Birdfolio

For its size, a diving Anna's Hummingbird outruns a fighter jet. The male's courtship dive covers 385 body lengths a second; a jet on afterburner manages about 150, a space shuttle on reentry 207. Then he pulls up at about 9 g. John Gould painted these. #birds #BirdArt

Sixpence in New Orleans, three guineas in London: that's what Audubon saw Painted Buntings fetch. Trappers set a stuffed male in a fighting pose on a cage; a live male would attack the "rival" and spring the trap. Audubon's plate shows them squabbling. #birds #BirdArt

In 1995, woodpeckers delayed a space shuttle. Northern Flickers at Kennedy Space Center pecked about 200 holes in the foam of Discovery's fuel tank, and NASA had to roll it back for repairs. It flew three weeks late. Audubon called the bird the Gold-winged Woodpecker. #birds #BirdArt

Audubon's waxwings have yellow tail tips. Since the 1960s, some have grown orange ones, from eating an introduced honeysuckle's berries while the feathers grew. If you keep a life list, we print it as a hardcover with a classic painting beside every bird: mybirdfolio.com #birds #BirdArt

Halloween is a week from today, so here's an owl drawn by the man who wrote "The Owl and the Pussy-cat." Long before that poem, Edward Lear drew birds for a living, including this Barred Owl for John Gould. #birds #BirdArt

How did a western finch end up at feeders in the East? In 1940, New York pet shops that had been selling House Finches illegally let them go to escape prosecution. Within 50 years they'd spread west to the Great Plains. Audubon called it the Crimson-fronted Purple Finch. #birds #BirdArt

One Mourning Dove lived at least 30 years. Banded in Georgia in 1968, it turned up in Florida in 1998: the oldest banded Mourning Dove on record. Audubon called the species the "Carolina Turtle Dove." #birds #BirdArt

Grebes eat their own feathers. In a Pied-billed Grebe, feathers can at times fill more than half the stomach, and newly hatched chicks are sometimes fed them too. The wad seems to work as a sieve, keeping hard bits of prey out of the gut. Audubon painted this marsh pair. #birds #BirdArt

A day or so after hatching, Bufflehead ducklings jump out of their tree hole, usually an old flicker nest, and drop to the ground. Then their mother leads them to water. The hole is usually 2-10 feet up, sometimes up to 50. Audubon's name for it: "Buffel-headed Duck." #birds #BirdArt

Birds can't sweat. So when a Black Vulture overheats, it excretes onto its own bare legs and lets the evaporation cool it down. In cold, wet weather, Audubon wrote, they "assemble round the chimney-tops" to warm up in the smoke. He painted this pair on a dead deer. #birds #BirdArt

Few animals will take on a skunk. The Great Horned Owl does, regularly. Keep a life list? We print it as a hardcover, each bird beside a classic painting: mybirdfolio.com Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Birds of New York (1910–14) #birds #BirdArt

Scientists put tiny loggers on 13 Common Swifts. Some took off in August, flew to Africa and back, and didn't land once in 10 months. A space station crew usually stays about 6 months. J. G. Keulemans painted this swift clinging to a rock in 1873. #birds #BirdArt

In 2006, scientists wore a rubber mask to catch and band 7 crows in Seattle. The crows yelled at that mask for 17 years, and taught their chicks to do it too. Audubon painted this American Crow on a black walnut branch, with a hummingbird nest below. #birds #BirdArt

In 1999 a falconer jumped out of a plane at 17,000 feet with his peregrine, Frightful, to time her dive. A chip on her tail clocked her at 242 mph (389 km/h). For scale: the fastest Formula 1 Grand Prix speed on record is 231.5 mph (Guinness). The painting is Edward Lear's, for John Gould.

On Oct 14, 1907, Theodore Roosevelt set aside Three Arch Rocks off Oregon for native birds: the first wildlife refuge west of the Mississippi. It's still Oregon's biggest Tufted Puffin colony. Audubon called them "Tufted Auk." John James Audubon, The Birds of America (1827–38) #birds #BirdArt

Canada's "loonie" almost had a canoe on it. In 1986 the master dies for that design went missing on the way to Winnipeg, so the Mint picked a loon instead. The Goulds called it the "Northern Diver." John and Elizabeth Gould, The Birds of Europe (1832–37) #birds #BirdArt

"Oh sweet Canada, Canada, Canada": that's the White-throated Sparrow. Or it was. A new "Can-a, Can-a" ending spread about 1,900 miles east across Canada in roughly 20 years. Look for them under shrubs now. John James Audubon, The Birds of America (1827–38) #birds #BirdArt

Most Hermit Thrush songs favor the simple pitch ratios behind many human musical scales, a 2014 study found. If you keep a life list, we print it as a hardcover, each bird beside a classic painting: mybirdfolio.com John James Audubon, The Birds of America (1827–38) #birds #BirdArt

Happy World Migratory Bird Day! That robin pausing on your lawn may be listening. In a 1997 experiment, robins found buried mealworms they couldn't see, smell or feel, and did worse when scientists played white noise. John and Elizabeth Gould, The Birds of Europe (1832–37) #birds #BirdArt

After the last Ice Age, oaks spread north as fast as trees with light, windblown seeds. With heavy acorns? Partly Blue Jays, researchers argue: in one Virginia study, jays carried off and buried 133,000 acorns, 54% of the crop. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Birds of New York (1910–14) #birds #BirdArt

Up to 12 eggs in one nest, and the whole clutch can weigh as much as the mother. That's the tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglet, flicking its wings in shrubs this month. Audubon called it the "Ruby crowned Wren." John James Audubon, The Birds of America (1827–38) #birds #BirdArt

Before a Ruby-throated Hummingbird crosses the Gulf of Mexico, it almost doubles its weight, from 3.25 to 6 grams. Then it flies about 500 miles nonstop in 18-20 hours, and could beat its wings 3,860,000 times without a break. John Gould, A Monograph of the Trochilidae (1849–61) #birds #BirdArt

The juncos at UC San Diego evolved right on campus. A small group moved in from the mountains in the early 1980s, and after only several generations, the campus males had about 22% less white in their tails. John James Audubon, The Birds of America (1840–44) #birds #BirdArt

Before the 1890s, Evening Grosbeaks were almost unknown east of the Great Lakes. This fall they're already on the move, with reports from California to North Dakota. Fuertes painted the pair: golden male, silver-gray female. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Birds of New York (1910–14) #birds #BirdArt

Fun fact: a Clark's Nutcracker can bury 30,000+ pine seeds in one fall, carrying up to 90 at a time in a throat pouch, and find them again in winter. Audubon painted a male (1) and a female (2). John James Audubon, The Birds of America (1840–44) #birds #BirdArt

Hi bird people!❤️ We're Birdfolio. Every day we share a classic bird painting (Audubon, Gould, Fuertes and more) with one surprising fact about the bird. All art credited, never AI. We'd love to join the Birds! feed. #addBirder 🪶