Laughing Bird
(Sitta canadensis, red-breasted nuthatch)

We hear him up there in the pines, cackling at a secret joke with a pal or two. What is so funny, that this tiny tree-hyena is in stitches? Perhaps he knows that there are birders nearby, birders with decent cameras who would love to catch even a fleeting snapshot of him. But Laughing Bird is small and fast, a blue-orange blur, and he knows that anyone with a camera capable of capturing him is camped out by the lake looking for migrating shorebirds. His is the laugh of the carefree, the jester, who has let you in on a private joke even though no one will ever find it as funny as he does.

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