hii sorry it took me so long to answer.

I don’t really need help w translating right now (mostly bc I’m too busy to really do it) but if you think translating is fun you should go ahead and do it!!!! I’ve gotten so much better at Japanese by trying to do it. The only caveat I have is that as a translator you have a lot of responsibility so you have to be careful about what you post. most people don’t understand the source language, and so your interpretation and translation therefore become what the author is saying and that’s a lot of power especially if you make a mistake. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be wrong or make mistakes because that’s how we learn, but moreso if you know you still have lots to learn then maybe think twice before you publicly post anything without it being checked.

That being said if you translate a vocaloid song you can usually get pretty decent feedback at the vocaloid lyrics wiki on Miraheze on the translation checking blog (though it’s closed right now to deal with the backlog…) and also I’d be happy to look over things if you dm me (but it might take me a while since I’m pretty busy with school…) good luck anon and I really hope you do give it a try!

i looove parrots they are so cute!! all the ones you listed are so good (I've got a friend with budgies and I love them). My favorites are probably yellow-chevroned parakeets bc i see them most often (ok, mostly hear, but it's always a treat when i get to see them) and they always cheer me up when they fly by. I also have good memories surrounding mitred parakeets (my friend and I sat on the floor of a parking lot for like two hours waiting for them to come to their favorite tree) and I really miss seeing macaws. I saw a ton of blue and gold, red and green, and scarlet macaws and they were so beautiful it was like a dream come true.

Outside of personal experience I like kakapo and keas and kaka a lot. They're so strange. And I dream of carolina parakeets (don't mention them to me or else I will get sad). I'd love to go to Australia someday to see all the parrots there

hi violet never apologize for asking about eating rocks. anyways here's a jumble of things:

your flower list is far more extensive than mine i think but here are some of mine:

all:
- borage bc it's in the forget-me-not family and it's also called starflower (and delicious)
- purple anemones they're everywhere in their story. what do you mean it means "I will believe in you and wait for you" that's crazy
- morning glories from that one saki ichika side story where they all planted them in saki's yard (love, solid bonds)
- everlastings/strawflowers: "everlasting memories", "indefinite joy". they should get married.

ichika:
- edelweiss: "courage, loyalty." to me there's always been like. a sort of longing to this flower also? it survives under really harsh conditions (alpine plant moment). also according to wikipedia "giving one to a loved one is a promise of dedication" which i think is very neat. also this was assigned to her already
- forget me not: "true love, memories." bonus bc it's blue
- cactus: "a kind heart." i love you ichika because you love so much
im sure there's more im just forgetting at this moment

saki:
- dandelions: "hope, persistence, happiness," the make a wish thing
- honeysuckle: "bonds of love, devotion." (side note one of my favorite books as a kid was 'stories about chinese herbal medicine' (i was a weird kid) and the legend is honeysuckle comes from two twin sisters (one named gold flower, other silver flower) who died from a fever and were buried together and then the honeysuckle bush grew on their grave and if you drank a tea made from the flower your fever would be cured and that's why it's called the gold-silver flower after them. yes i dug up the book for this.)
- yellow gerberas: "hope, constantly moving forward, friendly and approachable"

honami:
- chamomile: it's calm and relaxing. i can see her making chamomile tea for sleeping. also it means "withstanding adversity / strength borne from adversity" which fits i think
- thyme: used in cooking + "courage, strength"
- bellflowers: "faithfulness, integrity, gratitude." i think this works for ichika also but something about wl1 honami reminds me of this.
- oak tree: i asked an entomologist once why oaks had so many galls on them and she replied 'entirely nonscientific, but i think it's because they just give so much.' so. honami. also protection, sturdiness of a tree, lots of different uses by people.

