Birds of a feather

When I settled in St. Louis 110 years ago, there weren't many birds. Now, though, we're everywhere: There's my friend Fredbird and a whole flock of St. Louis Cardinals; the World Bird Sanctuary; the Shaw Nature Reserve; the rafters of the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

And then there are the birds in movies, like just-released "The Big Year," and fiction, including "It's a Bird-Eat-Bird-World" by Jonathan Franzen who will be in St. Louis on Saturday.

My featherless collegagues at Go! magazine have set up a tour of bird places and pop culture — before diving in, vote on what I should say about my new feathered friends. The "bird line" with the most votes at 8 p.m. will appear on the front page of Friday's paper.