I have been rewatching The Life of Birds, David Attenborough’s incredible series about the avian world.  I wonder how many people here have seen this series since it was first broadcast in 1998. I remember watching it on PBS at that time, which was long before I bought the series on DVD. It has some wonderful photography and David Attenborough is such a great presenter. The DVD set is still available, and the episodes are available for streaming on YouTube if anyone is interested.

Here is a trailer from YouTube:

@narnian78 I watched it that same year when it was first broadcast (on the ABC in Australia)! Wonderful and incredible documentary, like just about everything Attenborough has ever done, before and since. I was especially thrilled by the lyrebird with his incredible mimicry — you could almost swear he's somehow recording those sounds and playing them back! The part of Australia where I grew up, South Gippsland, is known as "the Land of the Lyrebird", but I've never managed to see (or hear) one in real life.

@courtenay 

I ended up buying the series because I liked it so much. It became so popular that people are still watching it almost thirty years later. David Attenborough’s documentaries are perhaps the best ever made.

@courtenay 

I found this article which has more about the close relationship of American Robin and European Blackbird:

http://birdingwithkennandkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/random-bird-blackbird.html

They have some similarities such as their song and appearance. I have never seen the European Blackbird except for In pictures, but I have heard recordings of their songs. They do have much in common. They seem like much nicer birds then the blackbirds that we have here in the U. S. such as the starlings and grackles. But we do have beautiful songbirds here such as the cardinal, the bluebird. the grosbeak, and the wood thrush. So I guess I can’t complain too much. It must be really nice to have skylarks and nightingales in your own country.  We don’t have them here in the U. S. 🙁

Posted by: @courtenay

As for the European robin, I remember once reading a legend about it — I don't know if this comes from Britain or the European mainland, but according to the story, the robin saw Jesus on the cross, with his crown of thorns, and was moved with compassion and tried to pull out the thorns that were sticking into his forehead. The little bird's chest was splashed with Christ's blood and, so we're told, that's how "robin redbreast" got his colouring. Very unlikely, as European robins aren't common in the Holy Land (I think it's right at the very edge of their maximum non-breeding range), but it's a good story! It may have been thought up as a way of further associating the already Christmassy robin with Christianity — shows the high regard in which robins are held here.

I have read such a legend too - it was written by a Swedish author, Selma Lagerlöf ( https://www.plough.com/en/authors/l/selma-lagerlof , who got the Nobel prize in literature in 1909). I don't know whether she based it on other, shorter legends or whether she conjured it all up, but it's definitely a good story.

I looked for a translation of it, and I found one at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44818/44818-h/44818-h.htm#story9 , translated by Velma Swanston Howard.

Then I also found a slightly shortened version of the same translation at https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/short-stories/robin-redbreast-easter-short-story - unfortunately they cut one of the last paragraphs of the story and removed a crucial clue. Perhaps they thought that clue made too obvious an interpretation. Compare the two versions for yourself and see what you think.

Edit:

I then found yet another version of the same translation, including that missing paragraph:

https://beatrizbecker.com/2020/04/10/robin-redbreast/

Thanks @varna, that's really beautiful and fascinating! I also wonder whether Selma Lagerlöf was drawing on traditional folktales for that story and the others she refers to within it (how the donkey got his long ears and why the bee dies after stinging), or whether she made them up herself entirely. I've always loved stories like that of how something in the natural world (supposedly!) came to be, whether they're old legends or invented by a known author. Growing up in Australia, I used to love reading stories based on Australian Aboriginal legends — why the emu can't fly, why the kangaroo hops on his hind legs, how the birds got their colours (and why the crow remained black!), and so on. And here in Britain, Rudyard Kipling — also a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1907! — wrote a collection called the Just So Stories with similar themes. (They are actually stories he made up and told to his oldest daughter, Josephine, who sadly died at only 7 years old. I didn't know that when I first read them as a child, but now, with that knowledge, there are parts of them that are quite heartbreaking.)

Posted by: @narnian78

It must be really nice to have skylarks and nightingales in your own country.  We don’t have them here in the U. S.

Well, I don't know about "really nice"... skylarks are amazing, but they're rarer than they used to be — I've only seen / heard one once in nearly 12 years of living here. It did immediately make me think of my favourite Vaughan Williams piece as soon as I realised what it was! Not that a skylark's song is anywhere near as musical as the solo violin part in The Lark Ascending, but it's loud and powerful and rings out as the male bird suddenly shoots up towards the sky from the ground and hovers there, singing and singing.

Nightingales, on the other hand, are sadly absurdly exaggerated. Their song isn't any more beautiful than that of most other small songbirds, honestly; it's just that they usually sing at night, surprisingly loudly, and so the song stands out. I have once heard what might have been one, one evening in Salisbury over 10 years ago, but it was a bit late in the year for nightingales and I didn't have internet access where I was at that moment, so couldn't go looking for recordings to compare it to, and there's no way I can remember now exactly what I heard then. But as bird songs go, the nightingale's is nothing really unusual. Definitely not to someone who grew up in the land of Australian Magpies and Pied Butcherbirds and Superb Lyrebirds and... but don't get me started. (And seriously, don't get me started on the colours of Australian birds vs British / European ones either.)  

