I love the birds I see everyday in my little corner of the world.
They are not not exotic, only one I have appears on any of the ‘lists’. For example the list of the fastest birds includes geese and ducks who fly 70-90 mph; but the fastest is the Peregrine Falcon clocked at 242 mph; not only the fastest bird but the fastest living creature on the planet.
More subjectively, the list of the most beautiful birds include the predictable Peacocks, Wood Ducks and Flamingos, but number 1 is the Golden Pheasant. This ‘beautiful’ list is made up of highly colorful birds making me think of Louis XIVth’s court at Versailles where everyone was dressed in the brightest possible colors. Perhaps elegance and good taste are overlooked.
Not that I don’t love this website and it lists: www.https://themysteriousworld.com/.
The House Sparrow is Number 8 on the site’s list of the 10 best singing birds. The House Sparrow. I have those–everyone does– and I think their quiet coloring is beautiful. I will now listen more carefully to their songs. Number 1 of songbirds is the Common Nightingale. “Common”. The arrogance of humans is amazing.
And speaking of the interface of birds and humans, it is generally agreed that birders are ‘crazy’; to see a bird they hang on ropes from cliffs or stand in their waders in icy water for hours. They seek not the garish or the fast, they seek the new experience as in the following example: “…all of a sudden I heard him violently inhale with utter desperation as he looked out the windshield of my vehicle. Thinking that I was about to run over an innocent woodland creature, I slammed on the brakes only to see him point and say, “Look! A magpie!” as if this bird was some mystical creature that was equivalent or somehow more remarkable than sighting a unicorn – with rainbows, sparkles, celestial light, and all that other stuff that goes along with unicorns. https://thebirderswife.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/why-yes-birders-are-crazy/
The Magpie is a small bird found all over the globe, related to crows. But valued apparently. I almost gasped yesterday when I looked out of my window at the gray branches of my apple tree on a very gray day and saw a blood-colored object. My double-take revealed only one of my Cardinals. The Cardinals, Sparrows, the Titmice, the Mockingbirds are busy making nests and feeding babies. The hummingbird-feeder awaits my dear Hummingbirds, who will make homes and feed babies very soon I hope. Every Day stuff. Perfect.