Nature is making sure we know it’s got game. Barely a few months ago, the Louisiana River was treated to the honor of a visit from a rare pink dolphin, a dolphin so pretty we were glad summer had ended and we could go back into hiding. Then, just as we thought the coast was clear, a rarely seen beautiful slug came up for air to remind us again of human imperfection and inadequacies. Animals, you may be beautiful but this isn’t a competition. Can’t you sit this one out?
“No,” cries the multicolored painted bunting, a gorgeous bird from Florida that decided to take a quick early-winter vacation to Brooklyn this month. Spotted first on Sunday by a bird-watcher walking through Prospect Park, the bewitching pretty member of the cardinal family has people “losing their shit,” Doug Gochfeld, a birding-tour leader told the New York Post.
Keir Randall, the Brooklynite who first spotted the beauty, said, “When I first tried to photograph it, I was literally shaking so much I had to calm myself down to get the shot.” Ugh, okay. We get it. This is a freaking hot bird.
