Beautiful bird art exhibit in Chicago

by Amy Posted on 16 February 2009

Paintings by artist David Kroll will be on display at the Zolla-Lieberman Gallery until 28 February. The art gallery is at 325 W. Huron in Chicago.

The artist, on his paintings:

Our world has been touched and tended and tamed to such a degree that it often seems we’ve wrested the wild out of the wilderness. As a species, we mistakenly believed that our survival hinged on refining and degrading nature, but it is becoming ever clearer that our actions have led to an increasingly precarious habitat for all living creatures – humans included. As the fragility of nature becomes more apparent, so does its value. My paintings explore the natural world not as an expendable resource but as a past home, once left and forgotten, now longed for and dreamlike.

The works shown on the gallery website look like an interesting mix between still-life and landscape images with birds and nests. My favorite one is Swallows and Grapes.

There is more info on the artist here.

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Posted in Art, Illinois | 1 Comment

Why’s the Osprey so hot lately?

by Amy Posted on 13 February 2009

There’s a movement to designate the Osprey as the state bird of Oregon (replacing the Western Meadowlark). A few months ago schoolchildren in Florida elected to name the Osprey the new state bird, to replace the Mockingbird. I love Ospreys as much as the next person (it’s even one of my favorite Birdorables), but how come they’re so popular as to be replacing existing state birds all of a sudden?

Osprey Hovering
Osprey Hovering by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region, Creative Commons on Flickr

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Posted in Birdorable, North America, Offbeat | Leave a comment

Georgia calls on citizen scientists to help with bird tick study

by Amy Posted on 12 February 2009

From The Daily Citizen:

Have you seen a bird with a fat tick stuck to its face? If so, the University of Georgia would like to know about it. In fact, you can participate in a research project by donating the ticks to UGA. […]

Interestingly, if the ticks are removed before the bird develops breathing problems, all these effects will quickly be reversed and the bird will recover and be fine.

If you want to attempt to rescue the bird, recommendations are that you wrap the animal in a towel to keep it from struggling. Pick the ticks off, examining under the feathers carefully to be sure all have been removed. Avian rehabilitators suggest then placing the animal in a large paper bag or box for a few hours to allow it to recover before it is released in the wild, where it might be at a disadvantage if it encountered predators before regaining flight ability.

Full article here.

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Posted in Aside, Citizen Science, North America | 1 Comment

Another freaky Northern Cardinal

by Amy Posted on 9 February 2009

Last month a gynandromorph (half-male/half-female) Northern Cardinal spotted at a feeder in northwestern Illinois made the news. Today’s Columbia Daily Tribune has a report of a white-headed female Cardinal feeding at an Ohio back yard feeder for several years running. I’ve never seen anything like this, either, but apparently this type of coloration is not so uncommon. The below image is from a photographer in Virginia.

White-headed Female Cardinal #2 Mar 30

And this feeder visitor is a Flickr find.

White Cardinal (4)
White Cardinal (4) by Lee Coursey, Creative Commons on Flickr

Have you ever seen a white Cardinal or another bird with unusual coloration?

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Posted in Offbeat, Yard Birds | 3 Comments

New bird exhibit in Chicago

by Amy Posted on 4 February 2009

A new permanent exhibit called “Birds of Chicago” opened at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum last Friday. The Nature Museum is located in Chicago at 2430 North Cannon Drive.

Learn about birds native to Illinois, with nearly 100 specimens on display that date back to the early 1900s. The birds range in age, size, color and rarity, showcasing everything from the large Midwest turkey and the common blue jay to the endangered prairie chicken. Touch screen kiosks provide visitors with additional information on the birds.

Visit The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum website for more information.

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Posted in Aside, Illinois | 1 Comment

Stimulating Dutch Sparrows

by Amy Posted on 2 February 2009

Amsterdam members of the Dutch political party GroenLinks (Green Left) want residents and businesses to help stimulate the city’s population of House Sparrows. GroenLinks is asking that new roof construction and roof renovations include sparrow-friendly ‘Vogelvide’ roof tiles.

