#identify bird

[gemeente-kampen]

Juveniele meeuw, hoogstwaarschijnlijk een Zilvermeeuw, Herring Gull (juv.)(?), (Larus argentatus), Nederland Noord-Holland

[bigolialragu]

i like thinking that laios would go crazy on birdwatching after the [SPOILERS] curse

[googleplaysore]

[hoofpeet]

wip 🐦:)

[identifying-birds]

Hey! I have no idea where I got this image from. Google is telling me this is a turtle dove but other images of turtle doves look quite different from this; I’m mostly wondering if it’s photoshopped?

Okay so this one was a bit crazy to me because you’re right, this looks like a turtle dove but the tail feathers are off. And it doesn’t look photoshopped, I mean most photoshopped birds are like a Cardinal that has been turned blue. Reguardless I went to Pinterest looking for photos of turtle doves that may look similar to this one. Then I saw this exact image.

Okay, a lead. I guess. But if you know anything about Pinterest they are very good at finding similar images. Maybe we’ll get something..?

… never mind. Apparently, the people are very obsessed with this image. It has been posted everywhere. At this point it’s basically confirmed to be a turtle dove, all of these sources are saying that it is one. My real battle is trying to find where this image is from just to make sure. Now I go and reverse image search only to come across just about a billion results.

but I guess they were on my side today since I got VERY lucky.

Someone on the internet cited their sources. Now this link didn’t work but that doesn’t matter since we have the name of the account who took this photo. Bass23. So I looked through years of nature photography by this account and found the post.

Here is your answer! It is in fact a turtle dove that was captured just at a very specific angle to make a very unique show of tail feathers.

[takeapeck]

don't laugh at me bc this feels like a basic bird but

got my sparrowhawk lifer yesterday

[serpentface]

A witch of the Naig-Troibadnnas (Yellowtail river valley) people, resting and enjoying a smoke of the mild stimulant brolge leaf on a hot summer day.

Witches are a small part of the everyday cultural framework among the Hill Tribes. They are individuals considered born possessed by a virgranul, a type of disembodied wild spirit that seeks to inhabit human flesh, either entering the body at the moment of conception, or entering the body at the moment of death. The latter is a dire circumstance that requires significant intercession to fix (the dead body may wander off without rites, leaving the person's soul trapped and liable to warp into the dangerous fuldaigh spirit), while the former circumstance is what causes a person to be born a witch.

In the case of those afflicted in the womb, possession by virgranul is lifelong, and is both a curse and blessing- it divides and isolates them from the human world and causes other wild spirits (both benevolent and malicious) to be perpetually drawn to them, but also allows for them to be attuned to the subtleties of spirits, and able to work magic and divination that the everyday person is incapable of.

Witches are usually recognized from a young age due to marked behavioral differences or atypical development, though are sometimes simply identified as such without obvious behavioral indications, by other witches having read signs of their coming. Their occurrence is not frequent, usually once in a generation for any given tribe. An identified witch child will be taken from their family (the timing varies by tradition, though is usually upon puberty) and into mentorship by an established witch, who will impart their accumulated knowledge and skill and teach the child how to best harness their condition.

One can be a witch regardless of their gender, with the only commonality being that they must remain unmarried, and are expected to never have children (deemed too dangerous, unavoidably placing a child in the path of potentially harmful wild spirits). With no spouses or children to support them in holding a household and herds, witches are instead supported by their communities as means of payment for their services. They typically live in semi-isolation in the boundaries between the village and wilderness (a reflection of their own division between the world of people and of wild spirits, and a protective measure for their communities), and will periodically be brought needed supplies. They do not commonly enter villages unless summoned, or for the sake of certain holidays and festivals, and live most of their lives in seclusion aside from any given mentee (who will in turn care for their mentor in old age).

The societal function of witches is as intermediaries between people and their ancestors, people and wild spirits, and as especially skilled performers of practical magic (most commonly weaving protective spells into worn items, such as clothing or the nose rings of cattle). Forms of practical magic and intercession with ancestors and spirits are performed by all members of society, but a witch has intimate, detailed knowledge of such things and tremendous natural skill that makes them an invaluable asset.

Witches personally discern the identities of the spirits living in any given area and will attempt to familiarize themselves with them, learning in depth about their ways, giving warnings of where the particularly dangerous (or mischievous) ones are, and giving recommendations on which will be receptive to offerings in return for boons. When a village needs to commune with a particularly powerful or dangerous spirit (such as a wildfolk witch), they will commonly send their own witch as an intermediary.

