Bird of the Week: You Have Once Again Sent Us Good Birds

You never fail!

Aug 18, 2023

Last month, we made one of our semi-regular callouts for new good birds that we should know about and/or highlight on Bird of the Week. You, our beloved readers, responded as you always do: with INCREDIBLE NEW BIRDS.

We went right into Falcon Month after we did the callout so it’s been a minute since we’ve had the chance to feature some of your suggestions. But now we’re seizing the moment! Here are some, but by no means all, of the amazing birds you sent our way. (If you don’t see your suggestion here, don’t worry!!! It just means we’re saving it for a later date.)

Most of these birds were submitted to our email at hello@discourseblog.com. Hint hint! We read your emails, and we love bird emails, and we use your suggestions! So keep ‘em coming.

OK, onto the birds!!!! Thanks so much again, and see ya next time.

Purple Martin

“I’d like to nominate the Purple Martin for Bird of the Week. A social little guy who appreciates the value of mid-rise low-density housing projects.” — Katrina Westin

Osprey

“They eat fish, almost exclusively. They have a reversible outer toe so they can hold the fish facing forwards to be aerodynamic! Look at pictures of ospreys diving into the water with absolute Perfect Form.

And they're a success story, coming back from being threatened by DDT, partially because humans started building nesting platforms for them and because of bans on pesticide usage. That's my case to feature the osprey." — Gray Denney

“My daughter is a neurobiologist and assistant professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who studies the zebra finch and its songs. Lovely bird, interesting analogs to human language acquisition.” — Richard Bruno

Barred owl

“Evidently, they’re called barred owls because of the bar pattern found on their back feathers, but I’d say whoever named them really missed an opportunity to call them bard owls because their call sounds like a little story—some people say it sounds like “Who cooks for you,” which…sure, I guess. They’re also more prone to daytime hunting than other types of owls, and we love to see animals do their own thing. These are the best facts I know about barred owls, but I’m sure there are lots more.” — Rebecca McCloud

Yellow-breasted chat

“The yellow breasted chat is a cutie and a mystery and a jazz musician and I love them. They're the only bird in their family because we used to think they were warblers but oh buddy they aren't warblers. Maybe they're blackbirds? Who knows! Anyway they have a VERY long and CRAZY song that just whinnies and gurgles and cackles all OVER the place and makes you think maybe you like free jazz but it's more likely that you like cute songbirds with banana-colored chests and snazzy white spectacles. Great bird!!” — Amelia

A reminder: you can check out our complete Bird of the Week list here, and get in touch with your bird suggestions at hello@discourseblog.com.