i will assume, for the sake of argument, that you are holding a metaphorical gun to my head as you ask this, because otherwise my only answer will be a steadfast NO NO NO, I WILL NOT CHOOSE BETWEEN MY CHILDREN, ALL BIRDS ARE PERFECT AND WONDERFUL
so, with that being said,,,,
worst bird: penguins. look, a huge part of the appeal of birds, for me, is when they’re flyin’ around doing their flappy thing; flightlessness is a problem. emus, ostrichs, and hoatzins get a pass because they are so damn weird they manage to be hugely appealing anyway, but penguins? eh. too mainstream. to conventionally cute. swimming is meh.
best bird: picking a single best bird is impossible, BUT, i can give best bird in various subcategories:
best warbler: hooded warbler. first saw these guys in west virginia and been obsessed with them ever since. they have little HOODS it’s so CUTE ahhhh (runner-up is black-and-white warbler because the way they hop up-and-down tree trunks is very unwarblerlike and also adorable)
bird with the best song : hearing pacific wrens singing in the spring always makes me lose my entire mind; literally one of the most beautiful songs in all of nature bar none
best angry bird: MARSH WRENS. they sound like furious lil typewriters! what’s not to love
bird with the best colloquial name: the slang term for yellow-rumped warblers is BUTTERBUTTS and i love it
best invasive species: people are way too mean to starlings D: it’s not their fault they’re invasive! and also they are SO PRETTY; i love iridescent birds so much sighs into hands
best north american bird of prey: osprey. did you know those bitches are zygodactyl? and also exist on six continents? and look and sound majestic as hell (unlike, e.g., the bald eagle, which i love, but has the stupidest-sounding call ever)? yeah i just think anything that can dominate land AND sea AND air this hard deserves a hat-tip
best gull: the swallow-tailed gull. goofy nocturnal gull that feeds on jellyfish and lives in the Galapagos, but one got EXTREMELY lost and wound up in a park near my old house one time and i have loved them ever since
best vulture: egyptian vulture. true story i wrote like half a novel when i was 13, about a giant Watership Down / Firebringer-style war between the birds, and there was a bunch of vulture representation of the form of Weird But Nice Pacifistic Cultists, and i had an egyptian vulture as their leader and it was awesome and i love them
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Date: 2022-04-27 07:33 pm (UTC)so, with that being said,,,,
worst bird: penguins. look, a huge part of the appeal of birds, for me, is when they’re flyin’ around doing their flappy thing; flightlessness is a problem. emus, ostrichs, and hoatzins get a pass because they are so damn weird they manage to be hugely appealing anyway, but penguins? eh. too mainstream. to conventionally cute. swimming is meh.
best bird: picking a single best bird is impossible, BUT, i can give best bird in various subcategories:
best warbler: hooded warbler. first saw these guys in west virginia and been obsessed with them ever since. they have little HOODS it’s so CUTE ahhhh (runner-up is black-and-white warbler because the way they hop up-and-down tree trunks is very unwarblerlike and also adorable)
bird with the best song : hearing pacific wrens singing in the spring always makes me lose my entire mind; literally one of the most beautiful songs in all of nature bar none
best angry bird: MARSH WRENS. they sound like furious lil typewriters! what’s not to love
bird with the best colloquial name: the slang term for yellow-rumped warblers is BUTTERBUTTS and i love it
best invasive species: people are way too mean to starlings D: it’s not their fault they’re invasive! and also they are SO PRETTY; i love iridescent birds so much sighs into hands
best north american bird of prey: osprey. did you know those bitches are zygodactyl? and also exist on six continents? and look and sound majestic as hell (unlike, e.g., the bald eagle, which i love, but has the stupidest-sounding call ever)? yeah i just think anything that can dominate land AND sea AND air this hard deserves a hat-tip
best gull: the swallow-tailed gull. goofy nocturnal gull that feeds on jellyfish and lives in the Galapagos, but one got EXTREMELY lost and wound up in a park near my old house one time and i have loved them ever since
best vulture: egyptian vulture. true story i wrote like half a novel when i was 13, about a giant Watership Down / Firebringer-style war between the birds, and there was a bunch of vulture representation of the form of Weird But Nice Pacifistic Cultists, and i had an egyptian vulture as their leader and it was awesome and i love them