INTRODUCTION TO BIRDS GALLERY

I've never thought of myself as a birder, but I am continuously amazed by the sheer variety of birds and the range of characteristics they possess while sharing a relatively general anatomical structure when compared to other animals: hyper-fast humming birds and their defraction grating; the range of eye colors from the yellow of a Great Blue Heron's eyes to the bright orange of Night Herons and aqua-marine of Brandts Cormorants; then there's the brightly colored outlines of the eyes of Rose-Ring Parakeets, Killdeer, Robins, Java Sparrows; the pin-spike billed humming bird, the aptly named roseate spoonbills, the downwardly curved, long-billed curlew, the upwardly curved American Avocet, the bright-orange almost cylindrical beak of the Black Oystercatcher, the expandable bill of the Brown Pelican, and the powerful but short hooked upper beak of raptors; the pointy crown of the Red-Crested Cardinal, the Pileated Woodpecker or the Common Hoopoe, or the unusual tuft striking out from the California Quail's head or the Indian Peafowl; and the strikingly ugly blue-face, caruncle-covered red neck and snood of the Wild Turkey.