Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird
Cochran Mill Park, Palmetto, Georgia, USA
April 2018
Member of the Thrush Family

§A Mutation of Thrushes§

★State Bird of Missouri and New York★

~true bird fact~ Interesting conservation history here- this bird really struggled in the early 20th century as a result of competition from more aggressive introduced European species, like the European Starling and the House Sparrow (curse you again, Shakespeare-bird-lunatic). Since these are all hole-nesting birds, the more aggressive species often beat out the Bluebird for spots. In the 1960's an effort was started to create bluebird trails and bluebird specific nesting boxes, accessible only to them and not their competitors. As a result, bluebirds have made a real comeback, but almost all of them live and nest in one of these man-made boxes. Perhaps this great effort was made because, quoth wikipeida "The bright-blue breeding plumage of the male, easily observed on a wire or open perch, makes this species a favorite of birders." No. Citation. Provided.

A real hat-wearer

Has strong feelings on the superiority of the East vs. the West coast

Presents well initially (as a friend/employee/partner), but often will let you down over the long term as his natural habits and personality come out

Birding the World Cup Top 4: Our Birld Cup 2018 Exclusive Coverage

Hello sportsfans and birdsfans and welcome to Amateurnithologist's 2018 World Cup Coverage! Are you interested in having a little bit of bird trivia to help you make your top 4 bracket decisions? Good news if so, cause it's my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL to provide exactly that to you! Just like we did in 2014, we're going to compare teams based on a number of bird related factors, and then, through a process that combines state-of-the-art techniques from the fields of statistics, ornithology, alchemy, and sociology, determine the likely winner! As you may remember, we have a 100% record of predicting sporting events correctly based on birds, like, probably. So let's get off on the right FOOT and get this BALL rolling.

France

National Bird: Gallic Rooster
Say what you will about the French and their strange choice of national bird- they are strong and consistent in their love and appreciation of chickens. The Gallic Rooster or le coq gaulois, is not only the national bird, but a symbol of the nation itself. The rooster's french phonetic cry, cocorico, is sometimes shouted as an expression of patriotic pride. Think U! S! A! (French people sound off in the comments if you have every made this sound). This rooster love goes way, way back, like to the Middle Ages, and is more than I'm going to get into in a blog ostensibly about the World Cup, but you can check Wikipedia for more detail. Anyway, not only do they have a love of their national bird, it is already tied thematically into sports and football. The French National rugby team uses the coq as it's mascot, and when the World Cup was in France in 1998, the mascot was a rooster named Footix.

The Metrics:
Number of Bird Species: 591
Bird Liking Quotient: 1.629
What would soccer analysis be without reliance on some extremely dubious, but scientific sounding metrics. Here we've taken data from Avibase's Bird Checklists of the World. This number includes all sorts of rarities, introduced species, and migrants, making it hopefully the most optimistic possible number of types of birds you could see there. The bird liking quotient is a little less straightforward, but involves dividing the national population by the number of hits you get when you google "Birding in France". I know that sounds like a crazy way to measure something, but you can't argue with statistics. France, by the way, does pretty well by these metrics, being 2nd in bird diversity and 3rd in birding enthusiasm

The X-factors:

J. G. Keulemans, 1885

Endemic Species? Corsican Nuthatch, Corsican Finch
Best Birding Spot? Corsica obvs
The French island of Corsica has to be a lock for best place to go birding, since it has two species you'll find nowhere else in the world, along with a host of other rarities. The Mediterranean island gives you a good chance for a whole variety of seabirds, along with a bunch of others. France has put up a strong showing and is clearly the country to beat.

Belgium

Andreas Trepte, c/o Wikipedia

National Bird: Common Kestrel
Don't let the name fool you, this bird is anything but common. Closely related to your beloved friend, the American Kestrel, this bird is a master hunter of stealth and agility. The Kestrel has long been associated with prowess in battle and mastery of aerial combat. If you still don't know who this bird is maybe you'd prefer his latin name, which translates to Screeching Sickle, or his alternate names Eurasian Kestrel, Windhover, Windcuffer, or something even ruder that won't be making an appearance on this family-friendly blog.

