Birds of the same feather

The few trips I've made to zoos, I was never particularly interested in the birds.

The elephants were intriguing, the gorillas were amusing, the tigers -- because of their size, shiny coats and fierce reputation -- were fascinating. The baby orangutan I saw once was cute.

The birds were...birds. I didn't see anything particularly exciting about them.

Now I come across the website of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and see pictures of exotic-looking fowl. And there are guided trips to urban birding sites. I didn't even know there were such places in Manila. Anyway, for those interested, you can simply check out the site. Bird-watching could be yet another off-the-beaten-track weekend activity one of these days.

By the way, the bird in the photo up there -- taken from the group's site -- is a Greater Painted Snipe, one of the hundreds of species that can be found in the Philippines (according to the Papemelroti Planet Patrol, our country boasts of over 500 kinds of birds, with 168 of those residing only in the Philippines).