Bird Quotes

“Geese are terrorists. But ducks, ducks are the heroes of the bird world.”
― Jarod Kintz, Music is fluid, and my saxophone overflows when my ducks slosh in the sounds I make in elevators.

“The Sniper Bird by Stewart Stafford

"Look out!" the crowd shouted to me,
"There's a Sniper Bird in those trees!"
A whooshing sound shot past my ears,
Making me duck down to my knees.

He must have gone rogue, I reckoned,
Someone cheated him over birdseed,
Then he took a squirrel as his hostage,
Get a negotiator quickly up those trees.

He threw up his wings and surrendered,
They brought him down in a gilded cage,
Never again sniping at innocent people,
He studies elocution with a parrot sage.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Her breast is fit for pearls,
But I was not a “Diver” –
Her brow is fit for thrones
But I have not a crest.
Her heart is fit for home –
I – a Sparrow- build there
Sweet of twigs and twine
My perennial nest”
― Emily Dickinson

“At night a bird perched on my window
and chirped. Roaming rims of night
tides surge and cascade, plummet.”
― Sneha Subramanian Kanta

“A bird with feathers made of fire watched over them, in a cage with bars that shone like moonlight.”
― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

“Yes, sing
to me, Little Bird,
while we wait.

Fill me with
those feathered
lullabies, those
promises of big

blue skies—sing
me your sweet
songs of freedom.”
― Jenny Noble Anderson

“Larry Bird was a great basketball player, but he would have been even better if he were more specific. I'd wear a Larry Duck jersey.”
― Jarod Kintz, Powdered Saxophone Music

“You, a blissful sky
I, a small bird in a cage
yet, we somehow met”
― Sai Pradeep

“Birds, unlike us, lack countenance. But they make us smile when they connecting the sky with their dazzling feathers. They amaze us with how their great feathers can find themselves in this pale world. Where the visual of them whispers, "Make your new beginning,beloved.”
― Susan Ligori

“I felt like a blind, caged bird who was told it could fly like the other birds, but didn’t know it was trapped in a cage.”
― K. Weikel, Sameness

“I want to tell the world
there is a bird in every part of your body.”
― Sneha Subramanian Kanta

“If you want to sing, you sing without considering who is listening or what they might think.”
― Shree Shambav, Twenty + One - 21 Short Stories

“The gallinule's candy-corn bill--- yellow at the tip, orange toward the eye---points at the waterline, and the blue and green of the feathers glint in the sunlight. I sketch the light blue cap and the oval body, hinting at its iridescence. The bird pokes her head sharply into the water, swallows, and beings to meander. She walks across floating lilies, pad to pad, and then into the reeds until I can't see her anymore, no matter how I steer the canoe. When she's gone, I look at my drawing. "Hee-hee!" I say aloud, sketching a few more quick studies to indicate her motion and the intensity of her stare, with notes on the deep iris blue of the head and breast, the aqua of the back and wings graduating to olive at the tips, and underneath an inky black.”
― Virginia Hartman, The Marsh Queen

“Yet surely, in the world of humans, no one goes out of their way to run down a person who hasn't really made it in the world, or whose reputation is already on the wane. And no one would pause to savour the sight or the sound of some boring bird such as a kite or a crow. So, really, it's precisely because the uguisu is supposed to be such a marvellous bird that one's perversely more aware of its failings.”
― Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book

“Then they did as with the birds, covered me too and shut me away in dark places.”
― Ijen Kim, The Sunset Emperor

“Clip the wings of love and laughter! They’ll marry you and menage often! But give flight lessons to despair and sadness while they’re young, training them to gain their early independence and leaving you love birds to be empty nesters long before you grow old!”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“An Artemisian Coronation by Stewart Stafford

A waxing moon with tidings,
Cataract vision in sheer mist,
Through curtains of fine rain,
The foresight of the lunar eye.

Cockcrow stabs the dawn,
Drowned green fields rouse,
Boars trample in the fens,
Sheep as anchored clouds.

A magpie and raven duelling,
Branch to branch to the death,
Proudly staking their claims,
To the wren's avian coronation.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“With winged companions
by my side,
I will stretch.
I will soar.
I will fly.”
― Jenny Noble Anderson, But Still She Flies: Poems and Paintings

“You can lock a songbird but you can't lock the song. You may confine it but the more you confine it, the more it will sing the sadness, giving it to the winds. After all, caged birds sing some of the most beautiful songs.”
― Jayita Bhattacharjee

“You can lock a songbird but you can't lock the song. You may confine it but the more you confine, the more it will sing the sadness and give it to the winds. After all, caged birds sing some of the most beautiful songs and wild winds heal some of the most broken hearts.”
― Jayita Bhattacharjee

“You can lock a songbird but you can't lock the song. You may confine it but the more you confine, the more it will sing the sadness and give it to the winds. After all, caged birds sing some of the most beautiful songs and wild winds blow some of the most untold sorrows.”
― Jayita Bhattacharjee

“Time's Magpies by Stewart Stafford

Time’s magpies swoop to taunt and rob,
And pluck out hair and gums carefree.
Opportunity and energy drained by mob,
As we duel pitiless reality.

