I’ve been seeing Brown-headed Cowbirds (BHCO is their four letter code) in our yard. I have mixed thinking about Brown-headed Cowbirds. I’m dismayed on behalf of their victims, but I have to say intrigued by their successful evolutionary survival strategy. BHCOs are brood parasites. They do not build nests. The female lays her eggs, up to […]
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When something is deemed ‘for the birds’ it is being deemed worthless. This post is about how that is not the case for the birds as symbols. It seems that as humans evolved higher-level cognitive capacity, they also evolved a need to explain everything. This wasn’t about vanity I don’t think, but I suppose even […]
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Anthropomorphism, attributing human characteristics of thought, feeling and consciousness to non-humans, was long considered a scientific sin by animal behavior researchers. It still is by some. When considering cartoons or talking dog movies I can’t say I disagree, at least in degree. I don’t think there is any real harm and as a literary device, […]
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Every so often a rare or unusual bird will be sighted and showcased on social media. They become celebrities. Birders will come from far and near to share in the experience. This is especially true of twitchers. What is a twitcher”? A twitcher is a birder who seeks to build their life list with as […]
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Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers get most of their nutrition from sap which they gather in sap wells that they industriously bore and maintain. Perfectly logical to call them sapsuckers in my opinion. And, since they have a yellow belly also logical to name them Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. All in all, a fitting name for a strikingly marked, industrious […]
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Red-winged Blackbirds are one of the most abundant bird species in North America. During February it has looked and sounded (sometimes even louder than the leaf blowers) like all of them were in our yard. And, eating every sunflower seed I could put out. Yet, this is only 2/3 as many as in the mid-1960s. […]
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