Bird Talk

Want to add some zippy bursts of color to your yard, wake up to melodic music, and drive your indoor cats psycho all at once? Behold, the bird feeder!

Installing bird feeders in your yard is one of the easiest things you can do to attract wildlife. Most bird feeders are super cheap (or free, if you’re into DIY projects) and birdseed itself isn’t going to break the bank, either. Here are some great bird feeding gear you can buy or create for well under ten bucks. Remember, a little time and effort will reward you with plenty of feathered friends to share your backyard with. Read more

Chaucer in Canterbury Tales, compares his Summoner's concupicity to sparrows. The summoner, we are told is "As hoot he was and lecherous as a sparwe" (General Prologue l. 628). It turns out Chaucer was on to something. Read more

They Were SO Cute Back Then!As February approaches, baby chicks will soon start being shipped to feed stores across the country.  When I stopped at my local feed store last week to pick up another bag of Layena, I saw the notice on the front door.  This feed store's chicks are in such high demand that they have a waiting list months in advance.

Chicks are cute, but they grow into chickens, and they're a big responsibility.  I'm going to assume you're not one of those awful people who would buy a chick as an Easter present, without a thought for its future!
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January 17 is Bald Eagle Appreciation Day. Did you know that our national bird is the only eagle that’s unique to North America? Here are some other facts about bald eagles you can use to celebrate the day or teach your children (or use at your next trivia contest). Read more

Ethel, a Buff OrpingtonI have been thinking a lot about heritage breeds, because the topic of heritage livestock seems to crop up a lot in articles about eating locally, sustainable living, that kind of thing.  Heritage breeds are valuable not just because they are old and interesting bits of living history (although they are).  Most heritage breeds were developed to be hardy, in keeping with the times in which they lived.
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The Common Loon is quite lovely to look at; one of the most geographically dispersed water birds. The loon's black and white markings, especially the black head and checker-board back, makes it easy to spot on lakes or coastal estuaries from the width of Canada to the northern United States. But, lovely as they are to watch, loons are best known for the eerie cry of the male. Loons are, however, declining rapidly. They have ceased to appear at all at lakes where they have been breeding for hundreds of years; we are not sure, exactly what has caused this decline. Read more

The Superb Bird of Paradise, Lophorina superba, is a small bird native to the rainforests of New Guinea. Because the males far outnumber the females, competition for a mate is fierce, and has, over time, resulted in elaborate competitive courtship displays. Apparently, the average female rejects fifteen to twenty of her performing suitors, before finding The One.

This competitive pressure is understandably stressful for the males. Apparently, they've resorted to music videos, in attempt to be perceived as The Coolest Bird on the Planet. Read more

It's the time of year that in America, we're all thinking about turkey, even those of us who lack any desire to actually ingest the bird. I suspect that most you you were told, much as I was, that we celebrate Thanksgiving and dine on turkey as a tradition that honors the Pilgrims and the first Credit: Pennsylvania Game CommissionThanksgiving. The birds we dine on, or that most of us dine on, are carefully bred and exceedingly stupid hybrids. They're typically white or buff, and some are dark gray-brown. They don't look much like the native wild American turkey; Meleagris gallopavo silvestris. The picture above is an Eastern Wild Turkey, and and example of the sub-species that the Pilgrims would have seen. Read more

Bok!Someone sent me a link to this hilarious blog post today.  To sum up: Audrey's chickens spent the entire day being terrorized by a dried sunflower seed head.  Which her gardening friend had kindly saved and dried for her, and which she had set out in their run thinking that they would have fun picking at it all day.  Oh my no!  They flew into a complete panic upon seeing it, then spent the rest of the day in their coop without food (just water).

Dried sunflower heads = SHEER TERROR.

This isn't terribly unusual.  After all, we call cowards "chicken" for a reason.  
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My daughter loves to visit various pet shops. We go in and she marvels at not just the different animals but also all of their gear. Sometimes she even wants to take a puppy toy home much more than a puppy itself—but usually it’s the canine that she’s crying for when we finally leave.

I’m not much of a fan of pet shops. They always have a sad vibe to them for me. But I figure it’s cheaper and closer than the zoo, she gets to see a few critters, and I can keep a wary eye open for anything worth reporting.

But it’s when we go back to where the birds are kept that I start to really get sick to my stomach. It’s gotten to the point to where my husband will walk around the birds with my daughter, and she always asks, “Is mommy coming too?”

“No, sweetie, mommy’s not coming,” he always tells her. “Mommy doesn’t like to see birds in cages.” Read more