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An intrepid New York City birder has been keeping tabs on an Ovenbird that has apparently decided to make the attempt to spend the winter in Bryant Park this year.  This birder has also been kind enough to keep the rest of the New York City birding community aware of the Ovenbird through the wonder [...]

Back in September 2004, I reviewed what has remained my favorite instructional birding video of all time, Watching Warblers by filmmakers Michael Male and Judy Fieth. This extravaganza of eastern North American wood-warblers included a preview of its sequel, Watching Warblers WEST. Unfortunately, Male and Fieth hadn’t concluded production of that video in 2004. It [...]

This fall was surprisingly great in Queens in terms of the fall foliage.  Brilliant yellows competed with rich reds for the eye’s attention and when a migrating bird paused in front of such colors, well, one could barely help but to gasp with wonder on occasion.  And though the species that are featured below are [...]

It is near the end of wood-warbler migration in New York City; the hordes of Yellow-rumped Warblers have descended upon us and it has been quite some time since earlier migrants like Worm-eating Warbler have been reported.  Now is the time of Blackpoll Warblers, Palm Warblers, and small amounts of late lingering migrants sprinkled in, [...]

I thought that this quiz might be a bit easier than previous diabolical identification quizzes and I think I was right.  Not that I am trying to downplay the sheer brilliance of Jason, who managed to build off of Jochen’s two-and-a-half correct answers and get all four right (amazing, simply amazing)!  Maybe my diabolicity is [...]

Ah, the first day of September.  The air was crisp, clean and cool after overnight northerly winds, and the trees in Forest Park were alive with migrant wood-warblers that had been a couple of hundred miles north a mere twelve hours earlier.  As I strolled through the park the high-pitched twitterings of a big flock [...]

A million colors come with spring but one particular shade of blue bedevils the imaginations of northeastern American birders this time of year: cerulean. Actually, this lovely hue only matters when it adorns the plumage of the dynamic Dendroica cerulea, better known as the Cerulean Warbler.
Seth and I have both seen ceruleans before but, like [...]

Surprisingly for a country with over 720 bird species on its list, Guatemala doesn’t have any species to call its very own. Endemic, however, may be in the eye of the beholder. The Endemic Bird Area (EBA) BirdLife International has designated North Central American Highlands shelters 20 extant restricted-range species. Some of the rarest [...]

As always, the “Just for Fun Avian ID Quiz” is brought to you by Jory Langner, our esteemed Avian Quizmaster.
Brrrr.  It’s cold out there.  It’s winter in North America now, no time for long quizzes, no lounging around in the park or on your back porch.  It just cold and time to be quick about [...]

This past Monday, Will and his wife Danika were going to drive down from Albany and pick me up at 7 AM for a birding expedition to Long Island’s barrier beaches, hoping to find a variety of migrants.  Their car’s tire had other ideas, however, so I was awake at 6:15 in the morning, jonesin’ [...]

At Fort Tilden on Sunday the most cooperative Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) entertained us birders who were there in search of rarities for at least ten minutes.  We could have stayed longer, and would have, under almost any other circumstances, but we had rarities to chase and really, considering the looks and pictures we [...]

Saturday was sunny and cool, the perfect combination for autumn birding.  I spent all morning at Jamaica Bay and had a great time (more on that tomorrow).  Especially great was seeing twelve species of wood-warbler, one of my best days of wood-warbler watching all fall.  Other than the hordes of Yellow-rumped Warblers that have returned [...]

I thought waking up in the dark on a Sunday morning and getting on the subway at 6 AM to join Charlie for some birding was a heck of a task, that is, until I found out that Charlie had just flown in from London yesterday, which he had arrived at from Chicago the day [...]

Back in Chicago a little over five months since I was last here - and back at Montrose Point, home of the ‘Magic Hedge’ and a magnet for both birds and birders. When I was here in May of course I was looking for migrant warblers and sparrows: this time I was on a search [...]

Mike’s post “Where will you be birding this first week of September” reminded me that while North American birders are looking forward to seeing catharus thrushes, grosbeaks, tanagers and wood-warblers etc, birders on this side of the Atlantic are looking forward to seeing, well…catharus thrushes, grosbeaks, tanagers, and - er, wood warblers actually. Yes, [...]

This quiz might have been too hard.  My father even mentioned that he agreed with Jack, the first guesser in this near-impossible-to-answer quiz when Jack typed “The challenge here is not to ID the first bird, but to find it!”  So those who guessed incorrectly should feel good despite their wrongness that they managed to [...]

I’m going to pretend for a bit that the identification of drably-plumaged, migrating fall warblers moving through treetops, hiding behind leaves, and using the sun against the birder isn’t hard enough.  You know, because finding and identifying warblers with sometimes-cryptic field marks while trying to avoid the pain of warbler neck is simply too easy.  [...]

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 [...]