I love how to my very tired brain this seems like some kind of deep passage about how home is where the heart is and I went “aw”, and scrolled down a good six posts before going “wait fuCKIGN MINUTE.”
Wait a minute, is the plover an actual animal? I always thought this scene was listing plumbers as migratory animals, and I was just like “yeah that checks out, it’s Monty Python after all. Probably a British joke I don’t get.”
Plovers are a migratory shorebird! there are many species of plover, but the Piping Plover is the most famous becuase of it’s ubiquitousness and FUCKING ADORABLE BABIES:
they lay their eggs in the sand, get crazy territorial, and when it’s cold out, they stuff thier babies into thier soft underfluff:
Which results in hilarity like this:
If you go to a beach and little birds with long legs are running back and forth right at the edge of the water, darting after the waves to probe furiously into the sand before running away from the waves, those are probably plovers. They eat little invertebrates that live in the wet sand, and, funnily enough, they can’t actually swim. See their little feets? No webbing. They aren’t waterproof, either, they just make do by avoiding water.
This is an Anna’s Hummingbird; named after Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli.
Also, evidently hand feeding Hummingbirds is a kinda popular thing. All you have to do is put sugar-water that’s been dyed red or any other bright, flower like color in your hand and stand around some hummingbirds.
It highkey looks like that hummingbird just attacked that person’s hand and is now drinking the blood though. Lol
…have you ever met a hummingbird? They want nothing more than blood.
Red dye isn’t good for them, especially if they’re drinking a lot. Instead, make a fabric flower silhouette and train them to come to that in your hand for the sugar water underneath, then they’ll come to your hand without it once they learn.
Don’t put red dye in your feeders, either, the red on the base is enough.
Also, those tiny feet mean they can’t really walk. They can shuffle sideways a bit, but that’s it. The babies don’t really move in the nest until they start learning to fly.
this is primarily an obnoxious ad for the enamel pin above (pre-order it here, folks!), but I’m gonna use this opportunity to compare Velociraptor to modern descendants, and see how it stacks up!
Velociraptors & cassowaries evolved hypertrophied claws for entirely different purposes – the ‘slashing, killing claw’ of the Velociraptor is a myth, but modern-day cassowaries have the Real Deal, a ice pick-like weapon on their second toe that can grow to 5 inches.
“The inner or second of the three toes is fitted with a long, straight, murderous nail which can sever an arm or eviscerate an abdomen with ease. There are many records of natives being killed by this bird” – ornithologist Ernest Thomas Gilliard
notice how the cassowary has a straight dagger, while Velociraptor has a hook? modern equivalents to Velociraptor’s hypertrophied claw are eagle talons, used for gripping prey & maneuvering in trees. because it was a terrestrial runner, Velociraptor held this tool off the ground to keep it razor-sharp, but modern birds-of-prey (given the luxury of flight) have transformed ALL their talons into the famous Velociraptor sickle claw!
tl;dr turns out the group aves used the last 66 million years to advance their weaponry & out murder-bird their ancestors (sorry Velociraptor!)
interesting update!! another modern analogue exists, in the Seriema
though they can fly short distances. Seriemas prefer running from danger. they are the closest living relative to the flightless Terror Birds, which preyed upon proto-horses in the Miocene! the red-legged species is used by farmers to guard property against wild animals & human intruders & DEAR GOD you can easily see why:
Seriema feet are not used when capturing/killing prey, but the raised claw is apparently involved in intraspecies conflict, wherein two Seriemas will rear up & kick at eachother, flapping their wings to maintain balance
SO was Velociraptor’s claw used for arboreal maneuvering & RPR (raptor prey restraint) like an eagle, or intraspecies fighting like a Seriema? unfortunately they are quite dead, so we’ll never know (though I’d put money on it being a multipurpose tool!)
Reblogging for birb foot science!
Well, that’s a horrifying thought, Velociraptors hopping around in trees to jump on unsuspecting prey. I mean, even if they were only about turkey-sized, that’s still a pretty impressive thing to have coming at your face with several feet of falling momentum behind it.
Also, please watch this furious modern dinosaur scream at and try to frighten a car.
Cormorants are those birds that look like mini Loch Ness Monsters, the ones you see swimming in the water with just their head, neck, and a tiny bit of their back out. They stand upright when on land.
Baby birds are freaky-lookin’ things already when they aren’t baby waterbirds. These guys are just piling it on.
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