Weirdbird Appreciator

we love animals here. This bracket was a celebration of nature and the bizarre things that pop up on this hell of an earth. 🦢🪿🦇 we changed to weezer for April Fools and now neither of us want to change back how awesome is that??????????

[officialweezerelections]

INFO

Mods:

Mod GF (🪿/🦢) he/him (can be found at @spw-art) (also goes by Kars)

Mod Corvid (🦇) he/it (can be found at @elmuertologista) (no longer a member of the blog but we remember him fondly)

BRACKETS:

Fucked Up Birds (tag #birdbracket)

(original birdbracket posts will remain untagged because I can’t edit posts with polls in them.)

1st Place Marabou Stork

2nd Place Giant Petrel

3rd Place Hoatzin

Fucked Up Inverts (tag #bugbracket) (indefinite hiatus)

Fucked Up Birds…2! (tag #birdbracket2)

More will be added as I clean things up around here for a new tournament! -🪿

[herpsandbirds]

This fluffy friend was sitting outside my office in mid June on the steps above us for a few minutes as we came out during a fire drill. I have never seen a larger bird like this in the wild so close (10ft) let alone on the ground. I believe this is a Peregrine Falcon, possibly a juvenile, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Minneapolis southern suburb, MN

Yes, a beautiful young peregrine!!!

[animal-families-tournaments]

Corvidae family, round 1: Yellow-billed Magpie vs Maghreb Magpie

Yellow-billed Magpie

Maghreb Magpie

Remaining time: 4 days 10 hours

[animal-families-tournaments]

Corvidae family, round 1: Ethiopian Bushcrow vs Pinyon Jay

Ethiopian Bushcrow

Pinyon Jay

Remaining time: 4 days 14 hours

[proton-wobbler]

PINYON JAY LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO

You want to see a bird that acts more like a Nutcracker than a typical Jay? Pinyon Jay.

Meet the US's only colonial corvid! Crows and ravens may hang out together but when it comes to nesting they are not sharing space. Not PIJA! Pinyon Jays actually need to nest in colonies so they can help defend each other's nests! Ironically their major nest predators are often Scrub-jays and ravens.

Go listen to their weird little noises too! Imagine going on a hike in the SW US and youre enjoying your time in the pinyon-juniper woodlands and all the sudden the raucous cloud of clowns descends upon the fruiting trees nearby.

Or worse-- youre trying to tag a few jays for a study and these lovely little jokesters all land on the nearby juniper instead to laugh at your feeble attempts to capture them. Its so sad. Happened to a friend of mine once. (Me 😔)

Another fun anecdote I read while prepping for my job following PIJA around was that the females of the pair essentially choose everything. To the point where a female was returned to a flock after she had been taken to rehab and she kicked out her boyfriends new girl and said "we're making a new nest Right Now" and that simp said "yes baby of course" and that was that.

Young jays form pairs by pretending to build nests and then chasing each other around while holding good nest building sticks. They bury pinyon pine nuts in preparation for winter and then breed in the winter if its not too cold. They dont seem to care abt carrion or other meats the way a lot of corvids do. Theyre the most cowardly smart birds and their plain coloration belies a beautiful indigo iridescence when you see them up close.

Do the right thing. Choose Pinyon Jays!

[animal-families-tournaments]

Corvidae family, round 1: White-collared Jay vs Rook

White-collared Jay

Rook

Remaining time: 5 days 6 hours

[animal-families-tournaments]

Corvidae family, round 1: Hawaiian Crow vs Azure Jay

Hawaiian Crow

Azure Jay

Remaining time: 4 days 20 hours

[proton-wobbler]

VOTE HAWAIIAN CROW!!!!

Theyre extinct in the wild due to habitat loss and Avian Malaria, but efforts to breed them in captivity have been very successful and the hope of reintroduction is strong!!

I want to say they may even be setting up reintroduction programs currently, I'm just a little out of the loop as far as Hawaiian birds go.

[wisedreamdelusion]

GO TO THE HELL I DONT WAKE YET AND I DONT SLEEP WELL

[bird-gifs-collection-agency]

ill just shake it all around! here i go!

[mellifexfarm]

thingy

[solitarycam]

Hungary

[todaysbird]

Today's bird is an Eastern Pheobe fledgling who was the last to leave the nest. a few hours after this photo was taken the nest was officially empty

[maidthings]

perhaps the mother loves the cuckoo chick. perhaps the cuckoo chick loves her mother. have you not considered this?

[amnhnyc]

What eldritch horror is this? If you thought it was a bird with legs growing from its chest, look again! Male Bronze-winged Jacanas (Metopidius indicus) are responsible for raising their chicks, and they have a unique defensive strategy to keep their chicks safe. When threatened, a father can scoop up his offspring and carry them under his wings! Found in parts of Southeast Asia, this species uses its large feet to wade in the shallows, feeding on plant material, insects, and invertebrates floating on the surface. 

Photo: Suzu Sato, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

[greycatbird]

No creature on this earth has ever been hungrier than a teen chickadee being taught how to forage and following one of their parents around BEGGING BEGGING BEGGING to be fed

[greycatbird]

bugs and worms and grubs PLEEEEEAAAAASE

[bird-gifs-collection-agency]

no, you're seeing that right- this bird is sadistic. This means the pigments in his body are gone and it makes him white

[herpsandbirds]

Channel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos vitellinus), family Ramphastidae, order Piciformes, Brazil

photograph by Kacau Oliveira

[officialweezerelections]

I was away on a trip and saw many birds! I will queue pictures!!