Woodpecker

The Woodpecker is a bird of the family Picidae. It lives on insects obtained from crevices in the bark of trees or extracted from the wood by drilling with the beak and impaling them on the long tongue.

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A woodpecker can peck on average twenty times per second.

Every time a woodpecker's beak hits a tree, its head is subject to 1,000 times the force of gravity.

Engineers have been able to increase the damage resistance of an airplane's black box by 60 times thanks to studying the anatomy of a woodpecker's skull.

Woodpeckers have a third eyelid which stops their eyes popping out when drilling into wood.

A woodpecker's tongue is up to 4 inches long (depending on the species).

To avoid traumatic brain injury, woodpeckers' tongues wrap around their skulls in a small empty cavity, which helps to cushion the blows.

There are some 240 species worldwide and can be found everywhere except Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats.

Woodpeckers can survive between 5 and 11 years in the wild.

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Woodpeckers range from tiny piculets measuring no more than 2.8 inches (7 cm) in length and weighing 0.25 ounces (7 g) to large woodpeckers which can be over 20 inches (50 cm) in length. The largest surviving species is the great slaty woodpecker, which weighs 12.7–19.9 ounces (360–563 g).

The European green woodpecker is green with red crown and yellow rump, and about the size of a jay. The greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers also British species, have black, red and white plumage.

The tails of most woodpeckers are stiffened; when the bird perches on a vertical surface, the tail and feet work together to support it.

A black-rumped flameback using its tail for support. By J.M.Garg

Most members of the woodpecker family have four toes, the first and the fourth face backward, and the second and third face forward. This foot arrangement is good for grasping the limbs and trunks of trees. Exceptions are the black-backed woodpecker and the American and Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers, which have only three toes on each foot.

Woodpeckers build nesting holes in the trees all the year round. Old holes often become home for other birds and mammals, such as owls, starlings and squirrels.

A group of woodpeckers is called a descent.

In ancient Rome, it was considered a sin to eat the flesh of a woodpecker.

Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Softschools

Vulture

A vulture is a bird of prey that feeds on the decaying flesh of a dead animal.

HABITATION 

There are 23 species of vultures: 16 Old World vultures in Africa, Asia and Europe and seven New World vultures (including condors) in the Americas. There are no vultures in Australia.

True vultures only occur in the Old World. The Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks.

The New World forms of vultures found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas are not closely related to the similar Accipitridae, but belong in the family Cathartidae, which also includes the American condor. Although New World vultures have many resemblances to Old World vultures they are not very closely related.

In the 20th century India lost more than 95% of its vulture population. The deaths are due to a medication for cows that is poisonous to the birds. The loss of vultures increased the spread of disease and vermin populations. 

ANATOMY 

The head and neck of a vulture is bare, the plumage is shaggy and the beak and claws are hooked.

Because a vulture has a bald head, devoid of normal feathers the bird has been observed to hunch their bodies and tuck in their heads in the cold, and open their wings and stretch their necks in the heat.

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FEEDING 

Vultures are renowned scavengers, often feeding on wounded, sick or dead bodies.

Vultures are fairly unique in that they're able to eat carrion that has succumbed to the effects of decay and disease, a feat few stomachs in the animal kingdom can match.

They also have no problem eating an animal infected with rabies, hog cholera and numerous other diseases that would ultimately be lethal to most other scavengers.

The red-bearded vulture is the only known animal whose diet is almost exclusively bone.  Bones that are too large to eat have to be dropped from the sky and shattered against rock. The process can take years to master and practiced individuals will often use one favored dropping site known as an ossuary.

Vultures can turn a dead body into a skeleton in under five hours.

Vultures can eat up to 20 per cent of their own body weight in one sitting.

New World Vultures have a much better sense of smell than Old World vultures, who find carcasses exclusively by sight.

A high-flying vulture can spot a 3ft animal carcass from four miles away.

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The Parasi community in Mumbai traditionally left their dead out to be picked to pieces by vultures.

Many of the birds in Europe starved to death after European Union rules to tackle mad cow disease made farmers clear away dead livestock.

By eating the carcasses of dead animals, vultures prevent the spread of serious diseases such as anthrax and rabies.

BEHAVIOR

Some vultures vomit acidic and smelly semi-digested food at predators to scare them away. This also lightens their body weight so they can escape more easily into flight.

