Birdtober Day 11: Shoebill

I wrote about the Shoebill here. I have seen them three times. It's only a day trip to see them from where I live, which is pretty amazing since the Shoebill is on many birders' bucket list and people spend a lot to fly to Africa to see them. You have to go out in a boat to Mabamba Swamp in Lake Victoria, and I'm thinking that could very well be where this video was filmed, showing "The Dark Side of Shoebill Chicks." 

 

 

 

Two Shoebill brothers

But only one will survive.

The bigger, older, stronger one

Will attack the other

And the mother will only feed the Chosen One.

Rough luck, younger Shoebill. 

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey  

Birdtober Day 10: Crimson Rosella

In 2023 I wrote about the Eastern Rosella. You can see the differences between the Eastern Rosella and the Crimson Rosella here. They come from the same part of the world, southeastern Australia. The two species are similar enough that they hybridize.

 

 

I think we should all be fans

Of Platycercus elegans

Lovely birds with bright blue cheeks

Who shred wood chips with their beaks

I think we should all be fans

Of Platycercus elegans

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

 

 

Poetry Friday and Birdtober Day 9: Rook

 

 

 

 

Gregarious,

Frugilegus,

Intelligent

and 

Loud

 

If you've seen 

one Rook

then chances are

you've seen a crowd

 

A group of Rooks

is called sometimes

a Parliament or Clamour,

sometimes a Storytelling

filled with iridescent Glamour 

 

Invertebrates

and Carrion

are eaten 

in the

Rookery

 

No need for 

these big birds

to practice

any kind of

Cookery

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

 

 

 

I'm really enjoying this project again this year. It's a lot of fun doing research on all these beautiful birds and creating my 100% AI-free poems. It makes the world seem bigger and brighter to know that all these species are out there.

 

Here are all the Birdtober posts so far:

 

Day 1: Lilac-breasted Roller 

Day 2: 'I'iwi 

Day 3: Resplendent Quetzal 

Day 4: Gouldian Finch 

Day 5: Atlantic Canary 

Day 6: Paradise Tanager 

Day 7: Bee Hummingbird 

Day 8: Spectacled Owl 

 

Jama is hosting Poetry Friday today.

 

Birdtober Day 8: Spectacled Owl

 

It's date night for the pair of Spectacled Owls

They hoot together 

Give head rubs 

Preen each other's feathers

Hang out in the warm Costa Rican night,

Lost in each others'

Giant yellow eyes,

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

 

 

 

Birdtober Day 7: Bee Hummingbird

 

 

In Haiti we regularly saw the second smallest bird in the world, the Vervain Hummingbird, which I wrote about here. But this bird, the Bee Hummingbird, is the smallest. It lives in Cuba. How I would love to see it!

 

The video says that a Bee Hummingbird may visit a thousand flowers in a day, so I had to look up how many a honeybee visits. Up to seven thousand! So Bee Hummingbirds are not quite as busy as actual bees. The video also says that these birds can be prey for spiders, but I read elsewhere that they eat spiders too. The circle of life!

 

 

Not quite as busy as a bee,

Bee Hummingbirds buzz busily,

Visiting in a single day

A thousand flowers on their way

For energetic food to eat:

A thousand flowers full of sweet.

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey 

 

 

 

Birdtober Day 6: Paradise Tanager

 

Paradise Tanager

Canopy forager

For bugs and fruits

Masked in chartreuse

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

 

Birdtober Day 5: Atlantic Canary

The Atlantic Canary is called on eBird the Island Canary. The bird is named after the Canary Islands and not the other way around. In fact, the Canary Islands are named after dogs, not birds at all (from the Latin canis). Although this is a perfectly sweet-looking yellow bird, it seems positively dull compared with the first four Birdtober birds this year, all of which were very dramatically colored. 

 

Little yellow bird

Eating seeds and twittering

Living island life 

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey