Shawn Billerman is a graduate student at the University of Wyoming studying birds, though his degree will likely use fancier words than that. He is a New Yorker, a great birder, and a nice guy. You may remember him spotting a shrike in Brooklyn from the passenger seat of Corey’s car back in December. Though [...]

I know it’s dangerous to title a post “Birds From Behind” during “Bird Love Week” but I have to admit… it’s kind of the point. I’m getting swept up and unduly influenced by duck anatomy and countless pictures of avian copulation. But in all seriousness, this post is actually about those moments that seem to [...]

Life is a lottery, and some folks are born with more substantial… attributes than others. If you’re feeling insecure about certain aspects of your personal topography, you’re certainly not alone. Humans are hardly the only organisms that look for more in prospective mates than just loyalty, kindness, and a great sense of humor. Birds in particular can become [...]

Living in Northern California offers nature lovers many opportunities to view wildlife in their native habitat. Living near the Sacramento River and its many lakes and tributaries makes it even more likely to see the incredible fish hawk or sea eagle we call the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). Click on photos for full sized images. Osprey [...]

There are plenty of famous courtship performances in the bird world; those of the lyrebirds, the birds-of-paradise, the manakins. It would be hard to describe these performances as being about love, however. They are often too quick, too frenetic, and lead to a union so brief if you blink you’lll miss it. You won’t find love here anymore [...]

Here is my contribution to Bird Love Week from the tropics.  The Maroon-tailed Parakeet lives in northern South America.  In Ecuador it is found mostly in the tropical and sub-tropical forest of the east and west slopes.  It is probably the most commonly seen parakeet encountered in the slopes but it is not always easily [...]

Most encounters people have with turkeys either involve a dead, roasted bird on a dinner table or sliced turkey between two pieces of bread. Neither are very attractive. Of course, a live male Wild Turkey isn’t generally considered very attractive to people either, with the big hairy “beard” growing from their chest and caruncles and [...]

The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) is one of the largest flying birds on the planet, topped only by the Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) and, possibly in some cases, by the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor). But what is even more spectacular than the sheer size of this bird, is its absolutely crazy lekking display. This last [...]

The subjects of love, sex and relationships have transfixed people for longer than we can possibly know. The many different ways people carry out their love lives are a celebration to some, and an abomination to others…and no matter if we approve or not, it makes for great gossip. Everyone has an opinion on monogamy, [...]

Warning, if you can’t tell by the title of the post, it’s going to get a little blue in this post. Most of us have heard the song, “Birds Do It, Bees Do It” but have you every really thought about how a bird fits tab A into slot B? Let’s look at the equipment. [...]

Whilst leading a birding tour to Sri Lanka, I spotted a flash of bright white in a lily-choked wetland near Ambalantota in the south-east of this verdant island. A bright flash of white caught my attention in this lilly-choked wetland  Closer investigation revealed a stunning male Pheasant-tailed Jacana perched atop a female. Our excitement at [...]

American Oystercatchers, with their orange, carrot-like bills and piercing cries, are a familiar sight on the east coast of the United States. It is the rare beach-goer who fails to take notice of the birds if they are present and it is even more rare for someone to notice them and fail to think that [...]

It’s clear that birds copulate, procreate, and promote their genes with alacrity. But love? Do birds feel love? Can they? To explore this question, it’s probably best to first define love. Love includes elements of need, but primarily those of affection. It’s an attachment to another being that inspires deep longing and desire to be [...]

Purple Swamphens are large gallinules and despite their name they are not actually “purple”, but it’s amazing what you can get away with when naming birds! They are a magnificent blue with a red frontal shield and stout bill. We have discovered that they are more likely to show their “love” for each other in [...]

I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. -Emily Dickinson This week of posts will either win great acclaim or great notoriety. Or perhaps both. Birds, like all adaptive organisms, are slaves to what is perhaps the most well known of the biological imperatives – reproduction. But, of course, birds [...]

The Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus is an unassuming thrush to look at.  Guttatus is Latin for “speckled” and the Hermit Thrush is certainly speckled on white below, with a brown back, a wagging rufous tail, pink legs and white eye ring.  It is not the only Catharus thrush with spots and it is horribly disappointing [...]

This unhappy-looking tar baby is covered with a green, environmentally-friendly product called Tanglefoot. It is a non-drying, sticky compound that is used to protect trees by forming a barrier against climbing insects. Normally it might not be a problem, but last October a farmer in upstate New York spread it on an apple tree so [...]

I live near a highway. All winter, I almost never went west on that road, only east, but a couple of times I did go west. And, in a tree off to the right in that direction, I noticed a mass of stuff that resembled a Bald Eagle’s nest as much as any mass of [...]

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY, April 2010 Everyone knows that New York City is an extremely expensive place to live.  If one is lucky enough to find a place that one likes one must often pay in rent per month what would easily be a mortgage payment in a more sane part of the [...]

April, while not as exciting a migratory month as May is in the northeastern United States, is still a great time of year to see migrating birds. Wood-warblers, those brightly-colored attention-whores of spring, have most birders swooning, but their numbers don’t really pick up until May. Sparrows, on the other hand, seem to make the [...]