When you’ve been writing for Dawn Chorus for as many years as I have, sometimes it’s hard to come up with a topic or theme. I’m a fan of the World Cup and love to watch as many matches as I can every four years. So there I was watching Sweden and Germany battle it out Saturday morning, knowing that when the match ended, I would have to write Dawn Chorus. But write about what? Then it hit me. Why not write about the birds of the World Cup contestant countries?!
Not all of them, of course. Getting started so late meant I didn’t have time to do much research, but I completed enough to find out what the national bird is for a number of the countries competing. I present them below, but let me jump to the most important tidbit I learned in my search for national birds: Russia doesn’t have one. That’s right, the host country has NO NATIONAL BIRD! Maybe Putin and his pals spent so much time screwing up our elections and delivering to us the Vile Orange Menace that they had none left to spend on naming a national bird. And speaking of the Manchurian President, you recall how reacted to OUR national bird, right?
But I digress. I don’t want him cluttering up our sacred Sunday morning space, so that’s enough of him. Let’s take a look at some of the national birds from World Cup countries.
Starting off with Japan, the beautiful Green Pheasant is their national bird. This seems fitting. It’s a gorgeous bird, full of color and splendor, and seems to match the formal elegance that we associate with the old world imperial country.
Let’s move on to Sweden. Sweden played Germany this morning (Saturday) in a match I watched from start to finish. Sweden lost and is now headed home, out of the competition altogether. Sweden, your play was uninspired and unimaginative. Just like your national bird, the Eurasian Blackbird. I mean, c’mon. A blackbird? Could you possibly have chosen a more boring designee? Worse, Sweden didn’t even HAVE a national bird until 2010. So they decided to let their citizens vote on what bird should hold the title. So, of course, a bunch of non-birders chose the most common bird they see on every street corner and park in the country to be their national bird. Like I said, no imagination. Yawn.
Let’s trek over to Switzerland now where saner heads prevailed. The Swiss are smart, classy, meticulous and punctual. National bird? Surely we shall choose a bird that is as magnificent as we are as a people. Behold, the Swiss national bird, the resplendent Red-crested Turaco! Well done, Switzerland, well done.
(Ed. note: For as long as I’ve been here at Daily Kos, I’ve never been able to find a way to disable the wrap-text function that has some sort of hidden code that is forcing me to fill this space to the left of the photo I placed of this Red-crested Turaco.
I want to move on to the next bird, but I can’t get the cursor to activate under the photo of the bird and flush left.
Any help here?)
Okay, I’m just going to fill the space and begin now to talk about our next national bird, even though this placement sucks.
We’re moving now over to England, a country that is absolutely soccer-mad. If you listen to The Daily, the New York Times podcast by Michael Barbaro, he had a very interesting story on Thursday dedicated to understanding how Moscow won the bid back in 2010 to host the 2018 World Cup when England was favored. In a word, bribes. Putin’s cronies bribed the members of the selection committee. The FBI started an investigation and some guy named Robert Mueller who was the head of the FBI in 2010 broke open the whole thing. Heads rolled at FIFA, you may recall. But England was nonetheless robbed. We should be watching these 2018 games from London, not Moscow.
So England is not to be trifled with! Their national bird is a bad-ass, the terrifying Gyrfalcon. Terrifying if you’re a small mammal or bird or another tasty morsel that appeals to this magnificent predator. I would not want this guy landing next to me, would you? Good job, England. We know you got scammed by Putin.
How ‘bout we travel thousands of miles now and head over to the South American continent? That’s where we’ll find the national birds of Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. I have to tell you, I’m a little bit surprised at a few of these choices. Colombia has named the Andean Condor its national bird. No issues here. A big, deserving bird that reflects the strength of the Colombian people, fierce and proud. Take a look:
Now, Uruguay selected the Lapwing as its national bird. Not exactly what I think of when I think of the miners and cowboys and men who work with their hands in Uruguay, but a good bird, a unique bird. National pride! I’ve never seen a Lapwing, but I hope to someday. It’s a gorgeous bird. Those iridescent colors on the back and wing look so much like ibises.
