Vol. 30 // What do Japan’s bullet trains and Kingfishers have in common? 🚅

Found in western North America

Hear Their Song

These tiny, round birds found in conifer forests are known for their song that goes “chick-a-dee”—a song you’ll more likely to hear in summer. You can also recognize them by the white stripe above their eyes, giving them a masked appearance.

Chickadees love to nest in tree holes, and they are an important defense mechanism for trees when infestations of insects like bark beetles show up—they’ll gorge on the all-you-can-eat bug buffet for as long as they can. They weigh only half a pound and diligently store food for the winter months; when they come upon a plentiful stash (like your backyard feeder) they’ll steal away bits of food from it again and again to save for a rainy day.

Fun fact: Mountain Chickadees need to consume about 10 calories a day.

Give a Hoot

Birding bits you should know about this week

🦜 Read
A wild hope
The sky blue, extinct-in-the-wild Spix’s Macaw has been returned to its natural habitat in Brazil for the first time in two decades.

🚅 Learn
How the Kingfisher made Japan’s bullet trains possible
The more you know!

🦕 Watch
How the largest flying bird of all time stayed airborne
Learn how the prehistoric Pelagornis sandersi, which was six feet long and had a wingspan of 24 feet (!), was able to fly.

Flying Colors’ stylish (and affordable) organic wild bird food jar is the perfect gift, and will even make a beautiful decor statement in your home. 

Choose from three custom blends — Pine Plains, Woodstock, and Millbrook — all made with 100% USDA certified organic ingredients like, sunflower hearts and safflower, and hand-mixed with love in New York's Hudson Valley.

Your Shot

An amazing bird photo taken by one of our community members. Submit yours to hello@flyingcolors.co to be considered for an upcoming edition!

In Walden wood the chickadee

Runs round the pine and maple tree

Intent on insect slaughter:

O tufted entomologist!

Devour as many as you list,

Then drink in Walden water.

– “Fragments on Nature and Life” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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About Us

Flying Colors makes premium organic wild bird food, offering ethically sourced, toxin-free seeds and nuts of the highest quality to nourish wild birds of all types and inspire birders of all ages. Each specialty blend and single origin creation is rigorously sourced & researched, and every jar is produced with love & packaged by hand in small batches in New York's Hudson Valley and tested in our own backyards.