Wood Duck

Wood Duck aka. Carolina Duck
Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, USA
February 2018
Member of the Duck, Goose, and Swan Family
§A Flush of Ducks§


{Etymology Corner} Wood Duck is slang for a sucker or rube (I would argue infrequently used). Apparently it's 70's era lingo from the used car salesman community. No information presents itself on how this originated/why it would make sense.

~true bird fact~ A very different kind of duck from what we usually see, at least physiologically. Wood Ducks have sharply clawed feet, which they use to perch in trees near water. Wood Ducklings are born into nest cavities and have to leap up to 50 feet into the ground or water and can do so without injury. So all those videos of people 'helping' baby ducks by catching them as they jump out of their nest can go take a hike as far as I'm concerned.

You know that quote about 'dance like no one's watching'? Wood Duck always acts like someone's watching him.
Master of the celebrity encounter name drop
Gets a lot of his food at the farmer's market



 How Endangered Were They? A distinctly North American species, Wood Ducks never had much of a range outside of the USA and Canada (they're in other places now because they were popular ornamental birds). This was bad news for Wood Ducks during the height of American expansionism. They were actually on the verge of serious trouble by the late 19th century, both because of loss of habitat, and because of hunting, mainly for their feathers (the infamous 19th century fancy hat industry strikes again).

Happily, Wood Ducks are doing much better now, because at that crucial moment, some sweeping government regulation was enacted to protect them. The 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act declared them a protected species, and, along with the introduction of constructed nesting boxes, enabled them to bounce back. You know who else helped? Beavers, who also have a rebounding population, and happen to naturally make perfect Wood Duck habitats. So thanks beavers, and thanks reasonable regulations, for making this bird alive. And of course, zero thanks to our current president, who is choosing to roll back the Migratory Bird Treaty Act's protections for birds after 100 years of success stories like this. Hopefully this move loses him the bird vote.

Semipalmated Plover

Semipalmated Plover (Chorlitejo Semipalmeado)
Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico
November 2017
Member of the Lapwing and Plover Family
§A Deceit of Plovers§ (shocking)
★The Most Common Plover on Migration in Most Areas★ (ehhhh...)

{Etymology Corner} Semipalmated Plover just has one of those birds where you're sure they meant to translate the name into normal-person-speak at some point and just never got around to it (lookin at you, Pyrrhuloxia). Semipalmated, this Plover's mouthful of an adjective, means 'somewhat palm-like', and describes the bird's semi-webbed feet. Aaaaand now you know that!

~true bird fact~ Unlike most plovers, this guy can actually swim. But, like, you know, only a little bit. So don't get too excited about this bird fact.

Caries a big camera around everywhere on vacations, but never shows off his photos
When compared with other Plovers, somewhat plain. You could think of him as the default Plover
I'll just come right out and say it, not a faithful partner. Shame on you, Semipalmated Plover

Birds Talk: Patriotism

Helloooooo blogfans! Trying out a new feature today where we ask birds-on-the-street to weigh in on various topics in current events. We're kicking off this feature today with the topic of patriotism, because today is Superb Owl Sunday (widely regarded to be the 2nd-4th most patriotic day of the year). We asked birds in Roseville, California "What are your feelings about patriotism on this, Supreb Owl Sunday?" It's a big topic to tackle, but we've come to the field with a goal, so let's get ready to rumble!

Downy Woodpecker: America is great! I think that the football men should not only stand for the national anthem, but maybe should get a ladder so they can stand even higher to respect our flag more.

Red-shouldered Hawk: Why can't someone express their patriotism by being critical of the bad parts of America? If you love this country, you should be willing to work hard to fix it, not just ignoring select parts of it. I hate that I'm putting so much effort into this answer, because I don't think the people arguing the counter position are being intellectually honest anyway.

 Northern Flicker: This question is bullshit [flies away]

American Goldfinch: Whenever I see a football player take a knee, I get so mad that I have to drop everything I'm doing to complain about it on social media. Why would anyone want to protest anything in America, in the greatest country on earth. Protesting should be illegal.

Wild Turkey: (visibly drunk) You know I was supposed to be the America bird before that stupid Eagle. Stole my title just like he steals fish. And now there's a whole holiday where I get eaten, and the Eagle has a football team. I'd like to see the foot on the other shoe, and see how he likes getting eaten.

European Starling: In Europe we call soccer football, and we call patriotism nationalism. We had a lot of wars over that, you know? The nationalism, not the football, although we may very well have a football war at some point.


??Mystery Bird??: 🏱︎♋︎⧫︎❒︎♓︎□︎⧫︎♓︎⬧︎❍︎ ♓︎⬧︎ 🙰◆︎⬧︎⧫︎ ♋︎ ♍︎□︎■︎⬧︎⧫︎❒︎◆︎♍︎⧫︎ ♎︎♏︎⬧︎♓︎♑︎■︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ◻︎❒︎♏︎❖︎♏︎■︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ⬥︎□︎❒︎🙵♓︎■︎♑︎ ♍︎●︎♋︎⬧︎⬧︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ◆︎■︎♓︎⧫︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♋︎♑︎♋︎♓︎■︎⬧︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎♓︎❒︎ ■︎♋︎⧫︎◆︎❒︎♋︎●︎ ♏︎■︎♏︎❍︎♓︎♏︎⬧︎📪︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♍︎♋︎◻︎♓︎⧫︎♋︎●︎♓︎⬧︎⧫︎⬧︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♌︎♋︎■︎🙵♏︎❒︎⬧︎📬︎