urban birds

March 12, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 3 min read
March 12, 2026
Bird of the Day: rock pigeon. "Am I here to amuse you?"

Where: District of Columbia, Constitution Ave to Smithsonian Metro stop

When: 5:15pm

Bird Species: European starling, American robin, common grackle, house sparrow, rock pigeon, brown-headed cowbird

Things I Thought About:

  • When I left for the office at 7am it was 66 degrees and when I came up out of the metro it was windy and 45. Then it snowed?? Extremely normal weather! Now it’s sunny and just about perfect for a walk.
  • Washington DC is very pretty.
  • The National Museum of African American History and Culture is such an amazing building. I kind of wish it was darker; it looks incredible when the lights are on inside and it’s night. There’s no other building like it.
  • Okay, I am sure he lives here, and probably a common sight, but as a girl of the South there is almost nothing more unsettling to me than seeing a possum in the daylight. I do not care for this at all.
go to the Smithsonian mammal house at the ZOO, you little creep
  • More starlings, and robins. Boring. I guess the Mall would be the place to see any other birds around here. I think I like how my new office is situated. You can walk quite a ways without getting bored and without having to backtrack for a train station. And when there is another hour or so of daylight, I won't mind traveling to hot spots, either,
  • Oh! Okay then!

About four blocks from the office.

  • At the moment I see two birds in the Urban Bird Habitat, and they are both American robins. I hope I see more tonight than American robins, which I have featured more than Garry Marshall featured Hector Elizondo.
  • I can’t remember the last time I saw a brown-headed cowbird, but it was in the summer, for sure. 
  • I hate how shitty the Mall looks right now, but it is such a nice place. When these trees bloom I imagine it will be unbearably crowded on the walks, with all these sections of turf closed off.
  • All the shiny birds are out! Many starlings, a lot of which still have their polka dots, and a lot of grackles. I could watch grackles play forever. They are such a cool bird, and they have so much variety in their iridescence. Some are teal, some royal blue, some deep purple, and they are all out here eating our national garbage, like patriots.
we are all eating the national garbage lately, amirite
"Bitch, let me eat my dorito without getting angst on it"
  • Are you fucking kidding me.
  • I am starting to believe I have summoning powers. This happens to me all the time.
That right there, as you likely have guessed, is the aptly named brown-headed cowbird.
  • I can’t remember the last time I saw $85,000 in cash.

BOTD: the rock pigeon. Maybe controversial, but pigeons are very PRETTY. And they might make YOU sick, but they are personally obsessively clean birds. Also, this.

All the birds on the mall at sunset were the iridescent ones. Even the cowbird has colors showing in its glossy black body. The rock pigeon's green around the neck shimmers. A camera cannot capture how cool the grackles look, and how the colors shift when they land somewhere new. They are absolutely mesmerizing.

I am very much adjusting to being in an office and being "on" all day. I told friends this evening while I think things are going very well, I feel like I haven't really been myself for one minute yet. Staring at grackles and saying "are you kidding me" out loud to a cowbird felt exactly like me.

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