There aren't enough swear words to express how angry this makes me!!
"Industrial Farming Has Killed Billions of Birds"
🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬
Worldwide, 49% of all wild bird species are in steep decline.
BirdLife International’s authoritative report, State of the World’s Birds 2022, estimates that there are now nearly three billion fewer wild birds in Canada and the U.S. than a few decades ago, and about 600 million fewer in the European Union.
The single biggest cause of bird declines is chemical-intensive farming. Some birds are killed by pesticides or herbicides, but the most important impacts are loss of food, especially insects and other invertebrates that most bird species depend on, and the spread of fertilizer-intensive monocultures that eliminate shelter and nesting areas. Insect-eating populations declined more than any others.
In short, the collapse of farmland bird populations is closely related to the Insect Apocalypse in the Anthropocene. The mass slaughter of insects is killing masses of birds.
Ok, seriously, does ANYONE know anything about parakeets? I'm sitting in someone's kitchen with a yelling parakeet, and I have to change his water dish, and he's already bitten me (damn, that hurts). This bird hates me on sight! Does anyone know enough about parakeets to tell me how to avoid getting bit?
ID'd early this morning in my backyard with the help of my Merlin Bird ID app! #birds#birdwatching
Great Horned Owl
When clenched, a Great Horned Owl’s strong talons require a force of 28 pounds to open. The Great Horned Owl is a very aggressive nighttime hunter and strikes from above. This is why they are sometimes called “tigers of the night.” They use their strong talons to carry animals several times heavier than they are.
Picture: All About Birds
Usually I go out New Year's morning to a wetland and start my year bird list out right, but this year, between work and getting back to running, it'll be a slower start. My #birdsof2023 list starts with a quick park walk this morning:
Hawthorn, flowers just opening. We planted this #hedge in 2019. For rapid #CarbonCapture capture scrub outperforms #trees though in a 15-30 year timescale the trees will take over. The trees will also do better with the hedge for cover. As well as being full of buds this hedge is full of #birds, biodiversity and carbon capture hand in hand.
I recently had the chance to take a bunch of photos at the British Birds of Prey Centre in south Wales.
Despite somewhat overcast skies I got some shots I'm pretty happy with, so this'll be an ongoing thread of good birbs, as and when I get to editing them :D
Using the free Merlin Bird ID app, I was astonished to find there were SIXTEEN different species of birds in my backyard early this morning!
The app identifies a bird by a picture or their chirp. If it's ID'd by chirp, it displays a photo. I learned today that the weird sounding bird I sometimes hear is a Carolina Wren.
Myths that people seem to weirdly keep bringing up about companion/pet #birds and especially #parrots, because why not:
That birds are in any way interchangeable with each other.
There's this perception that you can just walk out and "adopt an animal!" People will attempt to use the same logic that they use on cats and dogs (where I may disagree with the argument but it at least applies) to birds.
But birds are not like that at all. It fails on just about every level with birds.
I used to name them, Starting in 2008, with Gail and Gordon, I'm not sure if the original pair is still alive, and they have been prolific and several large flocks of 20-30 #Geese each, from the original parents.
Except this one. She's lost her mate, even the three goslings she raised, have moved on. And she sits alone. On a rock, behind my truck, or hiding in the weeds. How long do they mourn, I wonder. Has she become sick? Outcast? Lonely #Goose#Nature#Birds#Ocean
The hummingbird feeder was frozen. I cleaned it out and made new nectar and I took it outside.
The hummingbird was so cold and hungry IT CAME TO THE FEEDER WHILE I WAS HOLDING IT. Before I even hung it back up.
Jury rigged an "easy bake" style heater to keep the nectar from freezing (my last incandescent put to good use... i'm monitoring the temp with an infrared thermometer). Superclamp involved, of course. So useful.