That Poor Fish!

 Okay, I know how this looks. This bird is not actually as brutal as you might think. It's called the Great Blue Heron. This large water bird is covered in strikingly blue plumage on it's body and scruffy grey feathers around it's shoulders. During the winter, it's plumage is more white and grey. It lives all over North America, migrating around the Rocky Mountains, and James Bay, Canada. If you've ever seen these, then you know how huge they are. They are often hard to sneak up on, but if you can, it's totally worth it. Here's the URL for a video of this bird up close. Maybe we'll find a way to put the video on the page, but until then, this is what we've got.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5E2MA0w38

If you saw the video, than I hope you realized that this fish eating water bird isn't so much a monster. We think it's pretty cool!
                                                   

The Worlds Laziest Bird.

The angel tern is one of the worlds laziest birds. They are white in color, with black eyes and a black bill. These seabirds inhabit islands near the equator and part of the southern hemisphere. We think that this is bird is one of the laziest birds on the planet because it refuses to do any hard work to take care of it’s young. For one thing, this bird does not build a nest, but lays it’s egg on a tree branch, and sits on it to keep it balanced.
How lazy is that? They don’t even make or look for a comfortable home for there young. If that isn’t idol enough, they don’t even bother making it easier for their young to chew. They just give them whole fish. Imagine a young chick trying to gulp down a whole fish. In flight, this birds wings look almost translucent at the egde. A great place to see these birds close up, is on Lord Howe island, off the east coast of Australia.

Pretty Bird, Hideous Home.-The Red and Yellow Barbet

      This is the Red and Yellow Barbet. this is bird is one of the most distinctive barbets of them all. It has a very vibrant head pattern and has spots on it's wings, like white drops of paint on a black canvas. It's tail feathers are stripes of black and white. It's chest and underparts are a lemonade yellow, and a stripe crosses it's chest with a pattern similar to that of its wings.


"Wata you lookin' at!?"

This doesn't taste anywhere as good as the hamburger I snagged from that teenaged girl's hands!
 

There diet includes fruit, seeds, insects, lizards, and even small birds and there eggs. They also take advantage of trash cans. This bird also lays it's eggs in an unusualy strange home. A termite mound. Red and Yellow Barbets group together during the mating season. The dominant male mates with one female, and the rest of the birds act as slaves, giving the couple food, and sometimes digging the hole in the termite mound. They're practically slaves! Aside from that, We think that this is a really cool bird.

Oh my gosh, that duck has TEETH!

       Imagine yourself as a fish. You have decided to take a morning swim through the lake. You are feeling pretty good, and you're minding you own buissiness. Little do you know that a viscious razor toothed duck named Vlad  has decided to have you and your little fishy friends for breakfast! You swim right into the serated mouth of death. In other words, the mouth of Vlad. Pain swallows your body, and black death engulfes your soul. You struggle to hold on to dear life, but you are forced down it's gulet, never to see the light of day again. You have been eaten by the not so freindly Vlad... he is a Common Merganser.

You and Vlad, together forever!

Vlad's assult weapon.

       Common Mergansers such as Vlad or his brother Phill (who ate the rest of your family), are a special kind of duck with a serated bill, which gives it the appearence of having teeth. They have a long thin bill and black patches of feathers on their back. The male has a greenhead. The female has an orange-brown head that spikes out in the back  As a snack they eat poor defenseles fishies like yourself. They live in North America, Asia, and Europe. They have "fins" on their feet that help them swim in lakes to eat fish. So, if you have thought about being a fish, you might want to rethink that.

To Many ROCK CONCERTS

This is the frilled coquette: what some might call the champion of crazy hair day. Or the craziest rock star in the world. Though it is not because of  this look, it is because of it's mating display. But we'll get to that later. This bird is 3 1/4 in. and weighs only 3grams. They live on the central part of the east coast and the jungles around there. It has an orange crest on top of it's head. White feather tufts spotted with black help with the matting display. Black feathers cover the neck and the back of the head and ear coverts are a blue-green reflecting color that kind of sparkles. It has an amazing tail that is brown, orange, and thin. They drink nectar from tube like flowers. Now for the mating display. Look at this! Isn't that amazing? The feather tufts are orange when the are spread out! The black feathers look puffy! The tail feathers spread!
This bird is so Awesome

What's this Speck on my Pencil?

OK it isn't a speck. But it is only 2 in. tall and this pencil is the perfect perch. This bee hummingbird  weighs almost nothing, at 2 grams. That's 1/16of an ounce. It has a striking red head that tops the deep blue wings. After two birds mate, the male leaves.This bird only lays 2 eggs. The chicks are in there eggs for a bout 22 days.(what's with all the twos?) The chicks stay with the mother for about 19 days.(Finally, a number besides 2!) Tiny but brave, this bird dive bombs anything that gets to close to the chicks, even eagles.   Native only to Cuba and a nearby Island called Isla de la Juventud this bird lives in lush green forests, and drinks nectar from tube like flowers every 5 minutes in order to live. This bird is truly extraordinary.

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It's a pilow! It's coconut! It's, it's, it's... It's a Kiwi?

That's right, a kiwi: a strange tropical bird that roams the jungles of New Zealand. However, not just any kiwi, the brown kiwi, the largest kiwi  in Stewart Island. This bird also lives on the south island and can grow to be 26in. in length. As in the name, this kiwi has brown feathers. This flightless nocturnal bird likes the lush, green, sub-tropical environment. The female store it's eggs in a burrow, and the male watches the eggs for about 70 days until the eggs hatch. When the eggs finally hatch, the chicks are born with all there feathers.After a week, they leave the burrow to fend for themselves.It has fat chicken like feet, but the back toe is very short. It has a very long, thin beak that it uses to get bugs out of the ground. It has a humpback body, and 2in. wings. Three subspecies inhabit each of the islands: North, South, and Stewart Islands. Despite these unusual facts Brown Kiwis  Are barely hearable. The male brown kiwis can only be heard 5ft away, and then nothing is to be heard. You could be walking a few feet away from a kiwi and not no it.One more fact about the kiwi is that it is New Zealand's state bird. That's all about The Brown Kiwi!