The Metrics:
Number of Bird Species: 457
BLQ: 3.427

An impressive BLQ cannot hide a subpar number of birds for Belgium, leaving the relatively small nation at a disadvantage. What if we corrected for nation size by even more bird math? Dividing number of recorded bird species by area, we come up with a metric France scores .0024 while Belgium gets a much more respectable .0388 (the highest number among the competitors). We'll call this number Bird Species Density, of BSD.

The X-factors:

photo by Natuurpunt

Endemic Species? Nope
Best Place to Go Birding? Groenwaecke Polders
The first line of the first website hit by a google search was "Belgium is probably not the best country for birding" Thanks for the honesty, fatbirder.com, but that means it's not looking good for the underdogs and their delicious waffles. There are some choice spots though, including a shipping port that hosts the largest tern colonies in Western Europe. I'm going to go with Groenwaecke Polders, however, since in winter it attracts tens of thousands of pink-footed and white-fronted geese, along with a who's who of other European birds. I'd check it out for sure, if I was in Belgium.

Croatia

Carlos Delgado c/o Wikipedia

National Bird: Common Nightingale
So no, this is not a particularly interesting looking bird, but it is famous. The Nightingale's melancholy song has been described as one of the most beautiful sounds in nature, and this has given it prominence in a whole variety of classical art, literature, and poetry. An artist's bird, Shakespeare, Keats, and Shelley all had poems comparing the artist to the nightingale, and vise-versa. Even Beethoven got in on the act, mimicking the birds call with flutes in his Pastoral Symphony. The Nightingale appears on the Croatian 1 Kuna coin, making it analogous to America's positioning of Abraham Lincoln. A pretty great bird, but can it SPORTS?

The Metrics:
Number of Bird Species: 408
BLQ: 5.155
BSD: .0187

With the mightiest BLQ we've seen so far, and an impressive BSD, Croatia presents itself as a plucky challenger to it's competitors. Still, that's not a lotta birds. Let's see if Croatia can offer anything to make up for that deficit.

The X-factors:

Endemic Species? Nah
Best Place to Go Birding? The Lastovo Archipelago
Unlike Belgium, there seems to be a fair amount of info about birding Croatia on the internet- perhaps Croatia is in an active push to attract nature-based tourism in a way that Belgium isn't. Either way, CroatiaBirding.hr describes it as an 'emerging birding destination', and I'm inclined to believe them. The country's unique shape means that is has land in the mountains and a long stretch of Adriatic Sea coastline. It's also within both the central and western European migration corridor, leading to an unusual diversity of birds. The unique geographical features mean that Croatia is home to 78 endangered bird species, more than any other small or medium sized European country. Again I'll quote the Fat Birder "undoubtedly one of the pearls of European birding". If I had to pick one spot, it would be the Lastovo Archipelago, which houses the unique colonies unique in Europe of Yelkouan Shearwaters and Eleonoras Falcons.

England

Emmanuel Douzery c/o Wikipedia

National Bird: European Robin
My antipathy for the American Robin is well known by this point, but I just can't feel the same way about this little guy. What a cutie! A classic and classy choice for national bird for sure, and seems to capture the English character. One quibble- with Brexit looming, will a bird with 'European' in the name still be allowed in the country? The Robin is a prominent figure in folklore, and British folklore specifically (a good sign for a national bird). A couple great folkloric theories about the Robin's red breast- it sang into Jesus' ear to comfort him as he was up on the cross and was thus stained with his blood OR the Robin was bringing water to souls suffering in purgatory and his breast was singed. The Robin sure is metal in these conceptions. He is the symbol of several English and Welsh football clubs, so you know he's got experience.

The Metrics:
Number of Bird Species: 628
BLQ: 1.828
BSD: .007

The number of bird species just crushes here, and may be a deciding factor for England (which, for the purposes of these calculations, includes the greater United Kingdom). The BLQ and BSD are both higher than the other top 4 birding (and football) powerhouse France's are, but they still aren't close to the enthusiasm and sheer bird density seen in the smaller countries.

