April may be volatile, but this month offers plenteous pleasures intermingled with its abundance of showers. Was T.S. Eliot being sarcastic when he penned the line, “April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land… ?” As far as I’m concerned, watching spring advance one bud, blade, and bird at a time makes [...]

Early April is a special time for most, especially those of us in the Northern Hemisphere that love each emerging sign of spring. The month and this particular period is all the more auspicious for me and mine, as so many friends and families celebrate spring birthdays. Today happens to be mine, so send some [...]

Most weeks, we tend to focus on the movements and migrations of birds. However, with upcoming Easter and Passover festivities and America’s all-important Spring Break, now is a good time to focus on the peregrinations of people. Where are you going this weekend? Will you see birds there? Share your plans in the comments below! [...]

This odd weekend began with the end of March, which didn’t exactly go out like a lamb, and ended with the beginning of April. Only January commences with more fanfare and merriment than April. Did you enjoy any particularly amusing April Fools jokes? We’re especially interested in ones involving birds and nature. My best birds [...]

I have started a little project a few weeks ago. More precisely, I have started a project with a small goal (hence my calling it “little”) but with a long, long way to get there. I want to know – just roughly – how many birds I have seen in my life. Not how many bird [...]

Around thirty miles from Missoula in the Bitterroot Valley lies the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. Like several of my favorite NWRs, this one was established as a haven for migratory birds, most notably waterfowl, during the bad old days when uncontrolled hunting and habitat loss had put the future of even species we now [...]

The month may be winding down, but March Madness is reaching a fever pitch. Sure, college basketball is a big deal, but I’m thinking about the burgeoning spring. Think your coworkers would be up for an office pool to pick the next early migrant to arrive? Perhaps you don’t work in that kind of environment, [...]

I visited a large number of locations while staying in the Atherton tablelands, and I thought it might make sense to break my stories about them into two articles. Next week I’ll be talking about the forest parks and patches I visited, but today I’ll give the lowdown on some of the wetlands you can [...]

Jason Kessler is back with the funniest birding movie of the year. Sh*t Birders Say delivers more laughs in 3 minutes than… well, actual birding! Even the credits are amusing. Take the test: if you laugh at least twice, you are definitely a birder.

Now that late winter has eased into early spring, it seems owls are in the air. I’m hearing all kinds of owl howls, from Saw-whets at (where else?) Owl Woods and Short-eared Owls from New York to the Galapagos Islands. One birder known to many of us even had her life Barn Owl turn up [...]

Ah, spring is here (at least on my side of the world.) Rather than wax with my usual eloquence on vernal splendors, I’d like to share a silly song that always comes to mind this time of year. My kids just loved the movie Lost in the Woods by Sisbro Studios. Laura and Robert Sams [...]

Lago de Yojoa, Honduras, February 2009 Let’s say that you are a serious birder on your first trip to the neotropics and are hoping to see as many species as possible.  And let’s also say that you’ve already had a great morning field trip where you saw a ton of new birds and a filling [...]

Whoo-hoo! It is now, on 20 March 2012, spring!  Take that, southern hemisphere! Here in New York it has felt like spring for, well, to be honest, most of the winter. Though lately, with temperatures clearing seventy degrees Fahrenheit and the sun beating down it has felt more like mid-May than the vernal equinox. Whatever, [...]

Colombia is not only home to nearly 20% of all avian life on the planet but this birding mecca also accommodates an incredibly high percentage of highly sought after species. Nearly 80 species are endemic and found nowhere else in the world. Moreover, Colombia remains the best destination to see many species that are very [...]

Do people go birding while inebriated?  There is the blog The Drinking Bird, but what about the drinking birder?  Birdchick hosts Birds and Beers but that is held in bars and the birds tend to be discussed, not seen.  There is a painfully bad song called “Drunk Bird Watching” on You Tube but the only [...]

Faith and Begorrah, I’ve made it through another St. Patty’s Day without ingesting corned beef, cabbage, or green beer! My liver lingers on in the same (sorry) state in which it entered the weekend. Can you say the same? My weekend was devoted to a seemingly endless celebration of my son’s 8th birthday, which meant [...]

Oriental Plovers Charadrius veredus are a species of shorebird that we see in varying numbers around Broome and they may be on the beach, feeding on insects across the plains or at the ephemeral lakes. During February there have been astonishingly high numbers some years and this has been as a result of insect activity. [...]

Ah, nemesis birds. We crave you. We hunt for you. We make up elaborate theories as to why we haven’t seen you. And then, sometimes, we do see you. Take the Golden Eagle. This massive, magnificent raptor is not uncommon ’round these parts, and it is known to frequent roadsides and utility poles. I should [...]

Friends, birders, countrymen (and women)– lend me your ears. I come not to praise winter, but to bury it. Those of us occupying the boreal half of the planet can give Old Man Winter an exuberant sendoff this weekend, while you on the austral side can say so long to summer. How will you be observing the [...]

Change is in the air, isn’t it? All around the world, satisfaction subsides as an inevitable restlessness sets in on a cellular level. If you’re able to resist the lure of migration, you can at least pull up a seat and watch the endless waves pursue their predestined bliss. Or join in… Corey’s Best Bird [...]