Why do you think birds are so popular?

fish rodents and reptiles deliberately killed?
Or accidentally by pollution ?

The suspected causes:
Rats: killed by farmers with poison to prevent crop loss.
Fish, reptiles: Not killed deliberately. They may hv got poisoned by contaminated water bodies due to Industrial effluents and chemical wastes, pesticides and insecticides runoff from agricultural fields or may be some other natural causes. Exact causes are being investigated and is yet to be determined. Samples hv been sent to Regional diseases diag lab, Kolkata for testing.

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Rat poison is an issue around Cape Town for owls and urban edge caracal.
Dead fish here would mostly be red tide, toxic algal bloom - and poorly maintained urban runoff.

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There’s something magical about seeing predation in action!

Whether in birds, or in something that reminds you of birds.

Like this video of a jumping spider stealing a pupa from an ant, which might remind you of a bird in an “aerial dogfight”, stealing prey from another bird

(originally posted by @Strawberrytart in this thread)

Although, for that jumping spider, a more accurate analogy would be one bird killing a nestling of another bird.

Like this video of a bald eagle, that swoops in like Batman and picks off an osprey nestling.

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I am in complete agreement with the previous reasons for them being popular, I feel like the question could more appropriately be, why are they not more popular!

But one extra thing for me, I admire how committed the flying birds are to their pursuit - teeth? Who needs them! Articulation between various bones? Nah! Functional legs? Forget about it! (in the case of Apodiformes ; P)

Even then birds are quite flexible, as well as flying birds there are also highly accomplished aquatic and running birds.

You’ve just made me want to go out and do some bird watching : )

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I hear coyotes a lot where I live, but usually at night, since they try to avoid humans. I also don’t mention it a lot anywhere except inaturalist, since people where I live (wealthy hobby farmers and Instagramming “homesteaders”) are hostile to coyotes and prefer nonnative species like feral housecats, Florida cottontails, and pheasants. I’d rather keep mum and let the coyotes quietly do some “habitat preservation” when the people here aren’t looking.

I do loudly talk about birding, though, since it has a low barrier for entry and it’s easy to encourage even “non-naturey” people to be interested in something like an eagle or an oriole.

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I’ll have to start using “non-naturey” as a descriptor for those not into nature, rather than my favorites, denatured or unnatural, which sound insulting.

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Some say there is a divinity to birds that is rarely fully understood.

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We humans are born with an instinct to learn interpreting bird behaviour and calls. It has lost it’s importance as a survival skill - the ancient Romans were the last to use geese as sentinels - but the interest remains as birdwatching and keeping feathered pets.

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You do not need top shelf equipment to start with. A x35 optical zoom bridge or a second hand DSLR camera will do.
I use a compact x40 zoom. Zoom in for birds, butterflies and dragonflies and macro mode for mosses and ants.

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That is not true. Geese were used in the Cold War to protect nuclear weapons sites in Europe. Savy humanitarian aid agencies working in conflict zones still use geese as early warnings. So do private property owners. The big plus is that you are unlikely to be sued if some intruder gets ‘bit’ by your goose rather than your dog.

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Pretty much what he said. If your city park has a pond you can go down and find a few ducks and geese. One thing i do want to add is sometimes they’re just fun to watch. I remember a red-breasted nut hatch i enjoyed watching because it was very enthusiastically hopping up and down a tree trunk.

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Which explains why, contrary to the trend, some mammals are also popular. Squirrels have their friends as well as their opponents. Floofy tails help.

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This heron has the answer.

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Birds are the closest thing you get to completing a real-life Pokédex. No category of organisms can be cataloged with such variety while also still being identifiable most of the time.

Reason one is that birds have such a large variety, there are almost always new birds to find. Mammals, herps, etc. tend to have a lower variety harder to find in certain areas. Birds are widespread across every continent and every type of climate and habitat. Meanwhile, many islands have few native mammals, and cold climates don’t have any reptiles. Since so many birds migrate, there is a constant shift to what species you can find per season anywhere in the world. Oftentimes, rare birds show up way out of there normal range, which isn’t something that commonly happens with most other animals.

Reason two is that birds are really accessible compared to a lot of animals. Birds tend to be active and move around a lot within their habitat. Their ability to fly means they are more often at eye-level compared to other animals. Other types of animals are not as accessible. Identifying sea creatures requires snorkeling, some live far too deep water to even find them that way. Many mammals and reptiles are cryptic and rarely come out of their hiding spots, but even difficult birds like rails and owls can be reliable under the right conditions.

Reason three is that birds are easy to identify. Every single bird species on earth has a common name and have easy- to-research references to figure out how to tell them apart. Many insect and plant genera are filled with countless practically identical species, many which don’t even have Wikipedia pages. Even if you wanted to try to identify them, you may have a hard time finding the resources to do so.

These are the main reasons I can think of why birds are so popular.

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Absolutely this. For every mammal I’ve seen and identified in the wild, I’ve seen about ten birds. Going for a new mammal for me requires either travel or extreme luck and perseverance. I still have a couple new birds I need to chase locally, and many unexpected sightings show up every year.

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They are weird.

https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/birds.pdf

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I love it! What’s the deal?!

May in Michigan was such a good month for birding for me too. I found so many cool ones: lots of warblers like the Palm Warbler and the Blackburnian Warbler.

They will pose beautifully in front of me until I take my phone out for a picture, then they’ll fly away as soon as I click the button

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other than them being more accessible, developed countries often had a fascination with them. Rich people loved collecting specimens because of their beauty and uniqueness (still upset about the extinction of the pied raven). And in time the love spread to the common people and birding became popular. Then because birding is so popular compared to everything else, people know more about IDing birds. (also why you can id birds based on two pixels)

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