only entire group of species that can.
- I thought grackles were corvids. I didn't realize otherwise until earlier today.
- I thought that Bald Eagles had huge babies. I don't know where I got this idea from. They sure aren't small, but I thought they were, like, the size of hawks. This isn't true.
- I thought that Eastern Bluebirds were only native to New York. This was before I was a birder- I mixed it up with the fact that they're New York's state bird.
- I thought birds couldn't smell at all. Although many species have poor smell, there are many that have wonderful senses of smell.
- I called gulls "seagulls." The shame.
- I thought that American Robins were real robins. And the only kind of robin. Actually, they are a thrush, and there are several species of robin, the most well-known one being the Robin in Europe.