#birds of canada

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Ruffed Grouse

Photo: Susan Drury

"Although usually a solitary and retiring forest species, this small grouse makes itself noticeable through the male's persistent percussive displays. This amazing display begins atop a favored platform — usually a log, boulder, or stump — where the male Ruffed Grouse stands tall, braces backwards on his tail, and begins to fan the air by rotating his wings back and forth. This fanning motion creates a compression and release of air that produces a 'thump' sound. He starts slowly, but quickly accelerates the motion until his wings become a blur, producing a sound like a drumroll or distant motor that can be heard from as far away as a quarter-mile or more."

- American Bird Conservancy

[bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Common Yellowthroat

^Image credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters

Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)

The Common Yellowthroat was one of the first bird species to be catalogued from the New World, when a specimen from Maryland was described by Linnaeus in 1766. There are 13 races of this bird, differing especially in the male's facial patterns and the brightness of the yellow underparts.

[bob-artist]

My brain: You have so many tight deadlines. So many things on your weekly schedule. So many important jobs. You have to get important work done!!!

My hands:

[great-and-small]

YES I’ve been chased and hissed at by a Canada goose but it doesn’t make me hate them guess I’m just built different

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Starling!!!

[savagegood]

enemies to lovers? and they were teammates - and roommates? men’s sports have nothing on women’s sports

and this particular guy... cry harder (imagine if women's sports had the funding, visibility and accessibility men's sports are gifted):

[mushbeast]

a drawing of a canada warbler since it's starting to feel like spring in saskatchewan

[harkthorn]

Canada goose dragon! HÖNK

-2618

[fleshdyke]

hi everyone the aviary has until november 2024 to raise enough money to find a new location or else all the birds will be rehomed

for those of you who don’t know the aviary has been operating out of an old house for years. the house is officially falling apart and is no longer safe to house the birds. the city has completely given up on us. the deadline to find a new place is november 2024, and if we don’t raise enough money to find somewhere else, the aviary will be forced to dissolve and all of the birds will have to find new homes.

it’s not easy to find homes for 20 large parrots, many of which aren’t sociable and have health issues. there is a pair of bonded macaws that cannot be separated and can be aggressive, loud, and destructive - there are not many places for them to go. it is not going to be easy to find somewhere else to go (especially with the current real estate market in canada) but anything and everything helps. please consider donating if you can :)

https://www.hamiltonaviary.com/donate

[peacephotography]

Great northern diver (Gavia immer) Cariboo region, Canada Photograph: Sue Dougherty

[na-bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Winter Wren

Photo: Tom Murray

"A secretive little bird of dense woods. It often creeps about among fallen logs and dense tangles, behaving more like a mouse than a bird, remaining out of sight but giving an occasional kimp-kimp callnote. Usually Winter Wrens live close to the ground; but in spring in the northern woods, males ascend to high perches in the conifers to give voice to a beautiful song of long-running musical trills."

- Audubon Field Guide

[bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Turkey Vulture

^Image credit: Dori

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

The breeding season of the Turkey Vulture varies according to latitude. They nest in protected locations such as caves, cliffs, rock crevices, inside a burrow, in hollow trees, or in thickets. Although they sometimes nest in caves, they never enter them aside from nesting.

[daily-grian]

Mother Spore moment

[great-and-small]

Bird identification is so fucked up in a really fun way you can’t understand until you get into it. For example, there is a type of goose called the cackling goose that looks exactly like a Canada goose except smaller and “cuter”. The cackling goose is way, way, more rare in most places than its relatively common cousin, so it’s on tons of birders life lists. Everyone wants to see a cackling (look in any bird ID group to see lots of hopeful people posting petite Canada geese). The two species regularly commingle, so sometimes a flock of those common parking lot birds will have the equivalent of a Pokémon shiny just hanging out in the middle of them.

How ridiculous and fun is that? I can never look at a big group of Canada geese without scrutinizing their ranks for an adorable little extremely rare cutie pie cackling goose. It reminds me a bit of mushroom harvesting minus the risk of death if you get it wrong