Protonotary Warbler at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Ohio, May 18, 2014, by Joan Tisdale. Just in time for spring migration and a host of upcoming birding festivals (see below), we learned of a new trail that will help you find and enjoy more birds this year. Called Canada’s South Coast Birding Trail, the new network…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Special cranial adaptations, including an asymmetrical “wonky” skull and enlarged ears, may give the critically endangered, ground-dwelling nocturnal parrot the edge it needs to navigate the Australian outback in the dark – even with limited eyesight and a large “bluffing” head….
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Third place in our 2021 Bird Portrait Contest goes to Tina McManus from Beverly, Massachusetts, for her photo of a Piping Plover with a dozing chick under its wing feathers. McManus took the photo in June 2020 on a beach near…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email I was 11, an avid birdwatcher, eager to find everything I could. On a cold December morning, I walked into a grove of evergreens in a Kansas park a few miles from my parents’ house. Despite my research, I could only…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email A recent study published in Science concluded that 29% of the bird population of the United States and Canada, i.e. 3 billions birds – have been lost since 1970. And a report just released by Audubon concludes that climate change is…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The second winner of BirdWatching’s 2021 Bird Portrait Contest is Dennis Stogsdill of Chappaqua, New York. He took this close-up photo of a southern ground hornbill’s face and especially its eyelashes in September 2021 in the Mara Triangle area of Kenya’s…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Many birds have white spots on their tails, and the shape of these white spots can be a very useful identification clue. But they look different from above and below, and they change dramatically as the tail opens and closes. Understanding…
Bird feeding stations in Peru help protect the habitat of the wonderful Spatuletail hummingbird. Photo by westcoastbirder. Virtually all of our backyard birds would survive without our feeders. Yet bird feeding stations can be crucial for the continued survival of some species, and some feeders even play an important role in protecting against climate change….
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The annual number of migratory monarchs wintering in Mexico is once again dismal for the iconic orange and black butterflies. This year’s tally showed a 22% drop from 2022, leaving the butterfly highly vulnerable to extinction. The count found only 2.21…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Karen Griggs Winchester of North Port, Florida won first place in BirdWatching’s 2021 Bird Portrait Contest with this stunning photo of Sandhill Crane foals resting on their mother’s back while being sheltered by her wings. She photographed the moment in mid-March…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Bread may be the “food of life” for some human cultures, but it is not nutritious for birds. What should you feed your backyard birds? Black Oil Sunflower, which is easy to open with its thin shell and contains more oil…
The great bustard is a specialty of southern Portugal. This one was photographed on March 30, 2008 by Andrej Chudý (Wikimedia Commons). If you’ve ever thought it might be fun to see a Spanish imperial eagle, one of the rarest birds of prey in the world, or if you want to witness the extravagant courtship…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email A woodpecker species once thought to be restricted to recently burned areas can also breed successfully in unburned parts of fire-prone landscapes, according to a study by scientists at Oregon State University. The research sheds new light on the Black-backed Woodpecker…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The breeding season for waterfowl offers wonderful opportunities for action shots of ducks, geese and swans, depending on where you live and the species that nest near you. One of my most memorable experiences with breeding waterfowl was one year in…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email In much of the world, winter is a season to study waterfowl, and if you have access to a large body of water (ocean, large lake, or river), it’s worth looking for waterfowl during storms. This has the potential for some…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email It is vitally important that as many of us as possible shelter in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, but we birdwatchers cannot simply turn off the desire to observe birds, butterflies and other wildlife. I am doing my birding from…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Today, award-winning vocal jazz artist Emilie-Claire Barlow releases “Spark Bird,” her first full-length album in five years. As the title suggests, birds inspired Barlow’s creativity. During the isolation of the coronavirus pandemic, Barlow wondered if she would ever want to make…