The cat’s jowls swelled in uproar,
His gut sags and snarls with pain.
Feathery barbs of a matador,
Feline fleeing to copse again.

A younger cat enters the fight,
Ousting the aged tom.
Crown prince routs thieving flight,
A proud lion of dawn's sun.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Most people with whom I have discussed pigeons hold them in low esteem. I have history with pigeons, or perhaps I would not even have noticed the small creature. The great gentleness I have found seems to have escaped most people’s notice. Of course, like most humans, I did not recognize their true worth at all until I got to know one very well.”
― Kathleen Knight, Sanctuary - Exploring the Magical World of Birds

“Over my many years with animals I have been part of a lot of death and each time I feel honored to be able to be allowed to participate in such a momentous event as the departure of a soul from his earthly lifetime. The books I have read on human death and dying celebrate the approach and moment of death as one of the most sacred moments we experience. What a privilege to share such a time with someone you care about. Animals show us their wisdom in this way. As their bodies become weaker the creatures seem more and more peaceful; I have always felt the spirit was more present though the body was used up.”
― Kathleen Knight, Sanctuary - Exploring the Magical World of Birds

“The most dangerous bird is a fighter pilot.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“Wind turbines are creating bird dead zones around them.”
― Steven Magee

“Offshore wind turbines are having detrimental effects on marine wildlife.”
― Steven Magee

“we can probably, as a nation, loose all our birds, and there is an increasing number of people who wouldn’t even notice. as we become more urban, we’re loosing out attachment”
― George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life

“we can probably, as a nation, loose all our birds, and there is an increasing number of people who wouldn’t even notice. as we become more urban, we’re loosing our attachment”
― George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life

“CHIM KÉT
Két hay Vẹt là loại chim rừng có đến 339 loài sống ở rừng nhiệt đới, và là kẻ thù của nhà nông, nhà vườn, vì chúng phá hoại hoa màu cây trái.

Két sống từng bầy đàn, có đến hàng trăm hàng ngàn con, bay đến đâu là la ó đến đó, vừa ăn vừa phá hại. Chẳng hạn chúng kéo đến một vườn bắp là chỉ trong một thời gian ngắn chúng sẽ trảy hết bắp trong vườn, trái nào cùng xước vỏ rồi gặm nhắm các hột bên trong, lớp ăn lớp bỏ. Kéo đến một cây khế trĩu quả, chúng bu vào cắn mô và trong chốc lát khế rớt xuống lộp bộp, mà trái nào cũng bị “nhấm nhá” cả...

Thế nhưng, xưa nay, nhiều người lại thích nuôi chúng, vừa để làm kiểng vừa để tập nói tiếng người.

Chim Két có bộ lông màu xanh rất đẹp, lợt hơn màu xanh lá cây, nhưng lại đậm hơn màu đọt chuối, lại có ánh sắc. Người ta gọi đó là màu xanh két. Mỏ Két khoắm xuống cũng đẹp, cắn đau, nhưng nếu nuôi từ nhỏ, chúng chỉ... ngậm hơi đau một tí thôi.

Sống ngoài thiên nhiên thì Két ăn ngũ cốc, trái cây. Nhưng, nuôi tại nhà, chủ nuôi thường tập ăn lúa, bắp trái (loại non để sống).

Nếu nuôi từ lúc còn non, mới trổ lông ống thì chim dạn người và thân thiện với người. Nuôi lâu có thể thả được. Nuôi chim non, lớn lên mười con có thể bắt chước nói được tiếng người đến bảy tám. Độ chừng sáu tháng tuổi là chúng bắt đầu tập nói, nhưng phải hơn năm giọng chúng mới rõ, và nhớ được nhiều câu.

Giọng Két nói rất rõ, dễ nghe, chỉ thua Nhồng, nhưng hơn hẳn Sáo và Cưỡng. Người ta thích nuôi Két vì chúng có tuổi thọ rất cao. Két có thể sống trên 50 năm.

Nếu tránh được cảnh mèo hay chồn cáo chụp bắt, thì ta khỏi nuôi Két bằng lồng, mà chỉ cho đậu trên một cái cầu trên có một vòng cung bằng kèm hay tre uốn cong, rồi máng lên một nơi nào đó cho Két sống thoải mái. Điều cần là phải cột một chân Két với cái cần bằng một đoạn dây xích nhỏ và ngắn độ gang tay, nếu không nó sẽ bay mất. Hai đầu cần đậu, mỗi đầu đều treo cóng đựng nước và thức ăn để Két xê dịch qua lại mà ăn uống.

Nếu nuôi lồng thì phải nuôi lồng kẽm, nêu dùng lồng tre Két sẽ phá lồng, vì mỏ nó rất bén. Hơn nữa, nuôi lồng thì Két chỉ leo trèo chứ ít khi chịu đứng cầu nên trông không đẹp mắt.

Két được đánh giá là loài chim cảnh quí, mặc dầu không hiếm, giá lại vừa túi tiền mọi người, nên ai cũng nuôi được. Đã thế, cách nuôi dưỡng lại giản dị, ít tốn kém và ít công chăm sóc.”
― Phạm Hoàng Long