Vultures urinate on their legs and feet to help cool off on hot days, and their urine also helps kill off bacteria from carcasses.

FUN VULTURE FACTS 

The earliest known mention of vultures in English was in Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus And Criseyde around 1374.

A group of vultures is called a colony, a wake, or a venue. A group of circling vultures is a kettle.

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Vultures are frequently used as a metaphor by songwriters for those who prey on the weak or dying. Artists who have sung about vultures include John Mayer, Iggy Pop, Gallows, Halestorm, Pendulum and Labrinth.

The Ruppell's griffon vulture is the world's highest-flying bird, soaring to altitudes above 30,000 feet, high enough to collide with airplanes — which has happened. Native to Africa, the birds have natural adaptations that allow them to breathe at altitudes where oxygen is limited. They nest and breed in high mountains and spend hours each day flying around looking for carrion and prey on the ground.

Sources Daily Express, Daily Mail

Turkey (bird)

HISTORY

The wild turkey is native only to North and Central America.

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Long before Europeans came to America, the Aztecs had domesticated turkeys. They used them for food, for religious sacrifices and the feathers for decoration.

When the Spaniards conquered Mexico, they found domesticated turkeys. They introduced the bird into Europe, and it was well established by 1530.

Turkeys were introduced into England in 1526 by the 16th-century navigator William Strickland.

When the turkey reached England, the British confused it with the guinea fowl, which was imported into Europe from Africa through Turkey. Thus it was misnamed, because "Turkish traders" had imported it. The word "turkey" referring to the bird, was first seen in English in 1555.

The French thought turkeys came from India, so called it "dinde." (d'Inde means from India).

The wild turkey, which lived only in North America, was one of the first birds to become greatly reduced in numbers. A visitor to New Jersey in the year 1648 mentions a flock of 500 turkeys "got by nets" at one time. 

Plate 1 of The Birds of America by John James Audubon, depicting a wild turkey

Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States rather than the eagle. He wrote in a letter to his daughter Sarah Bache on January 26, 1784.

"In Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on. "

Because of hunting and loss of habitat, wild turkeys nearly went extinct in the early 1900s; efforts by the National Wildlife Federation and the Wild Turkey Federation saved them. Now there are an estimated 7 million wild turkeys in the United States.

TURKEY FARMING 

There are three main commercial farming systems for the rearing of turkeys; standard enclosed in purpose built buildings, pole-barns (natural light and air let in but the birds are still enclosed) and free-range (including organic).  

Just five states – Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri produced 60% of the estimated 242 million turkeys raised in the United States in 2014. 

Minnesota is the leading turkey-producing state in the U.S. raising 45 million of the birds in 2014. 

ANATOMY 

The most common domesticated turkey, the Broadbreasted White, is so heavy and large-breasted that it can't fly, run or mate naturally. Instead, they must be artificially inseminated.

The biggest turkey ever raised weighed 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog. 

The long fleshy bit over a male turkey's beak is called a snood. While fighting, commercial turkeys often peck at the snood, which often leads to further injuries and sometimes cannibalism. To prevent this, some farmers cut off the snood, a process known as desnooding. 

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BEHAVIOR 

When wild turkeys encounter an animal, the whole flock will often circle it to determine whether or not it's a threat.

Only male turkeys, called toms, gobble so they are sometimes called gobblers. Females, called hens, cackle.

Turkeys are able to recognize each other from their voices. 

You can tell a turkey's gender from its droppings: male turkey dropping are spiral-shaped, females are shaped like a letter J.

Wild turkeys, unlike their domesticated counterparts, are agile, fast fliers and can fly up to 60 miles an hour despite their 20 pound heft. They roost high up in the trees at night, but spend most of their time on the ground, causing the misconception that they are incapable of flight at all. 

FUN TURKEY FACTS 

A group of turkeys is called a "rafter." They are often incorrectly referred to as a "flock."

An infant turkey is called a "chick" or "poult". 

Turkeys can suffer heart attacks. The U.S. Air Force was doing some test runs, and when they broke the sound barrier, nearby turkeys dropped dead.

Sources Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999, Compton's Encyclopedia, Daily Express

Swan

The swan (Cygnini) is a large long necked water bird of the duck family. 

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HISTORY

Swans have a rich folklore history. In Greek myth, Apollo and Aphrodite are depicted riding chariots of swans.

