List of historical and fictional birds

This is a list of famous birds, real and fictional.

Real

Individuals

• The African grey parrot Alex, who, in studies by Dr. Irene Pepperberg, demonstrated an ability to count; differentiate categories involving objects, colors, shapes, and materials; and understand the concept of same and different.
• Booming Ben, a solitary heath hen who was last seen on his traditional lekking ground between West Tisbury and today's Martha's Vineyard Airport on March 11, 1932.
• Bubi, a Eurasian eagle-owl that lives near the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. His appearance at soccer games is considered a good omen for the Finland national football team, which has taken the nickname of "Huuhkajat," the Finnish word for the species. Bubi was named Helsinki's "Resident of the Year" in 2007.
• Challenger - the first bald eagle in history trained to free fly into major sporting events during the National Anthem.^[1]
• Cher Ami, British-bred homing pigeon who, in the autumn of 1918, delivered 12 messages for the U.S. Army during World War I, among other things helping to save the Lost Battalion.
• Commando, DM,^[2] was a pigeon that carried out more than ninety missions carrying crucial intelligence during World War II for the British armed forces.
• Gertie, a mallard duck who nested on some pilings under a bridge in Milwaukee in 1945.^[3][4] She (and her brood) are immortalized in RiverSculpture!
• G.I. Joe, DM,^[2] was a member of the United States Army Pigeon Service. On 18 October 1943, the village of Calvi Vecchia, Italy was scheduled to be bombed by the Allies. He carried the message that British forces had captured the village, thus averting the attack and saving the lives of over a thousand people, both the local Italians and the British occupying troops.
• Greater the greater flamingo, the oldest flamingo on record, who died in 2014 at the Adelaide Zoo, aged at least 83.
• 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
• La Lechuza, a barn owl who lived in the Estadio Metropolitano de Barranquilla, was kicked by a football player and died from subsequent stress, believed to foresee the home team's victory when it flew over the field.
• 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.
• Nils Olav, a king penguin, mascot and colonel-in-chief of the Norwegian King's Guard.^[5]
• Pale Male a red-tailed hawk living near Central Park in New York City.^[6]
• Mr Percival an Australian pelican and notable film actor.
• Sara and Sota, a pair of ospreys who built their nest next to, and in plain view of, the local Sarasota, Florida, ABC 7 television station's "Tower Cam" weather camera and have become viewer favorites, with live shots of them in their nest appearing on the news nightly.
• Sirocco, a hand-reared kakapo, an ambassador for his species and conservation in New Zealand.

Groups

• The Capitoline geese, who warned of an imminent attack on Rome by the Gauls in 390 BC.
• The cliff swallows that return from Villa Ventana, Argentina every year to the Mission San Juan Capistrano in California on (or around) March 19.
• 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 gulls who saved the Mormon pioneers from a cricket infestation.
• The Hollywood Freeway chickens are a feral colony living under the Vineland Avenue off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles.
• The ravens of the Tower of London, whose continuing presence there is said to maintain the general safety of the kingdom.
• The feral peacocks of Memorial, Houston in the Nottingham Forest subdivision.

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, and Mrs. Ballard, along with one of her birds, appeared briefly in the Woody Allen film "Broadway Danny Rose."
• 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.
• Ava, Amy Winehouse's pet bird, whose death inspired the song "October Song" from the album "Frank" (2003). Its name is a reference to the classic Hollywood actress Ava Gardner.

Extinct species

• Archaeopteryx
• Carolina parakeet
• Dodo
• Great auk
• Labrador duck
• Moa
• Passenger pigeon
• South American terror birds

Fictional

Mythological/legendary

Biblical

• A raven and a dove sent by Noah to determine whether the land had dried sufficiently after the flood (Genesis 8).
• Ravens brought food to Elijah (1 Kings 17:4-6).^[7]

Other

• Huginn and Muninn, the Norse god Odin's pair of ravens. Huginn ("thought") and Muninn ("memory") travel the world, and bring the information they have gathered back to Odin.
• Athena's owl.^[8]

Constellations

• Apus, a bird-of-paradise
• Aquila, an eagle
• Columba, a dove
• Corvus, a crow
• Cygnus, a swan
• Grus, a crane
• Pavo, a peacock
• Phoenix, a phoenix
• Tucana, a toucan

Fictional individuals

• Archimedes, Merlin's owl in T. H. White's The Once and Future King
• Baalthazar Macaw a macaw in Robert J. Sherman's musical Love Birds
• Big Bird, from Sesame Street
• Blagden, from Christopher Paolini's book series The Inheritance Cycle.
• Captain Flint, a parrot owned by Long John Silver in Treasure Island.
• Daisy Duck
• Darkwing Duck
• Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Donald Duck
• Fawkes, a phoenix, the pet and magical familiar of Professor Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series.
• Falco Lombardi from the Star Fox video game series.
• Grip, the raven in Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens.
• Hedwig is Harry Potter's snowy owl.
• Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck
• The Little Red Hen
• Louis, the trumpeter swan from E.B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan.
• Nevermore, the eponymous bird in Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven".
• Owl, from Winnie the Pooh
• Scrooge McDuck
• Sibyl, the parrot familiar of Mrs De Passe in Bell, Book, and Candle.
• Soren, the barn owl from the book series Guardians of Ga'Hoole, and movie Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
• Tweety, the yellow canary from the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons
• The Ugly Duckling

Fictional species

• Firebird, a bird with glowing feathers. (Russia)
• Jayhawk, symbol of the University of Kansas including mascots Big Jay, Baby Jay and Centennial Jay.
• Oozlum, a bird that flies around in ever-decreasing circles. (England, Australia)
• Phoenix, a bird that self-combusts and is reborn from the ashes. (Egypt)
• Roc, a gigantic bird that feeds elephants to its young. (India)
• Simurgh, an intelligent and benevolent bird of monstrous size. (Persia)
• Thunderbird, an intelligent, but dangerous giant bird that creates storms. (North America)

See also

• Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
• List of fossil birds
• Prehistoric bird

References and notes

1. Moore, Roger (November 3, 2007). "How much can one football fanbase take?". Stillwater-newspress.com. Stillwater News Press. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
2. Awarded the Dicken Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross.
3. Gertie the Milwaukee Duck
4. Gertie the Duck: Symbol of Hope
5. "Norwegian Knight". Scandinavian Press. 15 (4). Fall 2008. p. 9.
6. Pale Male - the Central Park Red Tail Hawk
7. But see here.
8. In the film Clash of the Titans, the bird is named "Bubo," but this is anachronistic as that is merely Latin for "owl." (See here.)