Hi all,

I definitely have a serious liking of wrens as well, they just seem like
an impossibly huge amount of life and energy got crammed into a tiny
little frame, and sort of comes exploding out whenever they sing.

I have to confess to having a very strong liking for birds that take a lot
of concentration, time, and patience to see, so basically anything shy or
skulky. My absolute favorite moment in birding have been watching an
American Bittern no more than 10 feet away doing full display and booming
song, and then quietly vanish right before my eyes, melting into the
cattails. That said, anything along those lines get me fired up;
bitterns, rails, tinamous, quails, pheasants, nightjars, owls, and the
endless varieties of secretive passerines. I think my ideal bird is
probably something like a Kiwi, kind of an odd choice, but they seem
otherworldly to me.

-Chris Duke
dukec at cc.wwu.edu
Bellingham, WA