You were always taught that "Bigger isn't always better" with reasons citing bigger businesses often lack the characteristics that make small businesses so lovable. For instance, the bigger businesses trash the environment to become bigger in the fastest way possible, they make chickens and kids work in sweatshops, they stop their employees from taking bathroom breaks more than once every 8 hours, they treat their customers as a non-entity whereas small businesses know each customer by their names and weekend plans. One day, you are browsing your social media feed and you see a recurring theme "Support your local mom-and-pop businesses". You figure you need to buy a board game to entertain yourself during these stay-at-home times. While you are at it, better grab some grub as well. Only from a local mom-and-pop restaurant, of course.
So, you go to the nearest locally owned game shop to give them your hard-earned cash. But they are closed. It seems the owners decided it was not worth the risk to keep their store open when everyone is a walking aerosol container. Disappointed, you think of grabbing some dinner. But no matter where you go, all the small family-owned restaurants have closed their businesses permanently citing that they were not doing enough business to sustain them. You are now at a crossroad; you really want the underdogs to succeed but you are not willing to sacrifice your comfort or your lifestyle. Also, Amazon is promising you the board game will be delivered to your home by tomorrow. You finish the evening sitting in your car with rolled up windows, eating a factory farmed cheeseburger while ordering the board game from Amazon. A tear rolls down your cheek as soon as Amazon confirms your order. You tried at least.
Birds have a lot of things to worry about. Predators, food sources, finding mates, parasites, places to crash for the night. If this was not enough, they are commonly bullied by birds larger than themselves for the best place to forage.
As a rule, in the birding world like in the world of sailing "the bigger vessel always has the right-of-way".
Here is an example of a black-necked stilt bullying the Greater Yellowlegs before being shown its place in the pecking order by the Canada Goose.
Bigger pigeons will routinely flex their muscles and intimidate neighboring pigeons if they invade their personal space. This can include charging towards them, pretending to attack them. Most of the times these bullies will get their way and the victims will fly away to avoid confrontation.
Bully 1 Victim 0.
But sometimes the victim pigeon will call the bluff of the bully pigeon. And make the bully pigeon show its cards. You can tell this pigeon bows down to no authority. By that I mean arguing with a grocery store worker for not allowing it to enter the grocery store without wearing a mask.
Bully 1 Victim 1.
Have you ever seen the eyes of a goat (no not the greatest of all time, you nerd...the animal) up close? If you have ever seen it, it is hard not to stare at its eyes like you are judging it. Unlike human pupils which are circular in shape, goats have rectangular shaped pupils as shown below.
In life you are either a prey or a predator. The goat chose to be a prey at the start of the evolution game and hence needed a way to keep an eye out for predators when it is munching away vegetation like there is no tomorrow. These rectangular shaped pupils allow them to get a wider view and detect predators before it is too late.
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