The X-factors:

Richard Crossley c/o Wikipedia (this picture was too wild not to use, sorry to your eyes)

Endemic Species? Scottish Crossbill

Best Place to Go Birding? Isle of Rum
Here again you can see the inherent advantage in birding that the UK gets for being a series of relatively widely spread island nations. If Scottland was an independent nation, we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. Regardless of how England acquired it, the existence of an endemic species is a real leg up in the competition. While there are many great birds to be found across the varying islands of the UK (including Puffins in Northern Ireland!), I'm going to give it to the Isle of Rum, where you can find the White-tailed Eagle, a magnificent bird of prey even larger than the Golden Eagle (which you can also find there). The islands are also home to an insane number of Manx Shearwaters.

Alright, so that should be everything you need to figure out exactly how the final four will play out! Wait, you wanted ME to do the predicting? Fine, fine, let me just run all those numbers through the Football9000 Supercomputer

Beep Boop Borp

and here we go, the order of finish in the 2018 World Cup, based EXCLUSIVELY on bird data

1. England
2. France
3. Croatia
4. Belgium

Congratulations to England on it's victory (the Puffins pushed it over the top by .02%). The calculations were so close, however, that if England doesn't technically include Scottland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, it falls all the way to third place, behind Croatia. So it would look like

1. France
2. Croatia
3. England
4. Belgium

Of course we could also see a fluctuation in France's place in the standings, depending on whether or not the Island of Corsica should really count as France.It'd be an upset but we could be looking at

1. Croatia
2. France
3. England
4. Belgium

Well, with that definitively settled, we offer our congratulations to either England or France or Croatia, great job in the 2018 Birld Cup!

Cactus Wren

Cactus Wren
Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico
November 2017
Member of the Wren Family
§A Chime of Wrens§
★State Bird of Arizona★

Favorite Cactus: Saguaro

~Loves to build nests in cacti, using their naturally spiky nature to defend their roosts. They build tons of them, way more than most birds. Some of these appear to be decoy nests, meant to distract predators. Others they just sleep in. Some males might use them to start secret second or third families. Shady behavior to be sure- it's not wonder they've got such a contentious relationship with Curve-billed Thrashers, who they often share the neighborhood with.

Gets into all sorts of trouble with the law
Sensitive to spicy foods, even though you'd expect her to be into them
Always spoiling for a fight

Curve-billed Thrasher

Curve-billed Thrasher aka. Cuitiacoache (lit. Songbird) aka. The Default Desert Bird... wait, what?
Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA
July 2017
Member of the Mockingbird and Thrasher Family
Apparently there is §No Name for a group of Thrashers§ May I suggest §A Shred of Thrashers§?

Favorite Cactus: Chola

~true bird fact~ Just hates the Cactus Wren. The Wikipedia article states that our Thrasher here "will usually destroy any nest of cactus wrens." It's been a while since we've gotten a good Avian Rivalry on the ol' blog. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I certainly should've named that feature Avian Adversaries. Oh well, literally no way to fix it now! So why do they hate cactus Wrens? One could assume it's because they're competing ground-foraging species who live in the same area, but maybe it's more personal than that.

Honestly this Wikipedia article has a number of pretty bananas quotes about Curve-billed Thrasher, perhaps indicating that the world's only person who is truly passionate about Curve-billed Thrashers authored it. Literally every other resource I visited had like zero to say about Curve-billed Thrasher, but the wiki was filled with tidbits like the aforementioned dubious nickname and animosity towards Cactus Wrens. It also mentions editorially that the Curve-billed Thrasher's "...voice is regarded as more pleasant" than the Northern Mockingbird's. Also, there's this: "The demeanor of the curve-billed has been described as "shy and rather wild", but it allows humans to view it closely". Ok bud, cool normal observation there.

Shy, and rather wild
A hot sauce connoisseur
Sure, she can sing, but what she'd really prefer to do is rap battle

Smooth-billed Ani

Smooth-billed Ani
Cabbage Beach, Paradise Island, The Bahamas
April 2017
Member of the Cuckoo Family
§A Silliness of Anis§ (disagreeable)

~true bird fact~ Lives a seriously communal life-style. Several pairs of birds build the nest together and all lay their eggs in it in layers. These nests are crazy multi-layered deals, and up to 35 eggs have been found in one nest. The birds incubate and defend the nest together, and raise the chicks. The chicks themselves, once old enough to do so, begin to care for the younger birds.

