Photographer Sharon Beals’s new book of Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them is very wooow-nature and a little bit I’m-glad-I’m-not-a-bird. See their DIY ethic and engineering ingenuity, latching onto to swinging plants and weaving nests out of feathers, seashells, newspaper and trash. Baby house wrens live the “do-or-die life” and have two weeks to learn to fly and feed. That skeleton-layered nest is what happens when they don’t. Sad stuff. More here.
Which means it’s the end of days or there’s a more logical explanation. The Daily News spoke to a bird breeder who says he sold 50 finches to National Arts Club President Aldon James. After some backtracking, James admits he bought the birds, but denies releasing them in Gramercy Park. When a reporter asked to see them, James motioned towards a cage stocked with 13 of the birds, but refused to show the rest.
Birb Bulb and Other Avian Compulsions
Artist Tim Lewis says, “I don’t like birds and I’m not interested in birds but yet everything seems to come out as birds.” His kinetic sculptures are on view at the Kinetica Art Fair in London, but you can see his mechanical animal mutants and silverware-armed tables stomp and creak here. Read more »
After thousands of birds mysteriously died in Arkansas, Louisiana, and other places around the world—along with some fish—news outlets responded by framing the incidents as apocalyptic. CNN, for reasons that no human could ever explain, even brought in 80s child star Kirk Cameron, to reassure the public that this wasn’t a sign of the end times, ruffling the feathers of real experts like Sharon Stiteler, a respected author and founder of birdchick.com. Read more »
Gothamist is exclusively reporting that birds were feeding on a slice of meatball pizza left on a fence somewhere in Morningside Heights this weekend.
Here’s what thousands of migratory birds stuck in the 9/11 light beam memorial looked like from the ground. It eerily reminds me of all the paper that was swirling around the Twin Towers before they came crashing down on September 11th. |Gizmodo|
First they struck our planes and now they’re aiming for the World Trade Center site. Last weekend, officials had to shut down the annual 9/11 Tribute display after a thousand or so migratory birds got confused and flew into the the massive lights, encircling them. The New York City Audubon Society was there and requested that the lights be temporarily shut off. Read more »
There are birds with cameras for heads perched about a Netherlands’ city centre. Since cameras have become “pests” with their constant surveillance, the Utrecht school of art begat the panoptICONS project – a street art intervention/installation of avian spies. Read more »
The Narrative Bell-jar Taxidermy of Polly Morgan
Working exclusively with road kill and dead pets donated by their owners, Polly Morgan poses delicate corpses under glass bells. Flocks carry rusted cages, a whole white rat is scooped by a champagne flute and birds learn about death below a miniature chandelier. Read more »
According to a new study, birds are not impressed with organic food at all and prefer conventional feed instead.
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