Coolest Birds
Monday, June 21st, 2010 |I am sure you all know the legend of Icarus and Daedalus, his father, the two men who wanted to fly and built wings made of wood, covered with wax. And as they approached the sun, the wax melted and they fell into the sea and died. As usual legends have a true starting point: in this case people’s desire to fly.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
People have always been envious on birds because they can fly and see the world from above and experience total freedom.
We even have nowadays such phrases like “free as a bird” that illustrate my words above. Any way, after repeated failure, men did learn how to fly, but they still kept an undying admiration for birds. So , somewhere in the eighteenth century , the English rich class invented some leisure activity called bird watching. That meant that you had to wander the forests and lanes, looking for certain bird species to spot and mark in your bird diary as seen. Later you took photos of these birds.
Any way, the idea is that even today, when people are so busy making money, working all day long and running business, they still find time to admire birds, either as pets or in thw ild, where they live in their natural environment. That is how some people had the idea of making a top with the coolest birds. Actually I gathered people’s opinions from a lot of web sites that deal with birds and bird lovers and made up a list, not actually a top, because, as you know, people’s opinions are very subjective and they can differ a lot. Then there are different criteria of consideration for finding out the coolest birds: birds of prey, colored birds, rare birds, cute birds, birds that live in a certain geographic area and so on.
Many people think that the coolest birds are the penguins, especially the Imperial penguin, with its imposing stature, even if it shorter than other birds. A documentary film about their life in the cold Arctic was awarded an Academy award, so I guess lots of people were impressed by the movie and also by the little funny birds that can’t fly, but can swim very well.
Then there’s the vividly colored parrot from the Amazonian forest that can also repeat the words you say and is sometimes considered a very good and affectionate companion. Next there are some birds that you can spot in America that are considered really cool : common nighthawk, whipoorwill, osprey, American kestrel, great horned owl, ruffed grouse, tree swallow, hummingbird, king fisher, pileated woodpecker.
Here are some more opinions of different people regarding the coolest birds from different parts of the world: the palmchat, the swallow tailed gull, Ross’ gull, the pheasant, the bird of paradise, the colibri, the kiwi bird, eagle, condor, the diademed sandpiper, the crested ibis, the ringed- storm petrel, flamingo, falcon, toucan, swan and the list could continue for at least one more page.
I personally love all birds, even the crows and the tiny funny sparrows. If you are curious to read some more on this topic and see what other people think about it, just follow these links – www.montereybay.com and www.alancreech.com and here you will be able to see a lot of nice photos with the penguins that are by far my favorites.
