BIRDS

stormy petrels also altho they are almost too elusive and unlikely

SHIT BIRDS (British; incomplete)

geese
ducks EXCEPT mergansers and wigeons
mute swans
small gulls
owls when portrayed as cute
large raptors when portrayed as superior (ospreys have their moments for instance but r overly fetishised)
coots when there are too many of them and they are not being violent (violent coots r GREAT)
starlings (do not need to explain this)

So much wrongness, more later.

BIRDS THAT CAN BE GREAT DEPENDING ON MOOD

pigeons (esp wood)
woodpeckers
tits (esp crested)
the dunnock
the heron (esp in unexpected surrounds)
the moorhen
the kingfisher when not gratuitous
gamebirds when not in season
grebes when you haven't seen one for a while
gannets the first time you see them; see also auks - the black guillemot is a delightful species actually
fulmars when you haven't had an overload of shearwater stiffwingness
wrens when they're not being miserable skulkers

ok geese needs more of a breakdown. brent geese are cool.

Can't believe yr trying to troll me on ducks tbh.

wtf wrens are awesome whatever their mood

^

wrens are awesome when flitting around in full view and singing; not when they're dashing around the undergrowth and you can't see them

ducks are a bit played ime - the wilder, faster-flying ones are mad cool tho - <3 goosanders

oh shit, EIDERS ok eiders are also cool but they're seagoing ducks - much preferable on the whole

Smew, garganey, eider, long-tailed duck - all classics of the genre imo.

^^^all otm; feel ashamed now BUT I must stress those are ALL seagoing migratory sorts as per my amendation - actually thought of long-tailed ducks, add harlequins and goldeneyes too

Smew are actually fucking spectacular. Sorry, Smew. I was attacking your staid and pond-bound brethren.

Rolling my damn eiders here.

SHIT BIRDS

geese

you ever seen Fly Away Home, motherfucker?

haha I've caused a controversy :/

am just flinging ideas around tbh - will have made my peace with all the shit birds before and will do so again

red kites over oxfordshire = great btw

http://i47.tinypic.com/dnltu8.jpg

forgot you were A Bird Man aco, always found that charming abt u

SHIT BIRDS

geese

you ever read The Once and Future King, motherfucker?

as for non-migratory thrushes, the order of greatness is

mistle
(big gap)
ring ouzel
blackbird
song thrush
nightingale

ok whatever, take up thy goose and shit everywhere

geese are at their best when u r feeding them and u hit them on the back with a large piece of bread and it makes the most satisfying noise

lol

when i was a kid i was feeding ducks and a swan attacked me, v scary

SOmehow I read that as "Shit...birds..." like how a vulgar person like me says "shit" in reflex to the profound. All those birds are awesome, imo, I even like how starlings have fucked up America so much. "Like" meaning I appreciate all invasive species in an abstract way. ALso I think you need to see the owl movie in 3D. The climax is an owl flying around with a fire bucket while Dead Can Dance plays.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/2950725421_9cfd5fe4be.jpg

i still got a lot of love for the geese

after that owl movie came out i spent a few weeks just saying the phrase 'owls of ga'hoole.' at choice moments, something about it just cracks me up

I am p sure I ruined the movie for all the kids there by repressed-laughing like crazy through the whole thing.

Makes me feel like an ass but OTOH the owl kept making this face

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OuKIMUeA20M/S8Q8Zynpc0I/AAAAAAAAC_k/KyQTUx90QDg/s1600/gahoole-owl.jpg

While he made that face, he would say something like "That can't be," or "That's not right" or "We must get to the Guardians" in a fake Aussie voice.

abbott there are always exceptions!

residential swans are disgusting; the best ones are the migratory ones
some geese are dandy (the smaller ones and the Egyptian ones)
shelducks are mutant duck-geese and are v cool
owl movie will be watched with my kids in 13 years' time. owls are great but only when in their wild, elusive element - subtle birds, hunters. also, Kiwi accent not Aussie iirc

ok there IS one awesome small gull, the JUVENILE kittiwake

Actually made a giant detour w/ the family on Sunday explicitly to look for owls over the meadows, but we drew a blank and now they hate me 8>

