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There’s a new, to me at least, podcast about birds called Bird Banter. Dr. Ed Pullen, retired family physician of Tacoma, Washington, interviews birders from around the country. I have to admit that I didn’t know about his podcast or that there were so many other podcasts about birds. Like: American Birding Podcast, Out There […]

About once a week I get contacted through my website Ornithology.com regarding a baby bird. Often the explanation is that the “baby fell out of the nest.” Typically, the baby actually jumped from the nest as songbirds do when they fledge. Not quite capable of flight, they walk or hop on the ground, dependent on

The following is from my latest book, The Art of the Bird: The History of Ornithological Art through Forty Artists. Janet Turner was one of the artists I discussed and special to me because I knew her personally. She borrowed bird specimens from the natural history museum I supervised, allowed me to visit her in her art studio, and

Ornithology.com is a fairly popular website and ranks high on Google, so I receive regular emails from people who want to write articles for me. What they really want to do is pitch a product or service via a link in their article. Free advertising, so to speak. If it is bird-related, interesting and useful,

The Common Swifts of Eurasia are similar to swallows in shape and behavior but are more closely related to hummingbirds than swallows. These aerodynamic birds are called “swifts” because of their fast and erratic flight. Because their feet are so week and small and they spend so much time in the air the ancient Greeks

I wrote this article before the recent events of unrest and it seems even more appropriate now. The New York Times had an article on May 26, 2020 about a woman who called the police to report a “African American” birdwatcher who had told her to leash her dog. She was quickly fired from her

Earlier I told you about a scientist who made a collection of birds in Chicago that had met their demise by running into buildings. After forty years of collecting, he decided to measure the birds in the collection and found that they are getting smaller, apparently due to global warming. Bird skins are important for

There’s a thing called Bergmann’s Rule. This is an ecogeographical rule that states that within a broadly distributed taxonomic group, populations and species of larger size are found in colder environments, and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions. This only applies to birds and mammals because they produce their own body heat. First, think of

I’m spending a lot more time in my garden watching birds as the world has slowed down and I have less need to be out and about. While some have entertained themselves baking bread or working on crossword and jigsaw puzzles, lots of others have taken on birdwatching. Let me pass on some stories that

A little musing today. I’ve been watching two bird feeders outside my kitchen window for the past several months, the seeds devoured by California Towhees and occasionally a Spotted one, Western Scrub Jays, Eurasian Collared Doves, and lots of White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows. In my backyard, near an intermittent creek, I built a bench next