#beloved birds

[therealalfredthecat]

NO ONE CAN OUT BIRD ME MWAHAHAH

[therealalfredthecat]

I HAVE BEEN FEEEEDDDD RRREAAAAAAAHAHAHSHHSHDIWOXKFNWOZLDNDJDKK

my contribution is that Crows have very similar brains to non-avian dinosaurs. And they're in their stone age.

Do you have any cool bird facts

female raptors (eagles, hawks, falcons, etc) are larger than male raptors in pretty much all species. this happens even in groups not closely related to each other (ex: hawks and falcons), so its beneficial enough in their niche that its evolved independently a few times, though its unsure exactly what that benefit is atm (bc unlike males being larger in a lot of mammals, female raptors dont make a habit of fighting each other or using size to attract mates as far as we know). ex: heres a male and female Cooper's Hawk

somewhat mentioned above but falcons are more closely related to parrots than they are to hawks

Gray Catbirds and American Robins have been witnessed raising young in the same nest at the same time. In one instance (reported by Mulvihill and Murray), they were recorded caring for the young of both species in the nest, and when the Catbird young fledged, the adult Catbirds continued to provide food for the not-yet-fledged Robins. heres a pic of the nest from the report

the worlds oldest known bird as of 2024 is a wild Laysan Albatross named Wisdom who's 72-73 years old (at minimum, we dont actually know her birth date, just that she was at least 5 years old when she was banded in the 50s) and still raising chicks. here's her with one of her chicks

also Albatrosses have wingspans of up to 3.5m/11.5ft and have been recorded flying 49,700 miles without touching land (they do land in the water to eat tho)

this is from personal experience but if you walk around in a north american grassland for long enough, you Will get jumpscared by a Mourning Dove bc they make their nests on the ground in the grass and like to hang out on the ground in the grass and they also like to wait until youre right overtop of them to freak out and fly away from you

Bald Eagles don't get their fully white heads and tails until theyre about 5 years old

A lot of birds have been observed incorporating cigarette butts into their nests, and a study in Mexico on House Finches found that this actually results in drastic decreases in parasites affecting young compared to nests without them

Cedar Waxwings (and Waxwings in general) just look so smooth. they look like someone airbrushed them. look at this shit

in Jacanas, females lay eggs in multiple males' nests, and then the males raise the young by themself. Also they carry their babies under their wings like this

Horned Guan. Theyre endangered and live in a small area of central america. both the males and females have the little horn fez, the males just have taller ones

[avi-mation]

Apocalypse buddies

[fantastic-nonsense]

[testormblog]

Money with Wings

One day, I found a live baby parrot on the ground, fallen from its nest.  I thought it could be my pet so carefully carried it home and showed it to my father.  Dad smiled sadly at me.  He liked the little bird too.  He said, ‘Jakob, put it in an old cage in the shed.  However, it probably won’t survive.’  He was right.  I brought a few more young parrots home.  We fed them bread and honey.  Unfortunately, they didn’t survive either.  The next one, I fed grain.  It lived and thrived.

I decided to catch more birds.  What a challenge!  They were smart and escaped me quickly.  I talked to Pop about this and he built me a single door treadle trap.  Inside it, I placed a tub of grain to attract my quarry.  Once the bird was inside, its weight closed the door.  The trap worked well and I caught some birds.  Dad then suggested we construct an aviary.

At that year’s Beenleigh Show, I loitered around the bird exhibits and discovered that people bought birds.  I had a keen eye for money making ventures.  Some rare birds were selling for ten shillings each.  I knew where these nested in the bush and could catch three or four of them a day.  Forty shillings beat the miserly two shillings an hour Mattie Jones paid me.

I expanded the aviary then built another and constructed more traps.  My hobby became a small business.  I held up to one hundred birds in stock.  I began to breed, both from birds I caught and purchased.  I bought a state show champion and bred beautiful opaline budgerigars.  My aviaries housed budgerigars of every colour, a variety of parrots, including some pretty peach face lovebirds, and java finches.  My birds won show prizes every year.  This gained me free advertising and clients.  Everybody wanted a pet bird yet suppliers were few.

Still, my enterprise wasn’t an easy lark.  My aviaries had to be registered with a government department.  I had regulations to learn.  These included which species I could legally trap and breed.  An inspector could arrive anytime unannounced.  Sometimes, a pretty bird flew my way and I had no idea whether I should make it mine.  Nevertheless, my pet shop clients never asked if the birds were trapped or bred.  I looked after my birds well and only kept the healthy ones.  I helped the local farmers in return for bird feed, otherwise difficult and expensive to obtain.  They let me harvest cobs of corn as well as stalks of milo to thrash for seed.  I nicked off from school at lunch to check my traps and transfer any quarry in with my call birds.  With Reggie, I delivered orders as far as Brisbane.  Reggie really liked driving his car if I covered his fuel.  The pet shops always accepted whatever I offered.  After expenses, each delivery earnt me a hundred shillings plus, over five pounds.  Good pocket money!

I quickly learnt which birds attracted what prices.  Generally, their prices reflected their availability for sale, their physical appearance and condition as well as their dietary requirements.  Scaly green parrots were plentiful and difficult to feed.  They fetched a shilling each.  Rainbow lorikeets were rare at that time as well as beautifully coloured.  They were worth twenty scaly greens.  A pair of pale headed rosellas brought four shillings.  Most finches sold at ten shillings per dozen except for a single gouldian.  This small purple and gold breasted, green winged, red faced bird netted twenty shillings.  Nobody wanted pigeons, miners or magpies however.  If a cockatiel flew my way, that was a lucky day.  The same applied to a galah.  Back then, the galahs lived out west and strays were difficult to trap.  Both these species were talking birds.  This made my price negotiable.