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, home to an annual wildlife show of wintering sandhill cranes, snow geese and other birds, last December hosted a photography workshop organized by Canon USA, Inc. The Canon team live-streamed the event, which was hosted by Canon Explorer of Light and wildlife photographer Charles Glatzer and…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email A flash of bright, contrasting color on the rump is an important feature of many bird species and also a useful terrain mark. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is distinguished from almost all other small songbirds by its contrasting yellow patch on the…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email As a responsible buyer, I began to wonder about the effects of genetically modified crops on the environment and whether GMO crops are sold in bird food, such as tallow. From this year, certain genetically modified foods sold for human consumption…
Cuban endemic gnatcatcher, December 2016. Photo by Floyd Downs. The spectacular birds above and below were photographed by birdwatchers who traveled to Cuba with Bird watching magazine in early December 2016. Guided by biologist Luis Diaz, curator of the National Museum of Natural History in Havana, and Bird watching editor Chuck Hagner, the group has…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email New research shows how the body condition of nestlings in a shearwater colony rapidly declined in just over a decade. Human impacts are considered the most likely cause. Researchers collected data on how body condition, which includes wing, head and beak…
Last fall, we called for entries for our first-ever Backyard and City Bird Photo Contest, here on our website. Bird photographers captured more than 600 images taken in yards, parks and other urban and suburban locations. Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest! Below is a slideshow of our 12 honorable mention images….
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Inhabitants of dense swamps, rails glide on foot through low vegetation, rarely flying. All have strong, distinct voices but tend to call primarily at night. Few other birds are so elusive. Two small species, the Virginia Rail and the Sora, are…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email In the “Since You Asked” section of each issue of BirdWatching, editor Julie Craves answers readers’ questions about birds and their behavior. Here’s a question from our May/June 2020 issue. Q: I have a robin’s nest on my property and have…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email A new series of three short films titled Big Sur Giants from documentary filmmaker Ross Thomas takes viewers into the world of the California condor and the Ventana Wildlife Society biologists who work to protect it. Thomas accompanies Joe Burnett, a…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The next July/August 2020 issue of Bird watching includes an excerpt from the terrific new book Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology and well-known expert on native plants. In the excerpt, he sings the praises…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Researchers are deploying the latest mapping techniques to identify the most important suburban habitat for a Pileated Woodpecker species. Ruijia Hu, a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati, said wildlife habitat in congested places like southwestern Ohio is becoming more…
At the end of 2021, we called for entries for our first-ever Backyard and City Bird Contest, here on our website. Bird photographers captured more than 600 images taken in yards, parks and other urban and suburban locations. Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest! Entries included images of owls, hummingbirds, cardinals, jays,…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Whether you started birding since the pandemic began last year or have been part of the birding scene for decades, you’ll want to attend this weekend’s 24th Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). People around the world will count the birds they…
Chestnut-mouthed Toucan in Costa Rica. Photo by Ray Robles Spectacular colors, strange names, dramatic shapes! North American birders looking to broaden their horizons invariably find a guide to the birds of Costa Rica in their hands. Field guides to the country’s birds are impossible to put down, the stuff of birdwatcher travel dreams, and the…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email This news comes from our friends at the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership, and it focuses on a Wisconsin-based songbird conservation initiative. While the details are specific to the Badger State, we’re sharing them because…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The photo above by Glenn Ostle of Charlotte, North Carolina won third place in BirdWatching’s 2021 Backyard and City Bird Photo Contest. “Since we live in North Carolina, we have a lot of Carolina Wrens in our backyard,” Ostle explains. “They…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Birders often struggle to tell brown-streaked birds apart, grouping them with nicknames like “LBJ” (for “Little Brown Jobs”). It is really difficult to sort out the many species and variations of birds that are small, brownish and streaky. As always, one…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The breathtaking beauty of orioles inspires many of us to turn our backyards into oriole docking stations. Feeders are the simplest and most effective decoy for migrating orioles. Birds occasionally consume sunflower seeds and suet, but they prefer sweeter foods. Oranges…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Update, April 13: