Mystery Birds from Texas

Birds. They're so mysterious. Sometimes it's literally impossible to tell what they are, even with access to amazing new technologies and a wealth of personal knowledge. I encountered an unusual number of difficult birds on my Big Texas Birding Adventure. Chihuahuan/Common Ravens, all sorts of Flycatcher trouble, and the birds bellow. Maybe these are juvenile, or rare variations, or unusual migrants, or maybe I've discovered some new bird species. It's not like I usually have any trouble identifying birds, so it must be one of those possibilities. Let's check these birds out now, shall we?

All birds are from Big Bend National Park and surrounding areas, taken in July 2017

 Best Guess: Red-winged Blackbird
 Likes spicy candies. Weird

Best Guess: Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Always insists on treating at meals


Best Guess: Brown-headed Cowbird
Really sneaks up on you

Best Guess: Summer Tanager
Gets nervous when handling delicate things

Best Guess: Bullock's Oriole
Sentimentally wears accessories from family members

Best Guess: Black-billed Magpie
Laser-like focus

Phew, that was a lot of birds I couldn't identify. Do you know any of them? Maybe don't tell me because I'm feeling very self-conscious about my bird identifying skills. Or maybe do, and let me know in the comments.

Just a Bunch of Bird .gifs from Labyrinth

Hello blogfans. You know how sometimes you have a couple of busy weeks, and then the day before you go on vacation to Mexico you realize you haven't updated your bird blog in a while, and you feel kinda bad about it? And then how you remember that one of your half finished ideas is to post bird .gifs from movies? And you just watched Labyrinth starring David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connolly and holy smokes are the bird gifs amazing in it? Well, dear readers, if you do, in fact, know 'that feel', we have something in common this week. So here, presented hastily, and without further comment, are a bunch of bird .gifs I made from the movie Labyrinth. Part 1 of 1.

 Aw yeah, you know you're in for a wild ride when a movie starts like this. I knew at this point I would be .giffing Labyrinth. I would recommend using this .gif to invite people to a Labyrinth viewing party, or maybe if you created an actual labyrinth and wanted to welcome people to it.

 They really let you get a good look at that CGI owl, and it's a good thing too, cause it turns out that owl is very plot-important. Use this .gif if you're having any kind of owl-themed conversation.

 Seamless. This .gif might be useful for making fun of someone for rapidly changing on an issue. Or it could be like a 'me, heading into the weekend on friday' kind of thing, I don't know.

 Yes, the owl is David Bowie. Use this .gif to get all pumped for 80's night at the club, or maybe ironically for #relationshipgoals

 The other significant bird action is a little bit of high quality chicken action in the Magic Dance scene. You could use this .gif if someone online is mad, and you made them mad, thereby winning online debate.

 I don't think they kicked an actual chicken for this scene. If you look carefully you can see the real chicken directly to the right of the kicked object and a much more obvious puppet chicken to the left. Why does the goblin lair contain so many chickens? Anyway, this .gif is for when you've had it with someone's bullshit. (Sorry for the cuss)

Aaaaand also there's this. I think this is like a 'me, listening to my own dumb ideas' .gif. See you next week, hopefully with some great Mexican birds (pajaros)

Bonus:

Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager
Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA
July 2017
Member of the Cardinal Family
§A Season of Tanagers§
★North America's Only Completely Red Bird★ ...I guess that's something?

~true bird fact~ So you might've noticed above that this bird is called a Tanager, but is grouped taxonomically with Cardinals. So what's the deal with that? Basically there was a switch in families back in 2009, when scientists realized that he and his immediate family members had more in common with Cardinals than their previous categorization. Oddly, this means that Hawaii has a few birds that are called Cardinals, but are actually Tanagers, and the mainland has a few birds that are called Tanagers, but are actually Cardinals. This indicates to me that no one has any idea what they're doing wrt Cardinals and Tanagers, and maybe just generally.

~a second true bird fact~ Really good at eating bees and wasps and other dangerous insects. Summer Tanager can catch these guys mid air and then strike them against a tree to kill them. Then, before they can eat them, they dexterously remove the stinger by rubbing it against a branch. They're so good at hunting wasps that they can kill all the adults in a hive, then tear it open to eat the larvae as well. Brutal.

Has a good grasp on esoteric bureaucratic procedures
A manager
Spring is his favorite season