An organization called the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) has been working since 1991 on the challenging task of creating a standard set of the English names of the birds of the world. Their assertion is that names based on logical rules and consensus should aid clear and crisp communication among global stakeholders such as birders, [...]

While green is rather common color in avian plumage, it rarely attains the flamboyance of a parrot’s chartreuse or the emerald of a hummingbird. More birds are adorned in more practical, which is to say muted tones. One rather colorful name for a stock yet sober shade of green is olivaceous. Olivaceous means just [...]

I’ve been very fortunate in the four years I’ve been blogging to have received a fair few comments congratulating me on the photographs I’ve taken. I’m very grateful of course, but I have to say that given the opportunities I get from travelling the world with my airline job I’d be a poor photographer indeed [...]

Throughout history, innumerable adventurers, merchants, rum runners, and real estate moguls have been entranced by the inexorable pull of the sea. The entrancing tidal influence has infected quite a few birders in that time as well. The attraction is not immediately obvious. After all, where are the trees, tall grass, and other trappings of [...]

Corey’s great post on “Butterbutts” (a colloquial name for the Yellow-rumped Warbler) reminded me of two questions I’m often asked by new birders: what’s the point of scientific names and do I need to know them?

It’s a reasonable thing to ask, especially given how much there is to learn when you start birding anyway. They [...]

Like every other specialized activity, the noble pursuit of bird watching has accumulated its own collection of jargon, slang, and scientific vocabulary. Fortunately, there’s not too much to learn. If we all pull together, pretty soon we’ll be talking like the pros.
What is pishing?
One of the most important and perhaps inscrutable words in birding parlance [...]

Go to any website or forum about birding - or for that matter open up any bird book or magazine - and eventually you’ll come across the term ‘LBJ’. Often loosely tossed into the discussion with a dismissive “It was just another LBJ”, there’s rarely much information to tell you just what an ‘LBJ’ actually [...]

In the photo below - taken in Vancouver, Canada on September 31st - there are six ducks. So far, so straightforward - but how many species are there and what sex are they? One species - the Mallard, two males (drakes) and four females perhaps? Or a mixed bag of indeterminate mallard-like birds which could [...]

Read enough birding trip reports on this or any other site and you’re sure to hear about peeps. Birders run into peeps all the time, so you can be sure the term does not refer to those sickly-sweet marshmallow chicks that only spring up around Easter. Nor is this term restricted to teens talking about [...]

As far as color terms go, vermilion is a winner, reeking of exoticism and antiquity. As fine as this color feels tripping off the tongue, it’s even easier on the eyes. Vermilion refers to a specific shade of reddish-orange washed with ashy gray, reminiscent of an overripe beefsteak tomato. This is the pigment derived from [...]

Although the title to this post may be incomprehensible (think Brylcreem,) its topic is straightforward. For birders, the word ‘dabble’ usually calls to mind ducks. Why ducks? Because there are two kinds of ducks in this world: the dabbling kind and the diving kind.
Dabbling ducks are not, as the name might imply, the dilettantes of [...]

Corey’s great report about his visit to the Adirondacks used the word ’skulking’, which reminded both him and Mike of a post I wrote a while back which discussed the meaning of several words us birders regularly use to describe birds that are hard to see. As you’re transferring everything over from your old blog, [...]

I spend a fair bit of time surfing and flicking through various Bird Fora/Forums, and it’s striking how many queries there are from birders all over the world who’ve been completely stumped by finding an odd duck on their local pond or marsh that doesn’t seem to resemble anything in their bird books.

We’ve all been [...]

Ah, emerald! That brilliant beryl, birthstone of May and the most valuable gemstone, by weight, in the world, shines with a green so pure and bright that only the most verdant lands dare claim its name. The color emerald looks as fine in a feather as it does in a jewel. In Central and [...]

Ah rose, the color of swanky gardens and rampant optimism. Rose by any other name also appears prominently in the plumage of some very perky birds. Rosy, a proper adjectival form of the word, describes a selection of finches from the genus Leucosticte. Of the four rosy finches, lovely earth-toned birds anointed with stark pink [...]

The idiomatic expression “for the birds“ is common enough to crop up in everyday conversation. One hears it all the time: “This pizza is for the birds!” “The Mets are for the birds!” “Lying, fascist, ideologue politicians are for the birds!” You probably get the point. This phrase is obviously negative in connotation, meaning [...]

Readers of my recent disquisition of the color buff may have been surprised to learn of so many terms for yellow-brown in the English language. Equally astonishing, you may agree, is the abundance of options for describing brownish-yellow. But linguistic specificity allows for clarity of expression. Why say “happy” when you’re actually feeling blissful, [...]

Of all the subtle shades and tones of the natural world, one of the most dominant yet least recognized colors has to be buff. Located in virtually every terrestrial habitat and adorning multitudes of animals, buff is featured prominently in nature’s palette This soft, subtle color walks a fine line between yellow and brown, [...]

Birding shares an inextricable connection to ornithology and taxonomy. Once you endeavor to put a species name to each avian face, the full weight of the Linnean hierarchical naming structure, with its hydra-headed orders, families, and genera, will eventually come crashing down on you. Armed with this collection of the taxonomic tags birders use to [...]

When I demanded of my friend what viands he preferred,
He quoth: “A large cold bottle, and a small hot bird!”
- Eugene Field, The Bottle and the Bird
One needn’t be restricted to the culinary arena to enjoy the pairing of wine and bird. I recommend that you start looking outside your kitchen for such delights. A [...]