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A narrative podcast from two bird lovers (and friends) exploring all things bird.
I'm Hannah.
And I'm Cleo.
And you're listening.
Welcome back to Birds on Birds, everyone, an Ornithological Odyssey podcast, where we take you on the ride of the sky.
Yeah, we're here to basically talk about any and all things bird.
Usually we're doing a deep dive on a bird.
Yes.
And today we will be doing a deep dive on a bird.
But every now and then we step outside of that.
Yeah.
Pretty often.
Off culture, adjacent, I guess, like books, movies, uh, conservationists, uh, side eggs, good eggs.
Yeah, well, what's the opposite of conservationist?
Um...
Environmental terrorist.
That is the opposite of a conservationist, for sure.
We haven't done any of those Wow.
Jeffrey Lindrum was a bad egg.
I don't know that he was a terrorist.
An environmental terrorist to me is like.. Someone who.. That's going to get deep.
I think it's someone who is like, uh, like really does a big bad thing.
Well, okay, so turns out a terrorist is a person who uses unlawful violence fear and or intimidation against civilians or non-combatants, so non-innocence to achieve political, religious, or ideological goals.
So that's the thing.
He didn't have any of that.
No, he was just like a greed and, um, obsession.
Yeah.
It was an addiction.
So we've yet to do an environmental terrorist, but maybe someday we will, if it's important to understanding things that happen to birds.
Yeah, maybe.
We'll see.
You'll have to stay tuned.
But today.
Today, today is tasty.
Today is tasty.
Today is exciting.
I wanted to do something that felt a little summery.
Yeah.
Because it is, I guess technically it's peak summer, but August always feels like the dip down of summer.
Yeah.
It's getting real hot.
You're ready for it to cool down, but you're also like, where did this summer go?
Oh my god, it went so fast.
Yeah.
But I have not gotten nearly enough lizard hours.
I haven't gotten enough time outside in general.
You haven't?
So I started thinking...
You've gone birding a couple times, but I've been like indoors in a way that is upsetting, but I also had a summer semester for the 1st time this summer.
That's true.
I've had reasons for being indoors.
Yeah.
But I was really excited because I thought that maybe we could do something that felt summary.
And when I think of summer, I think of eating fresh fruit.
And so today, I present to you the red avidavit, a.k.a. The strawberry finch.
Let's go It's so cute.
It's so cute.
The 1st time I saw this bird, I was like, adorable.
It kind of looks like if AI was like, a strawberry fans.
Yeah, but it's real.
It actually does.
I did have like a small suspicion for a minute that it wasn't going to be real and that I just found a picture on a listical that was made by AI.
Right.
But it's 100% real.
It's 100% real. 100% adorable.
So some other names for it that you might find are the red moonia and the strawberry wax bill, which is also really cute.
But its scientific name is Amendava Amendava.
Amendava, Amendava.
And if you say it twice, and then you say strawberry finch, well, a minion will bring you the strawberry finch. And it will just appear.
Nobody a banana.
Oh, because you have a minion and a, it'll be a smoothie every, there you go.
And there it is, right there.
There it is.
So easy to remember.
They're bird sizes, you guessed it.
Sparrow size are smaller.
Yeah, but they are tiny.
They're so small.
They're about 3.7 to 4 inches long, very small.
That's about 9.5 to 10 centimeters.
Their weight is .3 ounces.
So 7 to 9 grams, which I believe one of the sparrows we talked about last week was around the same weight, but it's a very, very, very small amount.
That's about one teaspoon, a tablespoon of cottage cheese.
Oh perfect.
Thank you for the cottage cheese comparison because I'm always thinking about things in relation to my company.
As someone who, like, weighs their food because they have macro goals to hit or whatever.
The only way I understand grams is by what my food is weighted.
So that is cheese is often added.
I don't even use ounces.
When's the last time I used ounces for anything?
Only in recipes, like, for, like, dough and shit.
And even then, most of the time it's grams.
Yeah.
I'm going by grams.
But here's the thing.
If you look at this bird, It's got a lot of feathers.
It has a lot of feathers.
So I feel like most of the weight is the feathers.
Has to be.
Has to be because it's got the teeny, tiny little bones, but they are really small.
Like if you see people holding one or near a person, I feel like they're much smaller.