Condor Crisis Deepens; 18 dead in three weeks Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed as the cause of the deaths of three California condors found in northern Arizona, according to wildlife officials. The Arizona-Utah population moves…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Meryl Lorenzo from Bayville, New York won second place in our 2021 Backyard and City Bird Photo Contest with this photo of a hungry hummingbird. The sharp, detailed look of the photo as a tiny ruby-throated hummingbird fed on a much…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email In forested regions from coast to coast, in late spring and summer, some of the most characteristic sounds are the chirping of pewees. The sound changes abruptly in the middle of the continent because two species – Eastern and Western Wood-pewees…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email One spring morning a few decades ago, I heard horrific screams and ran out to see a Cooper’s hawk tear up a still-living robin on my neighbor’s back lawn. The robin was howling and its mate, facing the hawk from less…
Georgia’s barrier islands feature a mix of sand, mud and salt marshes, ideal habitats for shorebirds. Photo by Brad Winn The Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) recently designated nearly 80,000 acres along the Georgia coast as its 100th significant site for shorebirds. The site, known as the Georgia Barrier Islands, was considered a landscape…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email In late March, the Hawaii Land and Natural Resources Board (BLNR) unanimously approved a plan to eliminate mosquitoes at the landscape scale in critical forest bird habitat to reduce populations of mosquitoes. mosquitoes in the dense, humid forests of East Maui….
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Maureen Hills-Urbat of Rockyview County, Alberta is the winner of our first backyard and city bird photo contest with this image of bickering blue jays. “We are very lucky to live in the foothills west of Calgary, Alberta and have a…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Feather colors and patterns provide some of the most important clues we have for identifying birds and are usually quite reliable. Only a few things change the appearance of feathers. They wear out and fade over time. They can be temporarily…
David Sibley Wildlife Acoustics, creator of the Song Sleuth bird identification app, is running a contest where the winner will go birdwatching with David Sibley in May 2018. The “Song Sleuth with Sibley” competition presented with LLBean gives birdwatchers the unique opportunity to bird-watch with Sibley, the renowned artist and author of The Sibley Guide…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Deteriorating habitat conditions caused by climate change are taking their toll with the timing of bird migration. A new study shows that birds can partially compensate for these changes by delaying the start of spring migration and making the trip faster….
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The plover family includes at least two dozen species worldwide that are small with a single black ring, partial or full, from the sides of the neck through the chest. Most are brown-backed – the color of wet mud – but…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Eh ? What are you saying, little bird? My saddest moment as an ornithologist was when, about 10 years ago, I saw a golden-crowned kinglet sing. The bird was only about 10 feet away when I saw its little body vibrate…
Kentucky Warbler, one of the species that can be seen along Maryland’s Indian Head Rail Trail. Photo by Hans Spiecker Subscribe today to BirdWatching magazine for tips, birding hotspots and more! This Saturday, April 7 marks the sixth annual Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Trail Open Day. It’s a day when people kick off the spring trail season…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The decades-long project to prevent the extinction of the California condor is facing a new crisis due to the widespread strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported Wednesday that six condors have been confirmed…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Oregon State University researchers have good news for the well-meaning masses who place bird feeders in their backyards: small songbirds that visit feeders seem unlikely to develop an unhealthy addiction to them. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about how…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Since the 1950s, mankind has produced around 8.3 billion tons of plastic, adding another 380 million tons to this amount every year. Only 9% of this is recycled. The inevitable result is that plastic is everywhere, from the depths of the…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email If we tried to design a bird to be popular with humans, it would be hard to invent anything more appealing than the Eastern Bluebird. It has beautiful colors, a soft, musical voice, and a seemingly gentle demeanor. It easily adapts…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Those of us who live in cities and suburbs may not think about attracting bluebirds, which are usually found in wilder or more rural settings. When bluebirds nest or overwinter in cities or towns, they tend to be found in cemeteries,…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email A rare species of kingfisher that has only existed in captivity since 1988 is the subject of a reintroduction project that could one day bring it back to the island of Guam. The Sihek (also known as the Guam Kingfisher) is…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email One of the main cues we use to identify birds is color, and the color we perceive is entirely dependent on lighting. The challenge of color perception is not limited to bird identification, of course, and we are constantly making (mostly…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Hot weather and drought, and the fires they promote, are becoming more extreme around the world. People facing these hardships may be unable to consider the extreme weather conditions that burden wildlife, but those of us who can help the birds…
