While waxing eloquent about the Red-bellied Woodpecker, I described the male of the species as red from his nape to his lores. His lores? I’m sure that many readers wondered where exactly these lores are. Well, I’m glad that you asked. Remember, we’re all learning together here.  Let this be our first lesson in ornithological [...]

We erroneously dubbed the Northern Bobwhite we recently spotted at Bombay Hook our first gallinaceous bird. It is correct that the northern bobwhite is gallinaceous, but so are the Wild Turkey, Ocellated Turkey, Willow Ptarmigan, Spruce Grouse, Plain Chachalaca, and Crested Guan, which are also on our list. It is more accurate to say that [...]

One British reviewer said of our site that “It’s written more stylishly that (sic) your average anorak’s blog.”  That’s nice and all, but what is an anorak? That’s easy, say the fashion-inclined out there.  An anorak is a jacket, or more specifically a heavy, waterproof jacket with a hood.  Lots of birders wear anoraks when [...]

The birding family tree bears many twisted branches from feederwatchers to world birders. Yet, few are considered as twisted as the slavering hordes of ‘listers’ and ‘twitchers’. As a card-carrying member, I should know. You probably already know that a lister is a birder who keeps track of birds spotted through the use of checklists [...]