Up until the 1600s, a “black swan” was a metaphor for something that did not exist. Then a group of Dutch explorers became the first Europeans to see black swans in Western Australia in 1697, and the phrase was amended to mean “a perceived impossibility that might later be disproven.”

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There's an old belief that swans only sing once in their lives, and that song is sung at the moment they die. It's the belief that lies behind the term "swan song", and it has also inspired many poems and musical works, including Orlando Gibbons' madrigal The Silver Swan.

During the 1800s, swan skins were used to make European ladies' powder puffs and swan feathers were used to adorn fashionable hats.

Jean Sibelius' Fifth Symphony was inspired by the sight of 16 swans. "One of the great experiences of my life," he wrote. "how beautiful."

Christopher Milne named his toy bear Winnie after a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo. “Pooh” was added as the name he gave to a swan.

Winston Churchill kept black swans in his Chartwell Lake.

Petra, a female black swan, became famous in 2006 when she formed an unusual bond with a swan-shaped pedalo on Germany's Aasee lake. She remained devoted to the pedalo until it was reported she'd gone missing in January 2009. Petra was eventually found on a different lake, this time with a more traditional swan partner.

ANATOMY

The Mute Swan, Trumpeter Swan, and Whooper Swan are the largest swans. They can reach a length of over 1.5 m (59 in) and weigh over 15 kg (33 lb). Their wingspans can be over 3.1 m (10 ft).

Most swans are white. These swans are found in the Northern Hemisphere. Black swans are found in the Southern Hemisphere.

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The Australian black swan (Cygnus atratus) is completely black except for the white flight feathers on its wings and a red beak; the chicks of black swans are light grey.

Swan legs are normally a blackish-grey color, except for the two black South American species, which have pink legs.

Swans are the only birds with penises.

BEHAVIOR

The voice is a harsh hiss. though the mute swan (Cygnus olor) is less vocal than other swan species.

Swans feed in water and on land. In the water, their diet is composed mainly of the roots, tubers, stems and leaves of aquatic and submerged plants, although they may eat small amounts of aquatic animals. 

Swans eat an impressive 3 kg of water weeds a day, a quarter of their body weight. 

Pairing is generally for life and the young cygnets are at first grey, later brownish. 

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FUN SWAN FACTS

A female swan is called a pen while a male is called a cob.

The annual Swan Upping on the River Thames in London is a five-day census, which dates back to the twelfth century. During the ceremony swans and young cygnets belonging to the Queen are counted, while being observed for signs of injury or disease.

During the annual Swan Upping, the cygnets are still marked on the beak as either the property of the Crown or of the two privileged City companies, the Dyers and Vintners.

Swallow

The Swallow is an insect eating bird of the family Hirundinidae. 

The term Swallow is used colloquially in Europe as a synonym for the barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, the most widespread species of swallow in the world.

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The barn swallow winters in Africa and visit Europe April to September.

In ancient times it was thought that swallows hibernated in winter. In fact they migrate, flying 12,000 miles to southern Africa and back, covering 200 miles a day and crossing two continents and 14 countries.

A swallow tattoo was once popular with sailors who, traditionally, were permitted to adorn themselves with one after sailing 5,000 nautical miles and a second after 10,000 nautical miles.

In central Africa, tribes catch the migrating birds in vast nests and roast them.

In the 19th century, the French government tried to train swallows to carry messages. The experiment failed.

Steel blue above and creamy white beneath, the barn swallow has a red brown throat and deeply forked tail. 

Barn swallow By I, Malene, 

According to Spanish folklore, the red patches on the swallow's throat and face are Jesus' blood, which splashed on one as it tried to remove thorns from his head.

The swallow feeds in-flight, eating flies, moths and butterflies on the wing.

Two broods of swallows a year are reared in nests of mud and straw shaped like a half saucer and built on ledges.

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Outside the breeding season, some species of swallows may form large flocks, and species may also roost communally. This is thought to provide protection from predators. These roosts can be enormous; one winter roosting site of barn swallows in Nigeria attracted 1.5 million individuals.

Stork

Storks are a family of large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. There are 19 different species of stork, in six genera.

White stork Pixiebay

Chinese lore connects the stork to longevity, as they've been known to live anywhere from 20 to 30 years old.

In Christianity, storks represent purity as they'd keep snakes and serpents, long synonymous with evil, at bay.

