[Image description: Tweet that says “If you ever in any context describe me as “overcoming my disability”, I will overcome your face with my wheels. Thank you for your time”].
the classic blue and green budgies, a well known and beloved household pet, but what if i told you this is not simply two budgies, but one unique little bird?
it’s twinzy! the chimeric, ‘half-sided’ budgie! this is Truly, a Very Important Bird of the Moment (video)
In Heraldry, “The Pelican In Her Piety” is the attitude of a pelican wounding her own breast with her beak to feed the blood to her chicks. She is the rare female animal in heraldry and iconography, and is an inversion of the phoenix, who dies selfishly and eternally, forever alone. The pelican in Western folklore is female and ancient, and while she is associated with sacrifice, she does not necessary die from it, and she performs the sacrifice if her young are starving or wounded.
Figure 1. The Pelican In Her Piety. Nobody involved in this embroidery had ever seen a pelican.
By feeding her children the blood from her breast, she can actually resurrect them from literal death. In medieval times she was conveniently associated with Christ, who gave his blood in sacrifice to “resurrect” his “children.”
Now the significance of the pelican is mostly forgotten, though you may notice her in pieces of art history around Europe.
Figure 2. More pelican, more piety.
This Kate Beaton comic shows Elizabeth I of England and her famous quote about having the heart and stomach of a king. The “albatross” thing is a joke that Kate Beaton made because it’s funny.
Figure 4: The Pelicans in the Tomb of Horemheb Know Something.
Figure 5: British WW2 pelican poster depicting a mother pelican in her piety, but the nest is actually a solder’s helmet [x].
Personally, I think the mother pelican would have been a better Metaphorical Animal for resurrection/protection than a shitty phoenix in Harry Potter, especially as you could pick up on lovely resonance from that frankly stupid Lily Evans plothole. If the ~*~fancy magic of a mother’s sacrifice~*~ can spontaneously shatter an evil wizard’s soul, but the mechanism is fundamentally ignored thereafter, then what was the fucking point? Surely anyone who sacrificed themselves in love during two great wizarding wars – and there were many – would have simultaneously protected their loved ones from harm while destroying their attackers. Even Narcissa would probably have done it if she had been guaranteed to protect Draco and kill Voldemort while doing so. You have all this ~*~magical love~*~ that turns every family into a war-ending bomb but nobody bothers to do anything about it. They’re all faffing around with Christ allegories and noble self-sacrifice and And all they ever do is fawn around their silly phoenix and have an Order of it, when the whole time.
But nobody really gets tattoos of pelicans.
Figure 6: the Order of the Pelican. think about it
The noble, mythological aspect of the pelican has very little do with pelicans in real life. Like wolves/lions and other Romantic and Charismatic Animals who are elevated in human folklore but ridiculous in private moments, pelicans are incredibly silly and awkward animals.
I have petted them. And it was good. Their faces are leathery and they are silly. They have no nostrils. Everyone should like pelicans more.
Figure 7: I hope this has convinced you.
Counterpoint.
Pelicans are nightmare birds
*thumps fist on table* THIS IS A FURTHER ARGUMENT FOR THE POTENT SYMBOLISM OF THE PELICAN
Helpful person: links don’t work on your tumblr
Me: FINE
Different helpful person: would you consider fixing your tumblr
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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