The Country Chick: Birds of a feather.

As much as I love the goats, the donkeys, our ewe, Tunie, and yes, even the pig, Tulip, the birds are the ones I enjoy just sitting down and watching. The different colors, the different types of feathers. . . a bird's plumage is one of the most amazing things to me. They keep their wearer warm, enable flight for some, and attract a willing mate.

Here are a few closeups of some of our birds:

Can you guess what bird these feathers belong to?

It's our attention hog, Jim Bob!! :)

A cool thing about Bourbon Red turkeys is that once their adult plumage has come in the males will have a black line at the tip of some of the feathers, while females have white edging, instead.

This bird is named Little Man.

He's an Old English Game Bantam, and although he may be small in stature he thinks he's bigger than even Jim Bob :)

What bird could these soft and curly feathers possibly belong to?

It's Henry, one of the Sebastopols.

Now, for some polka dots. Can you guess what they belong to?

Guineas!!!

One of my favorite birds. Not only because they're wonderful at controlling the tick population, but also because they're just all around comical birds. They're not the brightest of birds, but they engage in these intricate games of chase and keep away with each other that can go on for hours.

Not all guineas have dots (or pearling as it's called), though - some are completely solid colored and others only have a few dots (partially pearled). Here is an example of partial pearling:

The darker guinea is a royal purple, one of the new colors we added last year. They've just started free ranging and so far the older members of our flock have easily accepted them.

Now, on to a bird known for being decidedly more colorful. Most people are dazzled by the eye and sword feathers of peacocks, but me, I love the scale feathers located on their back.