Over the years I have received a lot of emails with questions about birds. Most are straightforward, concerning identification or behavior. But occasionally I receive an exceptionally weird one. Probably the strangest question I have ever received was from a woman who said that in her home country (not the U.S.), birds would follow her. …
“Researchers have discovered that two hawks from surprisingly distant perches on the tree of life have mated, resulting in rare hybrid chicks. In 2005, Stan Moore, a master raptor bander at Fairfax Raptor Research, spotted something peculiar in the Laguna de Santa Rosa Wetlands Complex in Sonoma County, California. It was a common black hawk …
We are practicing social distancing these days to avoid contacting the coronavirus. We have always practiced social distancing to a certain extent. We keep our distance when standing in line or when talking to others. We disdain “close talkers,” those who get right in your face when talking to you, and get annoyed when boarding …
In 2011, animal control authorities confiscated 18 pigeons, a crow, and a gull from a homeless man in Los Angeles who kept them in cages. The pigeons, diseased and dirty, were euthanized and the gull and crow sent to bird rehabilitators. In 2018 the homeless guy sued the city, claiming some of the birds were …
Windows and cats are major sources of mortality for our birds but certainly aren’t the only major causes. Somewhere between 87 and 350 million birds are killed by vehicles each year in the U.S., although the estimates vary. See this study. Barn owls seem particularly marked for doom. Now threatened or endangered in a number …
Bhutan is a landlocked country in the eastern Himalayas of south Asia. It is a peaceful country with little corruption, but still undeveloped. The country’s landscape ranges from lush subtropical plains in the south to the sub-alpine Himalayan mountains in the north, where there are peaks in excess of 7,000 metres (23,000 ft). Gangkhar Puensum is the highest peak …
If you google “goosebumps” the first thing you get is a description of a scary kids’ movie. But that’s not what we are talking about here, although there is a connection. The word “horror” is derived from the Latin horrere, which means to “bristle.” “Goose bumps” is the term given to the tiny bumps that …
I just returned from my first visit to the national parks of Utah – Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, etc. Spectacular places, truly majestic scenery. I didn’t expect to see many birds, and my expectations proved true. This part of the U.S. is arid, sparsely vegetated, desert. Ravens were pretty common, but not much else. On …
Let’s face it, birds have funny names. Prothonotary Warbler? Who came up with that? Phainopepla? Chachalaca? Kagu? Bengal Florican? OK, I know all of these common names make a certain amount of sense once you know their origin. Phainopepla, from the Greek, means “shining robe”, a reference to the sleek, glossy plumage of the male …
I have given hundreds of talks about birds over the years in a great variety of venues. If I speak to the Boy Scouts or the local Master Gardener’s club, the talks are pretty straightforward as the attendees aren’t very experienced in birdwatching. The same with women’s social groups, retired teachers, senior citizen gatherings, and …
