This is a big world that we live in. We discover new things all the time. And sometimes, some of the things we discover become rarer than we want them to be. There are many areas of the earth that we have not had ample time to be in. Within those spaces are creatures we might not have ever seen, or if we had, we don’t see enough of them.

One such creature is a bird called Araripe manakin, a bird native to Brazil, specifically in what is known as the Araripe Uplands. The Araripe Uplands is a land base approximately 31 miles long, and a little over a half mile wide. But within this tine space lives a bird so rare that there are believed to be only 500 pairs left. This makes the Araripe Manakin one of the rarest birds in the world, who live in such a singular space and nowhere else.

Where Every Inch Of Space Matters

The bird was discovered in 1996, and scientifically described in 1998. By 2000, there were believed to be only 50 of these beautiful birds in existence, thus creating a massive concern. The small bird was listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, which monitors and reports on the population of birds throughout the world. Relocating the bird in the hopes that it will fruitfully multiply is a struggle all by itself as it only knows the small land spread where it currently lives. Adapting to another place is a difficult agenda to undertake for the beautiful bird.

The Araripe Manakin is approximately about 6 inches in length, with a long tail. Like the Northern Cardinal, male and female Araripe Manakins differ in appearance. This makes it easy to discern how many of each sex are in the wild. The male is a colorful, predominantly white bird with a red patch that runs from the head down the back. The wings of the male are black as are their tail. The iris of the male is red in color. The female, on the other hand, is completely olive green with their upper region a pale green. The green color of the female helps to keep it camouflaged while the male can be spotted almost anywhere.

The diet of the bird is largely fruit and plant, although the females, with their camouflage-like green color, can spread their diet out and take in more than their brightly colored mates. The males simply stand out to potential predators and must be more careful. The bill of the female is much longer and better suited to fruit picking.

The bird is of special interest as it is included in the Alliance For Zero Extinction primarily because of its strong predilection for a small location. With this, if the bird loses the habitat it currently lives in, it is highly likely to become extinct.

The American Bird Conservancy has helped to purchase over 300 acres of land annexed to the Araripe National Forest. Its primary function is to become a suitable home for the rare manakin in the hopes that the bird will take it as its new habitat. To help with this, the location is filled with trees replicating the ones they accept. Everything is being done to replicate the habitat so that the Araripe Manakin can survive and thrive.

One of the more pleasant and longest-running traits of any creature, human included, is the essence of love. We’re no strangers to it in the human category, and we’ve seen more than ample evidence of it in the animal kingdom. But it becomes an even more endearing attribute when the love is vocalized and expressed in many ways. Fortunately, some exotic birds can mimic human speech. Even more, it’s becoming extremely evident that birds can communicate well with humans not only in correctly answering a question but also in expression – the expression of love. This is a story of one of those birds who have more than a cupful of love within her…she overflows with the essence.

Gabby Nikolle, along with her boyfriend, Chris, run a home-based rescue service that caters to the care of reptiles, birds, and small exotic animals. The rescue is called Florida’s Wildest Animal Rescue, which is in Broward County. With a life-long history of love for creatures, the 27-year-old owner has the intent to create the best possible scenarios for the creatures that eventually come under her responsibility. Recently, a caregiver of a cockatoo sought the help of Gabby Nikolle in the hopes that she would be able to transition the bird, who is now known as Izzy, to a more suitable situation that centered heavily on it.

Izzy The’ Too

Izzy is a 31-year-old umbrella cockatoo. From her 30 years with her previous owner, Izzy has known nothing but love. As a result, she has become quite affectionate in the way that she interacts with people. And with Izzy, one can sense the reality of her loving nature. Izzy and Gabby had an immediate bonding that was not only apparent to the original owner but also to Gabby, who decided to keep Izzy as her own.

Izzy has come to worldwide fame via a much-viewed TikTok video that showed her genuinely expressing an enormity of love for her new caregiver. After six days with her new caregiver, Izzy is seen leaning into Gabby saying, “I love you”, “Give me a kiss,” and “I love you, baby girl.” The video has, thus far, been viewed more than 270,000 times.

Izzy is undergoing a transition from what was a mostly seed diet to that with scrambled eggs, sprouts, and fresh veggies added, along with Lafeber Nutri-Berries, and Avi-Cakes. According to Gabby, Izzy has a fondness for ice cubes.