The legend of storks delivering babies goes back several hundred years. During the Victorian era in Germany, parents would tell this tale to children who were deemed too young to be told anything different. Hans Christian Andersen popularized the fable in The Storks, a short story he wrote in the 19th century about a family of storks and their life's work: delivering babies. 

Many species of stork are migratory and the origin of the association of storks delivering babies is likely derived from the bird's nine month migration which timed perfectly with the human female gestation period. 

Europeans first realized that storks migrate to Africa during winter in 1822 because they found a stork that still had an arrow from a Central African tribe in it.

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Klepetan is a male stork who since 2001 has migrated from South Africa to Croatia every year to be with Melena, a female stork who can't fly after being shot by a hunter. She lives indoors until his return and they stay in a nest on a roof until he leaves. They've had over 40 babies.

A Polish environmental charity put a SIM card in a GPS tracker to follow the migratory pattern of a white stork. They lost track of the stork and later received a phone bill for $2,700; someone in Sudan had taken the SIM from the tracker and made over 20 hours of calls.

Storks are generally considered to be monogamous creatures, but are very social — feeding and nesting in large flocks.

While females lay the eggs, both sexes divide the responsibility of incubating.

Storks usually live near shallow bodies of water where they wade through the water, and catch small animals, like crabs, frogs or small fish.

Stork nests are often very large and may be used for many years. Some nests have been known to grow to over two metres (six feet) in diameter and about three metres (ten feet) in depth.

The White Stork is known to build large nests in high places, like on chimneys. 

Several bird species often nest within the large nests of the white stork. Regular occupants are sparrows and common starlings.

Beforehand, people believed storks were monogamous, that they only had one partner in life. More recent research has shown though, that they may change partners. They are attached to a nest almost as much as to a partner.

Storks are large to very large waterbirds. They range in size from the Marabou Stork, which lives in Africa, which stands 152 cm (60 in) tall and can weigh 8.9 kg (20 lb), to the Abdim's stork, also from Africa, which is only 75 cm (30 in) high and only weighs 1.3 kg (2.9 lb).

The Marabou Stork has a wingspan of up to 320 cm. This makes one of the largest birds still alive, together with the Andean Condor and the largest albatrosses and pelicans.

Marabouu stork. Mikumi National Park, Tanzania. Wikipedia

The black stork population has been declining for many years in Western Europe and the bird is no longer a summer visitor to Scandinavia. 

Source Alexandani

Starling

The starling is a bird common in North Europe, North America and Asia. More than 100 species of starling are found in the Old World.

Thai starling Pixibay

DISTRIBUTION 

Starlings are the world's most abundant wild bird species with a population of 1,000 million.

Native to North Europe and Asia, in the 1890s an eccentric pharmacist named Eugene Schifflin hatched a plan to introduce every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's plays to New York's Central Park. The 200 million or more starlings now in the USA are descendants of the 80 released by Schifflin.

They gather in vast numbers – the largest recorded flock of starlings, in Norfolk, England in 1958, was 3 million.

In 1979 starlings were in such large numbers in London that they stopped Big Ben by landing on the hands.

The collective noun for starlings is a murmuration. The name may come from the sound their wings make when a vast cloud of them sweeps through the skies.

Murmuration of starlings preparing to roost, in Scotland. By Walter Baxter

MOZART'S STARLING

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once bought a starling, but when he brought it home he was astonished to hear it singing a fragment of his most recent piano concerto, which he hadn't yet published. The explanation was that the bird had picked it up on those few occasions when Mozart, an inveterate whistler, had popped into the shop.

Mozart grew very fond of his starling. When it died, he gave it a full funeral, with all the guests in solemn attire, and the composer recited a poem he had written specially for the occasion over its grave.

BEHAVIOR

European starlings abhor making eye contact with other creatures or being watched through binoculars and camera lenses.

The starling's call is a bright whistle, but it also mimics the sounds of other birds.

Strikingly gregarious in feeding, flight, and roosting, the starling often becomes a pest in large cities.

Starlings are believed to cause $800 million of damage to U.S. agriculture each year as they binge-feed in cattle troughs.

A flock of starlings brought down a passenger aircraft in 1960, killing 62 people, when hundreds of their bodies were sucked into its engine shortly after take-off from Boston — the worst ‘bird strike' in aviation history.

ANATOMY

The starling's black, speckled plumage is glossed with green and purple.

Common starling By Tim Felce (Airwolfhound) 

Starlings may get their name from the star-like white spots that appear on their feathers in winter.

