mark sallingI had Bachelor contestant Courtney's auto-tuned song in my head (I got the rose!) all day until this little gem popped into my inbox. It's a video of Glee star Mark Salling playing an acoustic guitar in a park, singing about how much he loves birds. True story. Apparently, just months before he got his break-out role on the hit Fox TV show, he was just a hippie kid who was really into our feathered friends. So much so, in fact, that he was a card-caring member of the Echo Park Ornithology Club in Los Angeles and went to meetings and everything. So amazing.

Let osprey that wren he finds out this gull flocking loves birds too, he'll hatch a plan to marry her. He wouldn't egret it -- we'd be in love aviary long time.

We'd be so cute together, but I guess that's not really the point.

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The point is that Mark is awesome. You're never ready for the day your favorite ensemble cast member in a TV musical is uncovered as a total bird nerd, but when it happens, you have to embrace it. I never would've pegged this kid as some park-squatting hippie-dippie bird lover, but I must say, I am pleasantly (pheasantly? I'll stop) surprised. Just goes to show what a solid actor he is, too, because he totally sells the jock asshole vibe on Glee. Kudos, my friend.

And to add a cherry on top of this sundae of awesome, the song he sings about the Echo Park Ornithology Club is pretty damn good. It'll get caught in your head, for sure. It's all I've been humming for the last two owls. Hours! Two hours.

And I'm spent.

Watch Mark Salling geek out over some birds:

 

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What do you think?

 

Photo via TMZ.com