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Our feathered friends, birdbrains, and wingnuts

@bellbird My cockatiel has that same toy!!!!!
No way!!!

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Alright, so question for the group.
I noticed folks above talking about blue jays. With the kind of "oh, it's another blue jay" type of vibe.
But I was like woaaaah, cool, a blue jay.

So.
What are the kinds of birds that you wouldn't be surprised if you saw in your environment on an average day?
And what kinds of birds sometimes appear in your environment, where you're like wow cool I saw an X today?

Thought it'd be interesting to see how our environmental feathered friends vary across the world :)

I'll go first.
Everyday birbs: sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, magpies, pigeons, thrushes, chaffinches, gold finches, green finches, ducks, geese, swans, shags, swallows, pīwakawaka (fantails), tui, waxeyes

"Woah" birbs: bellbirds ;) , kereru (NZ pigeon... google it- they look like they're wearing an apron :D ), kārearea (NZ falcon), grey warbler
 
The birds I share space with - Crows, Bald Eagles, Blue Herons, Cormorants, Stellars Jays, Flickers, Anna’s Humming Birds, Sparrows, Finches, Starlings, Robins, Mallards, Loons, Canadian Geese, Sea Gulls, Barred & Spotted owls.

The birds I’m like “What Storm did you ride in on, darlin?” Or “Fires pushing you out?” depending on whether they live beyond the mountains on the plains, or South by Southwest in the deserts and canyons- Golden Eagles, Red Tailed Hawks, Kestrels, Falcons, Ravens, Ruby Throated Humming Birds, Condor, Pelican.
 
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All the birds are cool in North America :P buuuuuuut

Everyday birds: blackbirds, Turkey vultures, song sparrows, ducks, quails, turkeys, blue jays, yellow finch, other finches, rose breasted grosbeak, cardinals, robins (but when they come back in the spring it’s exciting because it means spring is officially here!!), warblers, tufted tits (one of my faves!!), Carolina wren (one time one snuck into our house, that was a neat day), chickadees, chimney swifts/flying cigars, geese,

Whoa birds!!!!: black headed vultures, Eastern bluebird, kingfishers, cranes (all breeds, but there are some really cool rare ones!), woodchuck, all owls, mocking birds!!!!, brown thrashers (my favorite species of the mockingbird line, but it’s not THE mockingbird), grebes (catching a mates pair dancing together = a great day), hummingbirds (all siecies), hawks, falcons,

I left commas because I know I’m leaving some out. I saw a hundred species of bird in one week when I went to Belize!!! Much fewer in Iceland, but I did see Puffins and skua among several other birds! But yeah, Belize has way more birds than here, but I live in the state of the US with the most biodiversity, so there’s still a lot of birds :) which is great, because who doesn’t love birds!!
 
Right across the street from me, and W-A-Y up in the air in a tree is a a perch at the top of said tree. Hardly a day goes by when I don't see a bird perched way up there. Yesterday I saw a falcon up there. I could tell by its silouette. It was raining and it fanned its tail and was taking a shower, I presume! I was so awed watching it. I did not see a mate anywhere though.

Our common birds around here are: cardinals, crows, robins (in season) mockingbirds, humming birds (in season), sparrows, black birds,

Wow birds are Falcons, owls, bluebirds, turkeys, large soaring birds way up in the sky, Baltimore Oriels,

I know I missed some!
 
Tweeter was a good birb this year and got some broccoli (one of his favourites) from Santa.
20181225_125045.jpg
 
I think I saw a drenched owl sitting on a power line this morning. All I could see was the poor fellow's shape there, but he looked pathetic. We have had rain for weeks now, there is flooding all over the place, some roads are even closed, so I was told today. So, this poor owl is just one of the many casualties. He just sat there, unmoving, I think maybe kind of dazed. I felt so bad for him!
 
A friend bought me a wild-bird feeder set for belated Christmas!
I never knew bird truffles were a thing :eek:

Hopefully it will attract lots of wild feathered friends to my garden! And some new friends for Tweeter to chat to.
He's already learnt how to speak sparrow ?
20190104_121425.jpg
 
I saw a cardinal in a tree about 150 feet away from me and he was very visible. I felt like I was a lot closer to him than I was. He just sat there for about 5 minutes and I was in love with him, he was so beautiful. I did not have my phone or my camera, sigh....
 
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