All individual organisms that scientists have named have scientific names, given by international committees by agreement. Scientific names, Latin or Greek based, are useful internationally. Common names can be confusing across different languages. But it gets even more complex. What is a species? Scientists argue this concept back and forth and often one or a …
From the National Audubon Society, but edited for this blog: From December 14 through January 5 thousands of volunteers throughout the Americas take part in a birding adventure. For over one hundred years, families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists have gone out on an annual mission. Each …
There is something like one bird book published every day in the U.S. Look in your local bookstore and you’ll find a plethora of titles. I gave a quick perusal of Amazon.com and found 432 books on hummingbirds alone – there were more, I just got tired of scrolling down the page. To the left …
It has been written that there are 81 million birdwatchers in the United States. Well, if you include every person who looks out his or her window and observes it for a few seconds, then that figure might be accurate. But how many of these folks give birds a good look through a pair of …
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 …
I often get asked, “what’s your favorite bird?” I don’t have one. They are all fascinating, from the common European Starling to the rare Kagu. Some have striking coloration, others display complex or bizarre behaviors, and some are just impressive for their size. Some are ugly. But they are all cool. Another question, though, is …
Bird baths are as important as bird feeders as birds can almost always find sources of food but sometimes, especially in the winter when water sources are frozen, water is hard to come by. Aside from the obvious reason that birds use water for their metabolism, but they also need it to preen their feathers, …
Hopefully you have paid a bit more attention to birds since I suggested that you try to spy them during your daily activities. Humans have paid attention to them for hundreds of thousands of years and incorporated their images into various symbols and art forms. Now look around your environment and see what bird-related objects you see. …
Leading world lister Tom Gullick became the first person ever to see 9,000 bird species in 2012 when he saw the endemic Wallace’s Fruit-Dove in the Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia. He saw 9,047 species on a bird tour there. Britisher Tom Gullick, 81, has been the top world lister since 2008 and has been birding for 40 …
Looking at ads in the newspaper, magazines, junk mail, and television, I notice that when the ads include adult people, the guys, especially young ones, haven’t shaved for four days, have a wrinkled shirt with an undershirt peeking out below it, crumpled pants, and untied tennis shoes or scuffed sneakers. Women, on the other hand, …
