A common site on a Midwest farm. The birds (doves) gather atop the domes on silos. Since I am not a birdbrain - I am not sure of their reasoning - but nature would say for safety or warmth.

Happy Mono Monday!

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Northern Mockingbirds live throughout the U.S. in both urban and rural environments. UF researchers recently discovered that these highly intelligent birds remember people who have threatened them in the past, and will attack if they see the same person again.

The Northern Mockingbird is one of the most iconic birds of the South. It is probably the bird that people see the most as they travel around in their everyday lives. It’s also the state bird of five states, one which is Florida.

It’s most famous of course because it’s a very vocal bird. They imitate the songs of at least 50 or 60 other species of Southern birds and they even mimic car horns and car alarms. But probably the reason why we see them most often is that they’re extremely aggressive. They attack almost anything they view as a threat including cats, including crows, hawks and even people. In fact, they really seem to take a particular dislike to some people; they attack them over and over again and seemingly ignore other people.

When we saw this we became curious about why it is they seem to really only dislike a certain number of us. So we decided to do an experiment when we were studying the Mockingbird nesting behavior. We divided up our students into two groups: one of whom would stand next to the nest and not touch it; and another group would stand next to the nest but actually touch the nest. We found that after a single trial the Mockingbird learned which humans were a threat and which ones weren’t, and they would start attacking the ones that touched the nest and they would ignore the ones that didn’t. They did this over and over again, and the more the students did this the stronger their reaction became, until eventually we found that they could even pick out the people who had touched the nest from a crowd of a hundred people. And they would ignore everyone else, go right for the person who had touched their nest, and it didn’t matter what clothes they were wearing, how they were wearing their hair, whether they were wearing a hat; they were obviously learning to recognize the face of these people.

We of course took this as one more line of evidence that birds are way, way more intelligent than we think. They have very small brains but those brains are really powerful, especially in things like this that really help them because these birds face a lot of predators. We think one of the reasons why they’re so common, they’re so successful, they do so well in urban environments, is they can learn very exactly who is a threat and who isn’t, even within predators. And in fact, this is one of the reasons why we think that being called a birdbrain is not an insult at all.

I found this one along Joe Overstreet Road in Osceola County, Florida.

The continuing story of Bobby the blackbird. As previously mentioned our lovely friendly blackbird is looking after his offspring well and will come to tell us at the window, when they need more food.

We have now taken to feeding him either at the back door, or on the side garden, as Billy the less confidant one seems to have an aggressive streak and chases poor Bobby.

Here's Ken, with his head chopped off, feeding Bobby who's caught in flight, with a mouthful of sultanas.

I've no idea where the name birdbrain came from, as this little character is so bright.

He now not only comes to the kitchen window ledge to see if we are there, he's taken to fluttering at the patio door, landing on an ornamental umbrella, just watching me on the computer. He then follows me around to the side of the house to be fed.

I had a bit of a fright this morning, having said there were no Magpies about, two appeared, along with some larger black Crows or Rooks.

Bobby seemed a little hesitant and waited a while before flying off.

I'm growing even fonder of my little friend, if thats possible :)

LUANE'S WORLD PHOTO CONTEST Spring 2021-

The Hereios at We’re Here! are photographing hybrids in art, folklore, mythology and culture today.

Entered in the Gérard / Pifou 2010 memorial HUMOR AND SMILES contest.

bird: "i just know this is my best egg ever. "

:)

(closer)

A couple of real birdbrains.👀I'm bad.

After a brief interlude about some trivia concerning wasting time, we are now back in full swing with our educational series on the attraction of peanuts to birds, all kinds of birds that is. Wait, that's not quite what this is about. We are documenting the communication among different bird species and how they observe and learn from each other. Here we are depicting the Red Breasted Nuthatch (herein after referred to simply as the Nuthatch) displaying his new found knowledge obtained from the Downy regarding the nutritional value of peanuts. It is interesting to note in this image that the Nuthatch (as does the Downy) has a technique that differs somewhat from those of the Blue Jays. Whereas Blue Jays simply pull out the whole peanut and then fly away with it and start to hammer the shell into oblivion, the Downy and the Nuthatch leave the peanut in place and peck a hole in the shell and simply retrieve the contents of the peanut. Different, yet highly effective. Not only have they learned from the Blue Jays, they have developed a technique of their own playing to their evolutionary strengths. Brilliant. Call someone a birdbrain again and all you are doing is paying them a compliment. Perhaps better call them a vegetable. And that of course brings us to Frank Zappa and Call any Vegetable.