~real bird myth~ The meat of the Ani, reportedly gross tasting, is considered to be a cure for lung issues by the Surinamese native people, but only if you don't know that you're eating it.

Lots of strong feelings about whether having a smooth bill or a grooved bill is better. This conflict may originate from a sneetches-like situation.
Unflappable
Does a lot of starring out at the horizon, thinking about unrelated things
Doesn't see why you'd waste money going out to dinner

...Ok look, I don't usually do this, this is a friendly n positive blog, but I gotta say...

This bird looks like a blackbird fell into the ooze from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze
Like if an unflattering caricature of a crow came to life
Bird looks like he's wearing a a big, novelty, Halloween mask of himself
If you asked a kid to draw a "dinosaur versio of a bird", this is what they'd come up with
I'm just saying, he looks like he told you that you wouldn't like him when he's angry, and then you went and made him angry anyway
Smooth-billed Ani looks like a gargoyle you made to ward away trespassers from your tomb. Carved him on a column
Kinda looks more like a lizard than a bird
Typed 'scary bird from a nightmare' into google search and he came up, is all I'm saying

#birdroasts

Western Meadowlark

Western Meadowlark
Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Tiburon, California, USA
January 2017
Member of the Blackbird/Oriole Family
§A Pod of Meadowlarks§
★State Bird of Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming. The only bird with more states to his name is the Northern Cardinal. They are, of course, fierce rivals over this issue.★

{Etymology Corner} The Western and Eastern Meadowlark are so similar that the Western version remained an unidentified species until John James Audubon himself named them. He called them Sturnella neglecta because they had been ignored for so long. The main way to tell the two bird species apart, by the way, is their significantly different songs. So good luck with that if you live in the middle of the country, where their ranges do overlap.

~true bird fact~ Western Meadowlarks have unusually strong bill-opening muscles. This facilitates their number one method of feeding, which is sticking their bill into soil or bark or whatever, and prying it open to get at the insects and stuff within. This method of feeding is named, unfortunately, gaping.

A little rude to strangers
Confident and willing to lend expertise
Has a need for love and attention that can never really be filled
Has mantras that he often repeats

Hermit Warbler

Hermit Warbler (juvenile)

Washington Square Park, San Francisco, California USA
January 2014
Member of the Wood Warbler Family
§A Fall of Warblers§

~true bird fact~ Diet consists strictly of bugs and spiders. Short fact for you today, folks...

Ok fine, here's another. It's shy. Every website says that, what's going on, I thought anthropomorphizing was my deal? Are they trying to capture the magic of the Amateurnithologist brand? Anyway, it's a boring bird. Every other fact I can find is this lame inside-baseball stuff about Townsend's Warbler displacing their populations. Dangit Townsend's Warbler, not again!

Shy
Loves a good view
Has a conspiratorial nature
Doesn't stand up to Townsend's Warbler one bit, I can tell you that for sure

Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk
Richmond, California, USA
February 2015
Member of the Kites, Eagles, and Hawks Family
§A Tower of Hawks§

~true bird fact~ Has quite conflictual relationships with several other birds. While they often are mobbed by crows, it's also true that Red-shouldered Hawk has teamed up with crows to drive a Great Horned Owl out of his area. Not only this, but said Owl has been known to prey on Hawk chicks, and vice-versa. It's fair to say the Great Horned Owl is his bird nemesis. Also occasionally preyed upon by his cousin, the Red-tailed Hawk. At a certain point you just have to recognize a pattern, and I think it's fair to say this bird has bird issues.

Has a creative spark
Low self esteem, very sensitive to criticism. Projects aloofness to conceal this
Catastrophises, assumes the worst
Love him or hate him kinda bird

Elegant Tern

Elegant Tern
Mitchell Cove, Santa Cruz, California, USA
September 2015
Member of the Gull, Tern, and Skimmer Family
§A Cotillion of Terns§

~true bird fact~ Unlike many Terns, this Elegant gentleman is not very aggressive. Instead he builds his nest in the company of other birds that are more likely to drive away intruders, like our friend Heerman's Gull. An Elegant Tern doesn't like to get his hands dirty, that's what 'The Help' is for.

