Horned Grebe

Horned Grebe aka. Slavonian Grebe (foreign)
Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland, California, USA
April 2019
Member of the Grebe Family
§A Waterdance of Grebes§

~true bird fact~ These Grebes swallow their own feathers in order to create a 'plug' in their stomach, which helps them filter out fish bones and other harder to digest materials. Parent Grebes will even feed their young these feathers, to get this system going earlier. Makes you wonder why we humans don't eat feathers.

 ~real bird legend~ According to the Blackfoot Native tribe, the Horned Grebe is always the first to spot danger. This is because the Old Man trickster fooled a bunch of ducks into dancing for him with their eyes closed. In this state he was able to bonk them on the head and kill them, but this Grebe, the smallest of the ducks present, peeked, and was able to escape and sound the alarm. This is also how he got his red eyes.

How Endangered Are They? Well, let's start with the good news- there are a lot of these Grebes still remaining- somewhere between 200 and 500,000. Another item to be optimistic about- they have a pretty global distribution living all across North America and Eurasia. However, these birds are going fast. Within the last 30 years, their global numbers have declined by 30%. The picture is much worse in North America where the declined is a much steeped 79%.  The reason? All the usual stuff, all our fault. Climate change, human disturbance of breeding habitat, the destruction of wetlands, and oil spills. We've even messed up their food supply of aquatic insects by introducing Rainbow Trout into bodies of water for fishing purposes. These birds are really getting it from every angle, sadly. My hope is that having survived the machinations of the trickster god, the Horned Grebes can survive us too.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Yellow-headed Blackbird
Woodland Water Pollution Control Facility, Woodland, California, USA
April 2019
Member of the Blackbird Family
§A Cloud of Blackbirds§
★The Worst Song of Any North American Bird(?)★ Described in my various sources as "a strange mixture of honking, gurgling and strangling noises", "a rusty farm gate opening", "hoarse, harsh scraping", and "bizarre grinding", there seems to be broad agreement that it's pretty bad. Judge for yourself here.

~true bird fact~ Yellow-headed Blackbirds have an interesting way of foraging en-masse. Birds from the back will always fly first, 'rotating' to the front, which gives the flock the appearance of rolling across a landscape. Very aesthetic, and very fair.


Quick to make friends
Talks about the memes he likes, loudly and publically
Has an explanation for everything, even if that explanation doesn't really make sense. At least you know he's thought about it.

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.