Whilst cleaning my home the other day I had an insight. (Yeah, I was glad too, it had been a while). Perhaps it was not so much an insight but a prediction or even a theory. I think I came up with this because I have a newfound appreciation of birds since talking to Museum Victoria staff about the world of birds.

My theory is that people have at least three effigies of birds in their homes. Don’t believe me? Well ... check the bathroom ... do you own a rubber duckie? How about decorative birds in the lounge room? (e.g. the retro-classic of three ceramic birds in flight.) Look in the garden: maybe you have a rooster wind vane, some terracotta geese, or those crazy wooden birds whose wings spin around in the wind? Safari into the kitchen (too easy) and check the oven mitts and tea towels.

I bet that someone in your household has depictions of feathered friends on their pyjamas. I have sleepy penguins on mine. Even my laundry cleaner is a toilet duck!

Got to fly

Dr Andi

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Visitors marvelling at the Elephant bird skeleton and egg.| Eggs in the specimen lab.| Rory with his bird preparations.

Show notes

Museum Victoria Resources

The Satin Bowerbird (the male is the collector of blue things)
Information on birds and bird watching
Great Elephant bird egg
DNA and the modern museum

More information

My new cubicle buddy Tracey Ann Hooley is a curator  and blogger for the new science and life project , plus she is a bird nut. I have noticed she subscribes to a magazine called Wingspan.

Glossary

Pleistocene glaciation – Pleistocene is an epoch 1.8 million to 10,000 years before the present and this term refers to the recent period of repeated glaciations (also known as the current ice age).

Credits

Voices

Mr Paul Cabras, Customer Service Officer
Mr Rory O’ Brien, Assistant Collections Manager, Ornithology & Mammalogy, Sciences
Dr Janette Norman, Senior Curator Molecular Biology, Sciences

Technical

Mr Archie Cuthbertson - Podcast Recording Services