10/11/2026
Just a reminder that we live in a world where a bird the weight of a penny can fly backwards, Doves make milk, and some Squirrels are running a con.
Nature is so much stranger and more wonderful than we give it credit for, and many of these animals may be in your own backyard right now. Here is the story behind each one.
Hummingbirds are the only birds that can sustain true backward flight. Their wings rotate at the shoulder and move in a figure-eight pattern, producing lift on both the upstroke and the downstroke. That is how they hover at a flower, back away, and dart sideways in a split second.
Mourning Doves feed their newly hatched chicks something called crop milk. Both parents produce it from the lining of their crop, and it is packed with protein and fat. Pigeons and Doves share this ability, which is remarkably rare among birds. After the first several days, the parents gradually switch the babies over to seeds.
Blue Jays are gifted mimics, and they are especially fond of imitating Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, nobody knows for certain why they do it. It may warn other Jays that a Hawk is nearby, or it may simply scare other birds away from a good food source. Either way, if you hear a Hawk screaming from a treetop and then see a Blue Jay fly out, you have been fooled.
Cardinals practice something called courtship feeding. In spring, the male picks up a seed and passes it beak to beak to the female. It helps strengthen their pair bond, and he often continues bringing her food while she sits on the nest.
Fireflies are not flies at all. They are Beetles, and their glow is a chemical reaction so efficient that it produces almost no heat. Most of their life is actually spent as larvae in moist soil and leaf litter, where they hunt Slugs and Snails. Leaving some leaves on your garden beds, cutting back on outdoor lighting at night, and avoiding broad pesticide use are some of the simplest ways to keep them around.
Squirrels have been observed faking it. In a study led by Michael Steele at Wilkes University, Gray Squirrels that knew they were being watched would dig a hole, pretend to drop a nut in, and cover it up, all while keeping the real nut hidden. The nuts they bury and forget are responsible for planting countless oaks and other trees.
Cottontail mothers dig a shallow nest and line it with grass and fur pulled from their own bodies. Here is the part that surprises most people: the mother only visits a couple of times a day, usually around dawn and dusk, to avoid leading predators to her babies. A nest with no adult in sight is almost always not abandoned, so leave it alone.
Opossum mothers carry their young on their backs once the babies outgrow the pouch. As North America's only marsupial, Opossums give birth to babies about the size of a Honeybee, which then crawl into the pouch to keep developing. You may have heard that Opossums eat thousands of Ticks each season. That popular claim came from a lab estimate, and later research looking at what wild Opossums actually eat found Ticks make up only a small part of their diet. They are still fantastic backyard cleanup crews, eating Insects, Slugs, Snails, and fallen fruit.
Box Turtles can live for decades, often 50 years or more, with some documented past 100. They also spend their entire lives in a surprisingly small home range. If you find one crossing a road, move it to the side it was heading toward. Never relocate one to a "better" spot, because it will spend the rest of its life trying to find its way home.
The more you learn about the animals around you, the harder it becomes to see a yard as just a lawn. It is a nursery, a pantry, and a home for creatures doing some truly extraordinary things 💚