I mean, think of Finch. Like finches are really, really, really tiny.
So it's it's easy to forget.
And I think because they look so bright and shiny.
You kind of see them as a bigger bird, but then you see them with like in comparison to something and you realize how tiny they are.
No, that's real.
Their wingspan is a mystery.
I literally could not find it anywhere.
One place I found said 19 inches.
And I said, no, that doesn't seem that does, or 49 centimeters.
And I said that I, that does not feel correct.
And I couldn't even find a photo of them with their wings open.
Like, I looked everywhere.
I couldn't find a single thing about their wingspans.
This seems no spoilers, but like, they are semi-domesticated.
Like, there's people who have them as pets, so why wouldn't they have been able to measure their wings?
I have no idea.
It's not part of birds of the world.
It's not part of all about birds.
And like I said, I found one thing that said 19 inches, but that would be like 5 times their body size.
No, and their wings look very proportional when they are not.
To their body.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I don't want to sit on those haunches.
So I'm just gonna tell you that I read that somewhere, but I genuinely could not even find a photo of them with their wings open.
I looked through Google images.
I looked through birds of the world.
I look through all about birds.
I couldn't find anything.
They only fly in private.
They only fly in private when no one's looking, period.
Um, so you're gonna, if you see one in the wild, catch it and measure it.
Oh, and then release it.
You could be the first.
Or if you owned one, let us know.
Send a measurement.
Yeah, if you have a red avataba.
Then I really need you to contact me as quickly as possible.
Please.
So let's get into the description and I wrote, listen, they don't get their name for nothing.
That's my 1st my 1st bullet point, that is what it says.
They do legitimately look like a strawberry, but only for their quote unquote nuptial seasons.
So males will turn.
Why have we never called it that before?
What the fuck?
It was in the notes somewhere and I was like, I'm putting that down.
I'm writing that down in the nuptial season.
Like they're the marriage season, wedding season, if you will.
So males turn a bright vermilion red over most of their body.
They also get a deep red bill and then they have tiny little like white speckled dots all over.
It's sort of like the sides of the chest belly area and then into the wings and down the sides of the wing, but that also hombres into like a very deeply toned, verging on true black, like tips at the wings.
It is truly like when we think red bird, it is like a deep strawberry red.
Right, right, right.
Strawberry.
And with the little white spots, it genuinely just, it just looks like a little strawberry. So cute.
Well, and he even has like, um, and this is probably because of their non-breeding plumage, non-nuptial plumage. Divorce plumage.
Divorce plumage.
But they have like on their head especially, there's like almost little black dots too.
Like, because of whatever gray undertones are under this bright red.
Also, I will say, like, if you look up a vermilion flycatcher in comparison, they're more orange.
This is like Cleo said. Truly a strawberry red.
It's beautiful.
They're really, really, really pretty.
There is also some variation in here, which there's 2 different types.
So you'll see this if you're looking at all about birds too.
One is red bellied.
So those are the ones that are true, true red.
And then there is one that is yellow or sorry, orange bellied or yellow bellied, which are overall a little bit more pale in tone, and they have like a light orange, yellow belly.
So they're like red everywhere else, but then they have kind of like a cute little, I don't know, it's almost like a peachy color. Colored belly.
They're still very cute.
They don't look quite as strawberry-ish, but they're still adorable.
And those are mostly found in Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
So that's like a specific range.
I'm gonna be honest.
I think they shouldn't have called them yellow bellied and should have cut them strawberry banana finches.
Strawberry banana.
They definitely should have.
Wow, missed opportunity.
Yeah.
Like, it's not like you don't have bananas.
I just can't imagine like, wait, what do you mean?
Like in the world?
In Asia, I feel like bananas are prominent because Oh, okay. They're a tropical plant.
I was like, what do you mean by that?
What do you mean by that?
No, that makes sense.
We can cut that.
I don't know.
Keep it in, keep it in.
Keep it in.
I like it.
No, I completely agree. Strawberry banana finch.
I mean, technically speaking, the strawberry finch is like their common name.
They are technically rad, red Abidavits.
Right.
So, but I agree with you that some, you know, we should just start it.
Start right now.
Red banana baddets.
Yeah.
So they also have this, like, dark tone around their eyes.
So it's like kind of this like black, like almost smoky eye look, but it's kind of hard to see when they're in their breeding plumage because they're so dark red that like it kind of just fades.
