My favorite! I love to open the windows in spring and hear birdsong. Robins and bluebirds, cardinals, chickadees and nuthatches. Last week the pheobes arrived and I can’t wait to see where they’re going to nest, though if the last four years are any clue, it will be right above my front door. In fact, last year’s nest is still there waiting, since I now know that they will use an old nest again and again (until I can’t stand it anymore!)

Got me thinking, because the other superstar and returning bird in my yard again this year is a wild turkey.  What a difference! One mature phoebe weighs a little more than ½ of an ounce. The adult male turkey weighs in around 18 pounds. I think that means that it takes about 300 phoebes to fill up an18 pound wild turkey! In human terms that means that one full grown ‘phoebe’ of a person of 100 pounds would equal a full grown ‘wild turkey’ of a person at 3,600 lbs???? Could that be true?

Wait.

I need to relearn what we studied in high school biology class. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family Genus, Species. Do you remember the mnemonic? King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti.

All birds – phoebe and turkey alike- are of the Kingdom: Animalia, the Phylum: Chordata, the Class: Aves. Here’s where all breaks loose, though.

For the wild turkey the order, family, genus are: Galliformes, Turkey, Wild Turkey, with many species after that. For my sweet phoebes the order, family and genus are: Passeriforms, Tyrannidae, Sayornis Bonaparte (insect eating), and two species. We human beings separate from the birds after the Phylum Chordata. Our Class is Mammalia, our Order Primates, our Family Homindae, Genus Homo, and Species Sapiens. Gosh, I wish I had paid closer attention to this back then!

But I do like relearning this now, and especially with visual examples in my yard. That coyote I listened to last night separates at the Family level Canidae, the Genus Canis, and whatever species are below that. And the five deer munching my lilac bushes this morning? Like us Mammalia. After that: Order Artiodactyla, Family Cervidae, Genus Odocoleus, and then a few species.

Enough!

I love that we are all Animalia, Chordata. I’m standing upright now with my chordata in line. I am shooing away my wild turkey male friends who are trying to impress me with their spread tails and dragging wings (Sorry guys, not interested), and I’m providing my phoebe friends feeders of nuts and seeds.

I just can’t wait to watch who shows up next.  I hope it’s a yellow-bellied sap sucker! Now that I know they’re around, I’m paying close attention.

Happy bird watching everyone!

 

photo credit for Arlo the Turkey:  Olivia Joy St. Claire

goldfinch nest and chickadee at the feeder:  Sandy Weisman