Gabby’s Florida’s Wildest Animal Rescue has a Facebook page where the animals are abundantly featured with a strong emphasis on care for the received animals. The love of animals is felt in the posts. The Rescue acquired its Non-Profit status in January of 2022 and intends to make a strong impact on the lives of the creatures it encounters.

Love is a necessity in this big old world. When it’s a bird who has known nothing but love reciprocating that love in a visible and moving way, it serves to reveal that love is an abstract but real force by which we all thread together. We’re in love with Izzy.

In times past, bird-tracking required the visual occupation of ornithologists, biologists, dedicated watchers, and enthusiasts. They reported their findings to centralized bases, and those bases accumulated and formulated appropriate data sets on the information they received. Science depended heavily on the received data to help make sense of birds of all kinds in their habitats and with their common routines that include migratory habits.

How they acquired the data depended on the technologies available at the time. But today’s technologies allow for myriad ways to track birds without the need to be visually present. These newer methods give the growing science communities a strong pathway into the continued and upgraded understanding of how our birds interact in the wild.

The factors that drive our intense interest in the birds of the world lie not only in our attraction to them. It also lies in the reality that over the last 50 years, we have seen catastrophic numbers related to the decline of the bird population worldwide. And it appears that even as science makes inward strides toward the preservation of our birds, it hasn’t been enough to help staunch the disappearance of billions of birds due to a variety of problem areas. Technology has developed at a fast rate to help us in this arena of bird preservation via means of tracking.

Radio Telemetry For The Birds

One such technology is automated radio telemetry, which uses miniaturized transmitters on nanotags that are received by arrays on the ground. The biggest problem with this kind of detection is that it can often be isolated and not be acquired by the many in need of the invaluable data captured. The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is a collaborative network that was developed to ensure that all accumulated data made it to all interested parties to create simultaneous research projects with results and more data that are shareable worldwide.

Essentially, all acquired data is channeled to a centralized base where researchers can access and use real-time data. And it works not only on birds. It also works with bats and insects. The results are heavily detailed; highly informative and revealing to interested parties. One such viewable application is found on the Audubon Bird Migration Explorer, a database that visually details the pathways of 450 birds as they migrate. At the site, you can hover your mouse pointer over the colorful map and get amazingly detailed information on each bird selected including an animated migration display that shows migration over time periods. You can select data displays that present more or less data as you see fit to take in.

With new technologies being developed almost daily, we’re getting to a place of understanding that we’ve never been to before. We have discovered previously unknown behaviors by migrating birds. We have found other informative data that show deviations from the normal patterns. Eventually, we may come to more fully understand the movement and needs of all birds, bats, and other creatures as they make their way around the world in the various ways that they do.

We are supportive of the new techs that allow us insight into our precious birds, their movements, their familial connections, and their habitat requirements and adaptations.

In a time of bird counts, organized conservation efforts, and worldwide appreciation of the creatures in our spheres, we find a genuine interest in how we plan to end up in the long term. As a result of that care and interest, there are many ways for us to attempt that care. But care, as we all know, isn’t free. In a world imbued with the concept of exchanges, it takes money to support efforts to help our birds. As their populations decline throughout the world, a science of count and acquisition of monies are often combined in smartly organized efforts. One that takes place is referred to as the Twitchathon. With this, a challenging race to be the one with the most sightings help with a collection of funds and donations to further conservation efforts.

The National Twitchathon is an Australian annual event with a celebrated almost 30-year history. It’s an event where people gather in teams for a main 30-hour race to see and hear as many birds in the Australian bush as possible. In the past, the race was a full 24-hour event but due to “pushing to the brink” exhaustion, a recently instituted rule (2017) insists that a 6-hour resting period be implemented. This still provides for a full 24-hour period of bird-hunting for the participant teams in the race.

A Friendly Competition

Teams are formed and routes are meticulously planned with the hopes of gaining ground on sightings. The categories include Big Weekend (which houses the full 30-hour race), the Champagne Race, which is completed in a 12-hour setting, and a 3-hour Birdathon. For 2022, the highly anticipated race by sporting birders began on October 29^th and concluded on October 30^th. The 30-hour Big Weekend is referred to by one participant as “a mega-twitch for the crazy and dedicated”.

