Yesterday was National Bird Day, a day to appreciate our native wild birds and a time to reflect on how we treat the native birds of other countries. Events are happening throughout the week and month.

Read more about it here.

The songbird below is trying out for next year’s Bird Day poster.

A fighting end to the old year. I won’t get between these two.

The much maligned grackle, cousin to crows and ravens, always looking determined and a little pissed-off.

The expansion of the grackle’s range is directly related human development.

See birds collide.

A sparrow twists in the humid summer air. The feathers along the humerus bone of her wing have been lost or worn away, evidence of a hard life.

Buy a print of this image.

See a rain-soaked sparrow.

Okay, this finch image from last summer is crying out for a caption, but I can’t think of one. I need some help. So I’m having a caption contest similar to what the New Yorker magazine does on their last page.

The best caption gets a free desktop wallpaper. Post your caption as a comment.

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See two bickering goldfinches.

From reader and correspondent Timothy Ladd, a sonnet.

——— Wild Notes ———

The charming cardinal is our year-round friend,
Warbling wild notes unnoticed in the pines,
While other gaudy plumes will have us spend
Our greater powers on their rarer signs.
Content yourselves with easy arcs of swallows,
Twittering till the shallow end of day.
The jay will startle. Every starling follows
Raucously its twin. House sparrows say
Their feeble thoughts in hordes so loud
It drives the finch away. And we, bereft,
Hear feathers of a nightingale in cloud
Overhead, find down an eagle must have left,
And disregard all glory we have heard
Come streaming from that scarlet bird.