I love birds. They are prehistoric, loving lizard flying machines that can talk. And they are very fluffy. I started 'Bird Of The Day' because I absolutely adore birds and find them to be amazing creatures. I generally find photos by searching the internets. I think up a species of Bird that I would like to feature and try to find the most intriguing photo. Viola! Bird Of The Day.

I've been a bird lover since I was a child. I fell in love when I was 6 with a green Parakeet named Emily that later turned out to be a he, but I still called him Emily. Emily soon had a blue Parakeet companion named Rew. Apparently, two birds weren't enough, and a canary named Uno joined the flock. All three of these birds lived in my bedroom until I was a teenager. I followed with further bird-capades. When I was 15, a hoot owl fell out of a tree. A neighbor brought it over and let me wean it back to health. But, the Owl consumed too much hamburger meat, so my Dad made me take it to a local bird rescue group. I cried. For as long as I can remember, I've always had bird companions. In college, I had a pet Cinnamon Cockatiel named Aunt Agnes. She became infamous around campus for eating spaghetti off of folk's plates. When I moved away from college, a friend adopted Aunt Agnes.

When I first moved to NYC, I was penniless and birdless. But not for long. I was walking down 2nd Avenue during the winter and passed a peeping fluff ball. Turns out the peeping fluff ball was a baby pigeon. I rescued the pigeon and kept him through the winter. His name was Bob and he was very tame. He once escaped out of his coop during the night and climbed in bed with me. Most of my friends, upon visiting my previous apartment, were horrified to see I had a pet pigeon. After I rehabilitated him, he was re-released by a local birding group.

Currently, I have two pet birds: Colonel Mustard (Yellow Ringneck Parakeet) and Hoopty (Green and Yellow Parakeet).

Carla Rhodes.