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This great bird has managed to escape from my sightings until I visited the great lodge of Tundaloma.  This Ecuadorian owned business provides a very comfortable and secure lodge to visit the most northern-western Chocó area in Ecuador. It is located on the highway that goes from Ibarra to San Lorenzo and it is approximately [...]

Ok so I missed posting in Bird Love Week because I came down with a horrible flu. No wait, that was the excuse I used last time. This time it was because I had to attend to a “family emergency”. Mike and Corey (the guys that keep us all in line here at 10,000 Birds) are probably reading this and saying, “Yeah right”. I would respond by saying it doesn’t matter what my excuse is because what I’m about to share is freakin owlsome! Even if it is several weeks late and all the animal love voyeurs have stopped visiting the site.

The Puluahaua crater is a unique collapsed caldera formed about 2500 years ago.  It is unique in many ways including its bird life an it is part of our national reserves.  I am not a big fan of Owls because they require nocturnal searching and it is very difficult to find them.  In the three [...]

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 [...]

Apparently, once you remove all those feathers, a Great Grey Owl looks a heck of a lot like a vulture. Note to self: do not remove feathers from owls.

The Adirondack Mountains of New York State, March 2007 Daisy and I took advantage of her spring break and one of my precious vacation days to spend the day birding in the Adirondacks. Normally students on spring break wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from the bright tropical sun in some place like Cancun. Not [...]

The most common owls in the world are also in the Galapagos Islands and are considered subspecies that only occur in Galapagos, so one could almost say they are endemic subspecies. The Barn Owl subspecies is the Tyto alba punctatissima and can be found on Isabela, Santa Cruz, Fernandida, Santiago, San Cristobal, Pinta, and maybe [...]

The most mystical birds we all long to see and know well are most often the most difficult to find. It is part of their biology that makes not only plumage, but behavior, cryptic. These adaptations for avoiding predators has allowed most species of owls to flourish in their own habitat albeit, with reclusive habits. [...]

Will and I had spoken on Sunday and agreed to go owling on Tuesday night. We had both failed at checking off Eastern Screech-Owl or Great Horned Owl on our New York lists so far in 2007 so we figured we’d take a shot at tracking down either silent nocturnal killer. Before Will picked me [...]

Things you may not know, but should: 1.) There is an International Festival of Owls. 2.) They give out a “Champion of Owls” award. 3.) This year, that award was presented to Denver Holt, a Montana scientist and bird guide and thus, if I may be presumptuious, my homeboy. I like to imagine his expression [...]

Fresh off one of the most adrenaline-pumping posts about eagles I’ve ever read, Goldeneagle Cooper at Tezini turns his ornithological eye toward the awesomeness of owls. What’s not to love?

Eastern Screech-Owls sleep all day. That makes why this bird had its head poking out of its box when we drove by it in Vosburgh Marsh in Greene County, New York, a good question. Wouldn’t you be grumpy if a carload of birders pulled over and decided to take your picture while you were sleeping? [...]

This post comes courtesy of Mrs Gannet who became rather taken with the Little Owl when we found him in Mote Park last month. It has recently been sitting proudly outside his hole in a great oak on the lawns in front of the big house and gave me the opportunity for some photos at last. [...]

Phenology is a vital science. Among other things, it has provided some of the earliest and most compelling evidence for global warming. It also lends itself to the interested amateur; all you need is a notebook and a willingness to observe. But good phenology is hard. It requires an ability to look at the familiar [...]

Snowy Owls are iconic birds. You rarely find a person – birder or non – who doesn’t want to take a good long look at a bright white owl. And, of course, you rarely meet a photographer who doesn’t want to take a good close picture of a bright white owl. On Saturday, as has [...]

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for owls. Wander through my front door and glance upwards and you’ll find at least two watching you, a Tawny Owl and a Barn Owl, both sadly gathered as roadkills. Above our fireplace is a large painting of a Barn Owl. The current header image of [...]

Western Screech-Owl (Megascops kennicottii) photos by Larry Jordan It’s been an interesting winter in my neck of the woods. Birders in Northern California have been treated to rare sightings of several species, sending avid twitchers from all over the west in our direction. There is a Falcated Duck at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, Mountain Plovers and Northern Waterthrush near Sutter [...]

The image that made me look hardest in this year’s Digiscoper of the Year 2011 competition was that of a Little Owl (Athene noctua) by Mario Cea taken at night! Digiscoping is normally hard enough during the day and action shots with good light are doubly tough, but this was the first time I had [...]

New York has its famous Red-tailed Hawks Pale Male and, until recently, Lola. Cambridge, Mass has a celebrity raptor pair, too. Last winter, a pair of Great Horned Owls took up residence in a spiny locust (?) tree near The Dell in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. The nest was so tiny, flimsy and low to the ground that [...]

I’ve long felt that birders, as a group, should have a greater appreciation for the book as a physical object – all those years of choosing field guides that have high-quality color prints and will hold up to rough use ought to lead in that direction. Looking at a book like Barn Owl by David [...]