Credits

Hi. Sorry about the lack of posts lately. It can be rather tedious doing a "Bird Facts!" every night. I am working on the Getting Familiar With The Three Ducks and it is nearly finished. After that I will be doing a post on Domestic Mallards That Look Like Wild-Form Mallards, meaning farmyard ducks that have not lost their wild-Mallard-like plumage pattern. It is confusing to tell between feral/domestic ducks of this kind and true wild Mallard on a lake or pond where domestic fowl live too. Right on with today's post: photo credits.

All I really want to say is:

If you recognise your photograph on this blog, for I have not seen all birds I have wished to refer to, I am not trying to claim it as mine. To do that would be greatly irresponsible and disrespectful to the fantastic birdwatchers and wildlife photographers out there. I greatly (yes I have used that word twice DEAL WITH IT) appreciate the effort put in by these people and wish to pay homage to those whose images I have used. :o) You are epic and that's a fact.


I have changed the rules about "Bird Facts!". They will be scattered throughout the posts, but as you have not had one since the Golden Eagle talon pathetic-length-post one, here one comes!:


"Bird Facts!"

The national bird of Australia (Austraylia mayte! lol I love Australian accents) is the Emu. The Emu is a Ratite, that is, in the family of flightless birds including the largest extant bird, the Ostrich. Ratites differ from other birds because they lack a keeled breastbone (sternum). Some extinct Ratites were huge. Giant Moas grew to four metres tall! These were not the heaviest of birds though. That goes to the "Elephant Bird". The Elephant Birds were really a group of birds, comprising the genera Aepyornis and Mullerornis. They lived on Madagascar and were made extinct by humans (damn man no near-rhyme intended!) in the 17th century. The species most considered the Elephant Bird is Aepyornis maximus. So that was really three facts in one: 1. the Emu is the national bird of Australia 2. Ratites are a family of large flightless bird that including the Ostrich 3. Elephant Birds WERE the heaviest birds of all. 

A Kiwi, a weird nocturnal long-billed chicken-sized furry
Ratite, that is related to an Ostrich (don't trust
appearances). AWWWW look at it's FACE.

Sir
David Attenborough (one of the most epic people of all time) with an egg of an Aepyornis maximus

Emus. The second-largest extant bird, the national bird of Australia, and a very feisty one too! 

BYEEEEE!