shiho:
- ivy: it features in voices (shaking off the ivy of uncertainty, i stand atop this stage, my resolve solidified) but it also means an unending love. and marriage. and faith and sincerity. and friendship. probably bc ivy is impossible to detach and remove (i have attempted i have beef with this plant) and shiho's not going to leave them. also geen
- statices. this one is from you if you're reading this and are not violet go look at violet's post right now (https://x.com/glasstreess/status/1960141621061685263/photo/1)

birds:

all:
- nightjars
- indigo buntings (navigate by the stars)

ichika:
- magpies
- hermit thrush

saki:
- wrens (any of them with the eyebrow)
- gnatcatchers
- starlings
- parrots

honami:
- sunbittern: they look plain and then they flash out their wings and they are the most beautiful moth to ever exist
- pigeons and doves
- cranes (moon imagery)

shiho:
- falcons
- swifts. they can fly for months without stopping. they migrate to the antarctica (ends of the world). do you see where i am going here

miscellaneous other things:
starfruit
the orange by wendy cope
wild geese by mary oliver for honami specifically
& the poem you showed me. im stealing from you. he wishes for the cloths of heaven by wb yeats

i love how that was three poems and a random fruit. anyways. i need to collect more poetry

it's kinda stupid. i took it in the first place bc my highschool only had one japanese class and two of my friends were taking it so i took it so i'd have a guaranteed class with them. liked it enough to take it for a year and a half and would've taken the fourth sem too but there weren't enough people to run the class. i was into revstar at the time so i watched a couple of subbed streams and subbed radios.

halfway through what would've been my fourth sem covid lockdowns hit and i was really sad and didn't know what to do with my life. around the same time i got really into lovelive. during my sculpture class it was kinda a. work on your project for two hours every time kinda class so i would listen to the subbed radios. and then eventually when i finished watching all of those i listened to some unsubbed ones and realized i could mostly understand stuff and then from then on i was regularly catching streams (my sleep schedule was god awful during this time) and then i was also translating songs bc i love lyrics and then i fell back into the vocaloid rabbit hole and started translating those and then i found project sekai. and this stupid game has kept me learning japanese since.

so tldr nothing in particular really i just kinda happened onto it and now im (kinda) getting a degree in it. life is strange. sorry for shrub lore dump

hiii. ok this is gonna get kinda long but tldr it kinda depends on what you're looking for specifically and what area of the world you live in.

short answer: go outside and observe.

long answer:
i would start with the birds around you. in my experience it's a lot easier to remember things about the little guys that i see all the time. there are more birds than you think there are, you just have to pay attention.

if you just want to learn facts and you're in north america i would recommend allaboutbirds.org. you can search by zipcode and pull up a list of birds that are in your area, and it lists some id stuff and also some fun facts about them! very nice website i love it a lot

if you're in other parts of the world, i'm sorry, but i'm not terribly sure of any other good website that does something like that. you can try
- Merlin, an app for bird id which does have the ability to pull up a list of birds in your area, and then searching for facts on the internet
- birdsoftheworld.org is a good website with comprehensive information but unless you're really deep in the rabbit hole or actually working with birds it's probably too much detail / scientific paper stuff and also it has a subscription fee (but some universities, if you're in one, might give you institutional access)

biased here bc i run a bird club but going on a birdwalk with more experienced people is a) a good way to learn a ton of new facts and b) appreciate just how many birds there are out there. they will hear things that you don't even notice.

if you're learning how to id birds:
1. get merlin bird id it's free. do it.
2. go outside.
3. ???
4. profit
optional but very very helpful: get a pair of good binoculars (there's some online guides to picking out good ones for birders, but 8x42 or 10x42 are a good bet for magnification specs)

if you have a camera, posting pictures on inaturalist.org is good! or just scrolling through pictures there is really fun for me.

i'm not terribly good with bird id but i would recommend looking at shape and size over color because those stay more consistent.
some things to note that people don't think about:
- shape of the beak
- if there is a ring around the eyes or not
- overall behavior-- is it jumping around wildly, sitting still, on the ground, up in the trees?
- habitat: are you in a riparian area, open field, etc.

other than that just looking at pictures online and stuff. when i actively used tumblr i followed a blog called birdoftheday and one called birdsandherps and they would just post bird pictures and their common name/scientific name below. i think now there's also blogs like identifying-birds-in-posts or something like that.

you can also dm me / drop questions here / tweet at me abotu birds anytime if you have any specific questions. i probably won't know the answer but i'll also probably be able to find it.

sorry this got kinda long and frankly a little overwhelming. i think everything really does start from loving them and then going outside to see them. i got really into birds during 2020 when i was doing online school and a pair of house finches showed up constantly to steal the berries from a bush outside my window. be my bird friend. please. i love talking about birds