The shortest-bodied species is Kenrick's starling (Poeoptera kenricki), at 15 centimetres (6 in).

The largest starling is the Nias hill myna (Gracula robusta). This species can measure up to 36 cm (14 in) and, in domestication they can weigh up to 400 g (14 oz).

Source Daily Mail

Sparrow

SPARROWS IN HISTORY

Native to Europe and Asia, the sparrow has traveled with humans to become the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet.

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Sparrows were associated by the ancient Greeks with Aphrodite, the goddess of love, due to their perceived lustfulness, an association echoed by later writers such as Shakespeare.

Jesus Christ used the "sparrow" as an example of divine providence "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29–31). This inspired later references, such as that in the early 20th century Gospel song "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."

During the awakening, Charles Wesley's most popular hymn was "Jesus Lover of my Soul", which was inspired by Wesley seeing through an open window a small bird pursued by a large hawk. Through the window fluttered the frightened sparrow into Wesley's arms.

Here is a list of songs about sparrows.

The romantic poet John Keats was very empathetic with animals. He once boasted about his capacity to enter the thought processes of a sparrow hopping on a window sill. "If a sparrow comes before my window, I take part in its existence and pick about the gravel."

Queen Victoria once asked the Duke of Wellington how to remove sparrows from Crystal Palace. He replied, ‘Sparrowhawks, Ma’am.’

The house sparrow was introduced deliberately to America in the late 19th century. It was imported by several people, including Eugene Schieffelin from New York City. He belonged to the American Acclimatization Society a group that aimed to help exchange plants and animals from one part of the world to another and wanted to introduce to America all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.

A male House Sparrow in Victoria, Australia in March 2008. By Fir0002

Before becoming Elvis Presley's notorious manager, Colonel Tom Parker used to paint sparrows yellow and sell them as canaries.

Under Chairman Mao, every Chinese family was obliged to kill a sparrow a week to stop them eating all the rice. The project was totally ineffective because sparrows don’t eat rice and instead the culling of the birds upset the ecological balance leaving the crop-eating insects alive to gobble away the staple human food.

The number of house sparrows fell by 64 per cent between 1972 and 1996, an estimated loss of 9.6 million birds. They were once so common that trophies were offered for the most birds culled.

In Australia, there are no sparrows in Western Australia, as they have not been able to travel across the deserts that separate that state from the eastern states. The government employs people to hunt and destroy any sparrows that might arrive.

ANATOMY 

With brown-black marked plumage and black chest and eye-stripe in the male the sparrow is relatively inconspicuous.

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The sparrow is between 11.4 centimetres (4.5 in) and 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long  and can weigh between 13.4 grams (0.47 oz) and 42 grams (1.5 oz).

They have short tails and stubby, powerful beaks.

A Sparrow has 14 bones in its neck — twice as many as humans.

BEHAVIOR 

Sparrows are generally social birds, with many species breeding in loose colonies and most species occurring in flocks during the non-breeding season.

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A study revealed that male sparrows can judge if a spouse is prone to infidelity, providing less food for their brood if their partner is unfaithful.

Intelligent and adaptable, the sparrow has a cheery chirp.

The sparrow has untidy nesting habits often making their nests near houses or buildings.

They are primarily seed-eaters, though they also consume small insects.

Sparrows are quick to learn new feeding habits, soon adapting to taking food from suspended nut feeders.

Source Daily Mail

Rooster

A male chicken is called a rooster. (It is also known as a cockerel or cock). A female chicken is called a hen.

The term "rooster" originated in the United States in the 1770s, and the term is widely used throughout North America, as well as Australia and New Zealand.  The older terms "cock" or "cockerel" are used in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Around 600 BC, roosters were banned in Sybaris, Greece because of their noise.

The rooster appeared on some Gallic coins in Roman times and the Latin word "gailus" meant both "inhabitant of Rome" and "rooster". As a result, the rooster was widely depicted on French churches. Its vigilance at sunrise was seen as a model for a believer awaiting the Second Coming.

Cockerel next to the medieval chapel of Lynch. By Rob Farrow

In 1474, in Switzerland, a rooster was sentenced to burn at the stake for committing the “heinous and unnatural crime of laying an egg”.

The French Revolution established the rooster as the representation of France's identity.

Nine out of ten Navy sailors had tattoos in the late 1800s. A pig on one foot and a rooster on the other were believed to protect them from drowning.

