Hi, I was in two minds to post this as it's a bit lame and there's obviously explanations but I thought I'd share it anyway. I moved into a new home back in May this year, a little old fashioned cottage. Some friends helped me bring in my belongings and after they'd gone I was pottering...

While birds are fast asleep, their brains remain active, firing off electrical signals that can mimic those that occur while they’re awake and singing. This silent brain activity can even make the vocal muscles in their chests and throats move—similar to the way a sleeping dog’s paws might...

In an Incredible Discovery, Wrens Teach Their Babies to Sing Before They're Hatched Nature08 January 2024 By Carly Cassella A little over a decade ago, researchers in Australia were placing recorders in the nests of superb fairywrens (Malurus cyaneus) when they discovered something entirely...

A strange question - but they seem to be regarded as funny all around the world. Is it their long history of domestication - but we don't seem to imbue ducks, geese, doves or pigeons with quite the same mirth-index. Could it be their appearance or demeanour? But turkeys are far odder looking...

Luckily, no harm seems to have been caused and the young owl was released into wide blue yonder via the family's back garden! From https://news.sky.com/story/family-find-baby-owl-living-in-christmas-tree-13031464 "...Every year the White family of Lexington, Kentucky, pick their own tree and...

This bird is half male, half female. ' A striking and extremely rare half female, half male bird has been spotted by a University of Otago zoologist. Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professor Hamish Spencer. Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professor Hamish Spencer was holidaying in Colombia...

Crow drops mystery clue propelling murder probe in Istanbul BY DAILY SABAH WITH AGENCIES JUN 22, 2023 9:56 AM A bizarre and chilling incident unfolded at a local fuel station, capturing the attention of authorities and leaving the community bewildered. The discovery of a human foot's [sic]...

A research team in New Mexico is converting taxidermic birds into drones in order to study flight patterns. Mostafa Hassanalian, a mechanical engineering professor leading the project at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, said the team started looking into deceased...

this happened a couple of weeks ago, on afternoon of sunday 12th march in fact ... and not far from the locus of the bizarre night in mississippi i have been gradually exploring backroads of the mississippi delta by car over the last period, stopping and checking out historic blues places and...

Maybe you`ve seen the billboard near the Highland Strip. If so, you know that a campaign called "Birds Aren`t Real" is bringing its efforts to the Mid-South. Peter McIndoe joined us on Live at 9 to explain what he believes. ‘Every tweet is a lie’: Birds Aren’t Real campaign spreads message...

A few nights ago I was sitting up watching late night TV, and heard what I can only describe as an exotic bird, it was loud and sounded to be just beyond the back door in my back garden - It was the sort of sound that you may hear, if you visited the bird house in your local zoo. Not wanting to...

This is in the news today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-hereford-worcester-47270317/mesmerising-starling-murmuration-captured-near-leominster It reminded me of experiences from the early 1960s. I'd say around 1960-62. As a child I saw something even more wonderful, but also...

Last week in Glasgow....young birds deciding to come in from the cold, into Asda's supermarket trolley shelters. And this was right by the front door, with masses of people just feet away Highly Hitchcockean.....(I got a brief video of them as well)

slowdown.co.uk/beta/perm.asp?pl=Starlings Link is long dead. No archived version found. pretty weird

There doesn't seem to be a general purpose thread for scary noises and spooky sounds, so here's one. Mods, if there's a better place for this, please feel free to move it. Tonight, I needed to go down to the nearest shop. It was about 11 PM, just before closing time. It was cold, windy and...

Over the last 100 years, thousands of birds have flown to their death over a small strip of land in Jatinga, India. In a town of only 2,500 people, this bizarre Bermuda Triangle of fowl death remains largely unexplained, despite studies by India's most prestigious ornithologists. After...

Goose photographed flying upside down telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... -down.html Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20090523084442/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/5353933/Goose-photographed-flying-upside-down.html...

I was in a taxi tonight coming through East London on my way home from work. It was 23:50. I noticed out of my corner of my eye a large flock of birds which looked like seagulls swooping around. I cricked my neck and reckon there were scores of them I spent he first 24 years of my life on the...

ok, Im a newbie here so please be gentle. I was 10 years old, must have been the mid 1970's. Me and me dad was walking the dog through a local housing estate. I noticed the local birds, sparrows and starlings, just sort of hopping around on the pavement and walls. Thing was they didnt scatter...

