I confess I find the sight of the open mouths kind of freaky.
That's a little weird. Do you also find hot dogs (thermically challenged domesticated canines) freaky? Because they tend to go around with their mouths open to pant, too.
1: I think it's that I'm imagining the birds as giant dinosaurs ever since that birdosaur thread. A giant dinosaur with its mouth open = scary.
Is there plenty of fresh water around for them?
3: I serve food. I thought some else was on beverages.
More seriously, there's a river nearby.
Okay, fine, but what happened to the squirrel?
Why would you want to give giant dinosaurs fresh water?
5: The squirrel gave up on getting into the feeder once I moved it. Instead, he just eats the food the birds knock onto the ground.
Sure, they can be cute, but soon enough you have an infestation. And don't even think it's a good idea to get rid of them by filling your freshwater with SuperCrocs.
Cool. Hey, you know, you could make a cross-stich of Ike.
I can't make out its mouth at all in the photo, but I see what you mean from this one.
2: I'm imagining the birds as giant dinosaurs ever since that birdosaur thread.
I will admit it has made me take a closer look at robins (in lawn-hopping mode) and wild turkeys*. We have a group of two turkey hens with six poults that have been around. I first noticed them one day when the young ones had gotten scattered and taken to the trees and rooftops. One by one the poults returned to the group; I did not know how many there were but when there were five the two hens were still quite agitated and looking towards our backyard. Finally a sixth flew around the house into a tree and then eventually came down and joined the flock. They then set off across the street in their usual formation of one hen leading and the other bring up the rear. My reaction was, "Dinosaurs Turkeys can count!"
*Despite my still not liking the emphasis on the "birds are dinosaurs" construction.
Oh, man! There was just a huge Brewer's Blackbird (I think) doing the panting thing! But my camera sucks too much to get a picture.
The Brewer's Blackbird doesn't live in the 13 original colonies. I think you saw a grackle.
My mistake, it lives in South Carolina and Georgia, in the winter.
It might have been a Brown-headed Cowbird.
There's been another feathered dinosaur recently. It's really starting to look like primitive feathers were common to all early dinosaurs (though many large dinosaurs probably lost their feathers, much as modern Elephants do not have much hair despite being mammals).
I'm sad that Science has decisively refuted urple, after his magnificent performance in that thread.
What's virtually certain is that the first theropod was feathered. Outside of that is much less clear, as it appears that even baby Sauropods were scaly instead of fluffy.
I though elephants lost their hair because it was warm in Africa, even after you touch the rains. Evolution can make an elephant-like creature covered with hair and has done twice that I know of.
Here's a bluejay doing the pant thing.
Hm, yeah, the open mouths don't really bother me, looking at the pictures in this thread. I don't recall ever seeing one in real life.
I mean, no more than the birds bother me in general.
I'm only bothered by specific birds.
24: You shouldn't order the chicken at Arby's. They're a roast beef place. That's why their name is RB.
Holy shit, I'd never noticed that before.
I mean the RB thing. I've noticed not to order the chicken at Arby's.
Large things tend to overheat because heat is produced proportionally to volume but lost proportionally to surface area. Thus large animals are more likely to have to worry about cooling while small animals tend to worry about staying warm. Of course in a cold enough climate even large animals may need insulation to stay warm. So polar elephants and tropical mice are furry, but tropical elephants are not.
There is a size by climate interaction of hairiness.
Indeed, the Columbian mammoth (which inhabited the temperate parts of North America) is thought to have not been very hairy, in contrast to the wooly mammoth further north.
Speaking of the defining characteristics of mammals, Nickelodeon has a show called "Back at the Barnyard" where the male lead is called "Otis the Cow" and Otis has some udders. Not just vestiges, but the same udders as the female cows. It's kind of strange now that it's sunk in.
I was very pleased that Madagascar 3 didn't enforce boobs and skinny waists on its female characters. (The cheetah had basically the same figure as the tiger, and the hippo and bear were rotund, irresistible daredevils.) Can't remember if they had Dimorphic Eyelashes. Probably.
Little known fact about birds (and non-avian dinosaurs, as far as they can see): they do circular breathing all the time. It's just how they do it. If you could teach one the fingering on a sax, it would be a natural.
I mean the RB thing. I've noticed not to order the chicken at Arby's.
It's a good idea not to order the roast beef at Arby's either.