And then they have this really cool little like white stripe right underneath the eye.
It looks like fancy eyeliner or highlighter.
Like if you were doing graphic eyeliners.
Highlighter.
Yes.
You know what I mean?
And it's like just a little teeny, tiny swoop right under the eye that just kind of adds to that overall very like striking effect.
So they become sort of a grayish brown color and they have this like black mask over their eye area.
So same as in the breeding plumage, but you can see it better on the non-finct.
It's really distinct and it's like got a smoky eye look and they still have that little white swoop underneath, but it's not quite as noticeable as during the breeding season when the males get real red.
Yeah, because it like fades to a lighter brown underneath.
So it really does look more like highlighter when it's non-breeding.
Yeah.
And then in breathing season, it's just like a graphic liner, like a swoop right under.
It's really gorgeous.
But I still think they're really cute.
And then the chest during the this time also goes to like a more paler brown or like buffy color underneath.
I still think they're really, really cute.
And I think they're quite noticeable as well with their little strawberry tails.
Like, they really do just look like a very cute brown bird with like, still their red bill is quite like distinct and cute.
And then they get this like, I don't know, it's almost like they're wearing clown pants.
They have just little, it just sticks out the back of the tail, the red with the red dots or the white dots and the little black around the edges. It's very striking.
I still think it looks quite nice.
It does.
And they always have red eyes.
As far as I know.
Yeah, it looks like as far as I know, they probably get brighter during breeding season, which is what we've talked about when we did bird banding, but I didn't see anything specific about that.
Yeah.
Because that's it's very cool.
Like the eye and the beak, very similar coloring of this like black, red fade.
It's very cool.
Yeah, they're super, super cute.
The juveniles do also look like this, except they don't have the red on the tail or the beak.
So basically they don't really look like them at all.
They just kind of look like little brown birds when they're growing up.
They're not really super distinguishable until they get those spotted red tail area and then the red bill.
Okay.
The yellow bellied females and non-breeding males also have a buffy brown upper chest, but they maintain that fairly orange belly and non-breeding season.
So they're actually pretty easy to tell apart, even when they're not in breeding season because they still keep that kind of distinction of that like yellow banana strawberry banana vibe, you know, if you will, if you will.
If you will.
Which you will.
Yes.
There's sound description.
Okay, this has quite possibly been my favorite songbird that we've actually done.
Really?
It is so cute.
The song is like, it's like little cartoon.
It's like, imagine a little cartoon finch and like a hoo hoo, hoo, hoo, like a character who's like flying around who's in love, like a little.
Cinderella.
Yes.
Little helper.
It feels so, so adorable.
It's described as like a TE or a T noise in a descending series and then with like a really soft trail.
It's almost like they're whispering the trail.
It's very like...
I don't know if you want to, we can pause really quick so you can listen to it.
Yeah, because it's really cute.
I wanna hear it.
So I think that their sounds are very cute.
They're also, they feel soft.
I feel like a lot of the bird calls in songs that we listen to.
They're very like, uh, intense.
Why am I worried about offending the birds?
No, but I do think a lot of birds.
It's kind of like, I mean, it's their it's their vocalization.
So a lot of times it's like pretty loud, they're trying to alarm their families.
Yes.
They're trying to mate.
They more widespread, probably.
I do feel like finches usually like are usually in like packs and groups.
They're all sharing like one shrub.
I feel like at least the ones I've seen.
So these ones are quite soft and I imagine if you were keeping them as pets, this would actually be kind of a nice sound to listen to.
No, you were walking into the room.
It really does remind me of like a little character or some kind of little bird, like a sweet, like a sweet bird sound.
Yeah.
So they also have calls that are high pitch, and they honestly just sound like a high pitched whistle, like your mom is calling you home from outside where it's like, you know, where it's like, you know, that I can't whistle very well.
So, sorry.
Yeah, something like that.
Rocket just looked up.
My dog was like, hello?
So both males and females sing, but the males sing much more often, and the females sing much shorter songs, and then they both call.
But this is one of the bird species that does have both male and female song.
Good.
Yes, so we love that.
Their location, they typically exist in low grasslands, marshy plains, damp grass, rice fields, reeds, and sugar cane fields, and then wetlands along rivers and canals.
