Swallow - tailed hummingbird (Eupetomena macroura) done with colored pencils on a 14.8 x 21 cm paper sheet. I did use a reference for this from the Macaulay library section of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
If you want to listen to my “amazing” read of the things below check this out:
I have to say, since I found this website, I have really been considering becoming an ornithologist instead of a vet surgeon.
My mum thinks I could be both, but I imagine it would be kind of hard for a host of reasons. Of course I plan to study veterinary medicine, but I might specialize in ornithology. My first problem though - where? I don’t think there are any universities in Bulgaria that offer ornithology degrees and I really don’t want to go to Western Europe for … reasons. I know about the one in Ithaca, NY (a.k.a Cornell Lab), but that’s in the United States. Too far away.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be a surgeon, but birds are my obsession from childhood. Yes, I did have a dragon wave, but that has ended. Again, since I found the site of Cornell Lab, I got even more interested in the world of aves. And I have learned so much since. Not only from them, but from other organizations and websites connected with the Lab.
I absolutely love reading about birds of prey. I love them (in case you haven’t noticed), but now I have learned so much that I can’t imagine what I have yet to find out about them and other types of birds.
Literally a day ago, as I was writing down the phylogeny of hawks, eagles,vultures, etc… as one does, I stumbled across many bird conservation organizations. From them I got to the Red List of IUCN. I didn’t know everyone had access to the IUCN websites. For me, this is a very important place because I found some files containing the criteria for assessing a species’ status.
As I was reading it, I felt like I was reading the constitution. Such important things! Now I am even more worried for species with a critically endangered status. Hopefully, in the future some of them will increase in numbers. We’ll see because I saw this on the BirdLife (which also has the status changes annually) website.
This is kind of what I would expect now after I read about vultures. I mean, look - the four things everyone is talking about - climate change, wildfires, energy production and pollution. They are nothing compared to the real disturbances - logging and agriculture. I know this is kind of impossible to combat, but at least we shouldn’t waste most food by throwing it away when it’s fine; illegal chopping of wood should stop.
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I read a lot. And I learned more. Hopefully this will continue well.
As always, a great bird picture. I am going to side with your Mum, do both. You will never regret setting lofty goals.
We can't stop eating, so agriculture is not going away. Illegal logging, though -- that's a crime that deserves more serious punishment than it gets. As to climate change -- you know as well as I do that we adapt to survive. It's that or perish.
P.S. We are going to work on that American accent, young lady! :D If you're going to speak American, make it Southern.