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Ubiquitousness of Birds

Hi all,

Check this out...

smit_400_IMG00009.jpg

So what's the story? Well, Mrs. CCA has to be out of town for a couple of days, and I asked that she keep an eye out for any sort of birds in the frigid Windy City. It wasn't long before she spotted these prints/lithographs above her hotel bed and used her cell phone to snap that shot. A little bit of research turned up the following:

  • The originals were created by J. Smits
  • They age back to the late 1800s
  • The birds are (from left to right):
    • Cyanoramphus Saisseti ("Red-crowned Parakeet" from New Zealand)
    • Eclectus Riedel ("Reideli Electus Parrot" from Tanibar Island, Indonesia... Male is on top)
    • Chrysotis Finschi ("Lilac-crowned Amazon Parrot" from NW and SW Mexico)
Beautiful birds, though I doubt that I will ever see one, let alone in the backyard. Gets one to thinking though... Why do we fixate on birds? There's Icarus, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the legendary Ford Thunderbird... Why not the Boston Red Squirrels or the Chevy Manatee? (Only partly kidding here. As I'm typing this, a rather macabre episode of "Life After Man" is on the History Channel and is describing how years after the end of humankind there will be human vocalizations coming from parrots... oh goody.) So what is it with birds. My over-priced $.02? Well, first, they can fly. That's pretty cool. Secondly, they can be stunningly beautiful. But lastly... There's something primal about them... Watch the last post... As Mrs. CCA says, they run like dinosaurs.

I don't know... It just seems like birds are more than everywhere, they're ever present.

See you by the feeders,

CapeCodAlan


Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding

Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding

eBirdseed.com photo library

eBirdseed and misc. references

Other birding references

eBirdseed.com bird cam

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