War has shaped avian populations in ways that are both devastating and, at times, paradoxically beneficial. The immediate and most obvious effects are direct mortality and habitat destruction. Modern warfare brings aerial bombardment, artillery, and chemical contamination, all of which can kill birds outright or destroy nesting and foraging habitats. Wetlands are drained or polluted, […]
Now that it is almost Christmas, you will hear the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” created in about 16th century England. This song has more birds in it than any other holiday song. You know, “On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree.” The
Birds of Christmas Read More »
I receive all kinds of questions from around the world, and I have been contacted by newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows, Hollywood producers, authors, artists, scientists, architects, and even a fighter pilot in Iraq, asking about some aspect of birds. Mostly they are straightforward questions about identification, bird houses, feeding, behavior, diseases, etc., but
Do Ducks’ Quacks Echo? And Other Bird Myths [Updated] Read More »
Museums did not come about as we know them, places for education, study, and research, until the late 19th century. Before museums, wealthy individuals made their own collections, sometimes in the form of “cabinets of curiosities,” which came about in the sixteenth century. They were not actually cabinets but rooms with a plethora of natural
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The other day as I savored my morning bowl of Cheerios, I caught something out of the corner of my eye. It was a Turkey Vulture, common around my house, but unusually close to the windows because the house is surrounded by trees. For some reason the vulture decided to swoop down to take a
There are numerous bird blogs and websites on the internet and I presume my readers read and subscribe to others as well. Most bird blogs are well- written, researched, and informative. But occasionally I run across a real loser, whether badly written, full of inaccurate information, or just trivially stupid. BirdwatchingUSA fits all of those
A Website to Avoid: Birdwatching USA Read More »
According to The Illustrated Book of Poultry Queen Victoria was captivated by watching her seven chickens in their custom enclosure. While royalty are not known for admiring poultry as do farmers, in 1842 Queen Victoria started what would become an international craze for fancy chickens, just because they were beautiful to look at. These were Cochin chickens or
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James Bond is a fictional character created by novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. A British secret agent working for MI6 under the codename 007, he has been portrayed on film by actors Sean Connery, David Niven, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig in twenty-seven productions. From Ian Fleming, The New Yorker,
Between 650 and 250 BC the Egyptians killed and mummified Sacred Ibises as sacrifices to Thoth, the Egyptian god of the moon, learning, writing, languages, magic and wisdom. The bird played a significant role in religious practices and is found in many burial sites. They were killed by the millions in religious rites; Herodotus, the
Bird Mummies and Genetic Diversity Read More »
The other day I received an email from a person who swears he saw three giant eagles as big as men on a roadway a few years ago. He went on to describe them – yellow eyes, yellow legs, rusty-rainbow colors on the shoulder, large beak like a big toucan- a good description of Great
Science and the Giant Eagles Read More »
