Okay, I know why you to come to Bird of the Week. It’s to see bland, boring birds. Well, this week we are delivering. Meet the Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris).
This rather unremarkable bird is from Europe. They are migratory and hang out in family groups where they help each other raise and protect their young. They live a quiet bird life, putting in their hours at the office, trying to bring in enough grub to keep the kids quiet, and saving for that overseas holiday.
And that’s the Fieldfare. Catch you all again next week.
Wait a second, what am I say? You come here for hard core birds getting up to zany antics. Well, the Fieldfare is all that with a helping of Caesar salad on the side. Ideally, they would like to live the quiet life, but when you’re a small bird danger lurks around every corner. Your life is basically like being in Jurassic Park. There’s always a bigger, meaner bird who wants to eat you, or your babies.
This is where there’s safety in numbers. With a large family working together, they always have extra eyes on the lookout for potential threats. While one bird could never take down a predator, all together they can. If a Raven comes knocking, hoping to dine out on their young, the whole family will mob it. They start up a screeching racket, flying at it from every direction, until it is overwhelmed and cowed into submission.
But this isn’t what makes the Fieldfare unique. They have one special trick up their sleeve. Or rather, up their butt. As they swoop and chase their enemy, they will also poop all over it. Literal divebombs. And they have scary accurate aim as well.
I don’t have a good picture, but you can see it in this short video narrated by David Attenborough.
Now, if I’m getting pooped on, I’m probably going to get out of that situation, asap. But as gross as it is, for birds it comes with an added risk. The Fieldfare can shoot enough poop with such accuracy and at such volume that they can completely saturate their target’s feathers, even to the point of preventing them from flying. For a bird, this could have lethal consequences. So … you know, it’s a pretty effective deterrent.
These little guys are members of the Thrush family, Turdidae. In their case it really is turd by name, turd by nature.
14/02/21
Bird of the Week 