Birds

IdleRich

IdleRich
How do we know they shared the rings with "no promise of reward"? If we spoke parrot we would probably hear them saying that vig is ten percent and if he don't get it next week he's gonna come round break his wings. I mean, are we seriously expected to believe that a creature that smart could be a commie?
 

william_kent

Well-known member
How do we know they shared the rings with "no promise of reward"? If we spoke parrot we would probably hear them saying that vig is ten percent and if he don't get it next week he's gonna come round break his wings. I mean, are we seriously expected to believe that a creature that smart could be a commie?

the little cage thing in the video has a transparent plexiglass cover - it has been suggested that maybe the parrots are trying to impress the investigator who is feeding them tidbits as the human would be totally visible...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
It is totally amazing though. Just for comparison I was thinking about my cats. I don't think they could ever grasp the concept of swapping the rings for food... these birds not only understanding that but then choosing to pass them to their mates... truly, mind blown!
 

mvuent

Void Dweller

"The last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō was male, and his song was recorded for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The male was recorded singing a mating call, to a female that would never come. He died in 1987."

"Holy fuck, the longer it goes, the sadder he starts to sound, it's like it's losing hope, god damn it all."

"The sadder thing is, after the bird flew away, the cameraman played it again to hear his voice. The bird turned back, thinking there was another one...."
 

jenks

thread death
Bumped into this guy on my ride the other day - a marsh hawk - he works with it in the city, scaring pigeons away from office blocks etc.
 

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IdleRich

IdleRich
Do you get hummingbirds in Portugal? I was sat on our third floor balcony at about 6.30am having a cigarette before bed when a small and kinda drab (as far as I could tell in this dawn light) bird flew up & hovered by one of our flower boxes. I don't think I've ever seen a bird just hover in one place like that before (well, kestrels and I think either hen or marsh harriers do something sort of similar but they don't do it by flowers and on my balcony). It was close and I don't think it had seen me cos I was sitting so still in the corner, I was gonna try a photo but it moved off, then hovered again nearby. Then it flew right off and I realised that the cat had sneaked on to the balcony and was looking at it quite carefully, most likely what helped it decide to disappear.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Discovered today that there is a birds nest in the stone of our house.

I think they are blackbirds.

I'll try a better photo but they are fast.

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Quite nice to see them dip in and out.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
These beauties turned up in our local park for the first time in the first covid lockdown and they're established now it seems, was watching one from a couple of metres away pecking a hole in a tree the other day for about 10 minutes.

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Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Loads of exotic birds where I live, most of them have in invaded in the last few years and they're having to cull them. They everywhere here! I like them but they're noisy as fuck.
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IdleRich

IdleRich
Yesterday we were eating lunch and a sparrow hawk (I think) flew through the garden and landed on the fence a few metres from us.
Now sitting in bedroom watching kites circling… not cos I'm gonna die or anything, that's just what they do.
 
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Leo

Well-known member
Was eating breakfast on an outdoor terrace at a hotel in Arizona once. A guy at a nearby table got up to get something and a big black bird, maybe a crow, swooped down to the table, poked around his plate, pick up a slice of toast in its beak and flew off. Hilarious, both watching it happen and a minute later to see the guy’s expression when he returned.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
I see loads of Kingfishers when fishing. Robins come round for maggots. Crows occasionally, very intelligent birds. My favourite are probably the common and humble Blackbird. They have a distinctive 'Birdy Birdy' call that I look forward to hearing again in the new year, as they've shut up shop for winter. Then there is the Stork with it's Techno sounding call, never seen one mind, or a Cuckoo.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
Cormorants are a very gothic looking bird, the way they perch with their wings spread. I was fishing and saw one, not something I like to see as they can decimate a lake of fish, catching and eating loads of big ones, but a couple of birdwatchers were enthusing about how great it was to see. They're a sea bird!
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
On the way to Porto and go through an area filled with storks. Every pylon for several miles is strewn with nests and there are even some by the side of the road

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Took some pics of the pylons but they are miles away and blurred

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The basic point is, there are fucking millions of fucking massive birds - for a bit, then nothing again.
 
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