All I really want this week is my favorite birding spot back. For the past couple years I’ve enjoyed going down to the riverside of the St. Joe on IPFW’s campus (that’s Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne) and observing the waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls, and songbirds that live in the mixed habitat there. There’s a wooded [...]

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You probably know that starlings can form huge flocks (I’ve had a few moderately sized ones descend on my backyard before), but the spectacle of some of the larger ones is otherworldly:

The phenomenon is so impressive and seasonably reliable in southwestern Denmark that they have a name for it: sorta sol, or “black sun”. It’s [...]

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Is living in sin or being a lesbian an Amazing Thing? I think so, if you’re a Greylag goose or a Roseate tern:

Same-sex parenting in birds

I don’t know the precise word for what Greylags do; polyandry usually means that the female mates with both males, which isn’t the case here. And I’m a [...]

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Waffles started a good thing with WANT Wednesdays. I’d like to join in and point out that it would be awful nice to have a goose:

Valentino is a domestic breed, so I don’t think they’re running… afoul… of any wildlife protection laws by keeping her. (The wild Swan Goose is the other species, besides the [...]

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Last week we had a bird that can dance. This week, how about one that’s mastered interior decoration and landscaping?
Ornithology – David Attenborough – “The Bowerbird”

I really, really love bowerbirds. Their display behavior is a fascinating example of sexual selection, and their capacity to make individual aesthetic choices raises intriguing philosophical questions. [...]

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Butter got me this awesome birdhouse bird feeder (Thanks, Butter!) for my housewarming after I moved into a new fancy place. And — lo and behold — there is a hook right there for it! I’ll keep you informed on if any birds actually visit it. Maybe we can hold bird identification contests. You in, [...]

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Here’s this week’s Bird Doing an Amazing Thing:
calopsita bate o pé

Now, there are some particular things about his performance that merit attention, although it’s vital to add the caveat that we have no information on what sort of training or conditioning led to this behavior. First is the impeccable sense of rhythm, and second is [...]

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For today’s music, let’s have something that’s pure sprightly fun, and has birds. This is Papageno’s first aria, “Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja”, from W.A. Mozart’s 1791 opera Die Zauberflöte (Eng.: “The Birdcatcher am I”, from The Magic Flute):

(You’ll want to watch it full-screen, since the capture quality isn’t terribly great.) Papageno is here played [...]

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