Identifying the white herons and egrets can be a challenge. We must rely mainly on structure, behavior, and the color of bare parts like bill and legs, because plumage offers very little in the way of field marks. One aspect of plumage can be very helpful, however. By looking at the shape and condition of […]
Determining the age of white egrets and herons in late summer Read More »
This is a bird sound that I recorded in August in Massachusetts. Listen to the recording and see if you can guess what it is. Some hints are below, and when you’re ready just follow the link for the answer. click to Read the Answer Hints It is a small bird, but larger than a
A little-known bird sound Read More »
The flippant answer is “…because they look alike”, and they can be very alike. Most of what you read about yellowlegs will tell you to look at bill length to distinguish the species. The bill of Greater Yellowlegs is actually longer (50 mm or more, compared to Lesser’s 40 mm or less) but birders deal
Why are Yellowlegs hard to identify? Read More »
Not really. A recently-published study used high-speed video of hummingbirds hovering in simulated rain to investigate questions of how hard it is to stay airborne while simultaneously getting wet (and heavier) and getting pelted with water drops that must be a significant blow to their 4 gram bodies. The conclusion is that the birds have
Is it hard for hummingbirds to hover in the rain? Read More »
Thanks to reader Skip Pothier for sending in these photos. They show a Purple Finch with yellow color instead of red. My first thought was to call it a male that didn’t develop the full red pigment (a similar variant due to poor diet and/or poor health is fairly common in male House Finches) but
A Yellow Purple Finch in Ontario Read More »
With the annual publication of the supplement to the AOU checklist, here is a listing of the changes to names in the Sibley Guide to Birds. There were a lot of other changes announced to names of neotropical birds, which are not discussed here. There were also some big changes in the sequence of species
Name changes of birds in the 2012 AOU supplement Read More »
It turns out that trees not only communicate through fungal networks in their roots, they also pass nutrients around from tree to tree, even between species! The fungi (many species) grow in contact with the roots of the tree, enjoying the steady source of carbohydrates that the tree has produced, and in exchange giving the
An interesting study published recently found that cowbirds in bright sunlight were slower to detect predators, and cowbirds in shade were quicker. The study concludes that the delay happens because the cowbirds are slightly disabled by the glare of the bright sun. Could this explain why small birds are hard to find in bright sunny
Birds slow to react to predators because… the sun gets in their eyes Read More »
Here is a photo of a white heron, taken by Constance Mier on the main shoreline of Biscayne Bay National Park, near Miami, Florida, on May 25, 2012. You can see more of Constance’s photos at her webpage: http://cmierphotoandfitness.net/myphotos.html [mtouchquiz 49]
The painting featured here was done during my recent birding workshop at the Pine Butte Guest Ranch in Montana, and is being auctioned to support the great work of Kate Davis’s Raptors of the Rockies program. The auction will run until Sunday evening, June 17th, and can be seen in the sidebar to the right.
The joy of finger-painting Read More »