Classically trained in manners and scholastics
Makes a lot of little 'jokes' about his name. They're not really jokes, he thinks of himself as quite elegant
Can't stand the Royal Tern. A good way to get fired is to confuse the two of them
Spends a lot of money on beauty products

Common Tern

Common Tern aka. Sea Swallow (n.b. is not a type of swallow)

Battery Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
July 2015
Member of the Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers Family
§A Committee of Terns§
★The Most Widespread Tern in North America★

~true bird fact~ You ever wonder where these birds that pretty live at sea drink from? The answer is, actually, The Ocean. Like many sea birds, they have special glands that deal with the excess salt in their water source by excreting it. They don't even drink fresh water when it's around. As a Californian, I wish we could learn from these Terns, cause maybe it would help with the drought.

Has a list of priorities. Actually has a lot of lists
Envious of his simpler relatives, the Seagulls
Suffers nobly (even when it's probably not necessary)
Always feels like he's forgotten something

Bewick's Wren

Bewick's Wren
Redding, California, USA
November 2014
Member of the Wren Family
§A Chime of Wrens§

~true bird fact~ He might look innocent, but don't let that fool you. This Bewick's Wren is engaged in a high stakes game of deadly nest espionage with his hated rival, the House Wren. Bewick's Wrens have all but disappeared from the Eastern United States, and it's thought that the expansion of the House Wren population is to blame. House Wren's frequently sneak the Bewick's Wren's eggs out of the nest and take it over themselves. In response, these birds often build 'dummy nests' as a misdirect, peck holes in other bird's eggs, and "defend nesting territory with singing" (a direct quote from the Audubon.org field guide, which leaves the way this is accomplished up to the reader's imagination).

Paranoid and jumpy (is it paranoia if they're really out to get you?)
Considers family traditions very important
Seeks closer bond with humans than most birds. Acts cute to get attention
Rambles



...

wikipedia.org

Thomas Bewick
1753-1828
This bird was named after Thomas Bewick, by his friend James Audubon. Bewick was an engraver first, but eventually found acclaim as a naturalist and author. He illustrated children's books, engraved silverware, and did engravings for advertisements. He became well known for his illustrations of various versions of Aesop's Fables and a book called A History of Quadrupeds. He was a big proponent of wood engraving as a medium, and pioneered new techniques and tools to make it higher quality and less expensive. His most famous work was A History of British Birds, which he co-wrote and illustrated. A man after your amateurnithologist's own heart, he was credited with adding humanity and humor to his illustrations and books, adding unrelated illustrated vignettes to his nature books.

wikipedia.org

Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird
Richmond, California, USA
Member of the Thrush Family
~true bird fact~ Thrushes face fierce competition for nesting space from sparrows, swallows, and starlings. However, once they have established a nest, it has been observed being defended from intruders by other species of birds, usually swallows. True friendship?

They hate fascists
Playful and inquisitive, sometimes to the point of cockiness
Teases dogs
Has a lot of fun, just a fun bird
Lucky, obviously

Bird Portraiture: Common Loon

Common Loon

Church Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada
Member of the Loon Family
*true bird fact*~ The de facto national bird of Canada, she appears on the Candian one-dollar coin. Dollars are commonly called 'Loonies' there for this reason.

Endlessly pleasant and charitable towards friends and strangers alike

Never has a moment of downtime- an athlete, socially active, sings, volunteers at a soup kitchen

Looks at the Canada Goose with a combination of sympathy and confusion; doesn't really understand why they couldn't be great friends 

The more you get to know her, the more sure you become that she doesn't really have any flaws or normal-person-issues, which is almost more unnerving than anything else you could discover, if you think about it

Still, a great bird that one can't help but admire. Has many admirers

Bird Portraiture: Canada Goose

Canada Goose

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Member of the Goose/Duck Family
*true bird fact*~ While nesting, she loses flight feathers, making it impossible for her to fly until her chicks hatch. That's pretty deep if you think about it.

Filled with resentments
Especially critical of the Common Loon, who she believes does not deserve to be Canada's national bird
Fond of fake flowers
Keeps herself in really incredible shape with esoteric workout routines
Not especially pleasant to be around, pushes your buttons

Has a weird tongue (but don't make fun of her for it, you're above that)