Birdtober 2025: All the Poems

Day 1: Banded Penguin (African Penguin)

Day 2: Venezuelan Troupial 

Day 3: Boreal Chickadee

Day 4: Wyandotte Chicken 

Day 5: Javan Green Magpie 

Day 6: Green Pigeon 

Day 7: Common Loon 

Day 8: Diamond Firetail Finch 

Day 9: White-crested Helmetshrike 

Day 10: Kalij Pheasant 

Day 11: Arctic Tern 

Day 12: Gyrfalcon 

Day 13: Gray/Grey Heron 

Day 14: Costa's Hummingbird 

Day 15: Ringed Kingfisher 

Day 16: Pygmy Nuthatch 

Day 17: Great Gray/Grey Owl

Day 18: Crowned Parrot 

Day 19: Red-footed Booby 

Day 20: Golden Plover 

Day 21: Eurasian Tree Sparrow 

Day 22: Tree Swallow 

Day 23: Northern Waterthrush 

Day 24: Olive Warbler 

Day 25: Acorn Woodpecker 

Day 26: Pacific Wren 

Day 27: California Condor 

Day 28: Sultan Tit 

Day 29: Varied Bunting 

Day 30: Gallirex 

Day 31: Artist's Choice (Bat Hawk) 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday: Birdtober Day 31: Artist's Choice

 

There's only one Artist's Choice in the whole month of Birdtober, so it's hard to pick the bird to write about (this is supposed to be a series of prompts for visual artists, but this is the fifth year I've been using them for writing instead). This month I had four lifers, plus I saw the Shoebill for the second time (here's what I wrote the first time). But I had to choose my most special lifer of the month for today's post: the Bat Hawk.

 

 

Our friends invited us over 

to see a bird they had in their backyard.

We ate first,

yummy beans and posho on the porch,

with the baby hollering companionably 

in her high chair.

After dinner we headed out back,

four adults and four kids 

armed with binoculars

and a flashlight to illuminate the branches.

There aren't lots of these birds anywhere,

and certainly not in the city,

but there they were, swooping at bats

as night came.

Our crepuscular visitors

rounded out our evening splendidly:

dinner and birds. 

Not just any birds, either.

Bat Hawks, 

#610 on my life list!  

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

 

 

Here are links to all my Birdtober posts this year. Jone is our Poetry Friday host this week.

Birdtober Day 30: Gallirex

 

Gallirex is not a species, it's a genus containing two species, the birds in the videos above: the Rwenzori Turaco and the Purple-crested Turaco. I haven't seen either of these, but we do have turacos where I live; here's a post I wrote about one of them.

 

Wild and wonderful coloration

Fills the beautiful Gallirex nation

Birds like paint chips thrown at random

Turacos building up a fandom!

Filling trees with bright delight

Then spreading wings in gorgeous flight. 

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

Birdtober Day 29: Varied Bunting

 

Varied bunting

Insect hunting

Desert sings

Colored wings

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

Birdtober Day 28: Sultan Tit

 

Sultan with a crown of yellow

Eating bugs, a regal fellow,

Foraging in East Asian trees

He's the king of all he sees.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

 

 

 

Birdtober Day 27: California Condor

 

Here's your dinner, precious chicky:

Not even a little icky.

I'm flying in from high above

To vomit up my gift of love.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

Birdtober Day 26: Pacific Wren

 

Tiny brown ball of birdness

living in lush green forestness

with a little tail sticking up

and a song that's full of springness

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

 

Birdtober Day 25: Acorn Woodpecker

 

Acorn Woodpeckers

are misers guarding their wealth

homemakers storing up food for the winter

hoarders saving thousands of acorns even though they mostly eat bugs

 

Acorn Woodpeckers

are cooperative family members

destroyers of siding on people's houses

noisy groups of cartoon characters who sound like Woody

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

Poetry Friday: Birdtober Day 24: Olive Warbler

 

Before we meet the Olive Warbler, here are links to this week's Birdtober birds:

 

 

Saturday: Crowned Parrot 

Sunday: Red-footed Booby 

Monday: Golden Plover 

Tuesday: Eurasian Tree Sparrow 

Wednesday: Tree Swallow 

Thursday: Northern Waterthrush 

 

 

Today's bird, the Olive Warbler, lives in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America. There is a little bit of olive green on the wings, but olive certainly isn't the main color of these birds: the male is more orange and the female more yellow.

 

 

Hopping on branches

in the ponderosa pines

the Olive Warbler isn't concerned

that it's neither olive nor a warbler.  

It's more interested in finding

a crunchy, delicious bug to eat.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

 

 

Patricia has today's roundup. 

Birdtober Day 23: Northern Waterthrush

 

Northern Waterthrush

Spends winter in the mangroves

Summer in the swamp

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

Birdtober Day 22: Tree Swallow

 

 

 

 

Tree Swallow flocking fills the sky,

Tornadoes of birds careen on by.

Shiny birds of bluish green:

 The best tornado ever seen.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey