Birds Guide

Famous birds

• The African grey parrot Alex, who, in studies by Dr. Irene Pepperberg, has demonstrated an ability to count; differentiate categories involving objects, colors, shapes, and materials; and understand the concept of same and different
• The Capitoline geese, who warned of an imminent attack on Rome's hill of the Capitol by the Gauls in 390 B.C.
• Cher Ami, British-bred homing pigeon (autumn of 1918) – delivers twelve messages for the U.S. Army during World War I, among other things helping to save the Lost Battalion.
• Incas, the last Carolina parakeet, who died in 1918 at the Cincinnati Zoo, reportedly of grief after his mate Lady Jane died a few months before him, in 1917
• Martha, the last of the American passenger pigeons, who died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Species Requiem Day, September 1, marks Martha's passing.
• Mike, the Wyandotte rooster of Fruita, Colorado who lived for 18 months after his head was cut off. The botched decapitation in 1945 missed his brain stem and jugular vein. His owners fed him thereafter with an eyedropper, and took him on tours of the West Coast. He died in 1947.
• The ducks of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, who, in a tradition dating back to the 1930s, are escorted from their penthouse palace down the elevator every day of the year at 11:00 a.m., cross a red carpet to a Sousa march, and spend the day in the lobby fountain, returning home with equal ceremony at 5:00 p.m.
• The ravens of the Tower of London, whose continuing presence there is said to maintain the general safety of the kingdom. qand

Birds owned by famous people

• Mrs. Ballard's parrots, whose owner, Alba Ballard, dressed them up in costumes and had them photographed in miniature scenes she made. Sherlock Holmes, General Patton, and Sonny and Cher were just a few of the people portrayed. They appeared on several American late-night television shows in the 1970s and 1980s.
• The parrot who sailed with Thor Heyerdahl on the raft Kon-Tiki
• Ulysses, Gerald Durrell's pet owl when he was growing up in Corfu. Ulysses appeared frequently in Durrell's books about living on the Greek island.

Famous extinct birds

• Carolina parakeet
• Dodo
• Great Auk
• Moa
• Passenger pigeon

• See also Extinct birds