Reporting For Duty
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Birding Bond
RichardTheBruce
I'm motivated by my Duty.
Intent here is to recognize OO7's namesake the ornithologist,
plus writer Ian Fleming's interest in bird watching.
[See page 9 for details of their meeting.]
The task: identify birds appearing in the Bond book or film.
Can be live on screen, stuffed, in pictures and paintings,
or even character names and mentions in dialogue.
You name the bird and film or book; we'll give it more detail.
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Good call.
Macaw / məˈkô / noun
1. a large parrot, long tail, bright colors
Portuguese (Macao, circa 17th Century).
Macaw: Large birds, powerful beaks that crack nuts, may gather in flocks of 30 or more.
Blue and gold macaws are native to South America. Like all macaws, they are colorful birds known for their ability to talk plus the close bonds they form with human beings.
Multiple species.
Anodorhynchus:
Glaucous macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus), Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), Indigo macaw or Lear's macaw (Anodorhynchus leari).
Cyanopsitta:
Little blue macaw or Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii).
Ara:
Blue-and-yellow macaw or blue-and-gold macaw (Ara ararauna), Blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis), Military macaw (Ara militaris), Great green macaw or Buffon's macaw (Ara ambiguus), Scarlet macaw or Aracanga (Ara macao), Red-and-green macaw (Ara chloropterus), Red-fronted macaw (Ara rubrogenys), Chestnut-fronted macaw or severe macaw (Ara severa).
Orthopsittaca:
Red-bellied macaw (Orthopsittaca manilata).
Primolius:
Blue-headed macaw (Primolius couloni), Blue-winged macaw or Illiger's macaw (Primolius maracana), Golden-collared macaw (Primolius auricollis).
Diopsittaca:
Red-shouldered macaw or Hahn's macaw (Diopsittaca nobilis).
Blue and yellow macaw, or Blue and gold macaw
Glaucous macaw
Great green macaw or Buffon's macaw
Military macaw
Scarlet macaw or Aracanga
Chestnut-fronted macaw or Severe macaw
Golden-collared macaw
Red-shouldered macaw or Hahn's macaw
Regarding the Blue and gold macaw (or Blue and yellow macaw) that appeared as Max in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY on the Havelock's yacht, and returned in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS at the Bladen safe house. You might be surprised the parrot, named Chrome, has a Diana Rigg connection that pre-dates the Bond film appearances.
https://007underthemangotree.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/chrome-the-parrot/
This bird got around.
EDIT: Sorry, I had this post typed on my phone but it wouldn't send due to a lack of WiFi! I see it has already been mentioned in the post above.
Those Bond connections!
The rock dove is common in cities all over the world. Standard appearance is blue, grey, green with two dark bars on its wings. Variations include more plain coloring or pale, spotted, even rust-colored. Introduced from Europe into the US in the 1600s. A staple seen on city buildings and ledges, or in the countryside on barns, bridges, or rock cliffs.
Aside from the double take, another interesting item is its ability to "fall"/redirect in flight to avoid a pursuing peregrine falcon. Not always successful, but a sight to behold.
A well-known game bird, THE most hunted worldwide. Native to Asia, introduced to Europe and the Americas.
Such good sport.
What startled OO7 in SPECTRE right before he located The Pale King aren't clearly seen, but from their call and the darkness they seem to be crows (the same ones feasting like there's no tomorrow by the time Hinx arrives). I like suggesting ravens for these things, but a kind soul pointed out to me ravens are more solitary. When there is a group likely they're crows.
I'm also counting ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, with the crows resident to Piz Gloria.
The carrion crow is found in Europe and Eastern Asia. Black feathers and feet, plumage shows a green or purplish sheen. Smaller than a raven, its beak is thicker than a rook and has visible bristles at the nostrils.
Nature's scavengers, also eat bugs, small animals, eggs of other species. Noise-makers when perched in trees or city structures. Smart, become tame around civilization, are masters of urban environments besting pigeons and gulls over the spoils. Smart enough to drop hard nuts while in flight to break them on hard road surfaces below (I've witnessed this); there are reports of crows simply placing nuts in the street, allowing traffic to do the work smashing them, then retrieving the rewards safely by timing their actions to pedestrian crossing lights.
A group of crows is known as "a murder", famously described that way in Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue".
Hmm. Mockingbird. Don't think I know that Bond film straight off.
that species is a very successful deviant in nature.
Cuckoo. Medium-sized bird. Most are arboreal (tree-inclined), a minority terrestrial. Can be cosmopolitan or tropical. Some migratory. Diet of insects, insect larvae, other animals, fruit. Secretive birds with unique calls--innate, rather than learned from birth.
Not all, but some species are famous as brood parasites: they lay eggs in the nests of other birds. As Madeleine confirmed, when they hatch "it forces the other eggs out". (In reality most raise their own.)
In Greek myth, related to the goddess Hera--Zeus took the form of a cuckoo to seduce her.
In Europe, related to Spring and cuckoldry (husband of an adulterous wife--or males unknowingly raising children not of their own, um, genetic association). Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost ends with the song "The Cuckoo and the Owl", after much ado about female sexuality in the Renaissance risking cuckoldry.
