yeah! note – these are mostly (if not all) escaped budgies or offspring of escaped budgies that interbred with wild flocks. with some populations, the offspring return to being just ‘wild’ colored within only a few generations, but in some places, there’s domestic-colored budgies years later!
a rare closeup of a black swift, found throughout north america and small parts of south america. swifts are rarely seen up close; they spend more of their life in air than any other species of bird – they eat, drink, mate and sleep while in flight. they are incapable of perching like other birds; they must cling to vertical surfaces.
I had to look this up because “sleep while in flight” ????
but yeah, apparently completely true. these birds stay aloft for as much as 10 months nonstop, feed on insects, spend more energy at night (when there aren’t warm thermals to ride) and at dawn and dusk climb to 10,000 ft altitude where the 30 min slow descent is probably when they catch their sleep.
they’re unusually long-lived for such active critters (20 yrs) and they may be limiting energy expenditure by being extremely aerodynamic and narrow bodied. Also a single bird travels the distance of about 7 roundtrip journeys to the moon in its lifetime (>3 million miles).
once these guys figure out how to nest in flight it’s all over
the canada jay, also known as the gray jay, is a small corvid found in canada and parts of the united states. canada jays have an appearance unique for jays; unlike many jays, which are similar to crows in build, the canada jay is fluffy to keep insulated in the cold and has a small beak and stout build. despiteo their innocent appearance, the omnivorous canada jay frequently preys on nestlings and small mammals.
adding on to the list of things pigeons can do…become an art critic! scientists have found that pigeons can differentiate between paintings that we generalize as “good” and “bad”, and can recognize paintings we conceptualize as beautiful. pigeons were able to apply this concept to paintings they had never been shown before as well.
today's bird 