Seems everyone has a Top 10 list these days. David Letterman always has his Top 10 shtick, most of which were pretty funny, despite having to come up with them night after night for who knows how many thousands of nights. I guess that’s what a staff of writers can do for the front man.
But a book I’m reading now has a category for lists that appeals to me, and actually got me started making my own list: Top 10 most charismatic birds. And here, in (almost) no particular order, is my list of the top 10 most charismatic birds of North America:
- Swallow-tailed Kite (no matter how the rest of the rankings go, this bird has to be number one. Anyone who’s seen one in flight will have a hard time disagreeing; anyone who hasn’t is really missing something.)
- Roseate Spoonbill
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Meadowlark (Eastern or Western, doesn’t matter)
- Belted Kingfisher
- Long-billed Curlew
- American Avocet
- Great Blue Heron
- Bald Eagle
- Brown Pelican
I have only two criteria for the list:
- I have to have personal experience with the bird. Hence the absence of such birds as Common Loon. Seriously, if we lived on a lake in Maine, I’m sure the loon would be high on the list, but I’ve never seen one in breeding plumage, and have only heard recordings of their haunting call. So it’s not on my list. Similarly, despite having lived in its home range, I have never seen a California Condor, with its incredible 10-foot wingspan. Not on the list.
- The birds have to be so charismatic that even nonbirders would probably spend a minute or two looking at them, if they managed to impinge on their consciousness at all. (Birders and nonbirders alike have a hard time looking at, let alone “seeing,” Rock Pigeons, for example.)
My list also has a southeastern bent, since that is where I do most of my birding. (Were I to expand it to my other birding haunt, India, I’m sure Indian Peafowl [most people just say Peacock], Green Bee-eater, and Painted Stork would have made the cut.)
The list is NOT in order; I didn’t bother to rank any of the runners-up. Frankly, the Swallow-tailed Kite in flight is the most charismatic bird I can imagine; ordering the others would be pointless.
Some birds that I considered long and hard before rejecting:
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristatta). This common eastern bird is lively, intelligent, and curious in ways that intrigue those who take the time to actually watch one in action. Their reputation as thieves and troublemakers is well deserved, but who says thieves and troublemakers can’t be charismatic?
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos). Certainly one of the most intelligent birds, and one who has the common sense to dress in basic black. Too many negative associations with them, though, to make the list.
Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus). This is a really cool bird, but, like the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, its name is just a little too too to make the list. Let’s keep it serious, people!
The book that inspired this list is Jeremy Mynott’s Birdscapes, recently published by Princeton UP. Mynott is the former chief executive of the Cambridge University Press, so he’s had his finger on the pulse of some exciting publishing in recent years. I’ve always admired their astronomy list, for example, and another book of theirs, Grimaldi’s Evolution of the Insects, completely changed the way I think of paleoentomology. (That is to say, it put it on my radar screen, whereas before it was completely unimaginable to me.)
Birdscapes is an intriguing book, exploring the philosophical and cultural aspects of birding in a way that most writers on the subject would like to think they could, without the serious depth and breadth of scholarship Mynott commands. Pete Dunne, for instance, or Kenn Kaufman, two of North America’s best bird writers, can captivate birders with their stories and anecdotes; Mynott is writing for a different audience, one that includes nonbirders. After I finish the book, I might even post a review.
(Don’t you just hate it when a book reviewer obviously hasn’t even read the whole book? That’s why I never reviewed Rosen’s Life of the Skies; despite being warmly recommended to me by a birder and scholar whom I respect, I just couldn’t enjoy that book, and never bothered finishing it. That doesn’t look to be the fate of Birdscapes.)
What about you? Which birds are on your list? Leave a comment.