Female Birds

Sparrowhawk.

Osprey

Grizzly Bear.

Now look at this poor thing. Possibly the wierdest animal I've ever seen? And it's called a Booby.

Mandarin Duck

Bet you thought this was a Peacock. Nope. It's a Victoria-Crowned Pigeon

Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove

Magnificent Frigatebird

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

A Bald Eagle

The Problem with Birds

I've only got one female character. I wanted her to be all fantastic plummage and extravogant and flamboyent...

The problem is female birds are always...always Brown.

It's for camoflauge for when they're mothering. And all the amazing colours and feathers are owend by the males who do their camp little dancing to impress the brown females.

It's kind of put a steel in the works. Even Peafowl (Female version of a Peacock) are brown and look like boring pheasants.

I thought about flamingos but they are so ugly.

I've settled on a Mandarin Duck because they have quite pretty eyes.

I've found some pretty amazing birds over my research travels. Apart from the pigeons and forgien birds, all my birds are native or at least mirgrate to the UK.

Even the Magnificent Frigate Bird which is native to places like Mexico, Florida, and the Caribbean has been found as far north as the Isle of Man and Denmark. It's called Vagrancy when that happens if anyone is interested. (When an animal is found well outside of its normal range...I reckon they just go for a fly get lost)

I've used a Bald Eagle as well. And.. a Grizzly Bear...well actually on second thoughts only half of my animals are British. But they're either British or North American...or Visit sometimes.

Also Doves and Pigeon are the same thing. Technically Doves are smaller and Pigeons are bigger.