Sometimes the Sharp-shinned Hawk is called a Bird Hawk because a large part of its diet is birds. I have one of these birds on my life list; I saw it in Florida.
Sharp shins
Sharp eyes
A small bird hawk
Throw birds
To young
With high-pitched squawk
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
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
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:
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
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
Paradise Tanager
Canopy forager
For bugs and fruits
Masked in chartreuse
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
