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Mark Carter is an independent professional birding guide and wildlife surveyor living in Alice Springs, Central Australia. Originally from Scotland, Mark has lived and worked in continental Europe and North Africa before settling in Australia’s “Red Centre” to work for the Northern Territory Parks Service. In 2008 Mark founded the annual Red Centre Bird Week [...]

Yes, it is that time again!  Now that I have added ten more birds to my Queens life list we must revisit the list and predict my next ten birds in Queens (and see how my last set of predictions turned out).   Queens, the finest borough in New York City, as I may have mentioned [...]

It was Saturday afternoon.  I was chatting on the phone about blog stuff with Mike, as we tend to do, when he heard what must have been a string of incomprehensible babble before the line went dead.  What had happened? I had spotted a Turkey Vulture!  Well, I had looked out the sliding glass door [...]

Looking for a place to initiate discussion or share something random yet compelling related to birds, birding, nature, or conservation? You’ve found it. Welcome to our Weekly Wednesday Open Thread! Don’t be too rude, crude, or commercial. Otherwise, have at it! Use the comments section to tell everyone what’s on your mind today. I’ll start the [...]

“Drab, but with yellow on face” is how the Yellow-browed Sparrow is described in The Birds of Ecuador.  While that is a fair, if maybe a bit harsh, description of Ammodramus aurifrons, I prefer to describe the lovely sparrow with slightly different words.  Words indicative of devotion and desirability.  Words like awesome, astounding, and amazing.  [...]

On 3 July, just under four months ago, I published a blog post predicting the next ten birds I would add to my all-time Queens list and promising to revisit the topic when I found ten more birds.  Well, yesterday I added four more species for Queens meaning that since my last post I have [...]

On Tuesday morning, after being a New York-based birder for five years and several months, I finally saw a Yellow-breasted Chat in New York State.*  It was the 353rd bird checked off my New York State checklist and one of the few regularly occurring and expected birds left for me to see in the Empire [...]

It was in September of last year, ten months ago, that I last wrote a post specifically dedicated to my life list of birds seen in my home borough, Queens.  Since then I have added an impressive 23 birds to my Queens list, swelling it to 258.*  Unfortunately for me, my arch-nemesis when it comes [...]

On a recent lunch break spent birding in Central Park rumors of both an early Blue-winged Warbler and an Al Levantin being present reached my ears.  Now, it is easy to explain why I wanted to see the Blue-winged Warbler; I am a birder and birders want to see birds.  But why did I want [...]

If one were to draw a distinction between birders and bird watchers — and I don’t necessarily agree that such a separation must be devised — a clear divide between the camps would be a love of listing. The general consensus is that birding and listing, like Snow Buntings and Horned Larks feeding on a [...]

As is my wont at year end, it’s time to ruminate on my previous 52 weeks of avian observation (as well as recycle copy from the previous year’s ponderings!) A year list is a lovely thing, both as a running account of birds gone by and a driving motivation to seek out more of the [...]

According to eBird my life list in Queens County, New York, which is geographically identical to the Borough of Queens, one-fifth of New York City, currently stands at exactly 235 species.  This ranks me third in terms of life lists in Queens on eBird, behind the North Fork Audubon Society, which hardly seems fair, seeing [...]

We received a rather interesting question from a reader recently that frankly left us at a loss. This one isn’t about birds but rather birders, one in particular. Whenever we’re stumped by a worthy query, we rely on your wisdom so here’s a significantly redacted version of the initial inquiry, edited to obscure sensitive information: [...]

When it’s a Piranga species tanager, obviously. Have you heard the news? The Fiftieth Supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds, published in the July 2009 issue of The Auk, is bursting with taxonomic and nomenclatural changes that will wreak havoc on your life lists and possibly knock your birding world [...]

While we love blathering on about life list around here, one that I wrote about last week was all about someone else’s life birds as opposed to my own. But what a life list it was! Of course, I’m talking about Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds, the biography of [...]

I’ve finally done it!  More than a year and a half since my first foray into international birding I finally decided on a checklist, figured out what birds I have seen, and put them in taxonomic order with date and location information from my first sighting for the whole world to see!  You can check [...]

As is my wont at year end, it’s time to ruminate on my previous 52 weeks of avian observation. A year list is a lovely thing, both as a running account of birds gone by and a driving motivation to seek out more of the same. Every time a glorious new year begins, the counter [...]

Winter gets a bad rap, not just for inclement, often intolerable weather but also for an apparent lack of biodiversity. True, most vegetation in temperate zones shuts down but as far as bird species go, the shorter months tend to be long on birds we just don’t see during the rest of the year. Here [...]

On this lovely Labor Day, we might do well to examine our exertions, motivations, and the fruits thereof. In my daily inquiries into how to further maximize my happiness (like the bluesmen of old, I can’t be satisfied) I’ve stumbled upon a fascinating concept that explains a great deal about the insatiable nature of most [...]

I finally have it up and online! But what is an ABA life list? It is the list of birds that I have encountered that meet the criteria to be included on my list in the ABA area. Wait, what? Well, the ABA is the American Birding Association, and they have a somewhat complicated (but [...]