As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

‘Birds of Paradise’ at the National Geographic Museum


Walking through the “Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution” exhibition at the National Geographic Museum can feel decidedly otherworldly.

Part of it is the backdrop: lush foliage in exotic rain forest canopies and a surrounding of dank green. But mostly it’s the birds, in all their preening excess, that make visitors feel as though they’ve landed in some groovy 1970s disco — birds with blue feet and green iridescent faces. They’ve got swirls on their backsides, which they know how to shake. They hop from foot to foot or — bam! — suddenly transform their plumage into a shape like a comet or a trippy psychedelic smile.

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