Birds in Video Games: Overwatch

Reader Meredith Nickerson passed along a tidbit recently about an avian character in the popular online multiplayer shooting game, Overwatch. It's a cute little tiny bird named Ganymede.

I don't play this game and so pardon me if I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but Ganymede follows around a giant robot character named Bastion, that actually does fights in the game. The backstory is that Bastion had shut down in a German forest and had overgrown with moss and stuff until Ganymede came along and woke him up. Now they're buds.  Wanna see a video of that? Here you go. 

Importantly, according to Meredith, Ganymede can take a number of forms, including some real life actual (sorta) birds.  Ganymede starts off as this little guy (gal?):

That is ... uh ... not a real bird. Some bastardized canary? I don't even know. Too bad.

The good news, however, it that Ganymede's got some other looks. You can change Bastion's skin in the game, and when you do Ganymede changes along with it. Check it out, as assembled by the folks at Overwatch Writing:

Pretty good! Check out that cardinal on top! ACCURATE BILL COLOR! The Rock Dove is spot on, and the Blue Jay ain't half bad either. The woodpecker could use a bit of work (if it is supposed to be a Pileated ... I couldn't find anything closer) but it's close. The White Dove is stupid but forgivable. 

Anyway, if I played this game I'd probably get my ass kicked because I'd just be watching Ganymede fly around instead of killing anyone. The end. Thanks, Meredith, for the tip. 

Rare Blackbirds in the Verizon Center

Last night I saw Sir Paul McCartney play at the Verizon Center in DC. It was incredible, as I expected.

Among the medley of famous Beatles and Wings songs he played "Blackbird," indisputably one of the best goddamn songs of all time. Here's a little video:

A video was projected behind him during the performance, which prominently featured birds. Of course, my eBird mind started to work, and I could barely pay attention to the song because of my dumb brain working through IDs. Not much to go on -- mostly rock pigeons and backlit blackbird sps -- but I wonder if the Eurasian blackbird at the end is a first DC record?

Here's my checklist for the song:

Thanks for the tunes, Macca.