January/February 2020

BirdWatching

Feel the thrill of finding, attracting, and identifying birds

BirdWatching2 min read
Snowies In Winter
As I write in early November, it’s too soon to say what kind of winter this will be for Snowy Owls in southern Canada and the lower 48 states. Users of eBird have reported a handful of sightings of our cover bird from Alberta to North Dakota and a co
BirdWatching2 min read
New Hope For A Honeycreeper
Government agencies and conservation groups on the island of Maui are working to prevent the extinction of the Kiwikiu, or Maui Parrotbill, by establishing a second “insurance” population. In October, they moved five males and two females from the Ha
BirdWatching2 min read
One Woman’s Trek For A Rediscovered Bird
A rusty-crowned Colombian songbird known only from old museum specimens, the Antioquia Brushfinch, eluded scientists until it was found for the first time in the wild in January 2018. After the initial sighting, Colombian researchers spotted addition
BirdWatching3 min readNature
Since You Asked
Q What do cardinals eat to make them red in seasons without berries? Are cardinals gray or olive if fed a carotenoid-free diet? — Catharine W. Tucker, via email A Several different types of pigments can lend their color to bird plumage, alone or in c
BirdWatching2 min readNature
Complex Society Discovered In Birds
Multilevel societies have, until now, only been known to exist among large-brained mammals including humans, other primates, elephants, giraffes, and dolphins. Now, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Kon
BirdWatching2 min read
ON THE MOVE FROM eBIRD
King Eider is one of the most northerly breeding bird species in the world, occurring mainly above the Arctic Circle. In June, during the breeding season, King Eider pairs can be found from northern Alaska east into the Canadian Arctic — places that
BirdWatching4 min readArchaeology
‘Wow…wow…wow’
When you talk about Cape May, it’s not necessary to pinpoint a state. There isn’t a birder alive who does not know that Cape May is the terminus of the land funnel that is New Jersey. The region is celebrated for songbird fallouts and is known as the
BirdWatching4 min read
The Rescuers
Every birder knows how special Snowy Owls are. If you haven’t seen one of the big, white, cold-hardy birds, then they’re likely high on your must-see list. Whether or not you’ve spotted Snowies, it’s a safe bet that you wouldn’t want harm to come to
BirdWatching8 min readNature
Birdwatching with Your nestlings
Before my daughter was old enough to talk, she’d grunt and squeal and point whenever she saw a bird. For all the world, it seemed like she was crazy about birds, but I wondered if I was imagining it. Maybe, I thought, I was projecting my own interest
BirdWatching2 min readNature
New Bird Books For Young Readers
My First Book of Canadian Birds, by Andrea Miller, Nimbus Publishing, $22.95. Introduces young children to familiar birds like Canada Goose, Atlantic Puffin, and more. Ages 1-4 Numenia and the Hurricane, by Fiona Halliday, Page Street Kids, $18.99. I
BirdWatching7 min readNature
Raised By Birders
My first word was a four-letter word. Little did I realize that this one word would have such an enormous effect on my life: on my upbringing, my sense of humor, my view of the world, and my family road trips. The precious little word that, much to m
BirdWatching7 min read
Birding Hallowed Ground
I place the note on an empty seat at the table. She’ll find it when she and my husband sit down to eat breakfast. The message is part of the ritual for any long birding day I take and requires two specific components: hugs and kisses. So, after brush
BirdWatching1 min read
Connecting To History
Along the western boundary of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge lies Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, which was created in 2014. In the center of the refuge and just 1.2 miles from its visitor center, you will find the
BirdWatching1 min read
A Sample Itinerary
My story is about birding Blackwater in summer, but the refuge is just as engaging during winter. The entire marshland transforms during the colder months. Instead of the summertime aroma of marsh, the breeze carries with it the smell of burning eart
BirdWatching8 min readNature
Roadrunner Srurprises
When I first realized the diversity of prey species my Greater Roadrunners were catching — lizards, butterflies and moths, bees, dragonflies, scorpions, grasshoppers, cockroaches, snails — and how they were catching them, I knew I had to write about
BirdWatching3 min read
Pygmy Nuthatch
In pine forests of the West, Pygmy Nuthatches are among the smallest songbirds and are often the most conspicuous. Active, acrobatic, highly social, these nuthatches clamber up, down, and around tree trunks and limbs, hop along branches, or dangle up
BirdWatching1 min readNature
Helpful Nuthatches
The regular presence of “helpers” at bird nests — additional adults or subadults that assist the breeding pair in caring for the young — is relatively rare among North American songbirds. But in both Pygmy and Brown-headed Nuthatches, breeding pairs
BirdWatching2 min read
North Point State Park
Each visit I make to North Point begins the same way: on the Black Marsh Trail. I take the trail from the parking lot, and within seconds I’m immersed in the wonders of the mature forest that surrounds the Black Marsh. There are no bends along the fo
BirdWatching1 min read
At A Glance
Grasslands, wetlands, marine. Flat trail, muddy, not wheelchair-accessible. Grassland species can be observed from a car but not herons or other waterbirds. More than 200 species. Summer: Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, Osprey, Orchard Oriole, Yellow
BirdWatching1 min read
At A Glance
Artificial impoundments, natural wetlands, hardwood bottomland forest, mixed pine-hardwood forest, pine forest, agricultural fields, and early-successional old fields. Mostly flat. Year-round: Wood Duck, herons, egrets, Brown-headed and White-breaste
BirdWatching1 min read
Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge
Established in 1963, Pee Dee National Wildlife Refuge features diverse habitats and more than 200 bird species. Fall and winter bring waterfowl species from points north. Dabbling ducks make up the majority of the thousands of ducks that spend the wi
BirdWatching4 min read
Hooks, Bait, And Drop Zones
For years, scientists believed that tools were used only by higher mammals, but now tool use — the process of utilizing an object to obtain food or achieve other goals — is understood to occur in more than just apes and elephants. While the vast majo
BirdWatching2 min readNature
The Ripple Effect
A recent study published in Science concluded that 29 percent of the bird population of the United States and Canada — that is, 3 billion birds — have been lost since 1970. And a report just published by Audubon concludes that climate change threaten
BirdWatching3 min read
Reading Materials
Bald Eagles in the Wild: A Visual Essay of America’s National Bird, by Jeffrey Rich, Amherst Media, 2018, paperback, 128 pages, $24.95. Even though the story of the Bald Eagle’s recovery from the DDT days has been told many times, it’s one we should
BirdWatching3 min read
Your Letters
From our readers! I am a volunteer at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland (home of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center). I was very disappointed not to see mentioned in the article about Whooping Cranes (“A Cloudy Future,” September/Oc
BirdWatching2 min readNature
Tips For Tropical Birding
Winter is the season when many North American birders take a tropical vacation and discover that seeing birds in dense foliage is not easy! The birds can be spectacular, but it’s sometimes a single bird skulking in the shadows, sometimes 10 or 20 spe

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