Okay.
They are native to south and southeast Asia and from Pakistan and into China, and some of southern China, as well as the islands of Indonesia, but due to their popularity as pets, they are also found in certain parts of Europe, Puerto Rico, Japan, the Pacific Islands, Guadalupe, and Martinique.
And this is basically because populations that were kept as pets got free and then they started to thrive in those areas.
Interesting.
Yeah, it is really interesting.
They are residents in most ranges, but some populations move seasonally and some wander based on availability of fresh grass or seeds.
So it really just depends on resources is where migration kind of seems like.
And it doesn't seem like they migrate very far when they migrate.
Well, we, you know, they could have the longest wingspan in the world.
Yeah, they could have comparatively to their body size.
They could have a 20 inch weight.
It takes a lot to get them up in the air.
Yeah.
They are very social as most finches are.
And, uh, well, I guess they're avid davits, which I haven't looked into whether or not all finches are avid davits.
I have no idea.
So they're really social and they forage in larger groups.
Usually their groups are about 30, but during non-breeding season, there are groups that are actually more than 100s of individuals that stick together.
Wow.
Which strangely includes some other species of finches, sparrows, and bundings.
Oh sure.
Okay.
So they'll be in these big groups, but they'll be in groups with like other types of birds of the similar size and they all kind of stick together in like some sort of mutualism.
A group of these is also called a clumping.
Oh, which I thought was interesting. Of strawberries.
I do kind of feel like that makes sense, though, for finches because they're so small.
And like I said, they kind of all, at least the ones I see around, like we have house finches. In the neighborhood.
I feel like all of them are always in the same bush.
And there's usually like 20 and they're always in the same shrubs.
So it does feel like a clumping kind of makes sense.
No for sure.
They're also known to preen each other, and it's thought that this is used to maintain social bonds, so they kind of do what monkeys do, where they'll like pick each other's feathers and, I don't know, eat the bugs off of them, I guess, and clean them.
Yeah.
They're mating dance.
They do do a dance and it is a vibe.
A dance.
It's a vibe.
So we're going to set the moon.
We're on the ground.
Or a low branch.
Okay.
The male.
He's red.
He's gorgeous.
He looks just like a strawberry.
He grabs a feather by the stem.
He holds it.
Sometimes it's either a feather, like a big feather that he found?
Or like a big stick of some kind, like a grass piece, but it has to be kind of like a flowy situation.
He grabs it.
He fluffs his little bod feathers.
He's got this little thing in his mouth.
And then he fans out his tail feathers and then he raises his bill with it in his mouth and then his head takes and he bows slowly toward the female and then he at the same time twists his tail up.
So his bright upper tail feathers are like towards her.
So he's literally like face down ass up, feather in his mouth, bowing slowly.
Wow.
He does this many times and he sings between bows.
So he's like, he keeps it in his mouth?
Yeah, bow.
Bow.
You know what I mean?
And then sometimes he will also go one side to the other.
So he'll raise his head in between, so he'll kind of do like a almost like a U shape where he'll like swoop down really slow and then come up one side, tail up, go down the other side, tail up.
Wow.
And then he hops in the little semicircle around her.
Only if they're on the ground, not if they're on a stick.
Okay.
And then he bows again as if he's crouching.
And then he will lift his wing that's farther from the female and flutter it in the air, kind of like a ole, like if you're like bending really low, doing a bow and you lift one arm and then you're like, with like a little fan, except that's his wing.
Okay.
And he looks at her while he's doing this and he makes soft Twitter sounds.
So like a little, you know?
Wow.
And then if she's into it, she seems like she's cool.
He will go up to her, peck her neck, and then she will quiver her tail, and then they do a chlooical kiss.
Wow.
It's pretty elaborate though. .
Usually they jump right to it.
I know, it feels very, um, feels very suave mente, where it's like, suave mente.
I could see him doing this little dance tonight.
It does feel a little bit like, yeah, Latin American dancing, some of it.
With like the pudding a, it's, it, the picture in my mind is like a suave guy putting like a rose in his mouth and then doing the dance.
Exactly.
Or like a matador, but like for not a bowl, for a for a mate.
Yeah.
Just roleplay ideas for people.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And that's what we're really here for.
It's a bird podcast, but it's really a mating nuptial podcast.
