Randy’s Guide to Birds
Purplebird
Varieties:
Minnesota Turf-toe, Welch’s Grapebird, Barneybird, Purple Dodo, Prince Rogers Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Scientific name:
Purplibus unum
Field marks:
EXTINCT
Song:
None (well, duh!)
Fun facts:
- The last Purplebird pair of record in the United States was observed roosting in the hat of a woman riding in a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park in New York City in May of 1887.
- A celebrated naturalist and early ornithologist, studying one of the last viable colonies of Purplebirds near Cape May, New Jersey in the spring of 1881 recorded that each morning while doing fieldwork he enjoyed an omelette made from goat cheese, tomatoes, onions, and three Purplebird eggs. “Delicious,” he wrote. We will have to take his word for it.
