Piping Shrike

05 Nov 2006

I've always know this bird to be the Piping Shrike and that it's the state bird. Apparently, this is not the case. (Flying lemur anyone? ie It's not a lemur and it doesn't fly!)

See, I research my stuff before I post and good ol' Wikipedia tells me that while it is "readily identified" with the state... "the bird in its own right has never been formally adopted as a faunal or bird emblem of the state". Then, to add insult to injury, it seems it's not even a Piping Shrike! No, it's a Magpie-lark! - Great, next thing you're going to tell me there's no Santa, Easter Bunny or God! (No, just kidding, I already know there's no god.)

Anyway... the reallyfunny thing here is that I took this shot at the zoo. These birds are common as bat-shit here (figure of speech you understand; we don't get much guano) so photographing a common garden-bird at the zoo is kind-of amusing. Or embarrassing. - I'll go with amusing.

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[Bloody hell! I've just read a bit more about the bird on Wikipedia and it says the bird was mis-named... it's actually neither a magpie nor a lark! Damn early settlers, didn't know what they were talking about!]

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