Call any Vegetable - Frank Zappa

Warning: some swearing does occur towards the end of the song. Get your little ones out of the room.

Nate’s gift

Hurricane Nate’s arrival along the gulf coast in early October was a curse to so many, including this Blue heron. Finding this large fish washed up on the beach must of felt like a blessing. Instead it proved to be the equivalent in the human world of beating your head against a wall.

For forty or more minutes I observed and photographed this fellow trying everything that his little birdbrain could come up with to get that fish into its belly. And yes I did my best “Fat Bastard” /Austin Powers character impression “Get into my belly” out loud several times as it struggled! On several occasions it would stand on the fishes tail and quickly attempt to push its mouth over the fish, only to find its bill deeply imbedded in the sand. Over and over with no noticeable movement of the fish past the corners of its beak, I finally moved on to other subjects.

I hope he didn’t starve to death while holding out for a feast!

Double exposure of late winter-blooming witch hazel outside the Climatron and tropical plants inside. This cardinal used an open ventilation window to take a winter vacation.

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Siri, play “Youth of America” by Birdbrain.

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I think we all have been there. In a stand up meeting with a bunch of Bird Brains. Great blue Herons. Central Bucks PA.

I didn't notice the bird "perched" on his head until I uploaded to my computer, was pleasantly surprised

I wonder what was on this birdbrain's mind, beside eating.

The young Pacific Gull soared nearly overhead, clutching a sea urchin in its beak. It ventured deeper into the bay, seemingly in search of the perfect spot to alight and consume its prize on the rocks uncovered by the exceptionally low tide... but (see the next photo Birdbrain II)

... but not interested at this moment.

This greater roadrunner is certainly no birdbrain. Note how (s)he (could be either) is standing just a couple of steps in the shade, just outside the blazing sun that brought a 100°+ temperature to Arizona's Sonoran Desert.

Seen from the visitor center in Saguaro National Park's Rincon Mountain District.

Sometimes I am bowled over by a bird's abilitiy to find food in - to me at least - the most surprising places.

Here a carrion crow took off from a muddy bank beside a shallow lake; hovered for a second; dropped ankle deep into the water; and then surfaced pulling an enormous freshwater mussel from the mud.

Red Deer hind with Jackdaw

This thoughtful birdbrain forgot to wipe it's bill before posing for the Foto

Since I refuse to go outside and be cold (and seriously, it's not even that cold where I live!) I'm experimenting with more self-portraits. I'm sort of unsure about this one - I combined my SP with a picture I took of some sea gulls last summer, and this is what I came up with. I'm not totally sure that I like it, but I did have fun playing in photoshop this morning!

One thing is for sure - this shot is pretty darn cliche! Weird crop, bird sillhouettes, and the somewhat high-key processing make for a cliche trifecta! What can I say? There isn't an original thought in my head!

HCS!

Seen in Southport's Hesketh Park and had more sense than the heatwave subathers.

I don't know what he was thinking but he's surely a bird brain.

One from the archives for an awful day.

Excerpt from brainproject.ca:

Bird Brain

Which came first, the chicken or the idea?

(When events go south, the birdbrain steps in to lead from the front)

*FFWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

....okay, jet afterburners don't atomize people. Not this one. There should be a crispy edgelord in that giant scortchmark. Wait, his ax was right there, where is---

*SSHHKTKTKK*

Found it.....

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They sure have some odd looking birds down by the coast. I captured this one just as it spotted me and was about to fly away. I think it may be a Black-capped Cuckoo.

