siiky
2024/10/24
2024/10/24
en
There are birds in just about every place of the world, including cities, including urban areas of those cities. They're likely to be the most common vertebrates after dogs and cats -- maybe even before -- that won't disgust just about anyone for looking at or thinking of. I would say they're more relatable than mice and rats to most people (these fit into the "disgusts for looking at or thinking of" category for everyone I know). And they're not pets! Birds are probably the most common wild animal in cities, in and out of parks, which makes them easy to look for when going about your business.
That is one reason. Another is there are a few ways to appreciate them, at least three: the looks, the singing, and the behavior.
Most adults are cute and/or good-looking:
Grallaricula lineifrons -- cute
Cyanocitta cristata -- cute and good-looking
(I can imagine that kingfisher in one of those ads where the person comes out of the water combing their hair with their hands)
I probably don't need to say much about the singing, birds are known for it, it's usually the reason for appearing in movies. One of the most common birds worldwide, appropriately named "common blackbird", is a really good singer to have an ear out for. Not all birds make sounds that our ears appreciate, some are just weird, like scifi effects, which doesn't stop our brain to appreciate in the ears' stead: many are capable of immiating others, such as spotless starlings immitating blackbirds, and even other arbitrary sounds that surround them, such as the lyrebird immitating a chainsaw and a camera shutter.
Common blackbird (Turdus Merula)
Spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor)
Lyrebird (Menura alberti, or Menura novaehollandiae)
How Birds Sing (and how it's different from us)
The first time I encountered a spotless startling it was immitating a blackbird. It sure fooled me for minutes until I saw its glossy shine (blackbirds are matte black), only found what it was several days later.
It may be unexpected for some to learn that different birds have different "personalities", though it's true (see the next photo). Blackbirds are suspicious, and run Naruto-style; sparrows (Passer domesticus) are cheeky, and do tiny hops instead of running; wagtails (Motacilla alba) are cautions but sassy, and run like the Roadrunner from Looney Tunes. If you start paying attention you'll definitely start to see patterns. Pigeons are not particularly interesting to look at IMO, because they're so common, but their mating dances are really funny to see.
To see and hear some birds without leaving your couch, try these sites. Especially ebird at first because it has a set of curated high-quality photos (usually categorized as adult/juvenile male/female) and sound recordings (usually categorized as song/call).
Motacilla alba (Wikimedia Commons)
To help identify and learn more about birds you see or hear near you, try Merlin
Haven't used the visual identification much, but the sound identification is pretty good, it's where I learned the sound of some new birds:
Black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)
European robin (Erithacus rubecula)
European serin (Serinus serinus)
If nothing else, take a few moments to appreciate how really fucking good swifts and swallows are at flying, they kick anyone's ass in their sleep (actually true for swifts: they don't stop during migrations and sleep in the air).
How exactly do swallows sleep on the wing?
Finally, another reason I find them cool is that they're so well "engineered". All birds are super light -- obviously necessary to fly -- but take the bald eagle as an example. If you've never seen one in person, I tell you, they're huge: 70-102cm in length according to Wikipedia, their body is a significant chunk of meat. Yet, they weigh only around 5kg. A dog or cat of that size would be 4-5x that at the very least!