Link unrecoverable, animal identified below Now that's some weird creature. My head says its been 'shopped, my gut says real - however impossible that may be. It's the noise it makes. Truly sinister. Wadd'ya all reckon? obviously move merge mods if ive repeated someone else's groove...

Mass starling suicide baffles experts Wildlife experts in the German city of Stuttgart are baffled after a flock of starlings made a mass suicide attempt leaving dozens of birds dead. Pedestrians watched as hundreds of birds flew over the city before suddenly nose-diving to the ground from...

Not sure of this should be here so moderators please feel free to move it. Has anyone heard of a bird that eats bones, usually small ones but if they can't get to the marrow they fly up and drop them to smash them open. My granddad swears he has seen a TV documentary that shows this...

Here we go again!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5275678.stm

Hi, yesterday at the library I've been browsing symbol-encyclopedias to check if every bird I can see from my window has some symbolic meaning or legend. I found, as expected: magpie, crow/raven (we don't have these but we have rookies), duck, heron, pigeon. But I didn't find anything on...

Source

Bizarre birds I've dated a few and it seems NZ is chock full of them: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0921_040921_newzealand_birds.html

I wouldn't say I'm superstitious. Just eccentric;) It's not that I believe certain things cause bad luck; I just have certain things I don't like. I salute magpies. ...

This was on R4 just now. One woman interviewed won't leave her house without carrying a broom to beat off aggressive seagulls and newspaper deliveries have ceased as the kids are too scared of being pecked as they ride along. Residents of the seaside town of Monkseaton have become terrified...

from 'ere and 'ere

I am increasingly aware of what appears to me to be a "new" folklore in the making. A phenomena that is coming into being, but not yet commented on. My own account has been told by me several times and I won't take up space in my first posting by giving the full story. But the bones of it...

Ah, I've been looking all over the 'net for an amusing article that I saw on Penguins and then I find it again in this week's New Scientist: Poop Shooters of the Antarctic "Penguins are talented birds. They not only survive extreme temperatures, waddle vast distances and dive to...

Budgie Communication This is fascinating! http://www.budgieresearch.homestead.com/ Link is dead, and so is the domain. ---<snip>------------- The main focus of the study is about a budgie named Victor who had a vocabulary of more than 800 words and thousands of phrases. It shows how he...

Here's a heartwarming story, any ideas why a bird should act this way?

it seems Holand is in the grip of a Chicken flue epidemic (remeber the one in Hong Kong during which all the chickens in HK were killed and 6 people died) It is transmisible to humans and its rather nasty.... and Portugease Chickens have just been found to contain banned antibiotics/growth...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/01/15/offbeat.drunk.birds.ap/index.html STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Thousands of drunks are smashing into windows at Karlstad University, but it isn't students blowing off steam. Instead, birds feasting on fermented berries are getting drunk and playing...

Are Crows more intelligent than Chimps, it seems they are capable of making tools. have a look.

crow courts A couple of days ago I saw a crow court. A large number of birds were on the ground in a circle with one in the centre that they were pecking at. When a car drove past the birds flew into the trees but formed another circle on the ground a short distance away after the car...

I was just wondering if anyone had noticed changes in their local pigeon population? I don't want to go into details yet... could be a purely local thing, and of course I could be imagining/exagerating it :rolleyes: Anyone? Jane.

Stop the pigeon Another FOAF tale that I hope can be verified/disproven. Apparently, if you give amphetamines and/or alka selsa to pigeons they will explode.:cross eye

... which would be a fortean subject by itself :) Does anyone remember the name of the book about dodo-like birds found alive and well on a small South Pacific island? I think it was written by the man who set up Jersey zoo (whose name escapes me now...). Stop me if I begin to make sense...

I've a few avian mysteries and observations... To begin, there was the incident witnessed by my girlfriend and I in 1999 as we followed two other cars through the country lanes near Banbury. Without warning - and obviously disturbed by the passage of the car in front - a pheasant shot out...