Making our way over to Brazil and Argentina, two bold and brassy countries of vast expanse and decidedly macho cultures, it’s a bit surprising to find two national birds that are among the smallest and mildest of the panoply of birds presented in this edition of Dawn Chorus. I prefer to think that these two large and sophisticated countries have significantly developed birding communities and experts who were able to prevail in the selection of their national birds by choosing wisely among those endemic to the country, even if they're not popularly known -- unlike lame, unimaginative Sweden, for cryin' out loud -- so let's look at their choices.
For Brazil, it’s the Rufous-bellied Thrush, and for Argentina, it’s the Rufous Hornero, or Red Ovenbird.
There’s no way these two birds were selected as national birds to represent each country unless birders were involved. Ask the average person on the street in Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires what the name of their national bird is, I think we know the response. So kudos to Brazil and Argentina for naming a national bird that lives up to the uniqueness of each country.
Before we go back to Europe, let’s make a quick stop in Egypt where the Steppe Eagle claims the title of national bird of Egypt. Another magnificent predator, the Steppe Eagle is a fearsome and fierce bird of prey that gives all Egyptians pride and is certainly more representative of this proud country than the Egyptian Goose, common to many ponds around the U.S. The Steppe Eagle is gorgeous.
Back over to Europe/Eurasia now. I hope your ears have adjusted to the altitude changes we’ve been through thus far, to say nothing of the time zone disruption. You can sleep again when we’re finally done and this World Cup disruption is over next month — yes, it goes into July!
So I should have said at the beginning of this Dawn Chorus that the images used herein have all come from Googled images. Some of them were copyrighted and I saved the photos with the name of the copyright holder, but it’s Saturday night and I’m running out of time to post this in the morning. I don’t have time to go back through and add photo credits, but I will provide them anywhere if asked. Also, several of these photos were taken from Commons Wikimedia which allows for the free exchange of photos.
I say all this by way of setting up the following statement: We’re now going to Denmark to look at its national bird which is the Mute Swan and I am sharing MY OWN MUTE SWAN PHOTO! Haha. Little did I know when I took photos of a Mute Swan in Petaluma, California, that this was the national bird of Denmark.
Denmark chose the Mute Swan as its national bird because the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale of The Ugly Duckling features a Mute Swan emerging into its beauty in a tale that has been told for generations. A fitting choice.
Now that we’re back in Eurasia, I can share with you the fact that ferocious World Cup competitor France has as its national bird — wait for it — the rooster. Yep, a rooster. Specifically the Gallic Rooster. A long history and tradition explained here bit.ly/… with hundreds of images to fill you in and tell the story.
Let’s head over to Germany now where the magnificent and majestic Golden Eagle is ready to show itself to you as Germany’s national bird. Of all the images I found of the Golden Eagle, I chose this one with a human in it to give you a sense of its size. Wow!
Germany beat Sweden today and redeemed itself in this World Cup match. Germany now moves on. So does Croatia, another competitor many may overlook, but they shouldn’t. Croatia has wisely chosen as its national bird the Common Nightengale, revered throughout the world for its melodious song. A picture of the Common Nightengale is followed by a clip of its song and a tribute to one of its famous song stylists:
Finally, the last country I’m offering up for your national bird consideration is the bold and beautiful country of Spain, the amazing competitors I like to win it all at the World Cup at the end of this 2018 journey! How fierce is Spain? Look at their national bird! The Spanish Imperial Eagle! Is this bird a conquerer or what? A total badass! You can hear the competitor countries screaming in fear!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this national bird travel journey and commentary of the World Cup competition. Use this thread to share anything birdy you want and don’t hesitate to share your World Cup observations as well. If you have photos to share, by all means, do so. What's going on in your birding world this morning?