Thanks to this article my WOTD is: allopreening - The mutual preening of two birds. Probably one of the most obscure words I've come across recently.
Keas are amazing birds. There is a funny video from a CCTV camera that was setup to discover who kept moving road cones, turns out it was a kea:<p><a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/12dkeex/road_workers_set_up_a_cctv_to_uncover_who_was/" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/12dkeex/...</a><p>This paper is interesting but I do wonder if a kea with a disability in the wild would be an alpha, when food was not provided by humans.
Of course a disabled kea in the wild can have a family, just as a three legged dog can have a family pack.<p>They, like many parrots, are social and live in groups of up to 10-20 birds.<p>~ <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-alpha-wolf-idea-a-myth/" rel="nofollow">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-alpha-wolf...</a>
Circus, in this case being the collective noun for the kea (New Zealand alpine parrots).
Just wanna say birds are amazing in general. I really hope they along with cephalopods and fungi get their shot at intelligent civilization after we're gone.
Trump is a demented alpha male that currently runs a circus too. This is what really poorly understood.