A Bird in The Hand Will Poop

I was sitting in my living room watching Love Actually when I saw a pretty little bird outside the window. I thought, “How lovely. What a lovely little bird. Hello feathered friend!” Then it flew away, the fickle bitch. So I started reading up on songbirds of the United States. Here are some fun facts:

The Common Cuckoo visits the nests of other birds during mating season. It will shove the eggs already laid in the nest out and sometimes eat them. It then lays its own eggs in the carnage and continues on its way.

There is a middle English poem written in the 12^th or 13^th century called The Owl and the Nightingale. It is an argument between the two birds, obviously, whatever else could it be about?

The juvenile of the Common Raven when finding a food source will send out a “recruitment call.” This alerts other juveniles to the beast feast thus allowing the juveniles to outnumber the adults and not be chased away.

Mockingbirds are dicks.

The taxonomic name of the America Robin is Turdus migratorius. This translates, loosely, to “traveling turd.” Indeed.

Blue Jays have vocalizations known to bird watchers as the “rusty pump.” African American folklore says that the Blue Jay is a servant of the devil and never seen on Fridays because it is too busy collecting sticks to stoke the fires of hell.

There are way too many species of Cardinal to deal with.

Hope this information was useful and gives you a sense of oneness with the wilderness in your backyard!