h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Round where I live, I've seen birds fight. OK, most of the time, it's just threat and bluster, but sometimes feathers fly.

We get collared doves and wood pigeons, both of which fight - despite being the emblems of peace!

I know what you mean. Most of it is what Prof Lorenz and my biology prof called 'display behaviour'. Making yourself big, etc.

I guess sometimes the trigger mechanism gets out of hand and damage gets done, as with deer - who are supposed to lock horns, and run each other off, but sometimes draw blood.

Do you know Terry Pratchett? He claimed that birdsong really meant ' off, this is my bush!'

There are a few species of really nasty birds who do evil things...like shrikes...we don't have them around here.

We do have some bald eagles a few miles away...they put up a webcam:

http://www.basic.ncsu.edu/eaglecam/index.html

(You can see it if you have QuickTime.)

You're right, MVP, it's not a totally peaceable kingdom out there.

I'm a Terry Pratchett fan - in my view, anyone who can make Death a sympathetic character must be a genius! I don't remember coming across this, but he's probably right.

I don't think shrikes are evil, any more than cuckoos are evil. I haven't seen shrikes for many years, but I did see a small bird feeding a big cuckoo chick in Ashdown Forest once. Cuckoos are getting rare in Britain now.

I'm fond of that Death character, too. (If he hadn't invented those annoying witches, I'd think TP was pretty near perfect.)

We don't have the kind of cuckoo that sounds like a clock over here. In fact, I thought that kind of cuckoo was a myth until I heard one in the German forest.

Is that what happened to cuckoos that they been getting rarer-the host birds are striking back?

That would be nice, but i think it's more that the host birds are getting rarer, too.

Tibley did a good piece on this
:http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/home