I have never owned a bird, though my bonus mom has had cockatiels, a pet crow (Charlie), bantam hens, racing pigeons, budgies, and canaries. I have had friends with African grey parrots. I also think birds are incredibly beautiful, particularly the brightly coloured ones. They are flying works of art.
I am also in awe of migrating birds, some of which travel incredible distances. They know where they are going and some of them do it non-stop.
There was a bad oil spill near Robben Island in South Africa some years ago. They bundled all the penguins from Robben Island into crates on trucks and drove them some 1000km east to Port Elizabeth, where they released them into the ocean. Three of them – Pamela, Percy and Peter – were wearing trackers. Those penguins knew exactly how to get home, and their progress was broadcast every evening on the news. While they were swimming, the spill was being cleaned up. It took them less than three weeks to get home. [article]
I also love murmurations. They are like northern lights in bird form.
The above murmuration photographs were taken by photographer and scientist Dr Kathryn Cooper using chronophotography – a 19th century photographic technique.
Thanks for the explanation of the photos. They are fabulous
I love murmurations for the same reason as you do: they are like the Northern Lights but with birds. I didn’t know birds made non-stop flights of such amazing distances when migrating but then, they are fabulous. I thought the longest non-stop migrations were from Northern Europe to Africa for the winter.