A nuptial.
How to be a better partner from birds.
So I thought that was really fun and that is very fun.
Just like really elaborate and silly.
And you can see a lot of pictures if you just look up Google images of Red Avidavits or Strawberry Finch, you'll see a lot of pictures of them holding those feathers in their mouth and they're quite cute.
I mean, I just think it's cool because, like, he's kind of a show all by himself.
Like, his outfit.
It's a good it's a good fit.
He looks good.
He looks fresh.
He looks ready to eat out the basket.
And then he still puts in the work.
He still puts in the work.
Yeah, and she just watches and she's like, okay, slay.
Get it.
Get it, king. He does.
Wow.
They are serial monogamous, but they only stay together for a breeding season and they raise the clutch together.
Okay.
So not mate for life.
They just go, but it did say something about how the dance was only done with new mating pairs.
And so I wonder if sometimes they stay, like go to the same partner the next breeding season because there was a note that was specifically like the dance is only done when there's a new mating partner.
So that, it didn't say this explicitly, but to me that alluded to the fact that maybe, even though they don't stay together throughout the year after the clutch is born and fledged, they might pick the same partner the next year and that male wouldn't inherently like do the dance is what I gleaned from that, but that wasn't explicitly stated. Just felt like a side note.
Okay.
So something, something noodle on, I guess.
They nest in a little hollowed out ball made of grasses and that are lined with like softer, like thinner materials and it has a side entrance.
So if you look up pictures of it, it's really cute.
They're, they're not like quite as like round and, um, I don't know, egg like.
I keep thinking those egg chairs that were really popular at one point.
They're very like post-modernist type vibe.
It's not quite like that.
It's a little bit more rusticky when you think like a ball shape, but it's still a ball shape and then it has a little side entrance, so cute.
They're usually like 3 feet or a meter off the ground and they're in bushes, reeds or grasses.
Males and females share responsibilities for incubation and nest building, which we love.
They lay about 4 to 6 eggs in a clutch and young leave the nest within 17 to 21 days.
The babies are from, like, hatching.
Yes.
So 17 to 21 days from hatching, they fledge.
Babies are hatchling pink, which is a new term that I have not heard, but does make a lot of sense.
Like, I do feel like a lot of baby birds are hatchling pink.
So we can read that.
They just kind of look forward. Naked.
Is that what that's referring?
I think that's what it's referring to, is just like the skin color, but they call it hatchling pink, which I kind of appreciate because I think a lot of places maybe 10 years ago would have been like nude toned, which is very like white leaning, you know what I mean?
And so hatchling pink. Good point.
Hatchling pink is a thing for baby birds.
So we can use that.
We love to learn things.
We love it.
They also have.
Exactly.
Nuptial season, hatchling pink.
One comes after the other.
And if you're doing it by God's rules. It's nuptials first. And then.
Panuptial hatchling pink is a fucking travesty.
Don't ruin your flower.
The babies also have these, like, sporadic little white long hairs on them, like, on certain parts, and they have a very weird and unsettling, quote unquote, inconspicuous, according to birds of the world, globular type white area under the beak on the neck.
No.
It's it's upsetting.
I'm going to be honest.
It's upsetting to look at.
The reason, so it's described on birds of the world, but there are no pictures.
And then I found a video on YouTube of someone who is making a bunch of videos raising baby birds that you can have as pets so that people can see what they look like as they get older when they're ready to be sold to people, I guess.
I don't know.
I watched it.
This little glob, like white glob thing really looks like someone took like a spitball and shoved it like down their throat.
It's not cute.
It's not cute.
And it like sits under their beak.
Yeah, it's like right on like if you were, if they were a person.
It would literally be like right in the front of your throat, but big, like really big.
Like, uh, like, what's the purpose?
I don't know.
It didn't say.
It just said inconspicuous globular type white area.
It goes away.
Okay, it goes away.
Well, or does the adults get like covered with feathers.
So I don't know.
I don't know if this like stays there or what it is.
Yeah, it just, like, I wrote my notes, it's white, and it looks like a tiny golf ball or something, and I didn't like it.
And there's no explanation on this.
And I did see that like the juvenile finches, like even in the last part of the video when they're ready to be sold, they have most of their feathers, but a little bit right under their neck isn't quite developed all the way.
And it does look like they still have it.
