Bearded Vulture
Eating bones is
Their food culture
Dropping bones
From way up high
They break when they fall
From the sky
These birds eat
What others kill
Yet many people
Fear them still
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
4 hours ago
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Birdtober Day 27: Kaki/Black Stilt
Black Stilts in New Zealand
are barely hanging on,
with stoats and weasels,
ferrets and hedgehogs,
wildcats
all threatening their chicks.
Black Stilts in New Zealand
are top priority for protection
and they are even
Take it easy,
Kakis.
I think that you can make it after all.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Monday, October 26, 2026
Birdtober Day 26: Splendid Fairywren
In The Bird Name Book, Susan Myers quotes the ornithologist Tom Iredale writing in 1924. He called fairy-wrens "whiffs of beauty." "Whiff is descriptive of their flight across a path, as with their long tail they fly undulating and zigzagly as if wafted by a gnome-driven wind, disappearing into the thicket, leaving an impression of dainty fairyness." Whiffs? Zigzagly? Fairyness? Clearly there's something about these little birds.
Words fail me, little fairywren
To describe your beauty,
Your undulating fairyness:
You really are a cutie.
Your whiffs of blue, your fine tail too,
Your zigzagged undulating
Words fail me, little fairywren:
A beauty past relating.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Friday, October 23, 2026
Birdtober Day 25: Red-and-yellow Barbet
Singing from the top of a termite mound
Red-and-yellow Barbet makes a musical sound
Brightly colored, polka-dotted
Red-and-yellow Barbet, you've been spotted!
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Birdtober Day 24: Hoatzin
Amazon stinkbird
Orange crest, red eyes, blue face
Hissing and grunting
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Birdtober Day 23: Lesser Flamingo
When I was a child in Kenya, Lake Nakuru was known for its enormous numbers of flamingos. Today there aren't as many. The water levels rose and diluted the alkaline conditions most favorable to the algae the flamingos eat. There are still flamingos at Lake Nakuru, but they say that Lake Bogoria is the place to go for the sights that Nakuru used to be so proud of. I remember going on a field trip to Lake Nakuru when I was in second grade. We learned to make tally marks and used them to keep track of how many we saw of everything - but especially flamingos.
How many Malachite Kingfishers?
Two.
How many Egyptian Geese?
Ten.
How many Great White Pelicans?
Twenty.
How many Lesser Flamingos?
A million.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Tracey is hosting Poetry Friday today.
Here are the Birdtober posts so far:
Day 14: Victoria Crowned-Pigeon
Day 16: Blue-capped Cordonbleu
Day 17: Andean Cock-of-the-Rock
Day 21: Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Birdtober Day 22: Scarlet Tanager
Today's post is cheating a little, because I'm reusing something I wrote back in 2021 for October 19th, when the prompt was simply "Tanager." I picked the Scarlet Tanager.
Scarlet Tanager
In a forest in Georgia
on a Friday afternoon in July
we followed the Scarlet Tanager.
Again and again and again
we heard the bird,
always from somewhere else.
I was with some of the men in my life
(husband, son, brother)
as we chased the
bright red male Scarlet Tanager,
playing sounds with our phones.
We were on the point of giving up.
My sister-in-law was waiting for us
with my impatient nephew
and it looked as though
this quarry was not to be found,
at least not today…
And then, suddenly,
there he was:
red
red
red
just as advertised.
The most scarlet sight imaginable,
worth the search.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Photo Source: eBird.com
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Birdtober Day 21: Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise
The Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise is, as David Attenborough says in the second video above, "very tidy." This famous footage is the first film appearance of this species, and Attenborough obtained it by spreading a bunch of leaves which he knew the bird would be compelled to clear away. The theory is that he wants no distractions when he performs his courtship dance. I think it's ironic that a bird that is so focused on essentials has a name which has nothing to do with him, but more to do with the political leanings of the person naming him. As Wikipedia puts it, "The controversial scientific name respublica of this species was given by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and a republican idealist. The habit of zoologists at that time to dedicate newly discovered species to some king, queen, or aristocrat deeply irritated him. In order to assert his convictions, he chose to name this species respublica to honour the republic and not the royalty."
When it comes to courtship action
Wilson's bird wants no distraction.
He's focused on potential mates
And how he can captivate.
He rids his stage of any mess
Gets ready to dance to impress.
He doesn't care his name's political.
His courtship dance is mission-critical.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Monday, October 19, 2026
Birdtober Day 20: Philippine Cockatoo
As so often happens when I start researching birds on the Birdtober calendar, with this one I was immediately pulled into a world I knew nothing at all about. The Philippine Cockatoo (also known as the Red-vented Cockatoo or by its local name, Katala) is critically endangered. The video above talks about this bird and other species on the island of Palawan that are close to extinction. I was curious about the foreigner interviewed on the video, Dr. Sabine Schoppe, and when I googled her I found that she just died last month after thirty years of fighting for the survival of these creatures. You can read more about her here. The tributes I found speak volumes about how loved she was and what an impact she had on the Philippines after moving there from Germany many years ago. She worked with The Katala Foundation.
Rare bird
White Katala
High in banana tree
Loud, joyful squawking noise rings out
Once more
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
Birdtober Day 19: Blue-necked Jacamar
The Blue-necked Jacamar is also called the Blue-cheeked Jacamar. These birds remind me of kingfishers, bee-eaters, todies, and hummingbirds. They breed in tunnels, like kingfishers, and they also look a lot like kingfishers. They beat their prey on a branch before eating, like bee-eaters and kingfishers. They are iridescent, like hummingbirds. And their proportions are very similar to todies. But they are none of the above.
Nice to meet you, jacamar.
How I wonder what you are.
You are like some birds I've met
But I haven't met you yet.
I see you looking out for prey
(Bugs should really keep away)
I hear you make a trilling cry
Then watch you catch a passing fly
But I don't know you, jacamar.
How I wonder what you are.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
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