@courtenay 

The National Audubon Society’s vinyl LP records from the 1980’s Beautiful Bird Songs of the World has both the skylark’s and the nightingale’s song. It also has the wood thrush’s and the cardinal’s song, two of my favorite songbirds. It’s interesting which songs from the countries that the Audubon Society thought were the most beautiful. But of course that is a matter of opinion.  There are some equally fine singers such as the Swainson’s thrush and Veery which were not included on the album because of the time limitation.  The LP’s are rare and out of print now, but I still play them occasionally, and I really admire the recordings. I always encourage people to buy recordings of bird songs to learn their birds, and it is really nice to listen to the recordings on dark, gloomy days. 🙂

Here in America we also have a problem with songbirds declining in population. It is mostly caused by the unfortunate loss of habitat and woodlands disappearing because of excessive development destroying them. I would encourage people to donate to conservation organizations such as the Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation to save the habitat for birds and other wildlife. It is in everyone’s interest to have a better, more natural world. 

Do you have a favorite songbird? Mine was always the wood thrush, but I also love the hermit thrush, bluebird, and many other birds that have mastered singing and are beautiful in appearance. 🙂

I wonder if birds sing during the winter in the places where people on this forum live.  I have heard cardinals sing in January here in the U.S. The earliest that the American Robin sings here in Michigan is usually in March. It seems to be triggered by the change to warmer weather, although there may be other things which cause it to sing. I wonder if birds will believe that it is spring when we have springlike weather in other seasons. It is kind of a mystery when their behavior changes. 🙂

Yes! The birds' singing of course decreases a lot during our winter months, but cardinals, chickadees, sometime bluejays,  and a type of sparrow feed regularly at our bird feeders, often chattering away. We don't hear many actual bird songs, but the familiar chirps are quite common in the cold weather.  

I wondered if other countries have state or provincial birds as well as national ones.  In the United States we have the Bald Eagle as the national symbol and in Michigan the state bird is the American Robin.  There was some talk of changing the state bird in Michigan to the Kirtland's Warbler, but the robin is much more common and it resides in our state all year long. So the state bird will probably always be the robin.  I don't see any reason at this time to change it to something else, although the wood thrush with its beautiful song might be another good option since it is in Michigan forests from May to October.  And it is closely related to the robin since it is in the same family of birds. 🙂

@narnian78 Definitely! Here are Australia's bird emblems for the nation, the six states and the two mainland territories: List of Australian bird emblems

Unfortunately I don't think the UK has many  officially recognised bird emblems. I believe the (European) robin was unofficially chosen in a poll some years ago, but I'm not sure whether it was meant to be the emblem of the entire United Kingdom, or just of England. I do know that the golden eagle is sometimes seen as an emblem of Scotland and the red kite as an emblem of Wales, but I don't think either of them has any official status either.

At a more local level, Cornwall does have an official bird, definitely — the chough. I don't know if any other counties or regions have something similar. 

^ These are fun and interesting to read!  

I have listed Canada's provincial/territory birds below. I live in Ontario, and, as it happens, the Loon is a favourite bird of mine, in large part because of its evocative, plaintive call . But it is quite an attractive bird, as well, and is found frequently on lakes in Ontario's cottage country, a vast area.

When I was in university, one of our assignments was to compose a piece of music based on the call of the loon. I really wish I could find my composition (it's long lost ), but I do recall it was quite intriguing (if I do say so myself ). The interval and timbre of the call is haunting, mysterious, gorgeous. To be camping by a lake, or in a canoe on the lake, itself, and hear the cry of a loon sinks deep into one's soul. Seriously!

Here is a short video:

I also love the Snowy Owl and the Black-capped Chickadee. Puffins are adorable, and while Blue Jays are very pretty, their personality is decisively not.  Falcons are amazing, majestic birds, so I'm glad we have one Territory that has the Falcon as its noted bird.  

• Common Loon : provincial bird of Ontario 
•  
• Snowy Owl : provincial bird of Quebec
•  
• Great Horned Owl : provincial bird of Alberta
•  
• Great Grey Owl : provincial bird of Manitoba
•  
• Steller’s Jay : provincial bird of British Columbia
•  
• Black-capped Chickadee : provincial bird of New Brunswick
•  
• Atlantic Puffin : provincial bird of Newfoundland and Labrador
•  
• Osprey : provincial bird of Nova Scotia
•  
• Blue Jay : provincial bird of Prince Edward Island
•  
• Sharp-tailed Grouse : provincial bird of Saskatchewan
•  
• Gyr Falcon : territorial bird of the Northwest Territories
•  
• Rock Ptarmigan : territorial bird of Nunavut
•  
• Common Raven : territorial bird of Yukon

@jo What a haunting call! We have loons in the UK as well, but we call them great northern divers — exact same species, though, as far as I'm aware. I think they're only found in the far north of Scotland, however, and they don't breed here. 

@jo 

I have a CD of loon calls from the Cornell Labratory of Ornithology, which is located in New York State. Here in Michigan loons are mostly found in the northern Lower and Upper Peninsulas.

It is very enjoyable to know the state birds. Michigan has the robin and New York has the Eastern Bluebird, and the District of Columbia has the wood thrush.  Songbirds are often chosen to represent each state. Sometimes the same bird was selected for several states. 

Here is a list of all the state birds in the U.S.:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_birds

Have anyone ever seen birds in unusual places?  I once saw a veery and a wood thrush in my backyard in the small town where I lived.  The birds were migrating to better habitat for them and they stayed only for a short time (a few days at the most) This was decades ago when the town had more trees, but of course it was not a forest where the birds live normally. It is not uncommon for these birds to turn up in other places during migration. They have to spend the winter in Central America and they are here in Michigan during the spring and summer months. So it is natural for them to travel long distances, although I certainly miss them when they are not here. I wonder how many of them actually survive the journey.