In early March 2009 it was my pleasure to spend a few days in California at the San Diego Bird Festival. On my first morning in San Diego I headed straight out to the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve hoping to spend a few hours studying Savannah Sparrows (who wouldn’t, right?). I had seen […]
Identification of Belding’s Savannah Sparrow Read More »
[10 July 2009 – update added at end] In July 1990 I spent several weeks birding in west-central British Columbia, where Pine Siskins were one of the most conspicuous birds, and I became convinced that Pine Siskins were copying the sounds of other species of birds and incorporating these sounds into their songs. I was
Vocal copying by Pine Siskins Read More »
Coincidentally, just days after my last post about the two White-fronted Geese in Concord, two White-fronted Geese showed up in Amherst, Massachusetts (about 60 miles west of Concord, but not the same birds) that appear to be one Greenland and one North American type. James Smith has some discussion and really nice photos on his
More on identification of Greenland White-fronts Read More »
The Greenland Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser frontalis flavirostris) is known to be a rare visitor to northeastern North America, but I have never been satisfied with a reliable, objective way of distinguishing it from the North American subspecies of Greater White-fronted Goose, also a rare visitor to the northeast. Bill color is the most frequently-mentioned
Identification tips for Greenland Greater White-fronted Goose Read More »
The primary challenge of distinguishing Canada from Cackling Goose centers on the intermediate-sized ‘Lesser’ Canada Goose, B. c. parvipes, which reportedly nests across the boreal forest regions of western Canada and interior Alaska (more details on my website here). I’ve seen a few birds that I thought were ‘Lesser’ in the northeast over the years,
Lesser Canada Goose in the northeastern US Read More »
My last post “How many rare birds do we miss?“, was simply getting at the idea that we can miss something glaringly obvious if we are not looking for it. A popular psychology quote goes “I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it”. In the case of the moon-walking bear, since I wasn’t
So how many do we find? Read More »
Here’s an example of one of the countless thousands of questions that are still out there waiting to be answered about North American birds. I went to Texas in February (for the opening of the fantastic new Clif Moss Nature Education Center of the Corpus Christi Public Library) and I had a chance to see
Variation in Wild Turkey Read More »
One of the enduring mysteries of North American ornithology involves several species which were painted by Audubon in the early 1800s but never seen again. The most striking and appealing of these birds is the Carbonated Swamp-Warbler, and since the painting was published ornithologists have debated whether this could be a rare and now-extinct species,
Audubon’s mysteries: Carbonated Swamp-Warbler Read More »
Maybe I should change the name of this blog to “All about Redpolls”, but I’ve received a few photos that I wanted to pass along, making the point that “Greater” Common Redpoll is not just an eastern specialty. The AOU checklist and the BNA account report that this subspecies winters regularly from Labrador west to
Greater Redpoll photos Read More »
A new photo by Dan Berard shows what looks like an intermediate large redpoll, and should be added to the discussion in my previous post. photo copyright Dan Berard, used by permission – 7 Mar 2008, Millbury, MA Dan says both of these birds were about the same size and both were larger than the
Another large pale redpoll Read More »