Have you ever considered going bird watching? We know, it sounds lame and something old people do when they get super bored. But there are so many cool birds out there. For example today we’re going to show you the most adorable fluffy birds that can do the perfect splits. Who knew birds can even do the splits, am I right? But these little balls of cuteness can. They’re called Bearded Reedlings and they’re the cutest thing you’ll see today.
Bearded Reedlings are small, kind of egg-shaped little birds with long tails. They’re usually about 15 cm in size and most of that is the tail. You could fit one in your palm – no problem. They can be found in Europe and Asia and since they don’t really migrate seasonally you will be able to find them there all year long.
The male Bearded Reedlings are ginger with blue-grey heads and have black, moustache-like markings on their face that go down from their eyes towards their neck and a black stripe in their tail. Why are they called “bearded” if they don’t have a beard and instead have markings that look like a moustache? Ask the scientists people who named them, we’ve been wondering about that too.
The female Bearded Reedlings look similar to male ones but their coloring is usually not as bright, they’re paler, they don’t have the moustache markings or the black stripe in their tail. But their beaks are a bit darker than those of males. This is very typical in the bird world, boy birds just like showing off with their colors and markings to attract the girls. And the girls being like “meh, I don’t need to put effort into impressing boys”.
Why do these birds like to chill out in between tree branches by doing the perfect splits? Why would they do that instead of sitting on a branch like any other bird? We can only assume it’s because they’re natural gymnasts and want to show off their superiority to other birds by bragging with how good they are at doing the splits.
All in all Bearded Reedlings are very amusing fluffy creatures. 10 out of 10 would recommend learning more about them and once the quarantine is over let’s all get together and go on a bird watching trip to try and see these cute birds in the wild. Believe me, after being stuck at home for so long – it’ll be a blast.