Sushi Tushi

You just gotta remind yourself that just like this deer, you are in the situation (social) where everyone is expecting this situation to occur (social situationing), and many other people may even be expressly looking forward to it (seeing you/the deer). Seeing the deer (you) may be the best part of the situation for them.

Exactly!!!!

and even if it wasn't the sole or only reason they are there, they came KNOWING there are 1,300-1,400 deer (you) free roaming in Nara Park (in social situations) and you're going to be a delightful part of the experience. (As long as you don't bite anyone for crackers. Or headbutt them.)

This is the map of Nara Park area, btw. The bus terminal is literally right on the entrance to the park. Also the city mascot is a sika deer named Shikamaro-kun. The little blue path from the terminal is where I bought deer crackers to feed the deer in the photo on the approach to Todaiji temple. (The deer enclosure I think is Rokuen which is where the sick or pregnant deer are cared for in safety.)

Anyways! The deer are expected and beloved and also protected as messengers of the gods within Nara.

(look at this guy!! Imagine he is the same deer as in the first photo, it's just months later with his antlers grown in more and he's napping in the sun in front of a sign that says deer! he was never out of place, he just needed a sunshine nap!)

Deer (you) isn't actually out place at all! deer is important and appreciated. Also if people make deer (you) feel like you don't belong in their (your) own house, you can tell them to leave.

I normally try to keep this blog strictly about the glory that is art history, but I can’t avoid sharing a good architecture pun!

yup!

same general body structure, has hands instead of full wings, has a slight hump, similar beaks

Are you trying to imply that this is batsean mimicry of a big bird looking actually carnivorous species, or is this stretch?

so, an herbivore convergently evolving carnivorous traits means its an herbivore designed to take out potential dangers with the swiftness and lethality of a predator

that is extremely alarming

consider the cassowary. now imagine it more exact and capable. now imagine it the size of big bird.

Brazillian Sesame Street is inhabited by Garibaldo, who judging by beak and leg morphology is likely a different species. Between the sleeker legs and the very sharp beak, I think a stork-like lifestyle is likely for his ancestral population.

Then there's Abelardo from Mexico, who seems to come from a population that convergently evolved several parrot-like traits. An interesting detail about this is that, unlike most other vertebrates, parrots don't absorb their pigments through their diet, but make their own pigments called psittacofulvins. Given that his relatives are quite colourful themselves and can probably obtain plenty of carotenoids from their diet, I don't think that is likely to be the case in Abelardo.

Caponata from Spain looks very different from all her family members, even the more divergent ones. This could be since she is the only female member of the clade I have managed to find so far. However, the very different feet make me think she might hail from a very derived species instead. I can't even imagine what sort of evolutionary pressures could lead to a bird evolving such strange feet.

Other Sesame Street birds are a little harder to find information about, with mostly older sightings. There seem to have been sightings of one named Toccata in Quebec. His shaggier white feather coat covering more of his legs and being thicker around his neck does suggest adaptations of the harsh winters up north.

Portuguese Poupas has different colouration and seems to have some sort of feather puff going on around the ankles as well. The feathers around the head are notably swept backward as well. I think this is a somewhat derived population of the American species. Minik Kuş from Turkey may hail from this population too, or perhaps from some intermediate or interbred population, as they seem to be more morphologically similar to the more typical Big Birds.

Now obviously we don't have genetic material to work with here, but based on morphology and phylogeograpgy, this seems to be a likely family tree. The common ancestor likely had a similar morphology to the North American big bird, but with a more generalized beak, and originated somewhere in Eurasia.

Caponata with her highly derived legs seems to be the biggest morphological outlier. Given her residence in Spain, I think it likely that she branched off early and evolved in isolation on some Mediterranean or Atlantic island, before eventually returning to the mainland.

The major division after Caponata is between the Eurasian and American big birds. Poupas and Minik Kuş are likely to be sister species, with Pino being an outgroup to them.

Caponata is, canonically, a hen:

BISEXUALS GROW FROM THE GROUND