What does a Blue Jay symbolize? The old records make the jaybird the devil's Friday errand-runner, with a few luck and rain omens; Native American stories make it a watcher and boaster; Thoreau and ...

Why the Mourning Dove is called that, what American folk beliefs said about its call (rain, love, luck and death), its names in Cherokee, Navajo and Nahuatl, the doves of the Bible, and what modern ...

A Goldcrest's song is a very high, thin run of notes rocking between a higher and a lower pitch, ending in a short flourish; the calls are thin and high. Listen to recordings from Britain, see them as ...

Blue Jays eat nuts more than anything else, above all acorns, plus insects, corn and fruit, and a little of almost everything else. Here is what stomach studies found month by month, why jays are so ...

It depends which version you learned. In the lines known from the 1970s, eight is for a wish, nine for a kiss and ten for a bird not to be missed. 14 In the 1850s North of England version, eight was ...

Those familiar with the fairytale “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen may remember how the ‘ugly duckling’ in the story was actually a baby swan and not a duckling at all! In real life, ...

fastest-running birds on the planet. Both extant species of Ostriches are endemic to the African continent, although you can see these incredible flightless birds in zoos, farms, and other captive ...

Magpies build a big domed nest of sticks high in a tree, starting as early as December. In Britain the first eggs are laid around 22 April: usually 5 or 6 pale blue-green eggs, incubated by the female ...

Baby Mourning Doves hatch blind and thinly covered in down after 14 days of incubation, are fed crop milk and then seeds by both parents, and leave the nest at about two weeks old. The male keeps ...

Lovebirds are small, brightly coloured Old World parrots, native to Africa, with a reputation for being fiercely loyal, loving companions once they have found their “soulmate”. They are commonly kept ...

Humans have lived alongside the humble chicken for over 5,000 years or so. Chickens originally descended from Red junglefowl, a shy bird that lives primarily in South-Eastern Asia, but they have been ...

Ducks, including various species like Mallards, Pintails, and Goldeneyes, are skilled fliers capable of undertaking long migration journeys, displaying different flight styles and techniques. Most ...