Roosters, often associated with the sun goddess Amaterasu, can often be found around Japan's Shinto shrines.

When roosters open their beaks fully, their external auditory canals completely close off. This helps prevent them from damaging their hearing when they crow their piercing cock-a-doodle-doo.

Roosters perform a dance called “tidbitting”, making food calls and moving their heads up and down to attract females.

Source Daily Express

Robin

The European robin (Erithacus rubecula) is found in Europe, West Asia, Africa, and the Azores. In English, this bird is usually just called a robin.

The Robin was formerly classified as a member of the thrush family (Turdidae) but is now considered to be an Old World flycatcher.

Around 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 in) in length, the male and female are similar in coloration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upperparts and a whitish belly.

Some robins migrate, and some are resident. Most Irish and British robins stay but Scandinavian and Russian robins migrate to Britain and western Europe to escape the harsher winters.

During the breeding season the red chest of the male gets a bit redder, and they are very territorial. No other male robin is allowed near, and they even fight other birds that come too close.

The nest is constructed in a sheltered place, and from five to seven white or cream freckled eggs are laid.

Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.

A study has shown that male robins make the best bird husbands as they possess the capability to guess what their wives want to eat, whether or not they saw what the females ate last, they can still get exactly what their partner wished for. They are also monogamous.

A Robin’s breast is not red: it’s orange. robins got the name ‘redbreast’ in the 1400s. It was the best anyone could do, because at the time the English language had no word for orange.

Robins were linked to Christmas cards as in folklore the robin (New Year) was 'red' with the blood of its father, the wren (Old Year).

The much larger North American Robin was named after the European robin as like the European robin it has a bright orange-red face and breast. However, the two species are not closely related.

American robin

In Australia members of several unrelated genera have been given the name robin. They may have white, yellow, or red breasts.

In 1976 the black robin was the world's rarest bird, with only five surviving on Little Mangere Island including "Old Blue", the last remaining fertile female. The remaining birds were moved to Mangere Island and today there are hundreds of Black Robins.

Raven

The raven is a large, all-black passerine (perching) bird. It is the most widely distributed of the crow family, or, more technically, corvids.

A raven By Andreas Trepte - own picture, Canada Stewart Crossing, Yukon,

The common raven (Corvus corax) is found across the Northern Hemisphere, it is the most widely distributed of all ravens.

RAVENS IN MYTHOLOGY

The Raven has appeared in the mythology of many ancient peoples. It is often connected with death, which is why Edgar Alan Poe chose a raven for his poem.

In Irish myth, the raven’s book was a list of the dead or soon to die. To be in the raven’s book meant fated to die soon.

Ravens were revered in the Celtic world as they were thought to be messengers between the mortal world and the world of the spirits or Otherworld.

In French myth, ravens were seen as the souls of wicked priests. Wicked nuns’ souls became crows.

The Viking god, Odin, had two ravens, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), which flew around the world every day and reported back to Odin every night about what they saw.

Valkyrie speaks with a raven in a 19th-century illustration of the Old Norse poem Hrafnsmál

The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast worshiped the raven as a deity in and of itself. Called simply Raven, he is described as a sly trickster who is involved in the creation of the world.

The raven was almost brought to extinction in Britain because of false associations it had with the spread of the Black Death.

A group of at least six to eight ravens with clipped wings are kept at the Tower of London in line with the myth that the kingdom will fall without them. These ravens are enlisted soldiers of the Kingdom, and have occasionally been dismissed for bad conduct.

While wild ravens live up to 21 years, Tower ravens can live past 40 years.

The person in charge of the ravens is called the Ravenmaster,

RAVENS IN HISTORY 

The raven is the first species of bird to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and ravens are mentioned on numerous occasions thereafter. In the Book of Genesis, Noah released a raven from the ark after the great flood to test whether the waters have receded (Gen. 8:6-7)

A raven is also said to have protected Saint Benedict of Nursia by taking away a poisoned loaf of bread. It had been poisoned by the monks at Vicouano Monastery, who had rebelled against the strict regime Benedict had imposed on them. A raven that used to visit Benedict daily from the next wood, flew forward and tore the piece of bread away from the saint thus saving the life of his master.

Charles Dickens owned a pet raven named Grip, whom he acquired in 1841. Grip is said to have been an intelligent and affectionate bird, and Dickens was known to have been very fond of him.