The biggest threat to my business were Mother’s two cats, Peter and Jimmy.  She loved them and they her but nobody else.  Dad and I avoided them.  They sank their claws into anything living and efficiently killed whatever wasn’t human, including native fauna.  Mother claimed they were good ratters.  Well, these cats bore a grudge towards me.  When I was little and they much smaller, I decided Peter’s bluey grey colour should be green thus painted him so with housepaint.  These murderers longed to avenge my misdeed and sought to slaughter my beloved birds.  They often prowled around my aviaries hoping for an open door before they buggered off to the chook house.  One day, they took their frustration out on a poor hen.  Dad then exacted his on them!

The illegal export game was a risk too.  I unwittingly became caught in it.  A Mr Bright enquired about birds for sale.  He had seen my aviaries whilst driving by.  I was suspicious of him.  He admired my best birds kept in the large open aviary.  Many of these were my call birds and weren’t for sale.  They called their wild cousins into traps for me.  He offered me prices I couldn’t refuse.  Thus, I sold some.  He ordered others and returned for them.

Mr Bright asked about a specific bird not available in the pet shops.  I knew this bird lived near the creek.  He offered me twenty shillings each, a pound, and placed a £25 order.  Big money!  I found a couple nests then watched the chicks hatch and grow.  I stole them when they had their feathers and were ready to fly.  I caught fish daily to feed them and waited for Mr Bright to return.  He didn’t!  I pondered what to do with these birds; release them or sell them to another client.  I figured they were valuable given Bright’s offer of a man’s weekly wage.

Late on a Saturday afternoon, Reggie drove me to a client’s house.  I regularly delivered birds there, showing up without prior notice, as was the case this time.  Dad came too.  He suspected something wasn’t right.  This client, nicknamed Happy Dog, sold top notch birds at his pet shop in the City.  Dad and I knocked on his front door for some minutes.  We heard grunting noises from inside.  An unhappy Happy appeared in his boxers.  He saw the cage of birds and beckoned us into the light of the enclosed veranda.  On this veranda was a bed on which sat a different type of bird wrapped in a sheet, likely the sort who did tricks.  She was displeased that her transaction was interrupted.  I was naïve to her kind of business and only hoped to offload the birds for my small fortune.

My hope evaporated.  Happy said these birds were illegal to keep.  The woman yelled at both him and I in coarse language.  She demanded I leave with the birds and he come back to bed.  He moved me away from her earshot and asked me the price.  I told him Bright’s offer.  The enormous amount seemed a joke.  He laughed, then replied he’d pay twenty-five shillings tops, a tenth of the price.  I reluctantly handed over the birds and resolved to stick to my usual species.  I continued to supply Happy.  He was a major client.

I saved my profits. My birds laid me quite a nest egg to feather my future.  When my adult life began, my business flew the coup.

[ikrutt]

Lady in Red, 2024

Friendly fire on @grusart.

[skyenish]

The roof | Jamil Viper animatic 🐍

——

So after almost a month of not properly posting anything, I have returned! My tests are done, and I immediately got back to work on this animatic. I saw this tiktok, and it scratched my brain nicely, so of course the logical next conclusion is that I need to draw Jamil to this.

In the comments of that original video someone mentioned how they think in this sound “the roof” is a metaphor for freedom. I liked that interpretation! In general, “the roof” is something you want so desperately, but something or someone tries to stop you, which only makes you want it more. I thought this was relevant to Jamil’s dream of freedom, to be his own person, and to be free of Kalim, to be the best at something. He wants the roof, but he can never have it. The adults mock him and kick him down, but they’re birds, born with the ability to fly, to visit the roof whenever they want, taking that privilege for granted. They wouldn’t understand his desire for the roof. They wouldn’t care about his desire for the roof.

[rookisit]

Wtf is it with philza and being up high? was rewatching the qsmp vods and every time he's just uppies?? When they first arrived he went to the roof of the train station, with the French plane crash he was just on top of the plane, during festiva junina he was perched on the strings of colored wool and with the wedding he was on the string of lanterns. Also his house is on top of a fucking wall.

[grubloved]

dream future self portrait #2

[martuzzio]

ETHO!!!

[transformers-synergize]

weird robot alien

[keiru-the-worm]

they're all freaks

[mypuchiart]

Redraw of that new color café apron from fangamer

^ alt version

[dog-teeth]

gnaw, 12"x9", gouche on paper

[tubbytarchia]

Jimmy and Evo doodles. Mm I love drawing creatures

[imagine-creative]

What did Adrien and Lottie do after the incident?

Well what he’s always done, love her.

He’d still carried her to bed each night after the lounge close because, during clean up without fail she fall asleep in his booth secretly knowing he would

He didn’t dare argue with her if she ask to go to the beach to star gaze. He loved to watch the stars in her eyes and listen to her gush about the constellations in his lap trying to escape the cold sea breeze she subjected them too.

Before the lounge open you’d find them swaying gently to tender melodies that flow from big Al’s finger tips as he warmed up, lost in their own world, away from the bustle.

And most importantly, Adrien would make time during a hectic day to pull Lottie into his office and play her favorite song, just for her. Sing it just how she liked it. For her ears alone.