Sorry folks, I guess I just have to lapse into silliness once in a while. :-)

Done for Our Daily Challenge: Wings; and for Sliders Sunday

HSS, everyone!

The We're Here! gang is balancing ducks today!

You'll find the story of the crocheted ducks here.

Bird in Flight

I believe this guy is a senior at the University Of Rochester. This is the fourth year he has been on campus.

Never leave the house without your Fiamengo

National Aviary Trainer

*K-BANG*

CI: "G-get away from him!"

"Grraaghh!!"

*K-BANG*

CI: ".....oh god.....A-Adam! Adam!! Stay with me, help's coming! Adam! Adam!!!....."

Cedar Waxwings, off to another tree, for a minute or two. Then they go back again. Birdbrains.

"Dunno where I'd be without you, Billy."

BR: "Mildly inconvenienced. Not like you can't find another guy to paint your stuff."

"Everyone else isn't satisfied with a 20-pound bag of coffee beans."

BR: "Fair enough. Gotta ask, though. Why did you want your....what did I just paint?"

"The heavy lift VTOL."

BR: "Yeah, that. Why did you want it flesh colored?"

"Flesh? That's just yellow."

BR: "...nah, this is flesh."

"Looks like yellow to me."

BR: "Pretty sure it's flesh, man."

"You fucking with me?...."

BR: "Seriously, look. It's fle---"

CI: "Guys?...."

"What's going on--how did you find that?"

CI: "I was gonna ask you the same thing."

"Give it! Thing's sharp as shit..."

CI: "Seriously, where'd you get it?"

"Literally in a dumpster out back. Get this, though. It was literally embedded in the bottom of the dumpster. The big, metal dumpster. Was right in it."

BR: "Getting some serious Deja Vu looking at it."

CI: "Yeah, think I've seen it before, too...."

"Whatever it's from, whoever it's from, probably did some serious shit with it. Looks cool, though!"

CI: "What's with the holes?"

"Does more damage."

BR: "For real?"

"Hold still, Billy. I'll show you."

BR: "Fuck off."

"........."

“Some people call me a birdbrain. What a great compliment!”

This Blythe doll is Suri Sustainable posing for “Birds” in Blythe a Day on Flickr. The background is the poster that came with a jigsaw puzzle that I got for Christmas (I haven’t made the puzzle yet, but the poster was great for this picture). The painting she is working on was done by my daughter.

"HRRAAAAAGGHH!!!!!"

BR: "What the---?!"

"OH SHI---"

CI: "AAAGGHH!!"

BR: "Shit, shit! Run!!"

"Wait, I know you!"

"Grraaagghh....."

Calling toddkeith533, Jim Frazier, and Catherine Sienko !

Here's the story behind this shot.

It was about 6:30 last night, we were at home and had the front door open since it wasn't too cool yet. NIccy was in the kitchen and says "Wow, did you hear that bird"? I didn't have my hearing aids in and even with them I probably wouldn't have heard it so I said No, what bird? She says some bird outside so I open the door to have a look.

This fellow was sitting on the road across from the house, not moving at all. I went back in and told her to come have a look, then went back out.

When I went back out this fellow was doing some kind of a wild hop and that's when the pigeon he'd snagged for dinner decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge and took off. After his dinner had flown the coop he was just sitting there making a kind of loud cheep and looking around, probably wondering where his meal had gotten off to.

I ran back in the house and grabbed the camera, thought I might get a shot. I had my telephoto lens on without my external flash, didn't want to spook him before I got a chance to hit the shutter so I moved in as close as I dared and zoomed. Put it in P Mode, popped the onboard flash up and fired away. This is what I came up with.

Anyhow, the whole reason for posting this is to ask the bird folks what kind of bird this is. I was thinking it might be a Harris Hawk, kind of looked like one of the beautiful shots that Catherine Sienko has posted recently but I'm not a birder so I'm not sure.

I\'m actually kind of glad to see him/her in the neighborhood, maybe he/she will clean out some of the flying rats that my neighbor likes to feed.