A Real Loudbeak

The Corn Crake is a migratory species of rail that breeds across temperate parts of Eurasia and winters in southern Africa. When they return to their breeding grounds in the spring, male Corn Crakes call out to establish territory and to attract a mate. The call sounds like this:

This may not be the most melodious song, but it is remarkable due to the fact that it can be heard from up to a mile away and repeated more than 20,000 times a night! That's a lot of sound coming from an 11-inch tall bird. The Corn Crake (also known as Corncrake) was added to Birdorable on August 21, 2012. If you love these little loudmouths -- er, loudbeaks -- be sure to check out our collection of cute Corn Crake t-shirts and gifts!

Add Birdorable birds to your Christmas gift wrapping this year for some cute holiday cheer! Here are two fun ideas that combine our cartoon cuties with your own creativity!

Free Birdorable labels to print out and color

Print out our free downloadable PDF holiday labels. Use watercolor paint, crayons, markers, or colored pencils to color the birds. Cut out the finished birds and use tape or glue to attach them to your wrapped holiday gifts! Choose from Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, or screech owl.

Use Zazzle's tools to design your own Birdorable gift labels

Here are step-by-step instructions you can use to design personalized Birdorable gift label stickers for purchase. In this example, we'll design gift labels featuring one of our favorite birds, the Red-breasted Nuthatch. 1. Pick your bird! Visit Birdorable.com, click on Meet the Birds, and use the search box to find the Red-breasted Nuthatch species page. 2. Choose your design! Look at the Birdorable designs featuring the Red-breasted Nuthatch. For this example, we'll use Nuthatch Santa. 3. Start with a sticker! On the page featuring Nuthatch Santa apparel and gifts, find a sticker. Any sticker will do to start. Click on the square sticker to bring up the product page on Zazzle.com. 4. Customize it! Click on the orange Customize it! button to make changes to the sticker. Customization tools allow you to change things like the background color and design size and placement. The below video shows how customization works for some of these attributes.

You can make these kind of creative changes to all of our customizable stickers. So get creative and have fun! Happy holidays!

Our American friends are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, which means that the holidays are just around the corner! We'd like to highlight just a few new products, popular products, and new designs that would make perfect gifts for the bird-lover on your holiday gift list.

Gifts For Owl Lovers

There's no doubt that owls are a hot design trend this year. Cute cartoon owls are especially popular. There are a lot of pastel or brightly colored owls on the market, but here at Birdorable we pride ourselves on designing cartoon birds that are totally cute and naturally accurate - though we aren't against adding a little whimsy to our designs. Case-in-point: our most popular seller this year has been Owls are Cool, which features a Birdorable Barred Owl wearing a cool pair of shades. Have a look at all of our cute owl gifts.

For Your Holiday Gift Exchange: Shop by Price

We have improved the shop-by-price function on Birdorable.com. In the upper left corner there is a handy box which lists gift recipients and gift price ranges. If you click on one of the price range links, you can see a list of all products within that range. The new functionality allows for searching for specific products and/or birds within a price range. For example, you can search for Barn Owl t-shirts priced between $25 and $35, Christmas ornaments priced $15 to $20, or Bald Eagle gifts from $7 to $13.

Fun Ideas for Backyard Birders

If you have someone on your list who loves feeding birds, let them show off their hobby with a cute t-shirt! We've got designs for sharing Backyard Bird love plus a special design for those across the pond who feed their garden birds. If your recipient has a special favorite bird, browse through our species pages to find the perfect gift!

Think Green with Sustainable Gifts

Promote conservation at home with reuseable water bottles and cloth grocery and tote bags.

NEW! Smartphone Cases for Everyone

We have cases for iPhone 5 cases; iPhone 4 cases; iPhone 3 cases; Droid RAZR phone cases; HTC Vivid cases; Samsung Galaxy S3 cases; Samsung Galaxy S2 cases; and Blackberry cases. Some of these cases are brand new in our shop and have not been added with all of our designs so far. If there is a case you want with a certain design, let us know and we'll add it as soon as we can!

Pictured: One Day I'm Going To Be The Pope! iPhone 3 case; Philippine Eagle HTC Vivid case; Four Color Warblers Blackberry case; Puffin Prowess iPhone 4 case; Leach's Storm Petrel iPhone 5 case We've got accessories for other electronic devices, too. Check out our growing collection of iPad cases & folios; iPod Touch cases; iPad mini cases; and Kindle Keyboard cases We've also got new apparel options, plus brand new birds will be added each week right up until the end of the year. We're really gearing up for Christmas! As you prepare for the coming season, we wish you and all of our Birdorable fans tranquility, peace, and love during this season, and all throughout the year.

Bohemians on the move!

Bohemian Waxwings are on the move this winter! A poor berry crop in their northern range may be driving them outside of their usual winter haunts. Flocks have been seen around southern Lake Michigan and individuals have been reported in many northeastern states in the U.S. The birds have also been reported in the Netherlands, where they rarely make an appearance.

Bohemian Waxwings aren't the only northern birds showing up further south this winter. Evening Grosbeaks, crossbills, Red-breasted Nuthatches, redpolls and other finch species are irrupting all over. Have you had any special winter visiters at your feeders so far this season? The Bohemian Waxwing was added to Birdorable on November 13, 2012. If you love these beautiful birds, be sure to check out our fun and cute Bohemian Waxwing t-shirts and gifts!

Flash! Start!

American Redstarts are migratory warblers found across parts of North America. They winter in the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America. These little cuties are named for their tails. Wait, what?

In Old English, the word for tail was steort, or start. Though the American Redstart's tail feathers are more orange than red, we can at least understand from where the 'start' part of the name comes. There is an entire family of birds found in the Old World known as redstarts. These are flycatchers, not warblers. American Redstarts are warblers, but they feed mainly by flycatching. Confused yet? If you were an insect, you might be. American Redstarts flare their tails to flash, startle and confuse potential prey items (insects). Both males and females do this, as you can see in the below photos.

American Redstart
American Redstart [male] by Wildreturn
American Redstart (female)
American Redstart (female) by Jeremy Meyer

The American Redstart was added to Birdorable on October 18, 2012. If you can't get enough of these flashy little warblers, be sure to check out our great collection of American Redstart t-shirts and gifts!

Birdorable Leach's Storm Petrels

Leach's Storm-Petrels live a remarkably long life for being so small. A lifespan of up to 36 years is not unheard of for this pelagic (sea-dwelling) species. This is about 25 years longer than would be expected for a bird this size! Why is this? Telomeres are pieces of DNA that alleviate cell division and oxidation. Longer telomeres usually occur in younger living things; telomeres typically shorten as aging occurs. However, the telomeres in Leach's Storm Petrels appear to actually grow with age. Does this mean that Leach's Storm-Petrels are immortal? In theory, maybe. But the birds still die. Their remarkable cell structure is an interesting source of study for scientists. Leach's Storm Petrel was added to Birdorable on October 13, 2012. If you can't get enough of this cute, little, and possibly immortal pelagic bird, be sure to check out our range of Leach's Storm Petrel gifts and apparel! Further reading: