Protect Our Birds

1970 was a big year for seagull books. "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" came out about a bird finding self-actualization. And "Thy Friend, Obadiah", about a Quaker boy with a seagull buddy, won the Caldecott Honor. Something about these birds says spirit and freedom. #folklorefriday

“[I] wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character...For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America." Benjamin Franklin🦅🦃 #folklorefriday

@CarlBovisNature I see it and I stand by our Magpie friends.

If you see this photo, please leave a comment! 🙏😊 Did you know that in certain light, a Magpie's tail is multi-coloured? 😍 Magpies aren't very popular.... do you like them? 🐦

Why do storks bring babies? White storks migrate between Africa and Europe, often building nests on homes and buildings right next to people. Storks became a symbol of new beginnings and family life. It's not hard to see how that turned into legend and euphemism. #folklorefriday

The depiction of the Owl in 1982's The Secret of NIMH is not especially scientifically accurate. But it's really cool, and it's an example of how birds have been part of folklore and storytelling as far back as humans remember. More about all this here on #folklorefriday

@JeremyBRoberts I wish this was something that was just taken for granted without even needing to be debated. Yet here we are.

I have felt like I don’t have a political home for a while. And I haven’t known if that’s because I’ve changed, the world’s changed—but I don’t feel connected to any of…this. Today, I’d like to announce the formation of my personal political system. You’re all at liberty to join. Here is my platform, in its entirety. 1. I want every child on earth to go to bed with their bellies full of nutritious food. 2. I want each child to live in a safe, loving home. 3. I want each child to have access to the medicine they may need. 4. I want each child to have loving parents. 5. I want each child to be hopeful about the future. 6. I want each child to have access to fulfill their educational dreams. 7. I want each child to have clothing and a safe roof over their heads. 8. I want each child to have access to clean water. 9. And I want each child to be able to explore nature—with all its wonder and beauty. If a policy helps achieve these 9 points, I support it. If a policy doesn’t, I am going to question why we are discussing it. This is the entirety of my political views.

Great frigatebirds can stay aloft for weeks, and they even sleep while flying. Brainwave recorders showed tiny 10-second naps, sometimes with one half of the brain at a time, mostly while they’re soaring after dark. I myself try for at least 15 seconds with power naps.

Flamingos aren’t born pink. They get that color from carotenoids in their food, like algae and small crustaceans, and then their preening can make those pigments look even more intense. Basically: snack choices, plus feather care, equals that famous glow.

White-breasted nuthatches are the little acrobats who treat gravity like a suggestion. They’ll walk headfirst down a tree trunk, probe bark crevices for food, then jam a big seed into the bark and hammer it open like a tiny locksmith.

Cuckoos pull off a bold outsourced parenting strategy. The female slips a single egg into another bird’s nest, often with egg mimicry to blend in, and the newly hatched chick may shove out the host’s eggs or chicks so it gets the full buffet dished out by the other mama bird.

Ostrich or emu? Ostriches are Africa’s giants with two toes per foot, and adult males are boldly black-and-white. Emus are Australia’s shaggy brown giants with three toes. If you can see the feet in a photo, you’ve basically solved it. Which continent you're on may also help.

Take a look at the bird habitat watchlist developed by @ABCBirds. It's a fantastic tool for assessing threatened habitats and conservation needs, and a great resource for every bird enthusiast and everyone concerned about the environment. abcbirds.org/news/keeping-w…

Unlike human seafarers, seagulls make their own provisions. Salt glands above their eyes flush extra salt out through the bill, so they can drink seawater. And when they find clams or other hard-shelled snacks, some gulls fly up and drop them onto rocks to crack them open.

Ostriches can sprint up to 43 mph and have the largest eyes of any land animal. And if a predator gets too close, an adult can defend itself with a clawed kick powerful enough to kill a lion. Taken together, it's bird that can see trouble coming and outrun it...or end it.

Wild turkeys are pretty wild after all. They roost in trees at night, can hit about 55 mph in short flights, and see color across a roughly 270-degree field of view. They sprint up to 25 mph, and the male's head can even shift red, white, and blue as blood flow changes.

Grebes do something that sounds fake until you watch them: they eat their own feathers on purpose. The feathers form a plug in the stomach that helps keep sharp fish bones and other hard bits from passing into the intestine, and adults even feed feathers to chicks.

In Norse mythology, Odin kept two ravens, Huginn and Muninn. He sent them out each morning to fly the world and come back with everything they’d seen and heard. Modern studies on raven cognition and perception show that the All-Father made a wise choice for his bird advisors.

Puffins aren’t just “carrying fish,” they’re stacking groceries. Their tongue is spiny, and when it presses fish against the roof of the mouth, it can hold 10+ at once while the puffin keeps catching more.

Ospreys are basically purpose-built for fishing. They can swivel an outer toe so they grip with two toes in front and two behind, and they’ve got barbed pads on their feet to hold slippery fish. When they fly off, they even line the fish up head-first to cut drag.

Birds and plants have been quietly shaping each other for ages. Once plants started packaging food as seeds, birds gained a powerful new fuel source, and birds returned the favor by moving seeds far from the parent plant, helping forests spread and rebound.