All floofed up

What the floof is a borb? The Urban Dictionary defined floof as "an adjective used to describe a ridiculously fluffy object or an animal."

The entry said the word is derived from fluff and usually refers to a long-haired cat or an equally hairy dog.

An article posted March 10, 2020, on www.audubon.org by Audubon Magazine reporter Asher Elbein, mentioned that the term could also refer to birds.
The posting titled "What’s the Difference Between a ‘Borb’ and a ‘Floof’?" provided some insight on the issue.

Elbein wrote, "Consider then the borb. Urban Dictionary provides the canonical definition: a fat bird. This perceived fatness isn’t incidental to their appeal but central to it: ... the borb is roundness. Their plush, planetary shapes exert a gravitational pull on our hearts and minds."

Elbein went on to describe the differences in the terms.

"Interestingly, a floof is not necessarily always a bird. The word refers to any abundantly fluffy creature. In mammals, floofiness is largely a passive attribute, but birds engage in it as a matter of behavior," the reporter posted.

"It's also important to remember that a borb can also be a floof, as the latter only requires the fluffing of feathers," Elbein penned.

Frigid temps over the past winter season brought out the floof and created some borbs.

All the floofiness had me wondering about just how birds deal with the cold weather.

An article posted at www.audubon.org titled "How Do Birds Cope With Cold in Winter," provided some clues.

​"Like us, birds are warm blooded, which means their bodies maintain a constant temperature, often around 106 degrees Fahrenheit," the article explained.

"Cardinals, impossible to miss against the snow, and other smaller birds puff up into the shape of a little round beach ball to minimize heat loss," the post continued.

The post explained that shivering is actually not a bad sign in birds "Birds shiver by activating opposing muscle groups, creating muscle contractions without all of the jiggling typical when humans shiver. This form of shaking is better at retaining the bird's heat," the article said.

The post went on to state that "some birds save energy by allowing their internal thermostat to drop."
" ... Black-capped chickadees and other species undergo a more moderate version of this, reducing their body temperature as much as 22 degrees Fahrenheit from their daytime level in a process called regulated hypothermia," the article explained.

Meanwhile, the Bartramian Audubon Society posted results from its Christmas Bird Count in December.
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"The Pleasantville count found the lowest number of species since 2014, but the second highest tally of individuals.  Highest ever numbers were recorded for bald eagle, common raven (pictured), Carolina wren, cedar waxwing, white-throated sparrow, hermit thrush, and gray catbird," said a post on the society's Facebook page.  

Over on the Seneca Rocks Audubon Society's website, longtime birder Gary Edwards' list of spring arrival dates reminded me that despite the weather there were still birds on the move. I had seen an increase in robins over the past few weeks. I also heard the "peent" of an American woodcock and had some red-winged blackbirds at the feeder.

What kind of weather these returning birds will face changes every day. They may have to floof up and become borbish in order to deal with the cold. That's just the nature of things 'round here.