Dickens was so enamored with Grip that he included the bird as a character in his novel Barnaby Rudge, which was published in 1841-42. Grip appears as a pet of a character named Gabriel Varden, a locksmith. The bird is portrayed as being intelligent and talkative, and is said to have a particular fondness for imitating the sound of a watchman's rattle.

Unfortunately, Grip died in 1841, just a few months after he had been acquired by Dickens. The author was said to have been devastated by the bird's passing, and he reportedly had Grip stuffed and mounted. The mounted bird was said to have remained in Dickens' home until his death in 1870.

Uncle Billy's pet raven in It's A Wonderful Life was called Jimmy. The bird starred in over 1000 films over a 20 year period including being the crow that landed on the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.

Screenshot from It's a Wonderful Life showing Jimmy the raven

ANATOMY 

The raven is the largest bird of the crow family. This family is called Corvidae and an old word for a raven was corbie.

The largest raven species are the common raven and the thick-billed raven.

It averages 63 centimetres (25 inches) in length and 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds) in weight,

The raven has a black and lustrous plumage. In sunlight, the plumage can display a blue or purple sheen which is a result of iridescence.

A raven's plumage By user:Clayoquot 

Apart from its greater size, the common raven differs from its cousins, the crows, by having a larger and heavier black beak, a wedge-shaped tail and shaggy feathers around the throat and above the beak,

The raven's feathers are all black, but a crow has feathers that are white at the bottom. These cannot be seen from a distance.

BEHAVIOR 

Young birds may travel in flocks but later mate for life with each pair defending a territory. When their offspring reach adolescence, they leave home and join a flock.

Two juveniles in Iceland Wikipedia

Ravens drop stones on predators that threaten their nests or young.

Common Ravens are extremely versatile in finding sources of nutrition. Their diet may vary widely with location, season and availability.

If a raven knows another raven is watching it hide its food, it will pretend to put the food in one place while really hiding it in another.

INTELLIGENCE 

Ravens are remarkably intelligent, pulling fishing lines from lakes to steal the fishermen's catch.

Ravens are clever mimics. They have been known to imitate foxes to attract them to dead animals that the raven isn’t capable of breaking open. When the fox is done eating, the raven can feat on the leftovers.

A Raven at Bryce Canyon National Park

Ravens are some of the only animals who have naturally-occurring gestures—they point with their beaks to indicate objects to other birds.

FUN FACTS 

The collective noun for ravens is an unkindness.

Common Ravens can live up to 21 years in the wild, a lifespan exceeded among passerines by only a few Australasian species.

Jimmy the raven could open envelopes and ride a motorcycle. He appeared in around a thousand films (including It's a Wonderful Life), and earned a Red Cross gold medal.

The Puy du Fou theme park in the west of France employs ravens to clear the park off cigarette butts in return for a reward (bird food).

Sources Daily Express, Mental Floss

Puffin

ANATOMY

The puffin's scientific name, fratercula, came from the Latin for ‘little brother’ because their plumage resembled monk’s robes.

The puffin stands only 12in tall but can dive 300ft for food and endure eight months a year out at sea.

Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique under water.

A puffin weighs about the same as a can of Coke.

BEHAVIOR 

Adult pairs appear to kiss, rubbing their beaks together in behaviour known as ‘billing’.

They nest in burrows in the ground. The males dig the burrow using their bill and feet to push the soil out behind them.

Puffins often use existing burrows made by rabbits.

The puffin pairs for life, returning to land in the spring and use the same burrows year after year.

Adults often dig out a separate tunnel in their burrow to use as a lavatory.

Although the puffins are vocal at their breeding colonies, they are silent at sea.

LIFE

A baby Puffin is called a Puffling, and both parents take turns incubating the egg before it hatches.

The young never see their parents. They stay in the burrow for five days before leaving home in the night to avoid predators.

A young puffin spends its first three years at sea before setting foot on land.

The puffin usually lives for 25 to 30 years.

RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANS

There are at least 10 million puffins in Iceland, compared to a human population of around 350,710, meaning, there are 28 times more puffins than people.

Puffin is regarded as a delicacy in Iceland. It has a rich, gamey taste similar to liver.

Puffins are known as ‘clowns of the sea’ and ‘sea parrots’.

There are at least eight islands worldwide named after the puffin.

Source Daily Mail