THE BIRD THREAD - Post birds, discuss birds or even sniff birds.

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How much do you love birds?

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I don't have bird friends of my own* but I get to see a lot at the wildlife clinic. We're right by the beach so there's always plenty of seagulls that come in, occasional pelicans (which smell really bad by the way. I think they might have very oily skin becasue it's like a musky rancid smell) and various other sea birds. One of the first birds I learned to identify there were Black-Crowned Night Herons. They're funny little dudes that you'll see a lot by the waterfront.
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I don't recall us actually having any as patients but we have one that hangs out around the outside pools and mooches for fish. There's also a Red-Tailed Hawk that lives in the eucalyptus trees by the clinic, I'll see it flying overhead when I'm out washing mats.
Since it's getting later in the year we're about to have our sea bird influx. Partly the influx comes from migratory birds heading south and partly it's when it starts to get stormy. There's naturally occuring oil seeps underwater and when the waters get turbulant the oil gets kicked up more than usual. So we get LOTS of oiled birds. Oftentimes it's these guys, the Western Grebe.
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Grebes are pelagic, so they are 100% water-birds and as a consequence have soft little flipper feet that aren't really suited for land. They can actually get really bad lesions from being out of the water. When birds like grebes come in that have just been cleaned of oil or have poor waterproofing (basically when their feathers aren't repelling water properly) we put them in these drying pens. To protect their flippers we put little booties on them like bird socks.
Other fun facts is that we feed these guys inflated smelt. They're more interested in fish that looks live (while ours is dead and thawed from a big frozen brick of fishy goodness) so we use a syringe to fill them with air before tossing them into the pool so that they float around and don't just sink right away.

*Though there is a pair of banded orioles that were in my yard for a while. They had a nest and an egg that fell out which I had to put back in, but the nest got knocked down in heavy rainfall.
 
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See this sexy motherfucker right here? This is a Pied Wagtail and it's better than other birds. Why is it better? Look it it, that motherfucker oozes style, sophistication and grace. It'll walk through your garden bobbing its tail up and down and give no shits that it's on your property. This bird thinks you're shit because it's awesome, and it knows it's awesome.
 
LazarusOwenhart said:
p01l9qv7.jpg

See this sexy motherfucker right here? This is a Pied Wagtail and it's better than other birds. Why is it better? Look it it, that motherfucker oozes style, sophistication and grace. It'll walk through your garden bobbing its tail up and down and give no shits that it's on your property. This bird thinks you're shit because it's awesome, and it knows it's awesome.
Click to expand...
the greyscale makes him classy
 
Here's birb friend Quincy, looking like the blurry devil while enjoying his new homemade perch. He does not endorse the board game Forbidden Island, that is for dorks.

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Another pic of my Quincy, scratching his head. Again, please don't make me a lolcow because of my ugly arm.
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