So I don't know if they've just developed feathers over that and they do still have that there or if it's something that ends up going away or it grows proportional to their body size and so it looks less crazy, but why would you know or ever see it if you're not going to like lift the feathers or rip all the feathers off of that part of the bird.
So, like, I don't know that it...
Yeah, please don't never do that.
But I don't, there was no explanation for this.
And I don't really want to know.
So I stopped looking into it because I saw it and I'll show you the video later.
It's pretty upsetting.
It's not fun.
It's not fun to look at.
No offense to baby birds.
I love you.
You are freaky little guys when you're born sometimes.
And the eggs are just little and white.
They're like described in a couple places as pure white.
So nothing's super, nothing super exciting there.
And small.
Their diet is mostly grass seeds, which apparently includes rice and millet, which I didn't realize was considered grass.
I didn't either.
It was included.
I mean, I guess like a rice patty kind of does look like very...
They grow like grass and like a type of grass.
And I think that wheats and I don't know.
I don't really, this isn't a plant podcast, so I don't know.
It just said grass seeds like rice and millet.
And I said, are those the same?
I would have considered those grains.
Same.
But again, what the fuck do I know?
Yeah.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Yeah, nothing.
No, but okay, so do they eat the rice?
Yeah, so they hold onto the grass and then they rip the seeds off of the actual, like, pieces or they eat them from the ground if they've fallen off, so they'll eat either on the ground or actually, like, pull them off of the, um, the, the stem of the grain itself.
When we rice, it's seeds.
I don't know.
Okay.
Yeah.
I don't know the answer I don't know the answer to that.
I think rice is...
I think maybe it's the grain of the plant, but the plant has to have seeds, so maybe it is 2 separate things.
Maybe.
Someone who's better at plants.
Let us know because I don't I don't got it like that.
That's not our job.
No job is birds.
Exactly.
Our job is birds.
Sometimes they also eat insects like termites, but this is pretty rare.
Okay, not super common.
So maybe just like mixed in with them foraging for seats.
Yeah, I think it's based on availability of what's around in the season.
Okay.
Conservation status.
They are least concerned, which is cool.
Their population numbers aren't super well known, but since they've been widespread due to popularity as pets and then released into different wild areas, They seem to be doing okay.
Okay.
They live about 5 to 8 years in captivity and there was no real info on their general lifespan in the wild.
I think probably just because because they're well known as pets, people haven't looked super deeply into them.
Well, they're probably pretty hard to differentiate.
Like, I don't know, like, I don't know how often they were, they've been banded and stuff, and so it's probably hard to tell, like, is this actually the same bird that I saw?
Yeah.
Well, and they get banded as pets because that's part of the video that I saw.
It was like, at what age do you band a baby bird, which was interesting to watch?
That makes sense, because they probably need to be a certain body weight for you to be able to like justify putting that.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think it's because they want them to like sort of grow into it a little bit. Kind of like a permanent toe ring.
Yeah.
You know, like a nightmare that I, you want it to realize in between the knuckles so it can't slip off.
Yeah.
But you...
I'm pretty scared that I'm gonna end up with a permanento ring.
I've had several in my life.
I love a toe ring.
But they're not permanent.
No, because like...
Well, we have tools.
So it's like permanent is like a, it's like a loose term.
It's like when they do that little thing where they zap the metal to like close it, but you could just take wire cutters or pliers or whatever and break it.
So it's not like really permanent, you know?
But for the birds, they don't have thumbs.
So it's permanent today.
Yeah.
You know, they have real permanent toe rings.
Yep.
So that's all my information, but I do have a couple fun facts.
So their name, Avidabit, and Amendava come from, I'm so sorry, I'm gonna do a bad job.
I tried to sound this out and I practice saying it and now that I'm looking at it again, I'm like, that's a lot of syllables.
Yeah.
Ahmedabad, a city in the state of Gujarat, India, where the species was bred and exported to collectors all over the world more than 200 years ago.
Wow.
There's a painting of one from Louise Agassi Fuertes, sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s, who is described as one of America's greatest bird painters.
What?
Came across him.
I have no idea.
They were fine.
Agassis, Luis, like spelled like Louis III.
And then A-G-A-S-S-I-Z. Wow.
And then Fuertes.
