Beltsville Small White

In the 1930's, in a secret research facility in Beltsville, Maryland, scientists worked feverishly (and often, mad scientist laughter roared from the lab) to create a new breed of animal.

The proper clarification of the bird is variety rather than breed, and the scientist were not diabolical (though there's always that one in every crowd who wants to rule the world). The cooks of America demanded a diminutive bird that accommodated their ovens, and voila, the birth of the first Beltsville Small White transpired.

The Beltsville  is a beautiful white creature with row after row of lacy feathers swathing its neck, chest and back region. The tail feathers stand up in a creamy white fan, and the face......oh, the humanity. The face and the snood (the horrible textured growths that flow off a turkey's face and neck) appear alarmingly ugly, except to female turkeys. The brighter and aggrandized the snood--generates immense sex appeal to the ladies.

Sadly, this turkey endured as a flash in the pan (intended pun), people pushed it aside for a different variety, and the Beltsville small white came close to leaving the world in the way of the dinosaur (except there wasn't a hot fiery rock crashing into our earth, forming an enormous crater, creating a tremendous dust cloud that blocked out the sun which wiped out a large portion of living creatures), and it's listed as critical on the conservation chart. Even though they were created by man, though using God's ingredients, shouldn't they have the right to continue just as any animal has that right.
There're a few farmers out there who still raise these birds, and the Beltsville Small Whites may have a chance at life (hey, they didn't ask to be born created).
I anticipate they will exceed all expectations, and perchance, a sporadic bird or two might escape to the wild to create unique adventures.

Adelie Penguin

Today, I choose to write about the Adelie Penguin, and my knowledge of this bird consists of penguins that (appear) to wear tuxedos, plus comparable to all penguins, Adele Penguins captivate us with their intense cuteness.
One physical behavior they posses (which I desire) is the belly flop. As they run along the snow and ice on their little legs and big feet, they will undoubtedly fall, and this is where the belly flop comes into play. They fall with ease, and once on their bellies they slide for a short distance on the ice, as if to say I meant to do that, and I did it with style.
I recently fell on my knee, which caused a great deal of damage and pain. How wonderful if I could have fallen on my stomach and gracefully slid across the room, at which point I could have stood up and dusted myself off and moved on without pain or embarrassment.

Some of the earliest explorers in Antarctica wrote about these little birds, and how friendly and annoying they could be. They remind me of arctic squirrels in the way they loved to taunt the sled dogs and their curiosity of the entire expeditions. Many video's on Youtube show their feet running as hard as they can to a helicopter or people nearby.

The birds live in Antarctica all their lives, yet when it's time to breed, they travel up to ten thousand miles to arrive at their breeding grounds. Even though I can't find the information showing their means of  travel--I assume that they are underwater most of the way. They can swim close to 50 mph, and this rate would take them up to a month to arrive at their destination.
They create nests out of rocks, and will fight other parents who try to steal a rock for themselves. Both parents help to raise the young, though one odd action they implement, requires their chicks to run behind them at feeding time--shown in the video below.
I would love to have one as a pet, and hug and kiss it. Every night I would tuck it into it's little ice bed, and most likely it would be my best friend.
Though that is a wonderful daydream--alas it could never be my reality, and so I will just admire them from afar.

Andean Teal

I wonder if there's anything as boring as reading the Taxonomy of a bird. I know that it avails a necessary function of classifying into species and subspecies, and putting animals in their proper place, and is a commitment of immense importance. I love the fact that a duck will never be classified as a parrot, yet I feel callous indifference, and I frequently maneuver away when my eyes arrive on that portion of an article, .

The sad news often occurs that the entire bird article tells the taxonomy with a few scant tidbits thrown in. I'm trying to write my own article and find what information that I can gather up, and all I'm presented with is that Anas andium andium is a subspecies of the Andean Teal. As I've previous stated, this doesn't make for fun reading, unless you're an ornithologist.

Then the work starts, searching the web and watching videos, sifting through data, and sometimes I'm lucky, though many times I'm not. This time I found a site named beautyofbirds.com and though I didn't hit the mother lode, there's bird gold here.

One item I knew from Wikipedia shows their habitat in Northern South America around rivers and lakes or many other water sources.
After mating, the male duck swims (struts) around the female duck, and stays by her side. Both parents help with raising the chicks.
They feed by upending their heads in the water leaving their duckie butts hanging in the air.

I spoke before about a bird that was so plain that no one would let it enter a beauty contest, and the same can be said for the Andean Teal. There's nothing remarkable about this bird, it's beak, feet, wings, head and feathers are just a plain brown mix, and nothing points to beauty.
Though, I actually think its beauty is in its plainness as the feathers have small highlights of different browns, plus the angles of the feathers are very interesting.
This is a bird, people would walk past without giving a second glance, yet something tells me that's exactly the way Andean Teals desire it.

Please read this article about feeding ducks. We are hurting them by giving them bread.
http://beautyofbirds.com/swandiet.html

Chukar partridge

I want to start off by saying this is the most criminal looking bird that I've seen. I love the little black around the eyes as if a hold up is in everyone's imminent future. Then below his wings is the black and white stripes that came out of an old prison movie. It's perfect!

The Chukar is not native to the America, but comes from the Middle East and Asia. In fact, it is the National Bird of Pakistan. Someone brought it to the US so men with guns could hunt even more than they do now. Though I eat chicken, and this bird clucks like a chicken, I don't want it to be killed, but to live free and happy. I know that is so hypocritical of me.

One amazing aspect of their behavior is the amount of eggs they brood in each nest. Some reports state 7 to 20, and others 7 to 14, which is a lot of eggs. Sometimes they will have two nests going simultaneously. That may be the reason they aren't endangered--because of all the babies they have. When adults have this many babies they appear on their own  TV shows.

I would love to see one, but they live in the US in the great rocky mountains, and that isn't close at all. I've watched many videos on YouTube, and they are very unique birds.
Some people keep them as pets, and that would be very interesting.

Plain Chachalaca

I try hard not to be biased about birds, but I can't help to love colorful birds more. I think we are all born with liking the more beautiful of animals. Which would you rather look at--the lion or the hyena? The lion is beautiful and proud, and it would appear that hyenas show their weaselly little personalities on their faces. Of course, what I know about lions and weasels could fit in a few sentences, so sometimes looks can be deceiving.

Today I'm writing about the Plain Chachalaca, and I'm not sure how to sound out chachalaca, but it's a fun word to play around with. I've decided to sound it out as Chewbacca , since Chewbacca is one of my favorite characters in Star Wars. In my last home, one of my doors sounded just like him every time I opened it. I miss that door.

Back to the Plain Chachalaca, how sad to have the word plain to start off your name. I know humans wouldn't care for it at all--such as "Oh, look there comes Plain Rhonda," nope not fun at all.
Though I'm sure this bird doesn't care what we call it, though I've often wondered if birds have names for each other. Especially birds that mate for life! Do they chirp "hey you" or do they have a little chirp that is always used as a name?

I continually try to write about this bird, but my brain keeps getting in the way, so now I promise to say a few words about this plain being.
The first thing I noticed when looking at the few videos available on YouTube is that these birds are loud, and they sound as if a locust (cicada in other states) had a extremely loud microphone.

I'm writing about birds in the USA for right now, and this bird barely made it as a resident, since it's only lives in the very, very southeastern tip of Texas. The rest of the birds can be found in Mexico and Central America.

The diet it strives for is fruit, but will eat many other foods including people's junk food. We humans love to spread our bad habits.
The bird is least concern on the bird conservation status, which mean it's not endangered at all. I wish that was true for all birds.