birdsoup

I often get asked “What is your favorite bird?” The honest answer is I do not have one single favorite. My favorite changes, usually based on what I have seen most recently. This past weekend, for example, I saw a Belted Kingfisher so that is now one of my current favorites.

I wondered why I like kingfishers. There are probably a number of different reasons. (1) I do not see them very often (2) They are kind of “goofy” looking, with a huge head out of proportion to the rest of its body, a dagger-like bill, and shaggy crest. (3) They have an aloof personality ignoring humans and other birds. They hang out by themselves and don’t form flocks. I wonder how they ever able to reproduce. (4) Their song is unmusical, described by Roger Tory Peterson as sounding like a stick being dragged along a picket fence.

The real reason kingfishers are on my favorites list is that when I was just a beginning birder there was always a kingfisher in my local birding spot. It would sit on a bare branch overlooking a pond patiently looking for a fish. It was easy to get a good close-up look.

Of course, this weekend I also saw another one of my favorites – a male Wood Duck. It is the gaudiest looking bird, looks like it was painted by a child using his favorite colors. A very striking, unnatural paint job. I can’t imagine how evolution could have explain it distinctive patterns.
It is another one of my favorite birds. At least until I see another one of my favorites.