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

Good Birds, Bad Pics

Hey all. Sometimes birding is hard out there. When you've been doing it for as long as I have, and trying to blog about once a week, for the last, like, 6 years, sometimes you come up short of really great pictures of birds you've never written about before. More and more I'll come back from a walk with a camera full of birds and find that they're mostly ones I've already done. Being truly 'out of birds' is not something that I have to worry about for a while, but there's also the pictures to think about. I know I don't need to tell you, reader, that sometimes the quality of the pictures varies a lot. Of course, I do try to keep some kind of standard, or at least only flex that standard for a bird I'm really excited about. Sometimes a bird pic is just not good enough to run as a 'portraiture' entry. I just know I haven't captured the 'essence of the bird', so to speak, so I don't count it.

All that is to say that after looking through the last few months of bird photos, and a couple of misstarts to the ol' blog, this is what I've decided to go with. A trio of birds I was quite excited to get, but that don't really warrant a full blog on their own. Just on a, like, quality level. This way I get to show off these cool birds, but still reserve the right to do a full entry on them later, if I ever get a great picture. Let me know if you hate this blog entry, cause it's a little different. Love you lots. -A

Savannah Sparrow
Salinas River State Beach, Moss Landing, California, USA
January 2018
Member of the American Sparrows and Towhees Family
§A Flutter of Sparrows§

Quickly dismisses others' concerns



Hooded Merganser (male, non-breeding)
Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, USA
February 2018
Member of the Ducks, Geese, and Swans Family
§A Brace of Ducks§

Feels persecuted for his taste in music

Hermit Thrush (probably..)
Point Molate Beach Park, Richmond, California, USA
February 2018
Member of the Thrush Family
§A Hermitage of Thrushes§

Spaces out

Red-legged Thrush

Red-legged Thrush (zorzal de patas coloradas)
Ardastra Gardens, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas
April 2017
Member of the Thrush Family
§A Mutation of Thrushes§ (what?)

Native To: The Bahamas, The Cayman Islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republican, and Haiti

~true bird fact~The Red-legged Thrush is basically the Caribbean Robin, meaning it has similar behaviors and occupies a similar ecological niche. Unfortunately, this means that just like the American Robin, he is cool looking, but quite boring. On the other hand, his fake bird facts are super interesting.

This bird is a pirate
In fact, he is a robot pirate, with a bionic eye that works kind of like a monocular
Prefers to target the riches colonialists or capitalists who threaten his people
Drunk pretty much 24-7 (whether this is sad or fun is up to you, reader, to determine)

Baby Birds in New York City

It's summer and baby birds are on the rise! Well, more like adolescent birds at this point, for the most part. These pictures were all taken in the past week or so in NYC, where your Amatuernithologist took a short vacation. Birding there was.. not spectacular as far as numbers or new species, but I got some good pictures, and there were some pretty neat discoveries that I'm sure you'll all be excited to see whenever they roll onto the blog. What New York did have, however, was an abundance of young birds, which is good news, since our Research shows that blog readers respond most to Cute Baby Animals (followed shortly by Unusual Animal Friends [UAFs]).

American Robin
The High Line, Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA
July 2015


When I saw this guy squabbling with an adult American Robin, I was hoping that I had a cool new bird. A little research confirmed that I was probably just looking at a younger robin. How come it's never a Wood Thrush? This bird listens to rebellious music.



This is American Robin in her adult form (and baby form, if you look closely). Notice how she has become more mature with age, and has settled into adult responsibility. Takes care of herself with small wellness rituals every day.

European Starling
Battery Park, Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA
July 2015

Major sibling rivalry here, these two birds are developing in different directions in order to differentiate themselves and find their own place in the world. Until they are no longer competing, there will be a high amount of stress in the family.


Makes you say "Wow, what a cool bird". I'm so glad some lunatic imported Starlings from Europe. This bird has decided that he doesn't want kids, and is going to seek fulfillment in a different way, perhaps artistically. Likes kids, but would rather be a 'cool uncle'.

Gray Catbird
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NYC, NY, USA
July 2015

This Gray Catbird is really a baby, and as such has not developed any descernable personality yet. Bares a vaguely concerned and confused look most of the time. Experiences a muted and muffled version of our own reality.

Gray Catbird is really making something of himself. Time is money, show me the numbers, let's reorganize to optimize our marketshare. Might be successful, but has lost track of the ability to see the world as a place of beauty. On auto-pilot, for now. Some things that we knew as a baby, we forget.