The number of House Sparrows in the Netherlands has declined by 50% in the last 25 years. GroenLinks is asking Amsterdam to subsidize use of the bird-friendly roof tiles to help with the declining sparrow population.

Sparrows
Sparrows by barockschloss, Creative Commons on Flickr

In 2006, 100 new homes in Noordwijk, Alkmaar, Hardenberg and Amsterdam were fitted with the Vogelvide roof tiles.

Source: Geef de mus een huis in de Amsterdamse binnenstad

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Posted in Netherlands | 1 Comment

My visitors came from *where*?!

by Amy Posted on 1 February 2009

I have a Statcounter counter on this site and I like to check it to see how visitors find Magnificentfrigatebird.com. The counter tracks visitors to not only the blog but also our birder gift & novelty shop and our Amazon affiliate birder shopping pages for books, birding supplies and optics. Last month I decided to keep track of some of the more unusual search terms people used to find the site. Here’s a breakdown of the most interesting search terms.

  • what are you doing? how would you like someone to blow that thing inside your house? This strange sequence of text leads to my previous blog post about Hayden Panettiere coming to the defense of birds while shooting an episode of Heroes. It makes sense once you read the article, but taken out of context, I can’t imagine what people would think that is all about!
  • swift value Just what is a swift worth these days, anyway?
  • frigate bird pooping At least they weren’t searching using Google’s image search.
  • giant crow museum Woo hoo! Magnificentfriagebird.com is number one in Google for this search! I’m just wondering: were they looking for a museum all about to oversized crows, or a massive institution devoted to corvids?
  • transvestite bird Rock on, this site is also number one in Google for this term.
  • women pishing I guess this one was looking for a list of great pick-up lines?
  • pecker prints No comment.

    Checking your stats is a great way to keep tuned in to what your visitors are looking for. They can spark a new idea for a future blog post or (in my case) a fun inspiration for a new line of t-shirts!

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    • Posted in Offbeat, Search Terms | Leave a comment

    Heroes star stops shoot to spare birds

    by Amy Posted on 31 January 2009

    Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere is a well-known defender of animals and her work with PETA.

    Hayden Panettiere halted shooting on ‘Heroes’ after she accused a crew member of being cruel to birds.

    The 19-year-old actress was reportedly furious when the worker used a huge lawn-blower to blast birds out of a nearby tree after they disturbed filming.

    Hayden is said to have shouted: “What are you doing? How would you like someone to blow that thing inside your house?”

    The blonde star defended the feathered creatures by insisting they were only flying in front of the camera to get back to their nest in the tree.

    She reportedly made such a fuss the director eventually decided to move the scene to a new location.

    I doubt the lawn-blower blasted birds were white doves, but this was the most appropriate image of Ms. Panettiere I could find for this blurb. Read the whole story here: Hayden Panettiere’s bird row.

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    Posted in Offbeat | 2 Comments

    Funny Google auto-complete suggestions

    by Amy Posted on 29 January 2009

    When using Google to search the internet, suggested phrases appear after you type in a few letters if you have the auto-complete functionality turned on. It’s a great tool to see what are the top searched phrases that start with words you’re researching.

    I had some fun with this tonight by searching for bird-related phrases. When I typed birds are in the search box, two of the top phrases that came up were birds are endotherms or warm-blooded animals. hypothesize how this can be an advantage for the birds and birds are spies they report to the trees. That last one is one of the coolest band names I’ve ever heard of.

    googlesearch


    Typing birds with led me to birds with funny names which led me to some interesting lists.

    Here are a couple of other searches I tried:

    where do birds… go when it rains | go during a hurricane

    what are birds… we just don’t know | afraid of

    why don’t birds… get shocked on power lines | freeze in the winter | have teeth

    Have you found any funny or interesting suggestions when using Google?

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    Posted in Offbeat, Search Terms | 4 Comments