January/February 2022

BirdWatching

Feel the thrill of finding, attracting, and identifying birds

BirdWatching2 min read
A Lasting Legacy
ABOUT 10 YEARS ago, I went to my first Biggest Week in American Birding festival in Ohio, where I had a booth to give away copies of the magazine and sign up new subscribers. Several groups of Amish birders attend Biggest Week each year, and that yea
BirdWatching1 min read
More To Read On BirdWatchingDaily.com
Brian Moscatello, an expert in birding optics from the Cape May Bird Observatory, offers tips for binocular shoppers and recommendations for the best models at numerous price points. The team from John Oliver’s weekly show on HBO commissioned five sp
BirdWatching4 min read
On The Wire
By Douglas J. Futuyma, Princeton University Press, 2021, hardcover, 320 pages, $29.95. When you watch birds for any length of time, you’re sure to have questions. Why are male cardinals bright red? Why do starlings gather in enormous flocks? Why are
BirdWatching7 min read
Birding Briefs
A newly described songbird in South America — first spotted by ornithologists guiding a birding tour in Peru more than 20 years ago — represents not just a new species but also a new genus. A team of scientists led by researchers from the Louisiana S
BirdWatching2 min read
Backyard Owls
IN OCTOBER 2020, I set a trail-cam on a tray feeder in hopes of documenting a flying squirrel, but instead, I recorded a Great Horned Owl using the feeder as a hunting perch. Without the cam, I wouldn’t have suspected it had visited. The more natural
BirdWatching4 min read
REMEMBERING OUR North Star
ON OCTOBER 24, our magazine’s founder, Eldon Greij, passed away quietly at a Wisconsin hospital. He broke his hip in a fall a few weeks earlier and then had a series of complications that left him in declining health. He was 84 years old. In 1980, at
BirdWatching1 min read
BirdWatching
Editor Matt Mendenhall Founding Editor Eldon D. Greij, 1937-2021 Contributing Editors Pete Dunne, Laura Erickson, Kenn Kaufman, David Allen Sibley, Brian E. Small Editorial Consultant Lee Mergner Graphic Designer Jaron Cote Operations Director Cheyen
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Got To Make The Morning Last
NO DOUBT, YOU have heard of the birding institution known as the Big Sit (aka Big Stay), where observers indenture themselves for a 24-hour period, counting only the birds seen while seated within a 17-foot circle. The birds can be anywhere, but the
BirdWatching1 min read
Where To Find Short-ears
At dusk in winter, Short-eared Owls appear over grasslands around the world. As if on cue, they emerge at twilight, the time when rarely seen creatures come out of the shadows. While most owls hunt by night, Short-ears listen for their prey — small m
BirdWatching2 min read
Keep Your Distance
As with several other owl species, Short-eared Owls tend to attract lots of birders and photographers, and unfortunately, poor behavior toward the birds sometimes follows. A few years ago at the Washington County Grasslands, a surge in complaints abo
BirdWatching7 min read
Shadow In The Grasslands
The Little Theater, a rural farm complex that hosts performances from spring through fall, sits amid the Washington County Grasslands Important Bird Area (IBA); the fields adjacent to the farm are owned by the New York State Department of Environment
BirdWatching8 min read
Birding Israel
Wednesday morning. I lay in bed with a 103-degree temperature, a casualty no doubt of my trans-Atlantic journey a few days before. I hadn’t had the flu for 15 years and confess I was feeling mighty sorry for myself. Little did I know that at that ver
BirdWatching1 min read
If You Go
Israel is one of the world’s easiest countries for Americans to travel. Food and water are safe. Almost everyone speaks English. Buses and trains run everywhere, and Google Maps does an excellent job keeping track of routes and schedules. If you’re c
BirdWatching1 min read
Central Coast Hotpots
If you’re confined to the Tel Aviv-Haifa corridor, as many business travelers are, you’re in luck. Plenty of birding sites lie within reach. Here are a few of our favorites, south to north: • Rosh Tzipor Birdwatching Centre, Tel Aviv: human-built bir
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Birding Wadi Rum And Petra
If you make it to Eilat, you’ll definitely want to cross the border into Jordan to visit two of the world’s most stunning natural and historical wonders: Wadi Rum and the ancient city of Petra. Braden and I organized a personal two-day trip through C
BirdWatching1 min read
Web Resources
Israel Nature and Parks Authority www.parks.org.il/en/reserve-park/hula-nature-reserve Hula Agamon www.agamon-hula.co.il International Birding and Research Center Eilat eilatbirds.com/en ■
BirdWatching2 min read
40-BELOW Wonders
Steam swirls up off the Yukon River like it’s on the verge of boiling. That’s an illusion. It’s early January and almost 40 below. The sun crests above the mountains for only about five hours each day. Shards of frost coat the tree branches, and shel
BirdWatching2 min read
The Plea
I cross oceans, from the Northumberland Coast of England to North Africa, then farther south and east to Australia. Some of my kind depart western North America and traverse the Pacific, then head south, the destination being the Weddell Sea, in the
BirdWatching1 min read
Key Field Marks
1. Narrow white or gray central stripe between dark crown stripes2. Variable wash of yellow above lores, sometimes absent3. Fine streaks on chest and down onto flanks4. Pink legs sometimes noticeable5. Wings relatively plain, with no wing bars6. Comp
BirdWatching5 min read
ID TIPS: Savannah Sparrow
June in Kidder County, North Dakota WHEN I WAS learning to identify birds, I spent hours puzzling over sparrows that, in retrospect, were probably all of the same species. It was frustrating, but later I turned the experience into ID advice. If you s
BirdWatching1 min read
What’s In A Name?
Savanna, an open grassland with scattered trees, is one habitat used by the Savannah Sparrow. But that’s a coincidence. In 1811, Alexander Wilson named the species for Savannah, Georgia, where he had found it for the first time. Wilson wrote two acco
BirdWatching2 min read
Sparrow Similarities
SORTING OUT THE sparrows is a perennial challenge, and while there are plenty of helpful resources available, one species — House Sparrow — often goes unmentioned. Native to Eurasia, the species is naturalized and common around human settlements worl
BirdWatching4 min read
Beyond Portraits
BY ITS VERY nature, a bird is a work of art, right? Surely all we need to do to wow people is portray that avian beauty in the standard way: unobscured, with a clean background, evenly illuminated from the front, and filling the frame. What’s wrong w
BirdWatching3 min read
Hotspots Near You
ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR 47°36'13.96"N 52°42'21.31"W I was first attracted to Virginia Lake as a fabulous location to observe and photograph Ospreys, while they dive for trout. I have seen as many as six of them fishing the lake’s very sha
BirdWatching4 min read
Contest Winners
BIRDS IN FLIGHT PHOTO CONTEST Last summer, we conducted our first photo contest focused solely on images of flying birds, the 2021 Birds in Flight contest. We received more than 825 entries — images of Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Blue Jays, Burrowing Owls,
BirdWatching1 min read
MELISSA GROO Snowy Owl
Snowy Owls garner lots of attention from birders when they come south in the winter, but far fewer of us get a chance to encounter them in summer. In July 2018, award-winning photographer Melissa Groo had the opportunity to observe a nest in Utqiagvi

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