It was worth a try

Posted on Amazon, where I vainly tried to school the All-Knowing Algorithm about the difference between a Bullfinch and an, ahem, Bearded Reedling... 

Now, *these* are bullfinches! I tried to do my civic duty and vote for the Bullfinch in the National Bird of Sweden contest, but the ungrateful Swedes decided to keep the Blackbird as their unofficial avian symbol. As a small protest against this bull, I'm currently reviewing finch-related products on Amazon...

Bullfinch-kin

"I am a bullfinch trapped in a human body". I know the feeling...

Worse, sometimes I feel like a chaffinch trapped in a bullfinch body. The local Otherkin don't understand me and call me delusional. That's easy to say when you're a cool dragon or wolf.

Just wait until your passerine karma catches up with you!!!

Sociable weavers

What can I say? This is vol. 15 of "Handbook of the Birds of the World", a 16-volume encyclopaedia describing and illustrating all known, living species of birds. Those familiar with these books know that they are extremely expensive, very difficult to read due to heavy scientific terminology, but also singularly well-produced, with full-colour photos and plates.

This volume covers eight passerine families, including Finches, Weavers and New World Warblers. One chapter deals with the brood-parasitic Whydahs and Indigobirds. There is also a special chapter entitled "Conservation of the world's birds: the view from 2010". I admit that I didn't read it. I hope it's positive!

As usual, HBW contain a veritable overload of facts, including in the extensive photo captions. Here's a fascinating example of interaction between two unrelated birds and humans: the Sociable Weaver nests on electricity pylons and telephone poles, and have therefore extended its range into tree-less regions. The African Pygmy Falcon, which in South Africa is entirely dependent for roosting and breeding on the huge communal nests of the Sociable Weaver, has also been able to extend its range. Breeding raptors can't be disturbed without a licence, so the weavers have also benefited from the arrangement. The South African phone company can't destroy weaver nests which include one of the falcons!

"Handbook of the Birds of the World" isn't really intended for the general reader but it deserves all its five stars, as usual.

The triumph of the Blackbird

In 1962, the readers of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter decided that the Blackbird should become “the national bird of Sweden”. Only 5,000 people participated in the vote. This year, the Swedish bird-watchers' association decided to organize a new round of voting on the matter. Or several rounds! In total, 75,000 people participated. Yesterday, local time, the result of the grand finale was announced.

And the winner is…the Blackbird, again!

With 12,914 votes, Turdus merula triumphantly held on to its position. Unserious campaign voting organized by two pods gave the Magpie (!) second position with 9,241 votes. Without the buddy votes, the Magpie wouldn't even be in the finale. The real runner-up is the Blue Tit with 7,286 votes. The tit is blue and yellow, the colors of the Swedish flag. The ostensible super-challenger to the Blackbird, the Bullfinch, only got 3,711 votes and the sixth position.

I voted for, ahem, the Blue Tit in the early rounds and the Bullfinch in the finale.

Blasted.

OK, I suppose I should have known. The Swedish people are just as infatuated with their dusky thrushes as they are with polkagris, surströmming and Försäkringskassan!

More bull than finch

A review of "Bullfinches! Learn about bullfinches and enjoy colorful pictures - look and learn".

This is an extremely bad e-book about bullfinches, ostensibly for kids. While it does contain more or less attractive color photos of bullfinches, the text only consist of short, one-sentence captions to each photo.

Many of the captions are written in language difficult for kids to understand, such as this: “Bullfinch juveniles are similar in appearance to females but do not acquire the black cap until after their first moult.” Many others make no sense at all, such as captions mentioning eggs when no eggs are shown, or captions mentioning nesting when no nests are shown. The rare Azores Bullfinch is mentioned twice, yet the bullfinches on the pictures are all of the regular variety!

The author's name sounds American, yet her English is surprisingly bad. Some sentences seem to have been mangled through Google Translate: “The species of bullfinch occupies only about a 90 mile area.” The what does what? The e-book contains a disclaimer, indicating that everything has been taken from the web, which I can well believe…

Not recommended. Only one star. Surely, the majestic bullfinch deserves better than this!

The old boys have left the building

This is the seventh and concluding volume of "Birds of Africa", a work that took almost 20 years to complete. One of the editors, Stuart Keith, passed away before the publication of this last volume, and it's therefore dedicated to his memory. Incidentally, all the editors look like members of some colonial White old boys club!

Apparently, "Birds of Africa" was originally intended to be a four-volume work, with two volumes each for non-passerines and passerines. This proved overoptimistic in the extreme. Seriously, what did they expect? The total number of African bird species is about 2,130. And yes, most are passerines... Academic Press therefore permitted the project to swell to a whooping seven volumes. Even so, the publishers did get somewhat worried when the project dragged out over several decades, eventually forcing the small editorial club to expand to about a dozen members.

Six passerine families are included in Vol. VII, including sparrows, weavers and finches. I wasn't too surprised to find the House Sparrow in this volume. It occurs naturally in North Africa, but has been introduced in sub-Saharan Africa as well, where it's thriving around human habitat. The Tree Sparrow by contrast is a rare and uncommon resident and winter visitor in North Africa, but hasn't been able to establish itself anywhere else on the dark continent. Well, at least Africans don't have to worry about stepping on it! (I always do when walking in Swedish parks. I mean, these birds are ridiculously small.)

Otherwise, this volume is similar in character to the other volumes. The color plates are surprisingly good, while the text can be heavy reading for the general reader. It's a reference work for scientists and libraries, after all, not something you can actually "read" from cover to cover. I'm sure it works well as a reference work, and hope the old boys have find another outlet for their creative energies after finishing this series. How about a book about...well, American birds?