So, yeah, I haven't looked too deeply into a lot of his other stuff, but he does have a painting of a strawberry finch and it was pretty cute.
I wouldn't say it's the greatest painting I've ever seen, but it was pretty good.
It was pretty good.
Well, now I need to figure out what else he's painted.
Yeah, we gotta look him up.
He's on my list to potentially put in my like, are you bird adjacent enough to do a story about you or are you just a footnote in our show?
And he'll find out.
He's a ghost but he'll find out.
RIP.
Yeah, rest in peace.
He died in the early 1900s Oh wow.
They are still a common finch species people keep and they cost anywhere from $80 to $299 per bird or per pair, but they are hard to get online due to their popularity and demand.
So it sounds like they are, you can get them, but they sell out quite quickly because people who have a lot of finches are an affinity for keeping finches. They get them real quick.
Yeah, yeah.
Um, 299 per bird is a lot, I feel like, for a pretty small bird that doesn't live super long.
My other fun fact was like, I really just feel like there was not a ton of information on this bird in like history or even famous people who owned them or anything like for a bird that seems to be so popular.
I couldn't find old paintings other than the America's Greatest Bird painter.
I couldn't find any information about like old royalty who had them as pets.
I couldn't find anything specific about them.
So I was kind of surprised because I thought these would be, I don't know, much more popular to find in like larger media and stories because they're so striking.
Right.
But no.
I think probably my guess is that there's probably a lot more like Asian specific stories and legends and culture around it.
And I bet it's just harder to find because of like colonialism and like it's more difficult to find information on anything that is out in that area.
Well, and if they're like pets, like people aren't I think it's hard getting into them and researching them.
They're like enjoying them as a companion.
Yep.
But I was like, well, if they have him as a companion, it's like a king who's like really into finches and he's got all these finches and maybe he has like a painting of him with all his finches and there's a red avidavit in there somewhere.
Like I really tried to find something.
I looked up like stories.
I tried to find famous people.
I googled so many things and I just couldn't find it.
So if I ever come across something, I'll mention it.
Um, sometimes later, but I thought that was kind of mysterious because I do feel like they're really pretty and they seem really popular.
And they have been for 200 years.
They definitely have more mystique than any other bird we've done, I think.
I know.
I know.
There's really not a ton of.
We don't even know their wingspan.
No, we don't even know their wingspan, which seems insane to me.
So that's all I've got for you other than our pop culture, which I think you actually already nailed.
I really think that they like come across as like a really suave.
Like bright colors, putting on a show, rose in the mouth, like doing a little like...
Some kind of I don't know if it's flamenco specifically or if it's a different type of Latin American dance, but I think that that is like totally the archetype.
Yeah.
Or a um, Matador.
Yeah.
Yeah, or a matador, but I feel like the matador, it's more for like, I, it would have to be like old school matadors where they do, do they do the rows in the mouth or am I mixing up 2 things?
I know.
I can't remember.
I do feel like in pop culture, at least, we saw matadors with roses in the mouth with like the really decadent suits and then the big thing with the fancy shoes and stuff.
So if that's an actual thing and not just like an Americanized pop culture version of the actual culture.
I can see that as well.
But those were the only 2 that I could even come up with.
And it is more of a dance, like, because they're doing an actual dance.
Totally.
They're being suave.
They're being sweet.
They're not like, come get me.
No, they're not like inciting aggression.
So it does feel more like a dancer.
It feels more like a dancer and I do feel like it is that like really, I don't know, this like having that like costume, right?
Like there's some really interesting and intricate like flowy costumes that go into, um, you know, those types of dance routines.
And so I feel like you totally nailed it with that.
And that's exactly where it says. Unless you have something else.
No, the only other thing they kind of look like, other than a strawberry.
Other than a strawberry.
Um, is strawberry shortcake.
I'm just kidding.
No, strawberry shortcake was on my list potentially, but I was kind of like, I almost feel like they're too striking to be strawberry shortcake.
Well, in strawberry shortcake for those that don't know.
It is a dessert, but it's also like a little animated character.
Yeah, I don't know if she had a show or if she was just like a made up.
I don't know. Toy.
She almost looks like a cabbage patch doll that fell into a strawberry field, but she has like strawberry themed flows.
Yeah.
It's very like baby.
Yeah.
I think that's the other piece.
