Things are getting serious here people.
This may be the worst one yet, but among so many splendid candidates we cannot. CANNOT accept the red-winged blackbird winning here. It's currently in the lead with 19%.
Who can beat it?? I propose the current runner-up, the majestic mountain butterfly that is the wallcreeper!!
Reasons wallcreepers deserve your vote:
- They live on barren rocky cliff faces at up to 5000m elevation. The females build nests deep in rock crevices, breeding at impressively chilly temperatures, and their mates bring them food while they incubate their eggs. Stunning survivalists and splendid husbands!! <33
- They are so, so unique. They are monotypic in their family and it shows. The red-winged blackbird has the tricolored blackbird, the flamecrest is a cooler ruby crowned kinglet, the cedar waxwing is so much like a bohemian waxwing - but nothing distracts from the coolness of the wallcreeper.
- Their call is understated, but haunting enough to hold its own. Imagine hearing this among the chilly, barren cliffs: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/155122491
- And, possibly the most definitive point: they are doing sexual dimorphism RIGHT!! The ladies get the fancy colours, but each sex still gets their own unique breeding colourations!!!
Pulling out the Canva graphics to really drive that last point home:
Just look a them. We can appreciate a well-camouflaged streaky brown female, but lets be honest, we're here for the wed wings. With both sexes having red-and-black wings, wallcreepers achieve twice as many red-and-black wings per capita as the red-winged blackbird does!! Women in the workforce!!!
Plus, as @casperwyomingxer so effectively put it in the last wallcreeper poll:
Let us beat the North American bias here in these polls, and research more on individual birds that you may not have heard of. Let us be more fair in the less well known birds around the world that may be super cool. Learning about new birds is why I like this blog!
If the wallcreeper moved forward, maybe one more person out there will get to learn that this beautiful creature exists. If the red-winged blackbird moves forward, what then? The world spins on, unchanged.
VOTE WALLCREEPER!!
@best-bird-tournament