There are records to be broken, of course. For the previous 24-hour Big Weekend race, the record is 252 sightings. For the new 30-hour race, a prized increase with 264 species sits in the record books. The intense race involves driving to locations, and on-foot pursuits to probable sweet spots. The results are turned in on the honor system but to qualify for any sighting, more than 50% of a team must agree that a particular bird was actually sighted or heard.

Each year, it is determined which species should get the acquired funding. For 2022, it is the rare Gang Gang cockatoo, which found its population decimated by the 2019/2020 bushfires. The tragedy of the fire took the beautiful black and red cockatoo from a category of least concern to one that is on the endangered list. The hope for 2022 is to raise $30,000 for the Gang Gang Cockatoo conservation effort.

The main event is preceded by an annual Aussie Backyard Bird Count. Started in 2014, this preceding event helps to fill in gaps in acquired data. Plus, it helps to build the excitement for the upcoming Twitchathon. Prizes are doled out for a variety of achievements that include highest count, and highest fundraising, giving prizes for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place spots.

Keep your eye out for the 2023 event that occurs in October.

Halloween is just around the corner, so let’s scare up some fun with a look at birds people might find downright scary, and/or birds that naturally sport a spooky style.

The Shoebill Stork

There’s no doubt that the shoebill stork (Balaeniceps rex) can strike an intimidating stare. Throw in its massive size (between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 feet in height!), and this long-legged bird that inhabits the large swamps between South Sudan to Zambia can certainly give one a fright. Add to this the fact that the shoebill has a tendency to stay perfectly still for long stretches at a time, making it seem almost statue-like. Imagine this bird staring you down in a swampy marsh at sundown!

Good thing you’re not on the shoebill’s menu. Shoebills prefer lungfish, tilapia, catfish, and other aquatic prey. This bird’s hunting style is to perch on floating vegetation, then it patiently and slowly wades in the water to stalk its prey before launching a quick and violent strike.

If the shoebill’s intimidating stare and creepy way of hunting its prey aren’t scary enough for you, its vocalization might send you ducking for cover.  The shoebill’s greeting sounds like machine-gun fire!

But is the shoebill a bird to fear? Thankfully, shoebills are docile with humans and show no threatening behavior.

The Bleeding Heart Dove

When you see a bleeding heart dove, your first thought might be, “Poor thing!” Yes, this bird looks like it took a bullet to the chest, with a prominent red circle of feathers featured squarely in the middle of its front side. But before you make a move to render aid, know that this is simply part of the bleeding heart dove’s look—blood-splattered-looking feathers offset with white feathers on the chest area. It’s a dramatic look for sure, and one that makes for nature’s perfect Halloween costume.

This bird is native to the island of Luzon in the Philippines.  Officially called the Luzon bleeding heart dove (Gallicoluma luzonica), it is also known as paloma de punalada, which is “stabbed pigeon” in the Tagalog language. From the look of things, it’s no wonder this bird is described as shy and secretive; imagine running around looking like the walking wounded…scary!

Egyptian Goose

You might be used to the site of Canada geese foraging on the park grass near your home, but did they turn into zombies overnight? Rest assured, there’s no zombie apocalypse in your town and, in fact, those reddish-eyed creatures are not Canada geese. You are looking at Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus). And to make their appearance all the more noteworthy, their yellowish to gray bellies sport dark patches of reddish-brown feathers that give them a wounded look, although not as dramatic as that of the Luzon bleeding heart dove. Best to let these birds be, especially during breeding season. Both sexes can be territorial, even with their own species. They aren’t afraid to resort to aerial dogfights either—there are even reports of them taking on drones.

The Dracula Parrot

Finally, we come to perhaps the scariest-sounding bird of them all—a goth-looking parrot nonetheless. The Dracula parrot, also known as Pesquet’s parrot (Psittrichas fulgidus), is found only in the cloud forests in the foothills and lower mountains of New Guinea. This parrot is unique in that it has a parrot body and a vulture-like head. Its featherless head is said to serve a similar function to that of a vulture. Like a vulture, this parrot also digs head-first into its food. But it’s not a carcass like a vulture’s meal of choice—it’s an adaption to avoid feather-matting from sticky fruits. These birds are frugivores, and their diet is composed almost entirely of a few species of figs. That should help you sleep at night—this parrot will not come to suck your blood, but maybe your figs if you’re local to its native region.

