Are you a bird?

[AY38910]

In my case it's chips. Not the computer kind, the potato kind. The tasty ones.
IDK why. I just sometimes feel like snacks.
Don't ask. Please.

[echogecko]

uh, yeah. birds and angels are pretty similar so im totally a frickin bird 

[musicobsessed107]

No, but I do happen to like pigeons and doves quite a lot. If I ever get to live in a house with a nice backyard in the future, I'm building an aviary and keeping a whole flock of rescued pigeons in there.

[Dan Q]

I've long loved birds, but perhaps my favourite are magpies. I wrote a whole blog post back in 2024 about why magpies are the best bird.

The light switches in my bedroom are guarded by a pair of magpies called Mordor and Morwenna, as painted by the wonderful Sue McLearie. Here's Mordor:

[MediocreMetastasis]

@Dan Q Today I learned that there are multiple species of magpie because the magpie I know does not have any blue feathers, has bright red eyes, and little devils during nesting season


They're as deadly as they look.

[Dan Q]

@Dan Q Today I learned that there are multiple species of magpie because the magpie I know does not have any blue feathers, has bright red eyes, and little devils during nesting season

Ah, that Australian Magpie! Actually a very different species to the Eurasian Magpie; they only look superficially similar, but they're not really related at all!

(They were named back in the era that we didn't yet understand genetics, so we named things based on what they looked like, only later finding out that those names weren't really representative of what they are: e.g. the honey bear (not a bear, doesn't eat honey), honey badger (not a badger, although it does eat honey), mantis shrimp (neither a mantis nor a shrimp), and red panda (red, but not a panda). Some things just look like things they aren't; nature's a tricksy beast!)

Australian Magpies are artamids: the same family as butcherbirds and woodswallows. But Eurasian Magpies are corvids, like crows, ravens, jackdaws and jays.

Corvids are among the most-intelligent and curious of birds, and among the only birds to have ever demonstrated the construction and use of tools! They're also almost-all capable of learning to imitate speech and the calls of other birds.