The asshole of the bird world is the cassowary.

its great imagining the owls forging all those helmets and shit... a sword that has OWL OF GA'HOOLE engraved in it... u have to imagine 'gahoole' being said gahoooooooole like 'cooooookie crisp' btw'

http://www.moviedir.com/photos/movie-legend-of-the-guardians-the-owls-of-ga-hoole-hq-33883903-photo-10.jpg

traumaowl.jpg

hahahahaha

I think I must have had a traumatic duck/geese (or "geeck" as I just typed initially)feeding experience too because now it kind of scares me to death. Did it with my parents a last year and as soon as one of the ducks became a little too grabby and aggressive I spooked and ran clear across the street. I love birds in theory but irl they make me nervous.

hahaha traumaowl.jpg otm

http://i.pbase.com/o2/49/818749/1/118416236.wC5oDril.IMG_4888copy.jpg

sad that this bird will turn into a boring small gull in its adulthood :(

i hear owls all the time but can never find them with my eyes, except for one night when i pulled into the driveway and there was a huge fuckin owl perched on the mailbox

egyptian goose = fake goose

how about a good ol' bar headed

http://www.rampantscotland.com/colour/graphics/bar-headed_goose_hoggan05345a.jpg

The asshole of the bird world is the cassowary.

― Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 12:29 (48 seconds ago)

yes but they're much more interesting than anything larger

barnacle goose >> bar-headed if we're getting into specifics

Actually made a giant detour w/ the family on Sunday explicitly to look for owls over the meadows, but we drew a blank and now they hate me 8>

― Krampus Interruptus (NickB), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 12:28 (3 minutes ago)

harriers (as 'small falcons') are the best predatory birds for scouting over meadows, but if you see a long-eared I guess it is mad rewarding

i hear owls all the time but can never find them with my eyes, except for one night when i pulled into the driveway and there was a huge fuckin owl perched on the mailbox

― Princess TamTam, Tuesday, 30 November 2010 12:30 (2 minutes ago)

you see, this is AWESOME and how owls shd happen

Yeah, that sounds great.

Owls that we get hunting over the wet meadows here in the winter are barn owls and short-eared owls - shorties are a top bird and they don't really give a shit about you standing there watching them either.

I haven't seen any of those! I need to, I think.

Cormorants = very much a solid, unspectacular bird. Black redstarts = superb, belong on Great list

anyway yeah concentrate on the positives guys

parakeets yall

was thinking today what the cultural equiv of them was

sum 41, apparently

MIA

imported from SE Asia, gaudy, noisy, all over fucking London these days, rly irritating, kinda played

thought they were african or s/thing

wasn't including provenance in my calculation

thing about 'keets tho is they're huge, like as big as a crow but different shape and usually too high in trees to gauge their size

they're ring-necked parakeets, totally indian subcontinent dude read yr field guides

provenance is only an optional part of my comparison; it works pretty well even w/o factoring it in

they're quite small-bodied tttt, size accentuated by large head + lengthy although usually damaged tail (scuffles w/ pigeons, household cats, holly bushes)

The specific origin of the birds is not known, but they most likely came from a single pair of breeding parakeets which escaped or were released in the mid-1990s. Other origins have been attributed to them: the most popular idea being that they escaped from Ealing Studios, West London, during the filming of The African Queen (which was actually made in the Isleworth Studios) in 1951. Other theories are that they escaped from an aviary during a 1987 hurricane; or that a pair released by Jimi Hendrix in Carnaby Street, London, in the 1960s, are to blame.

if one must invoke corvids, then the magpie is most expedient control set - and a species whose tails are ruined with roughly equal regularity

but somehow for all their nest-raiding passerine-slaying cruelty, magpies are abt 5000x less cuntish than yr screeching herbivore wankers