Cardoo Never Do Anything Alone

Filing from the tree line — hey, hey, glad I caught you. It's Cardoo Day, and I've been out here since first light trying to photograph one Cardoo. Can't be done. That's not a complaint, that's the story.

They live in the tropics, tucked into the leafy dark of the canopy, and they move as a flock. Not loosely — together. Feeding, roosting, turning mid-air, all of it at once. They're mimics too, incurable ones: a Cardoo that watches you do something will do it right back, and keep doing it, and bring friends along to help.

Persistence is the family trait. Some of these birds cover hundreds of miles in a day and seem genuinely unbothered by the arithmetic. I watched a flock copy a keeper sweeping her porch for the better part of an hour this morning. Nobody taught them. Nobody paid them. They just liked it, and then they all liked it.

Marking the day: four Cardoo stickers land as first-read rewards on this article, and four carnival keepsakes are out in the shops — a pair plushie, a parfait, a balloon trio and a mirrorwing mobile, spread over four different counters. Gotta run — something's always breaking.

New stickers

Find them at this article's first-read rewards.

New items

Find them at Plushie Boutique · Species Plushies, Sunset Bakery · Pastries & Cakes, The Toymakery · Toy - Default, and Driftworks · Carved Decor.