Snowy Owls are making news this winter, as in the New York Times today (link) The conditions setting up this invasion started at least a year ago. Last summer, burgeoning lemming populations in the arctic provided abundant food for nesting owls, which were able to feed and fledge five or even seven young per nest […]
The origin of the Snowy Owl invasion Read More »
The Sibley eGuide to birds was recently adapted for the Kindle Fire tablet (and still works on other Android OS devices). You can find it at the Amazon app store. In other news an update for the Android OS is coming soon that will (among other things) remove the annoying requirement to verify over the
Sibley eGuide available for Kindle Fire Read More »
Like many other species of ducks that are distinguished by head shape, Common and Barrow’s Goldeneyes are at least as easy to tell apart when sleeping as when they are awake. Birds that are awake and active change head shape a lot as they go from relaxed to alert to diving, but sleeping birds are
Identifying sleeping female goldeneyes Read More »
For much of the year, distinguishing male and female American Goldfinches is easy (when the males show their brilliant yellow summer plumage, about March through September). Even in January and February many males have a few bright yellow feathers showing, but otherwise the gray-brown nonbreeding males can be hard to tell from females. There is
Distinguishing male and female American Goldfinches Read More »
There are four named subspecies of Scaled Quail, three in the US and one in Mexico. The subspecies found in southern Texas is distinctly different from the other three, at least in adult male plumage, and makes the list of field identifiable subspecies. Here’s a quick summary of the differences, based on study of specimens
Subspecies of Scaled Quail Read More »
A recent discussion on the ID-Frontiers listserver involved an immature gull photographed in Utah (photo by Norman Jenson here). The consensus (and I agree) is that it is a Western Gull based on plumage and shape. But questions arise from the fact that it looks barely larger than the California Gulls next to it –
Do “dwarf” birds exist? Read More »
Recent discussion of the identification of a white goose in Ohio (beginning here) prompted me to put together some sketches of bill shapes of Ross’s and Snow Geese, since bill shape is the most significant difference between those species. It was a very interesting exercise, as each species is surprisingly consistent in the relative size
Identification of white geese Read More »
The Sibley eGude to Birds for iPhone and iPad has been updated to be a universal app. The new version takes advantage of the full screen of the iPad to show images and maps at high resolution, show all information (images, text, map, and audio) on a single screen, and in landscape orientation allows viewing
eGuide update – Redesigned for iPad! Read More »
A recent article by Tim Enthoven in the New York Times – Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence – offers some fascinating thoughts on judgment, expertise, and illusions of confidence, and it’s an interesting perspective from which to examine the challenge of bird identification. One of his key points is that confidence does not arise
In a recent post at the ABA blog, a new smartphone app is described that promises to help identify bird songs in the field. Bird song identification software has been around for a long time, mostly running on desktop computers and used for research, and the idea of having that capability in a smart phone
Does technology make birders lazy? Read More »