Even though these are tiny little buddies.
They're really striking.
They don't feel baby.
No, they don't come across as feel childlike, which is really interesting because again, they are really small.
I think when we were looking at, was it the piebill grebe last 2 weeks ago, when they had like the big heads and like kind of compared to their body size and the feet that go to the back, to me, those looked more baby than these days. They had a baby face.
Yeah, the closest to a baby face that we've seen on birds so far.
The red Avidavit just doesn't have it.
No.
Even the juvenile, it just looks like an adult brown sparrow bird.
Yeah, I agree.
So anyway, that's it for the strawberry finch.
Did love it?
Love it so much.
It's so cute It made me want like deeply to be like, so what do I need to do to own like a communal finch thing?
And then I was like, I don't need to own this.
I don't need to own birds.
But imagine how cool it would be to just have like a little finch.
Yeah, I don't know, room where all the finches are together communally and you have a lot of because they're communal.
When I was looking up the prices of the eggs and like I was trying to see if they were so really popular, if that was like an old school thing, I saw that on the website it would say that they were communal with other finch species types.
So it's kind of like when you're building a fish tank.
There are certain fish that you can put with other fish.
And when you have a big enough tank, you could have, you know, certain types of things.
I know this from working at a insert large big box American pet store here when I was much younger.
And birds are kind of the same way where it's like in a certain amount of space, you could have a certain amount of finches and certain species cohabitate really well together if you are the kind of person to do that.
And so, um, these are considered like a communal where they get along with other birds that are like a similar size and variety, which makes sense because in the wild they're seen even in groups with other species that are the same size too.
So, I thought that was really cute.
And I was just like, wow, wouldn't it be nice to have a little aviary and you can just like go outside and you can sit with your finches and they'd just be doing this cute little song.
And then I was like, you don't have to own that to enjoy it.
No.
But if a rescue was ever necessary, I'd be down.
No, I do see the appeal and I also see why I wouldn't want to do it.
So it's like, I can I can definitely see both sides.
Absolutely.
I do think they kind of look like the Java sparrow.
Oh, let me look them up. Actually don't know what that is.
That's the one that you have that little, um, oh, I have a little thing for.
Yeah, they do kind of look like the Java Sparrow.
I think the one thing is the Java Sparrows.
Their beak is like goes into their head.
It's almost like more like a parrot beak.
Yeah, it does have kind of a parrot beak, but they have like a similar, when they're in non-breeding season, I would say from the neck down, they look quite, it's like from the head up, they look like a puffin.
From the neck down, they look like a red Abidabit, non-breeding season.
Yeah.
No, exactly what it looks like.
They're really cute though.
And I think finches, we should do like Darwin's birds or whatever at some point because I know that finches were specifically studied in like the Bill and Beak thing for like what they eat.
Like, their bill is more hooked if they are more into like seeds or if they forage off the ground.
I'm guessing by the name that Java Sparrows might partake in coffee beans.
Oh, I thought you were going to say javelin.
Like, I was...
Yeah, they might throw sticks.
I was like, where are we going with this?
License to other people.
No.
I do think they might eat coffee beans.
Cool.
And that might be the reason that they have such large beaks, but I'm speculating and one day we'll find out for sure.
One day we'll find out and we'll go back and you'll maybe crew.
Maybe.
I love to do it, except I don't.
It's humble pie.
Humble pie.
Keep the crows safe.
Yeah.
And before we go, I just want to say stop doom scrolling and put a rose in your mouth and put a rose in your mouth and bow down to the ground and woo someone you love.
Put your little hand up in the air, shake it around a little bit, hop in a circle.
Show them you love them.
Yeah, put in some effort.
This Valentine's Day, plan a dance.
And eat a strawberry.
I eat a strawberry.
If you haven't had a strawberry yet if you're not allergic.
Oh, if you're allergic, that's sad.
I hope you eat.
I mean, it's probably not sad to you because you don't know what they taste like, but eat a fruit for sure.
Summer is not summer without eating fruit.
No.
A nice ripe strawberry.
It is very quintessential summer.
Just something, a nectarine.
I don't care what it is.
Whatever your favorite fruit is.
Stop doom scrolling, go to the store, go pick up a pack of your favorite fruit, wash it and eat the whole thing in one sitting. It.
And with that, stay cool, bird boy.