A couple of years ago there was a Falcated Duck visiting the Colusa Wildlife Refuge in Northern California, way out of its normal range of Russia, China, Mongolia, Japan, and Korea. Of course this got birdwatchers all excited and some came to see the bird from as far away as Florida. Now it’s certainly possible […]
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The Belted Kingfisher is most often seen flying along or above creeks as it makes its distinctive, raucous, chattering call, ( see here) but it can also be spotted above any body of water as it searches for likely prey. It plunges into the water headfirst to capture fish, its preferred food, but it will
Bird watchers’ hopes in the discovery of a new species of hawk have been shot down after a New Zealand farmer was revealed to be spray painting the birds pinkish-red and releasing them for fun. In a judge’s decision released this week, Grant Michael Teahan was found guilty of two charges of ill-treating an animal after
There used to be a website called Ask the Experts on which you could submit a question, for free, on a large variety of subjects and get an answer from experts, or at least knowledgeable people, in the field. I answered about 2400 inquiries to date before the site disappeared. The vast majority of questions were
Seen any crows lately? There are about 40 species of crows, found across the world except, curiously, South America. The four species in North America are the American, Northwestern, Fish, and Tamaulipas Crow, and some small populations of the Eurasian Jackdaw. For many hundreds of years crows and ravens have been a substantial part of
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POISONED BIRDS In 1959 Tom Lehrer recorded his notorious “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” song. I hope no one does that intentionally but many birds die each year from ingesting toxins. A recent study indicates that two-thirds of California Condor fatalities result from ingesting led shot from the ground or as part of the carrion
Bing Crosby, Al Jolson and many others sang the well-known song “When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbing along”…… . And then there was “Rockin Robin” in the 50’s. You can go here to listen to the birds’ actual song. American mythology holds that American Robins are the first sign of spring; actually,
Harbinger of Spring? Read More »
For many years a fossil discovered in a Bavarian limestone quarry was considered to be the first bird. Archeopteryx lithographica (ancient wing of limestone) lived about 150 million years ago and had many reptilian and avian characteristics; of the latter, feathers were the most notable. Its discovery was a very clear indication that birds evolved
I was in Warsaw, Poland about ten years ago, just being a tourist. As my wife and I walked through the main square we noticed a lot of commotion and people gathering. We were curious so we stood around for a few minutes to see what was up and all of a sudden a
Ever since the advent of agriculture there have been problems with birds partaking of the harvest. There are all kinds of methods today to try to deter crop predators, the most well known being, of course, the scarecrow, which has existed for at least 3000 years. Approximately 2,500 years ago, Greek farmers carved scarecrows in