We have learned in so many ways the importance of the cleanliness of bird feeders. The hobby of being able to watch birds of many feathers and colors show up in backyards has proliferated over the last 20 years. There are backyards across the world with elaborate setups that are expressly designed to attract a wide range of birds to their locations. That’s a beautiful thing. But as beautiful as it is, there are dangers to the birds themselves. With the attraction of many birds to even a singular bird feeder, their congregation brings each of them quite close to a life-threatening illness. And as they fly and gather between feeders, infected birds can transmit their illnesses to healthy birds. That, of course, invites the spread of illness even further.

Recently, a Fresno State biology professor, Dr. Tricia Van Laar, discovered a dead

in her backyard. She retrieved the bird and ran tests to discover the cause of death. It was determined that the bird had salmonella, a bacteria that can infect both the avian species and humans at alarming rates. Dr. Van Laar enlisted the aid of fellow California State University Fresno professor Dr. Joel Slade to help study the rapid spread of salmonella in birds. Their studies will bring in three Fresno State biology students, who will help gather data, perform labs, work in the field, and help to write up the findings and present them at conference settings.

Tracking Salmonella In Urban Settings

The research will look closely at how the bacterial scourge of salmonella spreads in urbanized settings, as well as the birds’ abilities to fight off the onslaught of the illness when it is first introduced into their system. This research has far-reaching advantages as it will help scientists gain a foothold on how to better protect our beautiful birds in the wild against bacterial disease. The studies will be undertaken with monitored, on-site bird-feeding stations at both Fresno State and the San Joaquin Experimental Range (a research station that originated in 1934 to help researchers on many projects that are dependent on a healthy ecosystem).

The study, which is being funded by the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB), will study the differences in urban and rural house finches to determine the effects of the urban setting on infections and immunity in urban-living wildlife. Apparently, rural finches fight salmonella better than urbanized finches. This will, no doubt, lead to more intensive work and other studies as this study uncovers answers among frightening discoveries. The hope is that the answers will help to alleviate the spread of infection, if not help to eradicate it altogether. In a deeper reality, the study also hopes to discover immune genes in the birds in both settings to help to understand how those genes work overall.

Clean Feeders For Healthy Birds

As a precautionary aspect of the core basis for this important study, it cannot be stated often enough that everyone always keep their feeders as clean as possible. The CDC recommends monthly cleaning of wild-bird feeders, although it might be argued that more frequent cleanings, perhaps weekly, might go further in saving birds in all settings. Bleaching is recommended as the cleaning agent, with thorough rinsing afterward to remove all the bleach. Most important of all, if you are made aware of a local outbreak of disease/infections affecting birds, you should remove your feeder immediately to help lessen the spread.

We are appreciative of the ongoing work of all scientific communities in their tireless efforts to improve the health of our beautiful birds in the wild.

When children grow, naturally their linguistic skills improve as they learn. They learn by the sounds they hear around them. They especially learn by repeating what their parents say as well as that of the influential people around them. All the vocalizing animals of the world might do the same thing as we know human toddlers do — babble in imitation of what they see and hear around them. In a recent scientific study, a team discovered that parrot chicks babble in the nest while they learn the calls and vocalizations that surround them and are important for them to know.

The team of scientists involved in this study was stationed in Venezuela at the Masagural Biological Station. Using the station’s long-run study involving around 10,000 green-rumped parrotlets, they had a ready-made stage for their interest. The birds were already using nesting cavities specially designed to help the parrots create private nesting areas. The new science team used audio-visual installations within the cavities to listen to and watch the birds. It was determined that the male and female chicks quietly “babbled” while alone in a seeming attempt to produce meaningful language. The study also mentions that babbling among songbirds occurs only in males, while this group of babblers occurred in both sexes.

Babble As Practice Calls

The team also discovered that the parrotlet chicks in the study group began to babble incessantly about 20 days after hatching. They slowly reduced babbling afterward as they began to learn the usable language and sounds of their parents and using those learned language parts more. Eventually, the chicks learned proper alarm sounds as well as the proper vocalizations for food requests, and the many other distinct sounds that signify something of importance.

The most important part of this study, while it helps us to understand more about how parrots and other birds learn and develop their shared language, is how it closely mimics that of the human child in learning language and its use. This is important for other ongoing studies in the human child as they learn to speak properly, selecting words and sounds that deliver a satisfying or otherwise productive response. It’s found that stress hormones are produced by the child’s endocrine system around the time they begin to babble. These attempts to communicate with their surroundings and their parents are essential to survival. They are a request for the things necessary for survival in what likely feels like a threatening world.

