Powder down and the Black-crowned Night-Heron
In a footnote here I mentioned that blackish feathers can appear gray because of powder down, and now I will offer a little more explanation.
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Does Cattle Egret have a dark morph?
On 18 May 1987, while birding at Cape May, NJ, I came across a small group of Cattle Egrets foraging in a field. Accompanying them was the bird in the photos below. In shape and behavior it was identical to all of the other Cattle Egrets, but its head and neck were mostly dark grayish.
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Thailand Sandpiper Info Center – Grand Opening
Thanks to all who donated (and to Audubon California for facilitating), the Sandpiper Information Center at Pak Thale is ready for its grand opening on 26 June! The center will be managed by the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand and will provide information about Spoon-billed Sandpipers and other rare species for visiting birders and local
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Bird names in French
I’ve just posted a complete list of French names for North American birds. This is the first step towards adding French names to the eGuide. Please let me know of any corrections. Thanks!
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A Mystery Sound
23 Jun 2011 – Concord, MA Sitting at my desk today I was roused by a bird call that I did not immediately recognize. This is a very rare occurrence for me, especially at my house where I spend many hours every day, and I know the birds that are here very well. As the
The new Wood-Warbler taxonomy
No more Dendroica? If you’re connected to the birding grapevine, you’ve probably already heard that the AOU has rearranged the species of Wood-Warblers (Family Parulidae) and that the genera Parula, Wilsonia, and Dendroica are gone, merged into other genera. ((These changes won’t become official until published in the next month or so, but it’s unlikely
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An apparent hybrid Yellow-billed x Common Loon
On 9 Jun 1987 I was leading a WINGS tour group at Churchill, Manitoba, and we chartered a small boat to go out on the river for an hour or so to see Belugas and look for birds. During this trip I spotted a distant loon on the water, which struck me as being large
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Optical illusions and bird identification
Here is a classic optical illusion – the three horizontal lines in the image below are all the same length. Yes, they are identical (move your cursor over the image to see the proof). I’ve been pondering this illusion and wondering how often we see similar effects in bird identification. I suspect that a lot
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Blackberry eGuide updates
The Blackberry app has been updated again today: Blackberry Update Version 4.1.0 – 7 Jun 2011 Blackberry-style theme (replaces “90′s DOS style” interface) Improved smart search Improved support for touch-enabled devices Improved support for native text auto-complete This follows an update on 27 May 2011 which included the following changes: Added “My Location” Global filter by
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New efforts to save Spoon-billed Sandpiper
There is more evidence of the dire situation with Spoon-billed Sandpiper – efforts are currently underway to develop a captive-breeding population. A team led by staff from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) and Birds Russia, along with several other international organizations, is currently in Siberia working to locate and capture a small number of
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