There’s a reason why calling someone a “bird brain” isn’t a complement. Birds need to keep their weight down in order to fly and if they can shave off a few excess grams from getting rid of a few spurious neurons, well…
There’s a pyracantha bush by our house. The birds eat the berries. The berries ferment in the bird’s stomach, and the birds get drunk. The neighborhood cats sit there by the bush, and do in any wasted birdie that staggers by. As far as the cats are concerned, the alcohol content improves the flavor of the birds just like when you saute something in cooking sherry.
You’d think that all the little decapitated bird bodies and gaggle of kitties hanging around a particular bush might be some sort of “This isn’t a bush full of berries! It’s a four star kitty restaurant! Run for your lives” signal.
Probably 50% of that billion of birds done in by cats just come from that one pyracantha bush in my yard.
The later were introduced by fanboys of English Lit – and are classified as “species of least concern” (And you have to be a pretty invasive species to get that rank) :
There’s a reason why calling someone a “bird brain” isn’t a complement. Birds need to keep their weight down in order to fly and if they can shave off a few excess grams from getting rid of a few spurious neurons, well…
There’s a pyracantha bush by our house. The birds eat the berries. The berries ferment in the bird’s stomach, and the birds get drunk. The neighborhood cats sit there by the bush, and do in any wasted birdie that staggers by. As far as the cats are concerned, the alcohol content improves the flavor of the birds just like when you saute something in cooking sherry.
You’d think that all the little decapitated bird bodies and gaggle of kitties hanging around a particular bush might be some sort of “This isn’t a bush full of berries! It’s a four star kitty restaurant! Run for your lives” signal.
Probably 50% of that billion of birds done in by cats just come from that one pyracantha bush in my yard.
And a large chunk of those are invasive species that were introduced in North America by morons like us. Two of noteworthiness :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Sparrow#Distribution_and_habitat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Starling#North_America
The later were introduced by fanboys of English Lit – and are classified as “species of least concern” (And you have to be a pretty invasive species to get that rank) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Acclimatization_Society
In the case of species artificially introduced by idiots in the 19th century, I say to cats – bon appetit.
I would suspect that humankind has destroyed far more birds and other species…
Cats are psychopaths …