The Wisdom of Birds: their songs, their sex life...and us

When I walk up Leicester Street in Carlton from Victoria Street, before one reaches the Green Building there are terraced units. One of these has a postage stamp of a 'garden' with a lot happening in it.

Usually, I am walking up there to a meeting in the early evening. Yesterday, I walked up Leicester Street en route to a conference in Queensberry Streeet just before 10 am. The 'garden' was a hive of activity because of visitors - sparrows going to and fro. Reason? To greet other members of their species in aviaries on the front patio. Trees, birds, chatter. In spite, of the imprisonment of some, the whole scene was - to this member of a foreign species - quite joyful.

This provides my intro to this charming encounter arising from a Tweet by my desert blogging buddy, Robbo:

and here it is:

Make up your mind whether you would like

a bullfinch, a nightingale, a well-equipped male bird,

or even Professor Tim Birkhead himself.