The Blues VII

Image: Cláudio Dias Timm
Porphyrospiza caerulescens

Uh oh! It's that time of year again when all looks lost, all looks cold, all looks... blue. Blue Monday strikes again. The attic groans under the weight of Christmas decorations already laden with a thin layer of dust. Christmas gifts have lost their lustre and joined the rest of your belongings as mere possessions cluttering your life. And if you don't follow through with your New Year's resolutions this time, you'll have to get a new Christmas jumper to ease over that ever-expanding belly.

But worry not! Or continue worrying, just be sure to do it with friends. Friends like the Blue Finch.

The Blues VI

Image: Bernard DUPONT
Corythaeola cristata

It's Blue Monday! Mathematically proven to be the most depressing day of the year by qualified PR professionals who believe the best way to defeat it is with a holiday package bought from their clients. But there's no defeating it. It looms. It impends. It soon comes to a dark night of the soul near YOU! And there are no holidays from one's own soul.

Jabiru

Image: Francisco Severo Neto
Jabiru mycteria

It's a well known fact that roughly 50% of all babies are delivered by stork. Originally a failed attempt to reduce nepotism, the practise continues due to its efficiency, cost effectiveness, and the fact that storks are both great believers in tradition and surprisingly quick to violence when roused.

The Blues V

Image: Hiyashi Haka
Lamprotornis caudatus

It's time for the blues! Either that or I'm a week late... Oh dear. Failure upon failure! Blues upon blues! Well, I guess it makes sense, really. Blues are eternal, after all. Haven't you heard? It's blues all the way down! At least on this page...

The Blues IV

Image: Ted

Uh oh! It's that time of year again - Blue Monday! The worst Monday of them all.

Birds, Bats and Watercress

Image: Barracuda1983
A Pipistrelle bat

I went to a farm so I could look at birds, listen to bats and eat entire branches of the Tree of Life! I mean watercress.

Potoo

Image: Yanayacu Biological Station

I got myself a guest post! When it comes to big, googly eyes, few can match your average squid, let along a particularly googly-eyed squid. Ernie Allison introduces us to a noble challenger of the feathered kind.

Closely related to nightjars and frogmouths, the Potoo is the avian equivalent of your crazy uncle. You know the one—when he shows up to the family reunion you can’t tell if he’s been hitting the bottle since 9 AM, or just coming off of another Special K bender.

The Blues III

Image: JJ Harrison

It's the most mis'rable time of the year!
When your tears are upwelling
And everyone's telling you be of good cheer
It's the most mis'rable time of the year!

Long-wattled Umbrellabird

Image: Mindoconexion.com

When Justin Beiber goes crazy and has repeated cosmetic surgery to turn himself into a floppy-haired black man with a long beard, he'll look just like this.

Horned Guan

Image: guppiecat
Oreophasis derbianus

Oh! OUCH! Someone's taken a terrific knock on the head. I'm surprised he can stay standing!

The Blues II

Image: Pierre Dalous
Alcedo atthis

I hope you're feeling suitably miserable and depressed in preparation of tomorrow's solemnities!

It's Blue Monday! Mathematically proven by some PR guy to be the most miserable day of the year because it's cold, Christmas is gone and you've already failed your New Year's resolution to stop being such a horrible failure.

Yaaaaay!


Of course, there are creatures out there who are blue all year round. They do quite well on it, too.

Return of the Hallowe'en Horrors

It's Hallowe'en! That time of year when we play snakes 'n' ladders with death, peek-a-boo with darkness and rock, paper, Armageddon with evil. Fun!

Behold Death. He's stripped to the waist to show off his brand new array of internal organs. He looks great! At least 3 or 4,000 years younger! The surgeon says he can choose some skin in a few weeks, maybe even an eyeball!

Here be Darkness. Her flower arranging has really come on leaps and bounds this year. She's taken a very important step and decided not to paint all the flowers entirely black. We now have one crimson petal peeking out from the shadows. She says it's a revelation!

Yonder is Evil. He's dressed up in a long, white robe with a little cardboard halo fixed onto his head by a piece of wire. He does that every year but it's hilarious every time!

But some creatures don't need to dress up in a long, white robe to be scary. They don't need clothes at all. They're entirely NAKED! All the time! Let's go see!

Brainfever Bird

Image: Wikimedia

This ain't no nightingale. The Brainfever Bird performs a pretty good audio rendition of delirium, though! I guess it depends on whether you prefer Bach or Beethoven.

The Dino's Toes

Image: marttj via Flickr

It doesn't matter how pretty a bird is. how vibrant the colours, how flowing the feathers, how sweet the song. If you take a look at their feet you will see scales and claws.

Southern Ground Hornbill

Image: Arno & Louise Wildlife via Flickr

Black and red. A colour combination of ultimate menace, minx and yes, even jinx. Yet this, the world's biggest hornbill, likes to mix it all up with a bit of wholesome, family values.

The Blues

Image: Blake Matheson via Flickr

Are you depressed yet? It's coming on "Blue Monday", statistically the most depressing day of the year. So, if you're not mired in misery you are strange, abnormal and alone. Hopefully that thought will be the kick you need to join us in despair and relinquish any lingering happiness or contentment you may have. I'm here to serve!

Shoebill

Image: Wikimedia

I've long been a fan of the Shoebill. They just look so... dangerous. I'm a huge fan of dangerous things that can't hurt me in any way. In fact, that's my favourite kind of dangerous!

Greater Adjutant

Image: Wikipedia

The Greater Adjutant is a huge, shockingly unattractive stork from parts of India and south-east Asia. Being a close relative of Africa's Marabou Stork, it seems this particular brand of ugly has gone global!

Vampire Finch

Sharp-beaked Ground Finches are from the Galápagos Islands. They eat seeds and invertebrates. A perfectly respectable diet. But there is a subspecies of this particular finch that lives in rather dry areas. Areas where fresh water is hard to come by. They'll need to find water from somewhere. I wonder where they could possibly find it?

Coot Chick

Image: Wikimedia

Do people still call ladies "chicks" these days? Hmmm... looks like they do (amazing story!). Anyway, we got Coot Chicks today! Coot and naked as the day they were born! Phwoar! It's just that they were probably born a few days ago.