A Study Of Baby Parrot Babble

The team studying the parrotlets supplied the birds with a minute amount of a stress hormone (corticosterone) and found that the birds increased their babble. Chicks that did not receive the hormone babbled significantly less. The conclusion was that measured introduction of stress hormones at an earlier age than typical babbling begins has a strong effect on brain development in a parrotlet chick. Other, more direct, kinds of study areas are undertaken within the scope of this study to help determine further development of the brain.

There’s much we still do not know of child development in every species, whether that be human or animal, or even insects. But as we begin to isolate the behavior of every living creature into practical and archived knowledge, we consistently learn how to improve on effective development as we grow. This important study is but one area. Science is working to expand that further.

You can read the abstract from that study about vocal babbling in a wild parrot at the Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences website.

Some of us have spent a large part of our lives enjoying birds in the wild in a practice branded as birding. It’s fun to watch for certain kinds of birds, to photograph them, to watch their daily interaction, or simply to have the comfort of birds attracted to a location. While birding is an all-encompassing term to identify a hobby, there are specifics that we tend to not recognize as a niche component of birding. One of them is a hobby referred to as earbirding.

Earbirding, or birding by ear, is a practice whereby bird lovers work hard to recognize the sound of a specific species without sighting the bird itself. This is often a secondary level to avid birders who have seen all the birds they want and can easily identify them by sight. This new challenge is a more complex one. It requires extreme attentive behavior and extraordinary learning processes to be able to identify a bird specifically — and only — by sound.

Earbirding Deciphers An Earful Of Birdsong

The art of birdsong and sound is a maturing process in a birder’s life as they learn to identify what the different sounds produced by a single bird might actually mean. They can tell if a bird’s whistle is calm or concerned. They can identify the mating sounds. Basically, any sound a bird can make for whatever reasons they vocalize them can be understood by the seasoned earbirder. Birds themselves are often mimics and can replicate sounds of others. True earbirders can effortlessly differentiate between the real bird and the mimic just by listening.

Female birds and male birds aren’t just different by their gender and sometimes visual appearance, they often sing differently. Of course, this adds to the complexity of identifying birds by sound. Is it a male cardinal or a female cardinal? Who sings more frequently? Do males make a unique sound that females do not? Ask an experienced earbirder, I’m betting you’ll get an earful of information.

Learning The Art Of Earbirding

As in any market, there are books and recordings, and websites that cater to this level of birding. One of the premier books on the sounds of birds is the Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds. The guide is sold in two volumes that explore the sounds in either Eastern North America or Western North America. Compiled by Nathan Pieplow, the books detail sounds of over 500 North American birds, provides spectrograms (for the truly discriminating and intense participant in earbirding), and offers access to recorded audio on the publisher’s website.

Amazingly, there are downloadable phone apps that can record the sound of an unfamiliar bird and provide a true spectrogram. The spectrogram can then be looked up (one source is the previously mentioned Peterson Field Guide) and matched to known spectrograms from any bird. Instant knowledge! Both iPhones and Android-based phones have access to these apps. Even Alexa (the Amazon hardware tech assistant) can identify more than 2,000 bird sounds just by asking. The sounds are pulled from the rich Audubon library by Alexa and replayed for you.

As with regular birding, there are clubs and collectives that gather to discuss the intricacies of bird sounds exclusive of sighting. Many birding clubs offer classes and prepared talks about this specific method of birding.

Birding in any form of enjoyment is a calming experience and a fun hobby. The internet is a rich place to discover all methods, providing information on how to improve in every area.

We’ve all seen it: parrots and other exotic birds using their beak to move around. Nothing unusual, right? A bird being a bird. But apparently, it IS a big deal. The interest in this maneuver is the use of the beak as a “limb.” Something that becomes odd simply because science says that, to date, no creature — human or otherwise — has an odd number of limbs. With the results of a recent study, the New York Institute of Technology of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) has come to the realization that our parrots do absolutely use their beak as a “propulsive third limb.”

Parrot Beak Recognized As Third Limb

Before this study, it was just assumed that birds used their beak as a means for stabilization and grasping support while they moved about. They cannot use their wings to grasp and so are dependent on their beaks to do that work for them. But with new studies on locomotive behavior for our feathered pals, it’s determined that the head of a parrot does indeed assist to support, propel, and to power by tripedal locomotion.

