All of these birds – none weighing more than an ounce, and the smallest of them, the goldcrest, barely tipping the scales against a 10p piece – have a crisp, spruce look; their colours might be new-applied by a fine paintbrush, their songs are jaunty tintinnabulations, even their movements from twig to twig have a ticking clockwork quality.
In another recent study, using the same monoclonal antibody, it was reported that kidney and spleen were more often positive than brain and skin in infected birds; however, none of the tissues could consistently identify a positive bird and the authors did not recommend the use of this monoclonal antibody for immunohistochemical WNV surveillance [ 28].
The one thing twitching doesn't seem to be about is the birds themselves – none of the twitchers show any affection, or even interest in the creatures they go to such lengths to spot.
By contrast, there are about 300,000 cats in the city, and an unknown number of pet birds, and none of them is licensed.
Steven Ingraham, author of the blog "Cloudy Days and Netbook Nights" and a former editor of birding publications, said none of the top birding apps offered a way to log random notes.
I finally managed to shoot a pheasant, a plump, stocked bird that had none of the guile of a wild woodcock.
We've tried all the usual solutions - earplugs, changing rooms, consoling ourselves with increasingly bloodthirsty Wile E Coyote fantasies of how to stop the bird - but none of it works.
Indeed Oahu, down to the heart of Honolulu, is bustling with bird life, just none of it is native.
And don't forget the insects They're aren't as photogenic as birds, but without insects none of your fruit trees will be pollinated and the birds will have nothing to feed on.
It does, however, produce flowers, insects and ground-nesting birds in abundance, but none of these are money spinners in a traditional sense.
