RockyRacoon
Well-known member
Birds? OK we all like them here (I think), but what is your fav thing about them, here is a quick list I thought of, in order-ish.
10. Nests and Eggs, birds build the most interesting nests and eggs are interesting too, like Red-Backed Shrikes, they lay different coloured eggs so they can tell each egg apart
9. They like to live is the ‘good’ places, the interesting places, such as rainforests, wetlands, mountains, tundra and away from people. And when rare birds, such as Black Redstarts, Gulls and Spotless Starlings, live in human habitat it is interesting because they are so adaptable.
8. Birds with abnormal pigmentation, interesting how some birds have more or less pigment and turn out funny colours, it was thrilling to see a melanistic Black-headed Gull once.
7. Singing, isn’t it great to just sit and listen to a bird sing once in a while? Or call or whatever.
6. Flocks and Roosts, they are great fun sifting through, and when you see large numbers of a particular species of bird, or mixed species, roosting or flocking together
5. Unpredictable, but predictable, you often know where a certain species of bird is likely to be, but you are just as often surprised, perhaps by an unusual species turning up, or a bird doing something different.
4. Each having its own completely different way of surviving, changing plumage, defence tactics, offence tactics, in individual species, Plovers, feigning injury to protect their nests and Bowerbirds building huge structures to show off to a female.
3. Migration, isn’t it weird how a tiny Willow warbler or a flimsy looking Arctic Tern can travel so far, in such little period of time.
2. Taxonomy, it is one of my main interests in birds, all kinds of strange and interesting facts pop up with it, it is great finding a different subspecies out of normal range. A funny fact I learned is that coburni Redwings have slightly longer wings than the other birds of the nominate iliacus race, because they have to migrate further, without rest, over to Iceland to breed.
And…
1. Curious, Inquisitive, Intelligent, but often clumsy behaviour! Watching a Song Thrush feed for two hours you get good views of it tilting its head so its eyes face the ground, so it can check for earthworms. A woodland flock of birds travelling together, keeping an eye out for a predator, and raising the alarm for each other. Crows and Rooks going to great lengths to find food, sticking their beaks into holes in buildings, crisp packets and through windows to pull out a nutritious sandwich, invertebrate or crisps.
I have great memories of a Herring Gull catching a crab and placing it on the riverbank, having a look around and then catching it again just before it managed to run back into the river. The Gull then picked up the crab and flew around with it, with the crabs legs and claws wiggling around. The Gull then dropped it into the river. Silly Gull.
Blue tits checking every part of every twig for food, Starlings swirling around in flocks numbering thousands, geese and swans flying in V-formation, the list goes on. Aren’t birds Brilliant?
PS. I have to say that I reckon the fact that rare birds are often shy is also a good factor, because if a birdwatcher noisily approaches a hide or the point you are viewing from the bird flies away so they don’t get to see it!
10. Nests and Eggs, birds build the most interesting nests and eggs are interesting too, like Red-Backed Shrikes, they lay different coloured eggs so they can tell each egg apart
9. They like to live is the ‘good’ places, the interesting places, such as rainforests, wetlands, mountains, tundra and away from people. And when rare birds, such as Black Redstarts, Gulls and Spotless Starlings, live in human habitat it is interesting because they are so adaptable.
8. Birds with abnormal pigmentation, interesting how some birds have more or less pigment and turn out funny colours, it was thrilling to see a melanistic Black-headed Gull once.
7. Singing, isn’t it great to just sit and listen to a bird sing once in a while? Or call or whatever.
6. Flocks and Roosts, they are great fun sifting through, and when you see large numbers of a particular species of bird, or mixed species, roosting or flocking together
5. Unpredictable, but predictable, you often know where a certain species of bird is likely to be, but you are just as often surprised, perhaps by an unusual species turning up, or a bird doing something different.
4. Each having its own completely different way of surviving, changing plumage, defence tactics, offence tactics, in individual species, Plovers, feigning injury to protect their nests and Bowerbirds building huge structures to show off to a female.
3. Migration, isn’t it weird how a tiny Willow warbler or a flimsy looking Arctic Tern can travel so far, in such little period of time.
2. Taxonomy, it is one of my main interests in birds, all kinds of strange and interesting facts pop up with it, it is great finding a different subspecies out of normal range. A funny fact I learned is that coburni Redwings have slightly longer wings than the other birds of the nominate iliacus race, because they have to migrate further, without rest, over to Iceland to breed.
And…
1. Curious, Inquisitive, Intelligent, but often clumsy behaviour! Watching a Song Thrush feed for two hours you get good views of it tilting its head so its eyes face the ground, so it can check for earthworms. A woodland flock of birds travelling together, keeping an eye out for a predator, and raising the alarm for each other. Crows and Rooks going to great lengths to find food, sticking their beaks into holes in buildings, crisp packets and through windows to pull out a nutritious sandwich, invertebrate or crisps.
I have great memories of a Herring Gull catching a crab and placing it on the riverbank, having a look around and then catching it again just before it managed to run back into the river. The Gull then picked up the crab and flew around with it, with the crabs legs and claws wiggling around. The Gull then dropped it into the river. Silly Gull.
Blue tits checking every part of every twig for food, Starlings swirling around in flocks numbering thousands, geese and swans flying in V-formation, the list goes on. Aren’t birds Brilliant?
PS. I have to say that I reckon the fact that rare birds are often shy is also a good factor, because if a birdwatcher noisily approaches a hide or the point you are viewing from the bird flies away so they don’t get to see it!
)
