If I have learned anything from living in the northern half of the United States is that in order to survive winter with my sanity in tact is that I need to eat a lot of kale, take a daily 20 minute walk (no matter how cold) and plan a trip some place warm even [...]

Contrary to what many people believe, Sydney is not the capital of Australia, and even calling it the premier city in the country might elicit angry complaints from the inhabitants of Melbourne. But it is the first and oldest city in Australia, and arguably the most scenic, sprawling (and it certainly does sprawl) around a [...]

The amazonian basin is a very important area for Ecuador since it produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day which is the main source of income for our economy.  Unfortunately only 63% of this oil is produced by state owned companies, and the 37% left is still fattening the profits of other companies that are [...]

Let me proudly introduce a new exotic bird that has been trained by the ambassador of hand feeding the most difficult skulking birds in Ecuador: the Ocellated Tapaculo. For those of you that have tried and failed to see this bird now you have a reason to visit Refugio Paz de las Aves where Angel [...]

As introductions to tropical Pacific birding go, you could do a lot worse than Fiji. Their combination of isolation and size makes them a great place to see lots of local and Pacific endemics. More importantly the airport in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) on the main island of Viti Levu is a major air hub and [...]

It is a very small antpitta that lives in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia. This antpitta is found in southern Ecuador (near Peru) and curiously also inside the Puluahua Crater which is my residence near Quito in northern Ecuador. There has been no studies that explain why this bird only resides inside our homey [...]

I don’t think I’ve ever done a post on my home patch of Cape Town, South Africa. This place is such an epic birding location that one cannot possibly do the city and its surrounds justice in one post. So I’m going to feature one of my very favorite locations, just 45 minutes drive from [...]

Last week I was doing a birding tour of the east and west slopes of Ecuador and encountered some warblers that have already made it to Ecuador.  It is really amazing how far and how fast they can fly to improve the living conditions that assure their millenarian survival.  Here are a couple of pictures [...]

Tanzania is without a doubt the quintessential African safari nation. Nowhere else in Africa do the preconceived ideas of the continent really exist in such living detail; tall, red-robed Maasai herding their skinny cattle, endless grasslands studded with flat-topped Acacia trees and grazed by herds of zebras and wildebeest, and dramatic volcanic calderas brimming with [...]

Friends, birders, and globe-trotters, lend me your ears. Better yet, offer up your eyeballs because we have a powerhouse post here that deserves, nay demands your full attention. Adam Riley, owner and managing director of Rockjumper Birding Tours, is a world birder if ever there was one, but has a special place in his heart for [...]

As someone who has a spent a week this August on a family vacation in Seattle I think that I am eminently qualified to write a full blog post on how to bird Seattle.  Actually, I am not really qualified but I can give some impressions of an East Coaster birding Seattle in August which, [...]

By the time you read this post I will still be in New York but I’ll be looking forward to leaving for the 2011 Midwest Birding Symposium in Lakeside, Ohio.  Kind of.  Mostly.  Why would I not be wholeheartedly gung-ho about going to what is unanimously and resoundingly considered an excellent, fun, exciting, star-studded, bird-filled, [...]

Long before I moved in New Zealand, or visited or even knew much about the wildlife here, way back then I knew about the Poor Knights. I knew about them because I was a scuba diver. I started diving as an undergraduate in Southampton, and being unable to travel frequently at the time I consumed [...]

If there is one thing that Kiwis care about, it’s birds. No, wait, not birds. Rugby. Kiwis care about rugby. A lot. Rugby Union, to be specific (not Rugby League) and most particularly they care about the national team, the world famous All Blacks. This makes it a particularly exciting time in New Zealand as the [...]

The Front Range of Colorado offers unique birding experiences from top to bottom. It is actually more strange than anything because each area is vastly different for multiple reasons and the sites I am thinking of are in relatively close proximity to each other. Fort Collins offers the most water in the northern tier of [...]

Here I am, back from my first ever visit to the Pacific Northwest.  We had a blast, the family and I, and experienced some amazing natural places, to say nothing of the fine city of Seattle.  To go by the numbers, I saw 79 species of bird while in Washington (150 county ticks), 21 of [...]

By the time this blog post goes live Daisy, Desi, and I will be in the Jet Blue terminal at JFK International Airport waiting to board the plane that will whisk us across the country to the land of temperate rain forests, grunge music, overpriced coffee, and Seahawks.  Because none of us have ever visited [...]

There are quite a few species of duck that nest in cavities. Most people are familiar with Wood Ducks nesting in tree cavities but Common and Hooded Mergansers, Barrow’s and Common Goldeneyes and Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are also cavity nesters. Buffleheads, being the smallest North American diving ducks, are able to nest in cavities created by the Northern Flicker with an [...]

Birdwatching and visiting the Enchanted Islands is a dream that can be materialized by many more people than one would guess. The fact is that the entire tourism industry benefiting from Darwin’s discoveries want you to believe that you must spend a small fortune to be able to realize your dream. In fact this is [...]

I often wonder what the true first colonists of Colorado had running through their minds when they first encountered the Colorado Rockies. The Native Americans had already been experiencing this poetic mountain range for generations. I imagine these explorers had the same reaction as the Lewis and Clark expedition as they moved from the tallgrass [...]