I’ve noted before the occasional conflicts between birdwatchers and photographers and I’ve received stories from readers regarding experiences with rude picture-takers. There’s the one about the professional photographer who aggressively pursued a rare Kirtland’s Warbler in front of a group of birdwatchers. He chased to bird out of its hiding place in a bush and …
I’m just beginning work on my 11th book, tentatively called An Atlas of Birds. Organized a bit like a geographic atlas, it will feature birds from each of nine biogeographical regions of the world. (although some say there are anywhere from six to twelve major biogeographical regions.) The goal is to choose 35 or so …
Regularly I get emails asking why there are fewer birds in one’s backyard this year, or why there are fewer blackbirds, or why hummingbirds are not coming to their feeders, or something like that. The answer is complicated. First of all, there are about 3 billion fewer breeding birds in the U.S. and Canada since …
I receive emails on a regular basis from readers of my blog or visitors to my website, asking questions, usually, or telling me about some interesting observation they made. A significant number of these have to do with the unusual presence or absence of birds. One recent comment was from a Canadian who observed American …
Urbanization is perhaps the most difficult challenge to the survival of birds and will be the major driver of extinction in this century. Only 2.7 percent of the earth is covered by cities yet the majority of the human population lives in them. By the year 2050, as many people will live in cities …
A scientific name clearly designates a particular bird species, tells you something about the bird’s relationship to other bird species, and usually provides a decent description of the bird. Common names are less useful for the former but apt for the latter. The obvious advantage common names have is their much easier pronunciation and spelling. …
Last week, a volcanic eruption on White Island off mainland New Zealand killed several unfortunate people and likely had devastating effects on the bird population, including thousands of Australasian Gannets and some endangered bird species. How the bird populations will recover is unknown at this point but there is some good historical information to foretell …
Continuing a previous discussion of pseudoscientific and simply nonsensical beliefs about birds, let’s talk about the weather. Some of these actually make a bit of sense. “When the fish hawks (Osprey) come north, winter’s over.” “On the eastern shore of Maryland, they always arrive on St. Patrick’s Day.” That is of course exaggerated as the …
A 2007 study of urban birds and their close relatives in the wild in 73 major cities across the world found that the native ranges of urban birds are wider in latitude and elevation than those bird species that have not invaded cities. The House Sparrow, for example, was native to Europe, most of the …
I’m baking bread and looking out my kitchen window at the first migratory visitors to my bird feeder. There’s a White-crowned Sparrow. Resident birds are partaking of the goodies too as the leaves turn, the weather gets cooler and the insects less abundant. Titmice, doves, towhees, jays, and the occasional Cooper’s Hawk come by to …