Varied Thrush

Varied Thrush
Alvarado Park, Richmond, California, USA
January 2015
Member of the Thrush Family
§A Hermitage of Thrushes§

~true bird fact~ The Varied Thrush is a Bird in the News lately. Usually it would be somewhat rare for this bird to be seen in your Amateurnithologist's neck of the woods (Bay Area, California, USA), but lately they've been popping up in great numbers. Furthermore, the birds have been seen as far south as LA, which is nearly unheard of. What's going on here? No one can say for sure, but it seems likely that the sudden movement in the population of these thrushes has to do with some complex combination of the ongoing California drought, acorn production numbers, and the bird's usual 2 year population growth and decline cycle. Still, a strange occurrence, and perhaps an omen in these troubled times. For good or for ill, enjoy these thrushes, as they are pretty cool looking. As we always say here on Amateurnithologist, 'nothing's ever promised tomorrow today'.

A bit of a claustrophobic
Needs a lot of time "to process"
Creates art/poetry, but is almost always too shy to share it with the public
Likes Halloween best among the holidays

Bird Relationship Status Update Bulletin

It's almost Valentine's Day and love is in the air for birds. Literally. Because they are birds..
Let's check in on some of our old bird friends and see how their love life is going. Because what else do you want to do on the most romantic day of the year other than e-stalk some birds?

Western Scrub Jay has suffered a bad break-up. He's sleeping little and is turning to food to get him through. He's not looking good. We all feel bad for him, but it's been a long time and he's still experiencing it very intensely. Time to toughen up, Scrub Jay.

Double-Crested Cormorant is young and in love. No one can tell these two what to do and they're on top of the world. We all hope that a tragic car accident or illness doesn't bring all that youthful optimism crashing down around them, but we can't say for sure that it won't happen.

After a long and traditional string of serial monogamy, American Robin is playing the field and taking things as they come. She is going on a lot of dates and just enjoying herself right now. She gets tired of it sometimes, but is also feeling more confident and strong than she ever has before in her life. She figures she'll find what she needs eventually.

Snowy Egret has a boyfriend. He sounds really great.. almost too great. Almost kind of like Snowy Egret is making up a boyfriend to tell her friends about. Why would Snowy Egret do this? Maybe she is tired of questions about her relationship status. Or maybe it's something else. In any case there is some suspicion but no one is willing to ask her about it. Maybe we'll thrown some kind of party that he will have to come to if he's real.

Birds of Costa Rica: All the rest pt. 1

Hello blog fans. As some of you know, I went to Costa Rica this past winter and have been blogging my bird finds from there intermittently for the past months. But I never seem to run out, and every time I do the blog I have to think "should I do a Costa Rica bird again?" I'm tired of having all these birds hanging over my head like some kind of squawking sword of Damocles. They are a veritable albatross around my neck (of non albatross birds). Today we say No More. So between this week and next, we will be posting all the remaining birds of Costa Rica.

White-winged Dove (tórtola aliblanca)
Playa Conchal, Costa Rica
Member of the Dove Family
§A Bevy of Doves§

~true bird fact~ This bird feeds its chicks not with regurgitated foods, but with a special substance it produces in a gland in its throat called 'crop milk' (ew). They have to eat snails and bone shards to produce it (double ew). They are also super into cacti and will time their migrations to coincide with their fruiting.

An intrepid bird reporter

Great-tailed Grackle aka Mexican Grackle (zanate mexicano o clarinero)
Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Member of the Blackbird/Oriole Family
★Official Bird of Cartagena, Columbia★
 §A Cackle of Grackles§ (unverif.)

~real bird myth~ In Mexico there is a legend that it has seven songs. "In the creation, the Zanate having no voice, stole its seven distinct songs from the wise and knowing sea turtle. You can now hear the Zanate's vocals as the Seven Passions (Love, Hate, Fear, Courage, Joy, Sadness, and Anger) of life." Mexican artisans have created icons in clay, sometimes as whistles that portray the sea turtle with the Zanate perched on its back.


  A total goofball who loves messing around

Clay-colored Thrush aka. Clay-colored Robin (yigüirro)
Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Member of the Thrush Family
§A Worm of Robins§
★National Bird of Costa Rica★

~real bird myth~ The songs of the Yigüirro are said to start the rainy season in Costa Rican folklore, thus his important position in that country.

Inspires dignity in others

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

American Robin

American Robin

Member of the Thrush Family (unfortunate scientific name: Turdidae)

West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

*true bird fact*~ The American Robin is ever-present in our culture, and is one of the most widely spread and easily recognized land birds. He symbolizes the start of spring, mostly because he is one of the birds who lays his eggs earliest in the year. Furthermore, he has one of the most distinctive and well known bird songs, and his eggs are famously blue in color. The robin is super boring.

Pleasant enough

Is a blank slate that you can kind of project the qualities you want him to have onto him, which is sort of unhealthy, actually

Not troubled by 'the big questions' of life

Encountering one will lead to good luck in your upcoming romantic endeavors, but nobody's sure why