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Thursday, July 28, 2011

One bird, duly identified

Reporting in from Transcend, again. Tom's conference ends this afternoon, so we'll be off to Calgary tomorrow.

I've identified the bird I mentioned in my On the Road, in Canada post. It's a black-billed magpie. The image to the left is thanks to the Canku Ota site. In their description of these birds is the following characterization:
Well-known as "camp-robbers", the magpies belong to the same family as crows, ravens and jays. They adapt well to people and take advantage of anything left unattended in a camp. They've even been known to go inside of tents!!
The description mentions their "scolding call," which to my ear sounds like something between a Steller's Jay and a Belted Kingfisher, maybe with a dash of Northern Flicker thrown in. "Magpie," of course, is a bird I've been encountering in my reading since childhood. Now I've actually seen one in the flesh. It's a little like hearing someone use a word I knew from my reading but had never before heard pronounced and was silently giving it the wrong pronunciation. Haven't had that kind of experience in a long, long time.

3 comments:

  1. It's always the pretty ones... You might enjoy Birdbrain (Johana Sinisalo) now, if you haven't already read it. The Kiwi version of this bird is one main character. -Carrie

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  2. Thanks, Carrie-- So I guess that "Birdbrain" is meant literally. Wow. I love the idea of a bird as a main character. Definitely need to check this one out.

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  3. Of the books I've read by Belted Kingfisher, I like The Poisonwood Bible best.

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