They are ascribed have the ability to directly summon ancestors (who otherwise come and go of their own volition, and rarely ever deign to come at the call of one who is not their descendant). This is of great use when a person finds themselves punished by their ancestors with no certainty as to why, or cases where an orphaned child's ancestry must be identified to gain them proper spiritual support.

They are also regarded as having innate qualities of divination, particularly in reading birdsign (itself generally acknowledged as communication from ancestors, and occasionally gods). The average person has basic knowledge in reading omens of birds and a learned repertoire of key signs, but a witch can divine the messages of birdsign in immense and specific detail, through a vast knowledge system of the meanings of the species, sex, flight direction, gaze, prey, number, and songs of birds. It is common for people to approach a witch for a reading of the skies before undertaking a significant venture or life change, in order to receive detailed and specific advice.

Witches are always literate (and will be taught to read and write by their mentor if they cannot already) and will record their repositories of knowledge in tomes. These are items of absolute secrecy and taboo for a non-witch to touch (the consequences can be severe, you really don't want a witch ancestor-spirit upset with you). Witches can often become competitive about the knowledge stored in these tomes and are known to organize heists amongst themselves in order to gain access to each other's secrets. Most people avoid getting themselves entangled into the complicated rivalries of witches, as these competitions can get ugly and result in many a petty curse if one gains a witch's ire.

---

The only visual cue distinguishing this man as a witch is the tattoos on his forearms, otherwise usually regarded as inappropriate to mark in the contemporary Hill Tribes cultural sphere (the face, upper arms, and sternum is reserved for important clan/tribe/ancestry identification, hands and forearms are reserved for witches, and the rest of the body is appropriate for decoration). These unique forearm tattoos indicate his ancestral connection with a lineage of witches, not blood ancestry but rather the generations of mentors that have produced him. The lines extending down to his fingers are the newest, indicating that he has fully mentored another witch and gained a place in this ancestral line.

The rest of the tattoos here are tribe and blood ancestry identifiers (on the face and upper arms respectively, worn by all members of society), and purely decorative imagery (visible here is a deer, horse, eagle, and a dragon). He also has a snake on his forearm, applied decades ago in an act of youthful rebellion, which has since gotten in the way of critical open skin space.

His clothing is otherwise typical wear for warm seasonal conditions- a man's wool shawl and woven belt, short trousers, decorative deer hide (distinct to the Naig-Troibadnnas), and sandals (these are imported Wardi style sandals, which have been modified with preferred elevated heels). The horn shaped torc on his forearm identifies him as an esteemed elder.

[aevris]

found this picture of a de-crested ornate hawk eagle. i've taken everything from him.

[wolveria]

They're back babyyyyy

[aguecheek]

genuinely unsettling that the starkid fandom is now tangentially aware of the production of TGWDLM i stage managed this january. obviously nick lang only mentioned us in passing, but we’re still being spoken about, so it’s still weird lol. but also like? i knew about nick lang suggesting the monkey MONTHS ago because the director Showed Me that email. we made jokes about it. we entertained the concept. we went with the highly trained bird anyway, but we definitely thought about the monkey.

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

Round 1: The Quarterquarterquartersemifinals

@identifying-birds

(no propaganda submitted)

@carbon-monoxide-detector

(no propaganda submitted)

[residentwordsofaffirmationdealer]

photos from the belfry

[spinus-pinus]

Western Grebe and Clark's Grebe Aechmophorus occidentalis and A. clarkii

5/7/2023 San Joaquin Marsh, California

[aroacewxs]

rui says in his island panic ss that he can't identify birds by their call yet. i say that he'll learn to do it within a month's time anyway light work no reaction and casually drop it in conversation one day. As he does

[queerpyracy]

i think the idea that one's normal level unpleasant childhood experiences will live inside you forever inescapably is probably a shitty notion we shouldn't be passing around as fact like idk seems like a bad way to live

[cosmicrhetoric]

the continuous focus on birds and birdsong in monstrous regiment is one of my fave bits just because we know the only reason polly has all that background knowledge is bc of paul. and even when she has that moment of not wanting to admit that she wants to get paul back partially for selfish reasons she was still the person in his life that paid attention enough to remember everything he loved/knew about birds lol. he's not really haunting the narrative he's just kind of chilling back there but ANYWAY lol polly perks could do antigone