#important birbs

[foxglovefaun]

@shadowcreepling the starlings are back in town!!

[redsixwing]

Red-spotted snowy owl, photo courtesy of NYT.

[nullalux]

Bit blustery tho. 🌬🍁

[biomedicalephemera]

Secretary bird - Sagittarius serpentarius

I love me some secretary birds. They’ll up and stomp a snake just for gettin’ in their territory. And don’t come at them when they’ve got eggs! Breeding season is year-round depending upon food supply, so you never know when you’ll be smacked down!

Their name is thought to be because of their quill-feathers, resembling a secretary with a quill pen behind their ear, as was common at the end of the 18th century, when the bird was first described by a European.

While they’re one of only two terrestrial birds of prey (the Caracara of Central America and northern South America being the other), secretary birds fly easily. They’re about 4.5 ft (1.4 m) tall, and primarily hunt small animals. Mice, hares, crabs, and lizards make up the bulk of their diet, but they’ve been known to hunt snakes, tortoises, baby gazelle, and even baby cheetah at times.

Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals. Entries by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. Published by the Field Museum of Natural History [Chicago]. 1930.

[bubonickitten]

So I just got to hold a hummingbird like some kinda Disney princess???

It flew into the window at work and was stunned. About ten minutes later it managed to fly off though, so that’s good.

[lilah80]

I made an unsettling discovery today.

[chavisory]

[Image: a small, dark, fluffy starling fledgling standing in a parking space near the sidewalk curb. Someone’s drawn a chalk circle around him labeled CAREFUL, TINY BIRD.]

[gruntsandpoetry]

I believe I’ve only been sharing these over on twitter, but we have baby finches nesting on our porch! They’re 8 days old now and should be fledglings in another 8. One of the four opened their eyes today and I could not love my smol fuzzy children more.