Rock Point Provincial Park in southeastern Ontario. Photo by JamesJongPhotography/Shutterstock Stretching along the north shore of Lake Erie for more than 350 miles is Canada’s most temperate region, aptly dubbed “the Riviera of Canada.” The region’s similarities with the Mediterranean coastline are surprising. Both lie along a latitude of around 42 degrees and enjoy a…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently made a startling discovery, using a wind tunnel and a flock of birds. The songbirds, many of which make twice-yearly non-stop flights of more than 1,000 miles…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email If you haven’t paid attention to new photo products in a while, now is the time. Over the past 12 to 18 months, digital mirrorless photography has come into its own. There’s no denying that for the first time ever, DSLR…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Cold northern waters around the world are home to one of the most distinctive waterfowl, the Long-tailed Duck. This magnificent diver breeds on arctic tundra in North America, Europe and Asia, and it winters along coasts and on some of the…
The Cornell FeederWatch Cam is located at the Treman Bird Feeding Garden at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. It is equipped with an Axis P1448-LE camera with an ETS ML1-WPW microphone and is based in Sapsucker Woods and near a 10-acre pond, so it attracts a wide variety of species. The…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email On Thursday, April 20, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built is set to launch from SpaceX facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, an area surrounded by federal and state public lands. Hundreds of thousands of individual birds of many different…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Many of the land marks we use to identify bird species involve the color patterns created by feathers, so it is useful to understand the basic elements that come together to form these patterns. Despite the seemingly endless variety of bird…
The Bella Hummingbird Nest Camera is located in La Verne, California and switches between the nest and a feed camera. The owners of the cameras have enjoyed watching female hummingbirds nest and raise their offspring in their ficus trees since around 2005. They installed a webcam and started streaming in 2012. The camera’s namesake, Bella,…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email I’m happy to announce that our website has a new directory of birding tour providers! These are businesses and non-profit organizations that offer bird watching tours to the public. Several of them conduct tours around the world while many others focus…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The Red Knot, one of the Western Hemisphere’s migratory distance champions, has been the subject of three good news stories in the past month. 1, horseshoe crab fishing stop On April 6, the U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina prevented…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Sort the sparrows are an ongoing challenge, and while there are many helpful resources available, one species – the house sparrow – is often overlooked. Native to Eurasia, the species is naturalized and common in human settlements around the world thanks…
The Panama Fruit Feeders are located on the grounds of the Canopy Lodge in El Valle de Antón, Panama. The site is in the low mountains of Cerro Gaital, approximately 2,000 feet above sea level, and enjoys spring-like weather year-round. Canopy Lodge specializes in bird-focused nature tourism. It houses several feeders on site so guests…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Last week, a Brazilian federal judge suspended all licenses previously granted to energy company Voltalia to build a wind farm in the habitat of the endangered Lear’s macaw in northeast Brazil. . In his decision, the judge said these licenses cannot…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Stan Bysshe of Marshall, Virginia wins third place in our 2022 BirdWatching Photography Awards competition with this spectacular shot of a bald eagle in an Alaskan snowstorm. “Winter weather in Kachemac Bay, Alaska can change in a minute,” Stan writes. “On…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email When I was learning to identify birds, I spent hours wondering about sparrows that, in retrospect, were probably all the same species. It was frustrating, but later I turned the experience into identification tips. If you see a compact, ridged sparrow…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email In October 2020, I set up a trail camera on a tray feeder hoping to document a flying squirrel, but instead recorded a great horned owl using the feeder as a perch. chase. Without the camera, I wouldn’t have suspected he…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email As the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the birdwatching and ecotourism travel industry worldwide, a number of tour guide providers are offering virtual tours of birdwatching sites for free or for a small fee. These events provide a glimpse of the wildlife…
