For the Birds by Russ Baird

possible data/background for a fresh Trivial Pursuit category? suggest reading with Google open

FOR THE BIRDS

​Jonathan Livingston Seagull is an inspiring bird story, for people to "get out of the box".

"Flight of the Falcon" has a tercel tour Britain discovering environmental problems.
"The Raven" features a mysterious bird at Lenore's former door.
There is a Condor movie, a German Focke-Wulf airliner called the Condor, and a song El Condor Pasa "I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail",
Of the vulture family, Grimsby had a turkey vulture mascot. Dropped, like its discharge. Quel dommage!
Captain Jack Sparrow, a pirate, has been linked with Canada's 4th Prime Minister, "John Sparrow David Thompson" 
In England girls are "birds"; many can Tweet and Twitter. The English Yardbirds, however, are male.
There is an albatross story in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. Imagine hanging one around your neck. Would that start you Puffin?
"The Birds" is a Hitchcock thriller. And "The Bird" was a singular basketball player, Larry, and his song "The Bird Bird Bird".(sung by neither The Birds, nor The Byrds")
The French air force has eagles trained to detonate drones, a very high-tech "working animal" n'est-ce pas?.
We have the ubiquitous turkey, not just at Christmas and Thanksgiving, but getting a reprieve at the White House, and appearing as storied "Turkey Lurkey".
Then too, "Chicken Little" and, in "Diet for a New America", the chapter  "Brave New Chicken", written by Robbins, another bird in human form, like  Walter Pidgeon, Jim Crow, Claudia Cardinale, Ethan Hawke, White Eagle, and Sir Christopher Wren. Vishnu's Garuda, the Phoenix, and the harpies, are demi-ornithoid. Is the bat-hawk one, or both? And Icarus? a winged man, or demi-god? What of catbirds, cowbirds, and others with such names?
Pooh had a friend, Christopher Robin
The name of Angkor Wat archaeologist Count Golubev is "dove" in Russian.
The Corbeau family would identify with Sheryl Crow and Russell Crowe. How many other languages treasure people named for birds?
Jonathan Swift gave us Gulliver's Travels.
And what bird smells the gas in mines, saving us by dropping dead? The Mynah's not a Miner, it's The Canary, namesake of islands, a colour, and a wharf.
Shah Jahan occupied The Peacock Throne of legendary jewels, My friend Al Peacock "flew the coop" a few years back, something The Birdman of Alcatraz failed to do. 
Stephen Hawking may be descended from a falconer.  Might the word "hawker" be reserved for vendors hawking in markets?
Faulkner wrote books, Nobel Prize winning,
Not-so-winning Quayle did serve as Vice-President.
Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage...(try to win)
Florence Nightingale brought us nursing in wartime, (are wars ever won?)
And o, the Martins of this world. And here I mean the surnames, of Dean and Mary and Paul. We have also Martin Van Buren, Martin Short, and Saint Martin among those with Martin as prenom. "Martins" ages 5-7,are a church girls group, especially in St Martinsville Louisiana. St Martin's Feast-Day is Remembrance Day, November 11.
Sports teams named for birds bring in some avians whose names are seldom taken up by men...the Mudhens, the Orioles, the Blue Jays. Is anyone named SeaHawk or Mighty Duck?
We do have Partridges, some Starlings, and many many Robins, even Robin sons. But a Robinet is something else...a surname, a French faucet
The Mexican flag features a snake-catching eagle. The Eagle symbolizes many countries. 
The pink flamingo is from "Pioneer Plastics City" Leominster, Mass, Birds symbolize freedom and soul travel. What about the Bird of Paradise? May it not fly up your nose
Of talking birds, there are many, male budgies, female parakeets, as well as Mynahs, parrots, cockatiels and cockatoos.
Donald Duck talks strangely, an entertainer, like Kingfisher and the Roadrunner
Some bird sounds become their names, the Whip-poor-will, the Chick-a-dee, the Kildeer, Bob White, and Phoebe, a girl's name, like Raven and Robin, I know a Swan.
Maybe, some Maggies are Magpies. Four and twenty blackbirds, were baked in a pie. Bye bye Blackbird.
Likely none were red-winged, they live over 'ere. But Red Wing shoes, we have. They come from Red Wing, Minnesota and, with skates, they are Detroit's hockey team.
Kiwi is a brand name, and anyone from New Zealand.
Bird-named movies include The Pelican Brief, the Birdcage, Bye Bye Birdie, The Thornbirds and The Cuckoo's Nest.
Could twannies be tweenie Tanagers?
Other names relate to things they do, or have done to them. To Kill a Mockingbird, Woodpecker, sapsucker, thrasher, flicker, hummingbird, and what do swallows do?
"Under glass", the Pheasant, "bearing kids", The Stork, message bearing pigeons coming home. "Parus major" inhabits Eurasia, and is called "the great tit" in England, where The Nightingale Sings in Berkeley Square. Do Nuthatches hatch nuts?
Canadian icons include The Loon, The Snowy Owl, Branta Canadensis, the Ptarmigan, The Snowbirds, hark, "The Lark Still Bravely Singing Flies"
Some big ones, Auks, Ostriches, Owls, Ospreys, Petrels, Rheas, Emus, Cormorants, Kestrels, Herons, Penguins, and Big Bird himself.
Some cars are named for birds. I had a Buick Skylark. The Tercel is a male falcon and also a Toyota. A prof of mine had the female, Falcon by Ford, in Flint
What would you call a female Michigander? A Michi-goose, of course.
Duck Duck, "enough", quoth the Raven, "Nevermore"


(swallows might swallow, or fly back to Capistrano)