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There is no better place in New York State to see both Cerulean and Hooded Warblers than Doodletown Road in Rockland County. Wait, Doodletown? Corey’s gone off the deep end and is just making stuff now isn’t he? No, I’m not, and if you want evidence, well, Mike visited this Important Bird […]

Blue-winged Warbler Vermivora pinus
Sterling Forest, New York, May 2008

A bird of shrubby second-growth habitat on its northeastern U.S. breeding grounds, the beautiful Blue-winged Warbler winters mainly in Mexico to Panama (rarely in the Caribbean) and has been discovered to be newly wintering in Bermuda.

Like many shrubland bird species the Blue-winged Warbler is showing population declines […]

Golden-winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera
Sterling Forest, New York, May 2006 and May 2008

The beautiful Golden-winged Warbler is a long-distance migrant between the New World tropics (it winters from central Guatemala southward into the northwestern tip of South America) and eastern North America where it breeds mainly in shrubby habitats, often with scattered trees and at the […]

I started a recent post (Magic Hedge, Chicago) with the following paragraph: “There are few times of the year more exciting in the North American birding calendar than the middle weeks of May. Why should this be? The spring sales in birding stores perhaps? The best time to get a bargain on new binoculars? Maybe […]

There are few times of the year more exciting in the North American birding calendar than the middle weeks of May. Why should this be? The spring sales in birding stores perhaps? The best time to get a bargain on new binoculars? Maybe - I have no idea to be honest…but frankly if you’re looking […]

On Sunday, after returning from upstate, I hustled out the door as soon as I got home and made tracks for Forest Park. The local listservs had been loaded with reports of great birds in Manhattan and Brooklyn but hardly anything had been reported out of Queens. Somehow I doubted that the flood […]

On my hours-long birding excursion in Central Park yesterday one of the highlights was seeing many Palm Warblers all over the grassy areas wherever people weren’t. The bright yellow of the eastern form, which was all I saw today, was a sight for sore eyes after far too long without the presence of the […]

When Daisy and I visit her sister Julia and her brother-in-law Andrew there is a certain unwritten rule that we put into effect. Whenever the women want to go shopping Andrew and I go and do something else. The afternoon of New Year’s Eve was the perfect example. While the gals went off to buy […]

The Butterbutt, or, more properly, the Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata) is one of the most common warblers in North America. The reason for their common name is pretty obvious, but if you need an explanation just look at the little thumbnail to the right. Here in the eastern part of the continent we have the […]

So far this year in New York I have seen Red-eyed Vireos, White-eyed Vireos, Warbling Vireos, Yellow-throated Vireos and Blue-headed Vireos. The Philadelphia Vireo, which nests much further north and only in scattered locations in the Adirondacks, has eluded me. Eluded me, that is, until Sunday.
On Sunday morning at 6:30 AM a fellow […]

…Warblers.
At least this year. What other reaction can I have to the evil little bird snubbing me at Central Park, avoiding me at Floyd Bennett Field, and leaving me standing in the rain for two hours at Muttontown Preserve? That’s right, Muttontown Preserve. But before I get to the whole sordid story let me […]

On an early morning bird-stroll at Five Rivers this week I was hoping for flocks of warblers. I didn’t get any. I did, however, see many Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows, and House Wrens. The highlight of the morning was an American Bittern that flushed from a pond and flew off far too […]

It seems like Tennessee, Bay Breasted and Cape May Warblers are being reported a bit more often than usual this fall migration. I realized this when, on the same day that Will, Zack, and I found a Bay-breasted Warbler and a Tennessee Warbler in the same foraging flock at Vischer Ferry, my friend Tom […]

Much ado has been made about the confusing nature of wood-warblers on their way south in the fall. They no longer have the distinctive colors and markings of breeding plumage and juveniles with their even more obscure plumages are thrown into the mix. Usually, however, with a decent enough look at a wood-warbler […]

No, this isn’t a post about Skid Row…but rather a post about the plethora of young creatures out and about in the wide world for the first time. As I type this I can hear the flock of neighborhood House Sparrows chirping away in front of my apartment, a flock that enjoyed great success […]

Mount Royal Park/Parc du Mont Royal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
14 May 2007
 

 
To quote from Easy Expat, “Montreal is located on Montreal Island in the Hochelaga Archipelago, where the Ottawa River flows into the St. Lawrence River. The archipelago has more than 320 islands and about one-third of it is occupied by the city proper, which covers […]

Red Warbler Ergaticus ruber
Desierto de los Leones, Mexico City. 26 March 2005 and 24 March 2007

The dazzingly beautiful Red Warbler, a Mexican endemic found in oak-pine woodland between 2000 and 3500m, is common at Desierto de Los Leones (just outside Mexico City) where it’s distinctive “pseet” call is one of the commoner sounds along the […]

Crescent-chested Warbler Parula superciliosa
Desierto de los Leones, Mexico City. 24 March 2007

The beautiful Crescent-chested Warbler, usually placed in the genus Parula with the Northern and Tropical Parulas but sometimes in Vermivora with eg Orange-crowned and Virgnia’s Warblers, is a resident of montane oak-pine and mixed softwood forests of northern Mexico to Nicaragua. Some seasonal migration […]

Desierto de los Leones Recreational Park, Mexico City
24 March 2007

>Mexico City is located near the southern end of the plateau of Anáhuac, at an altitude of c.7,800 ft (2,380 m). The horizons of the city are almost obscured by mountain barriers, and the peaks of Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl are not far off. The climate […]

Townsend’s Warbler Dendroica townsendi
Cascade Creek (near Ano Nuevo State Reserve), California. January 2007

On the 11th of January 2007 I had the most memorable two hours birding I’ve had for a long time watching wintering warblers feeding at very close range over a thick pile of rotting sprouts in a field at Cascade Creek close to […]