Here in the U.S., we’re still on the more temperate side of Memorial Day, after which summer unofficially begins and one may wear white shoes with impunity. Yet if you roasted this weekend like we did in western New York, you’re probably a little scared of what July and August will look like! Save your [...]

When Francois sent me an image of a presumed Snowy Egret he got at Jamaica Bay this weekend I immediately set about trying to turn it into something else. It turns out that sometimes Snowy Egrets in breeding plumage have pink lores. And this bird had really pink lores! Check out the awesome shots Francois [...]

This is just a quick post to share two of the latest birds that made it onto my year list after a quick run to Doodletown and to Mine Road on Saturday morning. The Orange County / Rockland County border by the Hudson River, where Bear Mountain State Park, Harriman State Park, and the United [...]

The Black-fronted Dotterel is a small distinctive shorebird that is usually found near fresh water and is often heard before it is seen. It is present both in Broome itself and also surrounding ephemeral lakes and appears to breed throughout the year if the conditions are right. We often come across their nests by accident [...]

This great bird has managed to escape from my sightings until I visited the great lodge of Tundaloma.  This Ecuadorian owned business provides a very comfortable and secure lodge to visit the most northern-western Chocó area in Ecuador. It is located on the highway that goes from Ibarra to San Lorenzo and it is approximately [...]

The Edwards’s Pheasant is a rather smart blue-black member of the pheasant family and it may be on the edge of extinction. It has recently been reclassified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List; this category is reserved for only the most threatened species in the world. It has not been seen in its small [...]

Spotted Sandpipers are cool little birds, easily identified by a host of field marks and behaviors. Their stiff-winged flight is a great way to identify them at a distance, as is their tendency to bob their tail end up and down as they make their way along the edges of ponds, lakes, or virtually any [...]

This story comes from Lia Pignatelli, a rehabber with AKUSA Wildlife Rescue in Brewster, NY, who specializes in songbirds. It was six o’clock one June morning, and Lia arrived in her bird nursery room for the first feeding of the day. She checked her brood: a nestfull of Tufted Titmice, a Mourning Dove, a robin, [...]

These are so cool. I hope someone will get to work on some of the New World species. Hat-tip to my Mom.

What do you do if a thousand songbirds get stranded in your yard?  Bird-loving biologist Richard Popko shares his story in an audio interview. Bonus: the interview is conducted in Canadian! (Hat-tip to Clare, who also speaks fluent Canadian)

Here we are immersed in the fullness of May. I wonder how many recognize just how special this time of year is, not just because of the massive migratory spectacle but also for May’s pulchritudinous profusion of flowers and deliciously moderate climate. Lest ye take the magic of this month for granted, heed instead the [...]

At some point, while I was in graduate school, it became apparent that I was going to study the problem of finding one’s way around. Navigation, orientation, mental maps, sense of direction, knowledge of the landscape, and related ideas must be linked to how people who live off the land survive, and I was studying [...]