Bird on a Wire
a flock of robins living on two wires

What you see on every new tab

Bird on a Wire puts six robins on two telephone wires across a chalky pastel sky, with a tree on each side of the screen. It is all paint strokes: the sky and trees are several thousand soft dabs of cerulean, lilac, mauve and chalk white, and each robin is a bundle of feather strokes with an orange breast and a lilac-grey back.

They keep themselves busy, and when one takes off its neighbours often follow.

• Wires that give: Each wire is a vibrating string with six modes. A sitting bird pulls it down a little, and every take-off, landing and tip into a hang plucks it so the line wobbles and settles.
• Perch life: Between flights a robin glances about, fluffs up, preens, flicks its tail, stretches a wing or throws its head back to sing. Beaks snap open in silent chirps and back-and-forth chats.
• Flights: Robins cross between the wires and six perches in the trees on swooping paths, flapping in bursts with folded-wing dips, and land nose-up with tail fanned. Some tip backwards off the wire to hang upside down and swing for a few seconds.
• Social life: Three to five birds gather shoulder to shoulder in a fluffed-up huddle, pairs chase each other in loops, and one may dive at another, who bolts or squares up with wings out.
• A moving sky: Painted clouds drift past in two layers, small flocks of swallows cross high up by day, and a few seeds float past the trees.

One small shader draws every brush dab on the graphics card. The sky and trees are laid down once from a fixed seed; the wires, clouds and every feather are re-laid each frame, so heads, wings and tails can move.

What it reacts to

• Mouse: Perched birds nearby turn their heads to watch the pointer. Bring it right up to a bird and it hops away along the wire or flies to another perch.
• Click: Click the scene and the whole flock takes off at once, wheels about and settles back on the wires and trees.
• Music: With music sync on, a strong kick makes perched birds bob and hanging birds swing harder, and the bass sets the wires swaying.
• Sound: A real dawn chorus, a robin and a wren; after dark, soft crickets. Sound starts soft on a new install, and you can turn it down or off right on the New Tab.
• Night: After sunset the sky turns dusk pink, then indigo, with stars, a moon, shooting stars and fireflies by the trees. The flock flies far less, huddles together and dozes while little z's drift up.

Free or Pro?Pro

Ambient New Tab is free to install, with five free themes. Bird on a Wire is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Bird on a Wire full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Bird on a Wire. Done.

From day to night

Bird on a Wire follows the sun where you live and turns to night after sunset. You can also pin day or night in the Themes panel.

Questions

Are the six robins the same every time?

Yes. They come in two body shapes, an upright side-on robin and a round puffed-up one, at six slightly different sizes. Each bird's feathers are painted from its own fixed seed, so every new tab opens with the same six birds.

Is Bird on a Wire free?

It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released.

Do the wires really move when a bird lands?

Yes. Each wire is simulated as a string fixed at both ends with six standing-wave modes. A perched bird adds weight in proportion to its size, and every landing, take-off and hang gives the wire a pluck that runs along it and dies away.

Why are the birds so still at night?

They roost. As night comes on they fly and chase much less, gather in huddles of four to six that hold until morning, and close their eyes. Night follows sunset as calculated for New York on your computer's clock; the Day/Night button in the Themes panel can force either.

Does it work on my phone?

No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.

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