{"id":11753,"date":"2020-04-23T11:09:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T15:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=11753"},"modified":"2020-04-23T11:34:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T15:34:04","slug":"identification-at-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/23\/identification-at-bar\/","title":{"rendered":"Identification at Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"European Starling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/rickwright\/9296101210\/in\/photolist-fasX25-fadFSr-fadFMc-dVbyMh-dVbyNo-dVbzwm-dziydm-dzd55v-dzd4Mk-csbk4w-bxXELw-bLSmtg-bxXEFj-bLSmxK-bLSmwR-bxXEJh-bxXEPW-bLSmMZ-bLSmDi-bxXEYA-bgrUHB-bgrUha-bgrUsT-7RcFML-7R9pKp-7R9psk-5EW16n-5xWNTe-58pesL-58k3SF-523oPE-51YavB-xAnrW1-58fum6-9FK9VX-9FN5Bf-9FN5Vj-58fuur-58fudt-9FUD35-9FRHkt-57WyiZ-57Wy7R-9FUCRd-9FRHvK-581M8u-9FLRmT-9FLRt8-58fgPH-9FLRev\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/9296101210_2a0685ce5e.jpg\" alt=\"European Starling\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Birders are a scrappy lot, and I&#8217;ve seen plenty of confrontations in the field that verged on the violent. But I can&#8217;t remember a time that the disagreement brought the parties before a judge.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"European blackbird\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/rickwright\/2637338832\/in\/photolist-2i2T1Mr-2gn7dm7-2gn79fS-275Rrbt-YWNMGQ-MTU2XS-rxRvqc-ba5xqk-b7ZmN8-5243Xb\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/2637338832_f858058df2.jpg\" alt=\"European blackbird\" width=\"500\" height=\"408\" \/><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Feelings ran deeper in the eighteenth century, it seems, and back in the days when every middle-class household had a pet bird or two, the financial stakes could be high.<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/gallica.bnf.fr\/ark:\/12148\/bpt6k975079\/f208.image\">third volume of the <\/a><em>Histoire naturelle des oiseaux,\u00a0<\/em>Buffon, or Montbeillard writing in the voice of Buffon, offers this curious anecdote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The similarity between young common starlings and young common blackbirds is so great that I have actually witnessed a case, a lawsuit between two private parties. The first party was suing for the return of a starling that he claimed to have given into the other party&#8217;s care so that it might learn to speak, whistle, sing, and so on. That second party, however, having produced instead a healthy, full-grown blackbird, countersued for his fee, claiming that he had in fact been originally given only that same blackbird.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Can you imagine the excited high hopes of sending a smudgy grayish fledgling off to finishing school, and the disappointment of having it returned not as the eloquent starling of your dreams but a mere blackbird?<\/p>\n<p>No word, alas, on who won or what damages were awarded.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a title=\"Eurasian Blackbird\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/rickwright\/7286680426\/in\/photolist-c6U9e9-bB3iYU-bPWY3M-buAcaE-bBeF2t-ba5xwt-b7WKix-b7WKBa-aNR5yg-aNR5HK-aNRgMn-aCTFJd-aCTMKo-9TS9q7-9TS9xJ-9TPk8i-9TS9fL-9TS9PA-9TSai3-9TS9Gf-9C3Pvq-9nBVnG-9nBV7d-9nySkB-9jFVTz-7TvkQ6-7y51hx-7y4QQD-7y4QgV-pLatDF-7jhvEf-7jhvsf-7auyY5-7aqKBn-76knoq-76kfmq-76k2Hb-768ViF-74qVnz-5EXCqp-5vEVWK-5k2HTP-9G81nw-9FSnTW-9FSkUL-9FUezG-77zD8C-58ZLvm-58VATc-58VAin\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7100\/7286680426_6c86e7592d.jpg\" alt=\"Eurasian Blackbird\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>A pretty bird and glossy, but the common blackbird doesn&#8217;t hold a candle to the vocal attainments of a properly trained starling.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Birders are a scrappy lot, and I&#8217;ve seen plenty of confrontations in the field that verged on the violent. But I can&#8217;t remember a time that the disagreement brought the parties before a judge. Feelings ran deeper in the eighteenth century, it seems, and back in the days when every middle-class household had a pet &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/23\/identification-at-bar\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Identification at Bar&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11753"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11757,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753\/revisions\/11757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}