Snarky Robins and Other Bird Observations

My husband does the best imitation of a robin. He puts his hands on his hips, pushes his chest out, gets a snarky look on his face and does a little bounce step forward as if to say, “Don’t mess with me.” I never noticed that robins have an attitude until he did his perfect impersonation or should I say imbirdination. Anyway, now I look at robins differently. They DO have an attitude!

It seems other birds have personalities too. The little bluebirds building in the box out back are very shy. Or perhaps they are just covert. They probably don’t want the other birds all up in their business. I completely understand. It aggravates me that Amazon knows me well enough to display kitchen knives and Curious George items while I shop.

A beautiful cardinal couple began building in a bush next to our house. But they quickly changed plans the day I spent time weeding the flower bed near their future home. They were such a cute couple. One would sit on a nearby branch and keep watch while the other carried in building materials. But at the first hint of socializing they were out of there. They probably wished they had a doormat that said “Beat It!” You know… I understand that too.

On the other side of the house we have a bird feeder which attracts finches. It’s spring loaded so that if a heavy bird or squirrel gets on the perch, it pulls the feeder closed. The fat birds have learned to feast on the leftovers on the ground. There’s a squirrel that will hang from a limb by his back legs and dig with his paws so the feeder won’t spring shut. The doves on the ground look up as if to say, “Hey thanks buddy. Our brains are way smaller than our bellies and we could not figure out how to make that happen.” Yep. I can relate to them as well.

Soon the hummingbirds will return. Those guys are fun to watch but they don’t play nice. They’ll buzz each other off the feeder even though there’s plenty of food. They cannot seem to get along. I’m pretty sure some of them are family, as in from the same nest. How weird. Actually, how normal.

I saw myself in every bird above, except the unhappy couple. I love living with a man who does imbirdinations just to make me laugh. I wonder though, why can’t we all get over ourselves and play nice?

I just noticed the robins have taken over the empty homestead in the bush deemed too social by the cardinals. Currently they’re adding their own personal touches. One of them saw me looking out the door and hopped in my direction all snarky like, “You want a piece of me? Bring it on sister!”

If we were to glean from this bird observation, we might determine to:

• Be brave; Let go of fear and enjoy this wonderful life
• Be friendly. Someone thinks you’re beautiful!
• Be thankful! Keep looking up. Good things are coming from unexpected places
• Be sweet and play nice; Share! There’s plenty to go around
• Beware! A bad attitude tend to get one into hot water

Now please excuse me while I confront a snarky robin. Hmmm… I wonder if robin tastes like chicken.