November 2015: Famous Birds

Hey bird-lovers, and welcome to Caitlin’s Corner! I’m Caitlin, and last year you may remember I did an article on famous cartoon birds. This month, I decided I would introduce you to real-life famous birds. All of the following have a really neat story, so I hope you enjoy!

1. The ducks at the Peabody Hotel- The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee is known for having ducks in their fountain: and the hotel embraces them! How did this start? Well, the General Manager back in the 1930’s thought it would be funny to place ducks in the fountain. The three English call ducks used were eventually replaced with five North American Mallard ducks, which were nothing short of amazing to the guests. An animal trainer in the 1940s can be honored for the march from 11 am to 5 pm everyday. It has been an attraction so valued that even famous people such as Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, Miranda Cosgrove, and Kid President have gone to see them. When not performing, the ducks live on the roof of the hotel in a small replica of the hotel, getting there by elevator. But, the hotel only has the ducks for three months before trading them out for another set of five ducks. The hotel respects the wild birds and believes this is the right thing to do.

2. The ravens at the Tower of London- You may remember two months ago in the article about the different kinds of symbolisms of birds that a raven is associated with misfortune. Well here, this isn’t the case. Legend tells that the astronomical observatory of King Charles II of England said that the birds with messing with his observations. The king wanted them gone from the premises, but was later told if the six ravens weren’t there, disaster would strike, so he kept them. Today, there are seven that remain (Hardey, Munin, Thor, Hugine, Gwyllum, Odin, and Cedric). King Charles II would be pleased to know that now they can’t leave because their wings are clipped (but this does not harm them, only providing an unbalanced flight). You can even see them from now until the end of the year if you are in London and access the tower!

3. G. I. Joe- Now, I know what you thinking…it’s not THAT G. I. Joe. This G. I. Joe is a pigeon that was part the US Army Pigeon Service in the 1940s during WWII. On October 18, 1943, the British were scheduled to attack a city in Italy, the US bombing beforehand to have the British coming in not be such a huge entrance. This was going to be a good plan, but the Germans ended up retreating, which made the British get there earlier than expected. The bombing tried to get cancelled through all types of communication, but G. I. Joe was the one who really came through. The pigeon arrived right before the US was going to leave their base. If not for him, thousands of British soldiers would have died in the bombing. This bird was awarded the Dickin Medal, the only US animal to ever receive such an honor.

4. Mrs. Ballard's parrots- Now this is an interesting tale if you haven’t heard of this before! Alba Ballard of Italy moved the Long Island, NY in 1963, and started to take pictures of her 10-20 domesticated birds (she eventually had 50!) there. She and the birds grew famous from this, appearing on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s and other shows. Mrs. Ballard and her parrots took to the road and appeared in different events and places. They are remembered today in Arne Svenson’s book (Mrs. Ballard’s Parrots). Now, let me show you some of the pictures and let them speak for themselves:

5. Nils Olav – Here we have a penguin that was made Colonel by the Norwegian Army in 2008. But let me start at the beginning, since this may seem a bit strange at the moment. In 1972, he was made the mascot of the King’s Guard. He was named after Nils Egelien, who picked him out as mascot, and King Olav V. A new penguin eventually inherited the same title once this one passed away. The third one that is alive today was honorable regimental sergeant major, but became honorary colonel-in-chief. There was a ceremony held where he got to go down a row of soldiers and given a badge of knighthood. This bird should really be an inspiration to birds everywhere!

I hope you learned a lot today on Caitlin’s Corner! Now make sure you give your neighborhood birds a pep talk and say how they can be famous, too! See you next month!