Tricolored Blackbird

Tricolored Blackbird
Vanden Road, Vacaville, California, USA
April 2019
Member of the Blackbird Family
§A Merl of Blackbirds§
★North America's Most Colonial Landbird★ (see below to find out what that means)

~true bird fact~ To encourage their fledglings to leave the nest, parents will arrive with food, but then, instead of feeding the babies, immediately fly off again. This encourages the young to follow. Good parenting? Bad parenting? Sound off in the comments.

Sings badly, but enthusiastically
Can say something off the cuff that just sounds like a well known quote
Pays attention to keeping their white patch looking really white. If it were mine it would probably have a stain on it in seconds. How do they do it?



How Endangered Are They? Classified as 'Threatened' by the IUCN (that's the middle one). There's a lot of disagreement on how many of these nice birds there are now, but everyone seems to agree they're in quite a lot of danger. In my research, I saw numbers between 145,000 and 300,00, depending what year and who was estimating, and everyone seems to think numbers are still declining pretty precipitously. A significant loss, regardless, for a bird that used to number in the millions. Why so endangered? Well, like many birds that have been wiped out (think Passenger Pigeons), they are colonial breeders- meaning that their breeding colonies are relatively few, but in extremely high numbers. Descriptions exist of million-bird flocks. This kind of breeding helped protect colonies from predation. However, now that the marshy habitat they breed in is so regularly lost to development, there are few places that can support such great numbers of birds. The group I observed was probably less than a hundred. Many of the few places that would support them are farm land, which get harvested regularly, leading to massive causalities. Combine this with their small range (they are basically only in California's central valley), and you have a recipe for disaster. Still, many people are trying to save them. They're a 'priority bird' for the Audubon society, and they have their own webpage and conservation program over at UC Davis. Let's all cross our fingers that we can get it together for the Tricolored Blackbirds

For comparison purposes, this is a Red-winged Blackbird, a close relative. They flock together with Tricoloreds and sometimes these guys even have yellow epaulets to make you even more confused. You're looking for bright white. Also, their call is much different.

Our Planet, your .gifs pt.2

Welcome back .gif fans, we're coming to you today with, by popular demand, more! bird! .gifs! This is another batch from smash nature doc success, Our Planet. A few days ago it was Sir David Attenborough's 93rd birthday, so this one's for him. A international treasure, is what that man is. You know the deal, I'll show you some cool bird .gifs, and then make some suggestions for when you might use them. For example, the above .gif of Socotran Cormorants could be used whenever the sky is filled with birds, or when you're starting a bird blog.

Use this .gif of Gentoo Penguins when: You're feeling very free, i.e. you've just gotten out of work and are cruising into the weekend.

Use this .gif of Lesser Flamingo chicks when: You are overwhelmed by large groups of children (Mall Santa day, Disneyland). Alternative use: Standing out from a crowd of people all doing one unusual thing (Santa Con, Anime Convention).

Use this .gif of an Osprey when: dinner is ready/your table is called to be seated at a restaurant. Especially if you are hungry.

Use this .gif of a Wandering Albatross when: you "Nailed it". Very relatable, use for any clumsy embarrassment or social faux pas.

Use this .gif of King Penguins: When a very desirable sale begins. Also useful for dealing with a traffic jam.

Use this .gif of a Kingfisher when: You know you've made an extremely stylish and big entrance. Also usable for when you want to leave with a dramatic flourish

Use this .gif of a baby King Penguin when: your kids are whining for some stupid new toy you have to buy them i.e. a beyblade. Alternative use: when you're kind of freaking out.

Use this .gif of an adolescent Philippine Eagle when: you want to say "I don't know, what do you want to do?" Alternatively, any kind of "maaaaaybe..."

Whew, I'm exhausted from all these .gifs- make sure to check out last month's blog for more, though, if you're not. You probably are though, they take a lot out of you.

Snow Goose

Snow Goose
Richmond Marina, Richmond, California, USA
January 2019
Member of the Ducks, Geese, and Swans Family
§A String of Geese§

~true bird fact~ A canny, tough goose to be reckoned with. Well known for their long migratory flights to and from the arctic, these geese are also no joke on foot, where they can outrun most of their predators. Even the baby geese might walk 50 miles in a day to find better nesting ground. And those babies? Largely safe, because the geese prefer to nest near Snowy Owls and Rough-legged Hawks, which prey on their main predators, Arctic Foxes.

Cross this goose at your own peril
A well developed sense of honor
Hardened by battle, prepared for the long winter to come



How Endangered Are They? Not endangered at all, I'm happy to say. But they were, at one point, quite endangered. At one point in the 1900's there were only 2000 birds or so left alive, mostly due to hunting. However strong conservation laws were enacted, and they recovered. Maybe a little too well.
Now there are 5 million of these bad boys, and their population is growing by 5 percent a year. There's so many of them that they're actually sort of damaging the habitat of other animals now in the tundra. New, less restrictive hunting laws have done little to slow their growth, probably because a lot of land that used to be forest is now goose-friendly farmland. Oopsa doopsa, we messed up again, but good for the Snow Goose I guess. I welcome out new Goose overlords.

Our Planet, your .gifs pt.1

Oh Hi Bird Fans! I didn't see you come in. I was just sitting here, making some beautiful .gifs from Our Planet, the Netflix nature doc taking the world by storm. I was inspired by all the amazing bird action, and of course, by the friendly presence of one D. Attenborough, who we are... acquainted with. It's a great series, I highly recommend it. Alright, see you later! Oh.. wait, you're right, it WOULD make sense for me to share these great .gifs I made with you, along with some suggestions about when you might want to use them. Today we'll be focusing on the colorful manakins and birds of paradise from the first episode and the Jungles episode respectively, because, folks, there's a lot there.

Use this .gif (above) or a Red-capped Manakin: When you want to indicate that a humorous, sudden entrance has been made. Maybe replace your Kramer-from-Seinfeld sliding into the room .gif because Seinfeld hasn't been on TV for a million years, and Kramer is super cancelled.

Use this .gif of a Black Sicklebill: to indicate a stretch or yoga pose (ex. I'm going to yoga after work [insert .gif here])

Alternate .gif use: "Weird flex, but ok"

Use this .gif of a Golden-collared Manakin: For athletic triumph, or when talking about parkour

Use this .gif of a Western Parotia for: #relationshipgoals 

Use this .gif: When you've gotta flip it on them aka. go flip-mode

Use this .gif: When you're backing out of a situation. Perhaps a twitter thread or slack chat has taken a conversational turn that you are uncomfortable with, or, more literally, you are leaving a social gathering quickly and awkwardly.

Use this .gif: When you're really impressed by your look, you want to show off.

Use this .gif of Blue Manakins: when someone asks you how online dating is going
Alternate usage: when being mansplained-to on Twitter

For more great bird .gifs, click here, and for more Attenborough action (Actionborough?) try this. And watch the series on Netflix! We'll be back in a bit with more great .gifs