We have purple beautyberry growing in our yard. Birds love it. And I am glad. For I enjoy the company of birds. And while I enjoy watching birds eat the natural fruit, I'm not really fond of where the end-product of their loving ends up. High branches arch over our driveway.

In other words, I've got to wash the car. Oh well.

Beauty in, ugly out. Unless, of course, you are a dung beetle or another consumer of another species' waste.

A tom cranberry bird (otherwise known as a male cardinal). Not enough breast meat to top a cracker.

Carolina chickadee. In some cultures they fry small birds whole and eat them bones and all.  I'd prefer to use this tiny guy for entertainment outside my window than calories on my table.

Boat-tailed grackle. Interesting bird, but obnoxious. Travels in small gangs, will empty a feeder in little time. You have my blessing to eat a couple. Maybe wrapping a drumstick in bacon would be nice. Precious few servings per bird.

Blue jay. Not many of these around my small neck of woods. The feathers might make a nice table centerpiece. But getting the bird to sit still for any amount of time would be difficult.

Don't you dare eat this bird! A somewhat oddly named red-bellied woodpecker. At best their bellies become crimson blushed. Because it is a woodpecker and dines on dead-wood insects, and because dead wood is scarce in developed areas of Florida . . . the future doesn't look bright for this species.

Barred owl. A carnivore. But do you really want to eat recycled lizards and mice?

There we go! Wild turkey photographed last spring on the riverbank while boating (as was the above owl). But you might want to select one of his cousins from the supermarket freezer case. Quite tasty, lots of meat. What's not to love!

Enjoy.

Mourning dove in the grass. Just a bird. It is born, it eats, it procreates, it dies. It's just a bird. And humans?

Pretty though, isn't it?

The other day I was driving a fairly busy road when a family of sandhill cranes leisurely crossed. I stopped and waited. As did other drivers. Had the family of birds been . . . oh, scarlet tanagers (6 inches in height vs. 3 ft.) . . . I doubt folks would have slowed. But then again, the tanagers would have taken flight almost immediately. Still, does our kind tend to be a "sizest" lot? Big animals, now THEY are important. More visible, sure. But were a person to hit and run over a larger bird I think they would be more disturbed that if it were a smaller. I wonder why that is. Are we more able to anthropomorphize big birds? Hmm.

[photo: a sandhill crane couple feeding/resting in our side yard]

A tom cranberry bird (otherwise known as a male cardinal). Not enough breast meat to top a cracker.

Carolina chickadee. In some cultures they fry small birds whole and eat them bones and all.  I'd prefer to use this tiny guy for entertainment outside my window than calories on my table.

Boat-tailed grackle. Interesting bird, but obnoxious. Travels in small gangs, will empty a feeder in little time. You have my blessing to eat a couple. Maybe wrapping a drumstick in bacon would be nice. Precious few servings per bird.

Blue jay. Not many of these around my small neck of woods. The feathers might make a nice table centerpiece. But getting the bird to sit still for any amount of time would be difficult.

Don't you dare eat this bird! A somewhat oddly named red-bellied woodpecker. At best their bellies become crimson blushed. Because it is a woodpecker and dines on dead-wood insects, and because dead wood is scarce in developed areas of Florida . . . the future doesn't look bright for this species.

Barred owl. A carnivore. But do you really want to eat recycled lizards and mice?

There we go! Wild turkey photographed last spring on the riverbank while boating (as was the above owl). But you might want to select one of his cousins from the supermarket freezer case. Quite tasty, lots of meat. What's not to love!

Enjoy.