Birdsong
As a disclaimer, I actually love birds to an unhealthy degree and don’t generally think they’re all stupid (okay, mourning doves are pretty damned dense). Still, even given certain species’ complex language and signals, you have to admit: when they’re shouting from a distance, they don’t come across as subtle. In fact, I’m not too sure you can’t hear the very same words being shouted at your nearest college campus…
Discussion (59) ¬
Birds are jerks, I have lived with them most of my life (my sister loved the damn things). I think they are saying way worse things then that…
Just my humble opinion.
Fuck birds. They like to attack people on crutches every spring morning while waiting for the school bus… <..>
Why do you give all the birds something stupid or mean to say?i personally don’t dislike them.. Unless you got on there “bad side”
Two things. First, found this comic last week, think it’s AWESOME, thank you A. & K. for making it!
Second: There’s a bird in my neighborhood whose call is almost identical to my alarm clock, but who usually goes off about 45 minutes before my alarm. Never have I been so motivated toward avian violence.
That bird has probably heard your alarm clock.
It’s probably a Mocking Bird. I had one in my yard that would “ring” just like my outdoor phone.
More! More! Draw more birds! 😀
The jay is so right on it’s scary. A++++ Excellent and funny!
I laughed so hard at the last bird, lmao. Awesome comic 🙂
Damn Jays. Totally spot on with those damn birds.
Hi, just want to start with love find chaos. Been a great read so far.
I would like to point out that Corvids are extremely intelligent. I think you’ve underestimated them in this case.
That’s why the crow had the most to say, actually — I’ve studied many different birds for years, and the Corvid family is definitely among my favorites. I’m keenly aware of their intelligence, but their calls can be repetitive or just relating mundane stories to other family members, as they are want to do.
Man, that blue jay looks BADASS. The comic is amusing, but damn. That is a nicely drawn blue jay, I’m just saying.
Have you ever read “There’s a Hair in my Dirt” by the author of “The Far Side” comic? Today’s strip reminded me of it. =)
I’m fairly sure Geese say more or less the same thing as Blue Jays. And there’s a bunch of grekles that I’m sure spend all day squawking “Cat. There’s a cat. Watch Out guys there’s a cat”…”the cat’s still there. Cat in this yard. OMG a cat”…”Holy shit now there’s 2” etc.
It’s nice living so close to a bay but the wildlife can be noisy.
Your artwork is exceptionally beautiful, but that isn’t an exception — Your art is always awesome and great and several other superlatives. The writing is sweet and perfect. Even the advanced language of human expression is surprisingly limited to: 1) “I’m here”; 2) “Do You notice I’m here?”; “I Love You” or variations on those. Some variations, for example: “Four score and seven years ago…”; “I hate You”; “the integral of the reciprocal of x, dx, equals the natural logarithm of x”; “Your artwork is exceptionally beautiful” and so on.
I love You. I love You. I love You. I love You. I love You. I love You. I love You. I love You. I love You. (Do You notice I’m here?)
BIRD FACT: Some studies have resulted in birds that could understand and speak the entire BASIC English language. A good example would be Alex the Parrot.
I love birds, I want to be a sparrow in my next life 🙂 *random comment*
Very funny stripe, loved it!
I feel like it’s more “HEY. HEY. BE MY MATE. OI, MALE. GET AWAY FROM MY TREE. MY TREE. NO. YOU’RE FEMALE. COME HERE. BE MY MATE.” (This is, of course, from the perspective of a male bird)
I’ll bet that a lot of animal speak is like this. I remember reading someone saying that Whale songs may be enormously complex tales of their long history, but it’s equally likely that they’re simply saying “Hey guys, I’ve just found some Krill.” “Krill? I love Krill!” “Krill’s great!” “What’s that?” “They said they just found some Krill!” and so on. What makes humans interesting conversationalists is that they’ve invented the written word, music, art,TV, the movies and the internet. They may still be talking about sex and food a lot, but at least they’re more creative about it.
Panels 4 & 5 remind me of “Questionable Content” artist Jeph Jacques’ “Yelling Bird”: http://questionablecontent.wikia.com/wiki/Yelling_Bird
I second this
Also put in mind of Ursula Vernon’s Journal. She is the only other Birder I follow
http://ursulav.livejournal.com/1543738.html
http://www.redwombatstudio.com/blog/?p=5559
Just caught up. I love the humor and the style even more. When the sex thing came up I was confused, but being a logical human I could see where I shouldn’t care. I believe it is only a matter of time before homophobia is as taboo as racism. Some people (*cough* white males) can’t picture it… but go back a few hundred years and most people would have been screwed in one way or another. Being black I suffer from never being able to safely use a time machine.
Well said, Charles Xavier, but just remember that assuming that all white males are homophobic is itself a form of racism. Doesn’t racism, after all, consist in part of believing that other human beings all conform to some sort of dumb stereotype.