Cuckoos are sacred in India as with Kamadeva, the god of desire and longing. Japan: indicates unrequited love.
Worth mentioning are accepted definitions:
Cuckoo - ˈko͞oko͞o/ - noun
1. medium-sized long-tailed bird, typically with a gray or brown back and barred or pale underparts. Many cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of small songbirds.
2. informal: a mad (= crazy) person.
Adult reed warbler feeds cuckoo chick.
The chicken. The bird that gives birth every day. Domesticated fowl, a popular food source worldwide for meat and eggs. Males known as roosters have more colorful plumage, spurs, and a larger comb than the female known as the hen. The comb is a fleshy crest on the top of the head, offset by a wattle under the beak. Chickens fly short distances to roost or escape danger. Flocks form pecking orders where the dominant have first access to food or nests. Roosters crow to mark territory or to announce a disturbance. Their herky-jerky reactions give rise to the euphemism "chicken" meaning afraid. Philosophers have long debated why the chicken crossed the road, whether the chicken came first (rather than the egg), and other timeless ponderings.
Feral chickens are originally domestic but returned to the wild. Jungle fowl are truly wild. All taste like chicken.
In action films, roaming chickens are essential in applying a third world vibe to country settings (even toward non-third world countries). In OCTOPUSSY, OO7 noted the surprising increase in the cost of eggs. The film title SKYFALL baited comments relating the film (sight unseen) to the classic children's story "Chicken Little".
The chicken.
Feral chicken.
Red jungle fowl.
I don't think it will come up otherwise, a Kite is a raptor. I can give some detail later.
How about "all those feathers" in TSWLM?
Would they be goose feathers?
"All those feathers" is a bit harder. Down used for insulation and mattresses are normally from wildfowl meaning ducks, geese, and swans. I did confirm modern down is mostly sourced to domestic geese, so that's correct. Unexpected, but I'll add goose (down) and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME to the list.
Trying to be careful on my end. I had the Dolly's braces effect and misremembered chickens scurrying away from police run off the road by the bus in LIVE AND LET DIE. Was also sure that happened with the military vehicles run off the road by the mini jet in OCTOPUSSY. Wrong on both counts when I tried to verify it.
Focusing on the swallow-tailed kite as an example, its breeding range is from the US Southeast plus parts of the Caribbean down into Central and South America. Scientific name used to be Falco forficatus, if that means anything. Alternating as hunter and scavenger, its diet includes reptiles, amphibians, large insects, birds, eggs. This one may drink in flight by skimming the surface of a body of water.
So named for their effortless soaring flight, they ride the thermal currents of heated air. Most all kites in varying sizes can be identified by a forked tail plus a shrill, whinnying call as they fly. May gather in large groups in the air. In a hurricane, I'd rather be this kind of kite.
Egyptian myth: Isis became a kite to resurrect the dead. More props to SPECTRE.
Black kite
Swallow-tailed kite
Children's kite
A brant is a small, dark-colored goose with a short bill and a white underside. There is the dark-bellied brant, pale-bellied brant, and the black brant. They're mostly found on the coast, but also venture inland to feed on farm areas possibly as learned behavior from other geese.
In Latin, Branta is a form of Old Norse brandgás, or burnt-black goose; bernicla is barnacle. The similar brant and barnacle goose were once called a single species--plus (incorrectly) associated with the crustacean, supported by reports of birds emerging from shells. That belief allowed Catholics to dine on the bird Fridays, considering it fish.
Black brant.
Dead Brandt
Common knowledge: Goldeneye is the name writer Ian Fleming gave to his estate on Oracabessa Bay,
northern Jamaica, next to the Golden Clouds estate.
Peeling back the onion: you won't find it in Birds of the West Indies, but as a birdwatcher Fleming must have been familiar with this bird genus from growing up and living in the UK. Likely bringing a piece of home to the Caribbean.
Goldeneye: species name, self-explanatory.
The common goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) is a diving duck, medium-sized. Bucephala: in Ancient Greek boukephalos) means bullheaded, literally. Clangula: "to resound" (from the Latin Clangere). Males with dark head, green gloss, circular white patch below eye, dark body, white neck and underside. Females with brown head, grey body, orange legs and feet.
Favor lakes and rivers of boreal forests of Canada, northern United States, Scandinavia, northern Russia. Migratory, nesting in cavities of large trees. Openly use offered nestboxes, a big success in Scotland. Commonly winter in Britain. Feed on crustaceans, fish eggs, plants.
Both victims and perpetrators of brood parasitism--meaning individuals may lay eggs in nest of other common goldeneyes, sometimes other ducks. Conversely even the eggs of tree swallows, European starlings may be found in goldeneye nests. Can fly at about 2 months in age.
There is also Barrow's goldeneye (Bucephala islandica). Bucephala meaning bullheaded, icelandica meaning Iceland. This one named for Sir John Barrow, 18th Century English statesman. Dark head, purple gloss, white crescent on face. Females brown and grey, most with yellow coloring on bill.
Barrow's goldeneye
Common goldeneye
Goldeneye golden eye