Vol. 5 // This baby bird sounds like a human with hiccups 🐥

Found in parts of Africa

The intimidating-looking (but totally harmless) Shoebill, which can stand five feet tall, may resemble a stork, but this bird is so unique it makes up its own family. The Shoebill is also nicknamed "The Whalehead" thanks to its enormous head and shoe-shaped bill. 

Despite its size, the Shoebill flies quite gracefully among marshes and swamps with an eight foot-wingspan, looking for lungfish to dine on below. Mated pairs communicate with each other through bill-clattering while tending to their nests.

Unfortunately, the Shoebill is currently a vulnerable species due to habitat loss and hunting.

Fun fact: Baby Shoebills cry out in hunger with a call that sounds just like human hiccups. 

Give a Hoot

Three birding bits you should know about this week.

❄️ Cold as ice
Meet the birder who runs a Christmas Bird Count 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle
Sixty-three year old Clare Kines notes the Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Ringed Plover and other species of this frigid landscape where the sun never sets. 

🦅 It’s a wonderful town
New Yorkers rejoice over Rover the Bald Eagle in Central Park
Rover the Bald Eagle was given his nickname by admiring New Yorkers, who enjoy seeing him visit the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Hot tip in this story: if you’re a local, you can head to nearby Croton-on-Hudson where Bald Eagle sightings are common.

🪶 Let me count the ways
Great Backyard Bird Count
The Audubon Society’s annual Great Backyard Bird Count begins today! The basics? Choose a spot to watch birds in for at least 15 minutes from February 18-21, and count all the birds you see or hear. Learn more about how you can participate here.

A Product We Love

Unique and worthy products from the wide world of birding you might enjoy.

REI trail chair. For a more comfortable seat when you just can’t tear your eyes away from a bird sighting. Plus, it’s easy to clip to your backpack. $29.95

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!

"I came to win, to fight

To conquer, to thrive

I came to win, to survive

To prosper, to rise

To fly

To fly"

– “Fly” by Nicki Minaj ft. Rihanna

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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.