For this study, six peach-faced lovebirds (also referred to as rosy-faced lovebirds) were used as test subjects. The surprising discovery was that the birds do employ their beaks as a third limb, generating the same force of power that a human or primate forearm would generate in climbing and pulling themselves up. This gives truth to the reality that a parrot’s neck is incredibly strong and is biomechanically designed to be a third limb.

Proving Parrots Use Beak As Third Limb

To actualize this study, two separate tests were performed with the six lovebirds. They were free of any malformations that might have encouraged the bird to adapt, to acquire usable data. High-speed cameras were mounted, and flat runways were constructed. The runways were designed to rotate to create several angles of ascent (0.0֯, 22.5֯, 45.0֯, 67.5֯, 90.0֯). As the birds were video-captured running at their own speed across the rotating runway, repeated data was rich enough to extract regarding the use of beak, tail, and wing during the experiment. Other more complex testing was undertaken as well to balance the study and to help solidify the results.

In the initial run experiments, it was easy to see that the parrots began to use their beaks at the 45֯ angle. By the 90֯ angle, the parrots’ beaks were generating the previously mentioned forces of a limb. It was also determined that the birds’ tails produced minimal forces to help the parrot ascend. One of the assumptions pulled from this set of experiments shows that the parrots have likely evolved over time to help them develop these unique climbing forces. As a study conclusion, it is realized that parrots are the only birds known to use the head as a third limb. And the only creature known to do so — period.

This rare locomotive study on parrots will continue for several more years to try to understand how this unusual propulsive behavior is undertaken by the parrots on a muscular and anatomical level.

The new study was published May 18 in the prestigious journal of Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The quest was studied and written up by Melody W. Young, Edward Dickinson, Nicholas D. Flaim, and by Michael Granatosky, a Ph.D, who is an assistant Professor of Anatomy.

Birds are just as capable of providing emotional support to people as dogs and cats do. In some respects, and with the proper training, birds as emotional support creatures can add to the quality of life significantly. Sometimes it’s just a bird’s ability to mimic a human voice that can comfort someone with anxieties that may preclude people from public interaction. We enjoy putting a spotlight on owners and the unique ways that their bird pals contribute to their lives, and perhaps the lives of others.

Meet Bridget and her parakeet friend, Hamlet. Hamlet is a beautiful blue Indian ring-necked parakeet that has picked up a few words and phrases along the way. The then 8-week-old Hamlet was acquired when Bridget was in college in Australia to keep her company. The parakeet provided someone to take care of during her college years. This took her mind off her troublesome anxieties. With anxieties a part of her emotional makeup, Hamlet immediately began to help Bridget find a level of calm and peace.

Hamlet The Indian Ring-Necked Parakeet Takes Over TikTok

Hamlet is now a medium-sized, energetic parakeet. For the last four years, he kept Bridget amused and occupied. He was named after the Shakespeare character, because Bridget has a background in theater and acting. On the arrival of the pandemic, Bridget decided to video Hamlet’s outward personality displayed in his antics and the cute phrases that he uses. One of those is “What doing?” He frequently uses this phrase. After a few video posts to the popular short video website TikTok, Bridget discovered quickly that not only was Hamlet helping her, but he was also helping hundreds of thousands in the metaverse as well.

Soon enough, Bridget’s TikTok account was burgeoning with followers. Today, her popular TikTok account is numbered a whopping 4.1 million engaged followers. They watch every video posted with Hamlet involved. And it seems that Hamlet is plugged in on the party line. It’s evident that he is a willing participant in the videos. It appears as if he knows that a camera means showtime.

Bridget originally intended for the TikTok videos to be a joy for others to watch. She didn’t expect the explosive popularity that Hamlet is getting.

Hamlet Brings Joy

Bridget began to receive a large inflow of messages from followers that have depression. They let her know that each video was a source of happiness. The videos provide many with a bad moment the ability to smile and to feel good. Parents with children that have communicative disorders have also written to Bridget to express profound thanks that Hamlet had brightened the day of a child.

Hamlet’s website sells talking, plushie replications of himself, creatively designed “What Doing?” mugs, tees, and even a hoodie. Check out his TikTok page, with its many videos, most with 400,000 likes.

We love Hamlet and his vibrant personality. We wish the best for Hamlet and Bridget, and for their many followers.