Aye. I struggle to remain neutral. I hail from a place where N.W.A. was on repeat and country music wasn’t real. The hypocrite slips through the cracks sometimes no matter how hard I try.
Weird, tastefullyoffensive is reblogging this on tumblr without the last bird panel.
I love the fact that the cutest, tiniest Ruby-crowned Kinglet is the one yelling “fuck me!” (Which they totally do, all day long). XD
When robins build nests on my porch, I’m pretty sure the mother is saying “Scram! Scram! Scram! Scram! Scram!” or possibly “Raus! Raus! Raus! Raus!”
The Blue Jay look awesome!!
I’ve had some instances where, in a moment of zen, I could understand what crows were saying. The conversation was like any pack of humans in a social setting, such as teens at the mall. I think all of these are accurate at some point.
ಠ_ಠ
why not call them evolved dinosaurs? That would make them cool
I just read through all your comics today, I laughed my ass off, then I got sad because there wasn’t more..
i think “fuck me bitches” would cover most of the animal kingdom. that, “i’m hungry” and “i’m going to kill you” is pretty much it
Recently found this site, and literally read all your comics in two hours haha they are great, please keep doing these 🙂 Greetings from Mexico
Ha, greetings from sweden, where sea-gulls think they are natures alarm clock at dawn, which happens at 3 a.m. You just reconsider all nice thoughts about birds when they go crazy for a week in the middle of the night. And: Love your artwork!
My grandma use to feed peanuts to blue jays where I use to live, she enjoyed their squacking!
Just went through the hole thing of this comic..
Please don’t stop haha. You’re life’s pretty funny, your art is great!
And yes, it was hard for me to understand your gender thing but it is ok I guess, just be yourself, and be happy.
That’s pretty much exactly what every blue jay says all the time. I’m pretty convinced.
You know, I started the comic a while back. I reached the end and now I’m waiting. Kudos. Even your side project is entertaining.
Birds are like most foreign songs. They really sound great, but never try to understand them. It won’t end well.
I just finished reading all of these comics….now I feel like I need to do something productive -.-
No… please no… the magpies already wake me every morning followed shortly afterwards by my kittens wanting to be fed… I don’t want to hear what they are saying!
I love your series I found it and read it all today xD These are awesome.
These are similar to the things I imagine my cats telling me every day. “Hey! I found a bug earlier! but then I ated it. 🙁 How are you? Thump my bum! Thanks for coming home! Did I tell you about the bug yet?”
ZAAAAAAAAYARGHHH I wish I had carried on drawing – I would have made this exact same comic but with me and a friend and European birds, I had it in my mind for YEARS. Right down to the college comment – before I even saw the text I reposted this with likening it to a local TV programme showing young horny people getting drunk and going out.
I don’t know if I should hate or love you now 😀
My farmer grandma was awakened every morning by a mocking bird until she got grandpa’s shot gun and aimed at the bird, pulled the trigger and fell over backwards. She missed. Next day she got the creamery man to kill the bird with the shotgun. Grandpa didn’t speak to her for a week.
Have to say we have a bird sanctuary in our back yard, and I am a bird watcher and also watch the bird watchers when we go bird watching..
Naomi Mmitchum
The blue jay looks like Mordecai from ‘Regular Show’….
heh,thats what i thought too XD
Birds are awesome! We share our land with grackles, starlings, hummingbirds, cardinals, mourning doves, many kinds of finches, sparrows, crows, woodpeckers, robins, jays, mocking birds, cat birds, and bull bats. Listening to them is like listening to a soap opera! It’s so funny but sweet.
Love the comic! You two are amazing artists. Thank you for opening up comments again. I sincerely hope commenters give you the respect you deserve.
my husband just wondered aloud to me what the birds were singing about. i had to find this comic and show him.
I’ve got a parrotlet, and can totally agree with you. He’s a pretty smart pet, but when he starts yelling, you’d never know it in a million years. XD
It’s twitter!
Trivia of the day! Ravens have been observed having “dialects”, which is pretty difficult to imagine having dialects without language.
So Ravens may in fact have a logical form of language.
Ah, makes so much sense: “this-way, this-way, this-way” on migrating geese. Or rather “how-far, how-far, how-far”?
jays are dicks but i love crows they are super smart. One crow (i have named him jerry) lives outside my window and eats from my compost. He has one feather that sorta just sticks up from the top of his head like alfalfa
As someone who works at a wildlife hospital, your depiction of blue jays and ruby-crowned kinglets are spot on. And yes. Mourning doves are fucking dense, high-maintenance birds. One of the few species I don’t like working with.
This comes a bit late, but I’m reminded of a passage from a Discworld book:
It’s hard to be an ornithologist and walk through a wood when all around you the world is shouting: ‘Bugger off, this is my bush! Aargh, the nest thief! Have sex with me, I can make my chest big and red!’