BIRDS

Yeah, I'm getting confused - when we were talking about american Robins being Thrushes I thought - european thrushes but I see now (having gone to wiki - d'oh) that it's a whole different thing. and quite groovy looking.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Turdus-migratorius-002.jpg/200px-Turdus-migratorius-002.jpg

Yeah, they're smart looking fellers aren't they? Colourwise they're kind of a composite of the body of a song thrush, head of a blackbird, breast of a robin. Every now and again, one will get blown over the Atlantic by a storm and will turn up in a garden somewhere for a few days. Lords knows what happens to them after that.

So to sum up...(to get it clear in my tiny brain)

European Robin (with eggs)
http://www.taxidermy4cash.com/tonyrobinnest.jpg

American Robin (see above)

European Thrush
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Song_thrush.jpg/250px-Song_thrush.jpg
and eggs
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Three_Song_Thrush_(Turdus_philomelos)_eggs.jpg/180px-Three_Song_Thrush_(Turdus_philomelos)_eggs.jpg

I like the way that those robins painted a picture of a church in their spare time.

They seem to have rigged up an electricity for the nest as well

Oh, they're clever.

with all the topics on ILX that turn into US/UK comparison threads, I'd still never have guessed "robins" was one of them

the poster responsible...less of a surprise

I retract "silly", although I maintain that calling it a robin is a big fat misnomer

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/condor/images/condor119.jpg

we see your fancy britishes robin and raise you a california condor

my backyard in SF is populated by Anna's hummingbirds:
http://www.comoxvalleynaturalist.bc.ca/assets/images/birds/annas_hummingbird_m.jpg

and Stellar's Jays:
http://www.governmentcaucus.bc.ca/media/Stellar%27s-Jay_225.jpg

and occasionally the fearsome Common Raven, western:
http://tompawlesh.smugmug.com/photos/225724675_Zc65L-M.jpg

these guys actually scare me. they're big as fucking gulls, and i'm used to crows.

I retract "silly", although I maintain that calling it a robin is a big fat misnomer

― sorry for british (country matters), Monday, 11 May 2009 11:55 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I spent most of this winter complaining about these texas-sized robin imposters. Turdus Migratorius indeed.

Genus Erithacus or nothing, mate. Red breasted bastard thrush.

My dad had a big, barrel-shaped barbeque grill used for smoking meats. It had a little chimney with a latch that could open or close access to it. My dad had left it open and some robins built a nest in it. My dad wanted to remove the nest so he could cook on it, but naturally his three daughters greeted this with protests and tears. This debate happened every few days until the birds left the nest.

british robins are very territorial and will fight to the death to protect their territory.

The national aviary here in pittsburgh one of these

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/128223385_cb9f040e60.jpg?v=0

a pygmy falcon, which would probably loose in a fight with an territorially aggrieved robin.

omg such conflicting and confused thoughts about that bird

They have one of these too

http://whyfiles.org/shorties/180chickadee/images/pygmy_owl.jpg

For a so-called national aviary it is very small, I think someone built the national aviary of Liechtenstein here. They have a sloth as well which is rather delightful but not strictly a bird.

Is that a pygmy owl? I know such a breed exists.

Ah, so it is. URLs are so helpful.

There are several breeds, I really want to got to the dessert to see the cactus dwelling ones

http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper997/stills/hdyogypb.jpg
http://www.swca.com/projects/project_images/6647_1.jpg
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/images/POCactus.jpg

That Condor is more goth than Bimble.

Bimble needs to up his game and start wearing some identification tags around his arms imo

I know I put this somewhere else but I'm very pleased with it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3559/3303372099_ec2f10dc34.jpg
A Partridge On My Patio.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/graphics/seagull.gif

british robins are very territorial and will fight to the death to protect their territory.

but not their good names, apparently

i like how their brazen hardness is perceived as cuteness.

i like to get on with birds
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carljgodwin/2707309584/"; title="Hello there! by carljgodwin, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/2707309584_ca294bb2ca.jpg"; width="333" height="500" alt="Hello there!" /></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carljgodwin/2707319866/"; title="At one with nature... by carljgodwin, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2707319866_973405e1c8.jpg"; width="500" height="333" alt="At one with nature..." /></a>
what are these btw?

nooooo!
i like to get on with birds
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/2707309584_ca294bb2ca.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2707319866_973405e1c8.jpg
what are these btw?

thats better

choughs

coastal members of the crow famly, tend to nest on cliffs, i think they might be the official bird of cornwall or wales or some shit

there's a little robin redbreast that is in my garden everyday. He perches on top of the same seat and shits on it.

i was in Austria at the time.

oh shit they might be Alpine Choughs then! Actually, given the colour of their beaks, I'd say that's exactly what they are. My bad.

Argh I can't believe I made such an elemental error

Don't be angry with yourself, at least you know what they are.

Different beaks. But damn it you were close enough!

xp

now all you gotta do is pronouce em correctly

crows are bastards

now all you gotta do is pronouce em correctly

Featherstonehaugh-Cholmondeley

crows and gulls are the kings of birds imo, theyre just harder, cleverer, more resourceful and more straight-up aware of their surroundings than the sweet innocents of the avian world

and crows, on top of this, are passeridae, the more advanced and sophisticated half of the phylum...it's everything in one package: brilliant flying skills, advanced social interaction, improvised eating routines, fearless predation

Dunno if you've seen them in the wild LJ, but choughs in particular are amazingly agile flyers and so at home too in the windiest and wildest of places. Awesome critters.

you dare doubt the lengths this not-quite-recovered ornithologist would go to to see a chough? pfah!

anyway, yeah, when we went to Wales and scouted out Skomer Island that one time, choughs aplenty cavorted by the cliffs. this was approximately 2 weeks before the sea empress disaster fwiw

Ooooh, never been to Skomer. Gonna wait till the kids are a bit older and then take them birding up there to see da puffinks. This year's plan is to show them OWLS. Failed miserably to manage this last year though.

was a grey wagtail in the park this morning - i see him about twice a year

I think grey wagtails ought to lobby parliament for a name change. They've definitely been short-changed there.