The importance of water is at the center of this year’s World Migratory Bird Day, an annual celebration of migratory birds and a call to action to protect them. Throughout 2023, organizers are spreading the message that “water sustains bird life” and highlighting ways to conserve and protect aquatic habitats. This year’s WMBD poster, featuring…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Danielle Rockett of Ottawa, Ontario wins second place in our 2022 BirdWatching Photography Awards competition with this image of a great horned owl and her young owl in their nest. “Every year, at the end of December, a couple of Great…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The birds are variable, but they don’t have to be confusing. Learning the larger variation patterns is one of the fundamentals of bird identification and one of the keys to understanding them. Generally, immatures are more variable in their appearance than…
The Savannah Great Horned Owl Camera is located approximately 80 feet above one of six Audubon International certified golf courses at The Landings on Skidaway Island near Savannah, Georgia. The Nest Cam is introduced to the public by Skidaway Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. A pair of Great Horned Owls began using the…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email At the beginning of August, our friends from Panama Day Trips, based in Panama City, offered us Bird watching readers a free virtual birding experience: attendees were able to watch via Zoom for a few hours as tour guide Jerin Tate…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email North American grassland birds are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since 1970, more than half of all grassland birds in the United States and Canada have disappeared, and species such as Bobolinks and Mountain Plovers are on track to lose another…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Jim Burns of Scottsdale, Arizona is the winner of our 2022 BirdWatching Photography Awards competition with this remarkable photo of a fight between a Gilded Flicker and a European Starling. He took the photo in the Tonto National Forest in Maricopa…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email On November 6, 2021, I learned that a female hummingbird belonging to the genus Selasphore — either an Allen or, much more likely, a Rufous — had come to a manger on my block in Duluth, Minnesota. The next morning, a…
A Spanish imperial eagle with its next meal. Photo by Shutterstock For wildlife travelers from the United States, Spain offers a range of interesting habitats and an equally fascinating array of species, all carefully contained in an area only slightly smaller than Texas. Due to its position, connecting North Africa and Southern Europe, Spain encompasses…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email The saying “birds of the same feather flock together” takes on new meaning thanks to a study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Flocked birds often travel in groups consisting of a single species, in which individuals…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s free Merlin Bird ID app can now recognize the voices of 685 species from North America and Europe, plus a mix of common neotropical birds. The AI-powered sound identification function can extract a probable identification regardless of…
The Ventana Wildlife Society, an organization dedicated to releasing captive-bred California condors since 1997, operates the Big Sur Condor Nest Camera. The organization installs cameras in the nests of its sanctuary and sometimes in the wild. Birds are most active from late morning to early afternoon. Additionally, if you see a condor while looking at…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Birders talk a lot about wingbars – contrasting bands of pale markings on a bird’s folded wing. The presence or absence of wingbars is one of the first things we learn to look for when learning to identify birds, and it’s…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email At New Jersey Audubon, we care about the welfare of birds just as much as we appreciate their beauty, amazing life stories, and inquisitive behaviors that are both playful and territorial. Our festivals have always been designed for maximum fun on…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Every year, about 10 million waterfowl fly north to their breeding grounds in the prairie pothole region of North America, but the landscape that welcomes them has changed. Weather and agricultural practices have dramatically transformed the pothole-strewn native grasslands that waterfowl…
Share this: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Print this article Share by email Mother Nature is ready to push the “refresh” button via the springtime rhythms of birdlife. One way to witness the wonders of the natural world and do good at the same time is to participate in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s…
