I was expecting Pine Siskins here. After all, there are pines. There are thistles and willows and all the other things Pine Siskins enjoy. Like so many nomads human and otherwise, the Pine Siskins are pleased to call this valley home base. But I wasn’t expecting so many. I was used to Pine Siskin, singular, [...]

You all know the drill. There are three images of birds or parts of birds below and your job is to figure out what they are. Please use the complete common name of each species and indicate which image correlates to each of your answers when you put them in the comments. The winner gets [...]

To share his ire, Nick of The Birdist has compiled his “10 Least Favorite Birding Listserv Posts” and I must say that he is pretty spot on.

This is an interesting article based on the research of Mark Berres into the genetic diversity of different populations of eastern Sandhill Cranes.

It has been almost two weeks since the text message that said “Gray Kingbird Viera Wetlands.” The person who sent the text was the same person who sent the text message that had sent me running after a Grace’s Warbler less than a month earlier. How does a single birder manage to make me drop [...]

Many of us are in the midst of a winter that never was heading towards a Valentine’s Day that may never be. If you have romantic plans this weekend, make reservations in advance. If love isn’t in the air in your immediate vicinity, why not birding? I’ll be headed up to the lakefront this weekend; [...]

Hummingbirds are one of the joys of wintertime birding here in Louisiana. My friend Erik Johnson and I recently visited the home of Dr. Jeff Harris — a birder and research entomologist — who has up to six different species visiting his feeders each day this season. One of the highlights the morning of our [...]

Sometimes hawks, in particular, Red-shouldered Hawks will go all Turdus migratorious, hop on the ground and nosh some slimy earth worms.  There’s even video proof of a Red-shouldered Hawk eating earthworms on Flickr and there’s been discussion about this on MD bird listserv. This discussion about red-shoulders comes up from time to time and it [...]

One of the nicest things about staying with my grandparents in Sydney is the proximity of their house to part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. This park, which protects scattered headlands, bays and islands of natural bush, is located around the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Dobroyd Head, the section in Balgowlah near where my [...]

Snowy Owls are iconic birds. You rarely find a person – birder or non – who doesn’t want to take a good long look at a bright white owl. And, of course, you rarely meet a photographer who doesn’t want to take a good close picture of a bright white owl. On Saturday, as has [...]

Torrent Ducks are the thrill-seekers of the avian world. Very few birds – or animals for that matter – would plunge head-first into the churning cauldrons of some of South America’s most treacherous rivers. But Torrent Ducks are fearless and to witness some of their daredevil feats ranks pretty high in the book “1000 Avian Spectacles to See [...]

Derek Kverno has already created epic blog travelogues of his stints in Ecuador and Tanzania. Now he’s moved to Brazil, which means we get to vicariously explore the avifauna of another bird-rich country. Awesome!