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The return of the Old Man

10,000 Birds

Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World states that “disturbance by local people, tourists, and egg and zoo collectors has similarly reduced the colonies, and more protection is vital”. Despite the fact that efforts are made to ensure they are not imprinted on humans, they are naturally confiding, even friendly.

Morocco 225
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Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

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Osprey Cam

10,000 Birds

One of the interesting things about web cams is that as they foster familiarity, they also favor the familiar human urge to impose narrative. Ozzie and Harriet with the 2013 brood. This is my first season with the ranch, and I’m very excited to being putting some of my theories about nest cams into practice.

Montana 190
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Urban Renewal: Is It Safer for Songbirds in the City?

10,000 Birds

Birds like cuckoos, who lay their eggs in songbirds’ nests, and whose young then off the hosts’ own chicks, tend to avoid cities. This may help songbirds successfully raise their families without worrying about invaders. Smaller birds are much more likely to tolerate a human presence.

China 101
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Into the Nest: A Book Review in the Time of Nesting

10,000 Birds

Second, reading about birds courting and parenting brings out the tendency to identify, which leads directly to anthropomorphism, the tendency to assign birds human emotions and thoughts. Think of birds too much as humans and you lose the specialness that makes them birds. And of eggs and nests and birds on nests. But special.

Eggs 263
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Birding Ruoergai, Sichuan, China

10,000 Birds

Europeans must use these to come and bear away in the name of civilization all these dregs of the human race. Finally, the Azure-winged Magpie raises a hen-and-egg question: What was first, the color of the bird or the color of the Tibetan prayer flag?

China 173
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Altruism, Albatrosses, and Vicious Young Men

10,000 Birds

Laysan albatrosses are ocean-dwelling seabirds who have 6-foot wingspans, weigh 7-8 pounds, occasionally sleep while flying, and rarely land except to raise their chicks. The oldest Laysan albatross was last seen raising a chick on Midway Atoll in 2016, at age 66. They are docile and devoted parents who will not leave their nests.

Albatross 214