May/June 2022

BirdWatching

Feel the thrill of finding, attracting, and identifying birds

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A new study of North American migratory birds is the first to identify a direct link between cognition and animal response to human-made climate change. The implications spell trouble for many songbirds. In February, professional photographer Marie R
BirdWatching1 min read
Earth to Congress: Help!
IN EARLY MARCH, Congress passed its budget bill for fiscal year 2022. Reading through the details, I had to wonder what planet members of Congress think they’re living on. Are they not aware of the twin emergencies of climate change and the extinctio
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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
BirdWatching2 min read
7-year Study Widens View Of Andean Condors
The lead paper in the March 2022 issue of The Journal of Raptor Research presents a fresh understanding of the conservation priorities for the world’s largest bird of prey, the Andean Condor. In 2015, a team of 38 condor experts from throughout the b
BirdWatching1 min read
Avian Flu Surges In North America
An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), a virus that is deadly to wild birds, poultry, and, in some cases, humans, was detected in two North American locations — South Carolina and Newfoundland and Labrador — in December 2021. By mid
BirdWatching1 min read
Parrot On The Road To Recovery
In a two-week period in September 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico, devastating the island — and further threatening the endemic endangered Puerto Rican Parrot. Some parrots died from the storms, and others were lost to starvation or i
BirdWatching2 min read
Watching Kites Fly
On a bright morning last June in a South Carolina forest, a Great Horned Owl perched conspicuously just above a dirt road. In the sky, six Swallow-tailed Kites circled, their long, forked tails acting as rudders as they scolded this perceived intrude
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Jay Species Show Similar Learning Abilities
The California Scrub-Jay, a generally non-social bird, can learn just as well as another species of jay that lives in groups, a finding that surprised animal intelligence researchers who devised a novel food puzzle to study cognition in the wild. The
BirdWatching2 min read
Torpor In Hummingbirds Variable And Flexible
If you’re a fan of hummingbirds, then you probably know that at night, they lower their body temperature and metabolism drastically by dropping into an energy-saving state of inactivity called torpor. A new study finds that the birds have more than o
BirdWatching5 min read
On The Wire
By Alexander Lees and James Gilroy, Princeton University Press, 2022, hardcover, 400 pages, $35. What causes birds to stray from their typical ranges? Why do some places attract so many vagrant birds? Why are some species more predisposed to long-ran
BirdWatching2 min read
Summer Precautions
SUMMER BIRD FEEDING requires so much conscientious attention that many people close their feeders for the duration. That’s not necessary if we ensure that we’re helping, not hurting, birds. March and April are dangerous for winter finches, who often
BirdWatching5 min read
A Harvest Of Audio Riches
AS A SIGHT-CENTRIC birder, I am surprised at how many of my most cherished birding memories involve sound. This audio ambivalence of mine harkens back to childhood. While I was gifted with exceptional eyesight, my hearing was only so-so. Naturally, I
BirdWatching9 min read
A Passion For Prothonotaries
Most weeks during the spring and summer, Jackson Audubon Society’s PROW team is a group on a mission. PROW is ornithological shorthand for Prothonotary Warbler, the drop-dead gorgeous wood warbler that is even more stunning in person than in photos.
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Build Your Own
If you are lucky enough to live or bird in locations that have Prothonotary Warblers, place some nest boxes, stand back, and enjoy the birds! If you’re not trained and experienced with this kind of project, please leave the boxes untouched during the
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10 Places To Find Prothonotary Warbler
• Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana. Hosts about 5 percent of the global breeding population. Go to Whiskey Baya Road and Indian Bayou Road. The basin is larger than the Florida Everglades and five times more biologically productive than any other river b
BirdWatching7 min read
Surrounded On Pipeline Road
March 2013. It was a misty morning in Gamboa, along the Panama Canal. The sun had yet to rise, but I stumbled out of bed to the tune of Palm Tanagers and Clay-colored Thrushes. Red-legged Honeycreepers hopped around frenetically in a tangle of vines
BirdWatching2 min read
Ant-followers
Dozens of bird species follow ant swarms in the jungle, and many of their names are frustratingly similar. Many of the ant-followers are named after familiar groups of birds that we know and love, like thrushes, wrens, vireos, and shrikes, but the tr
BirdWatching3 min read
Find the Birds
Eleven years ago, when I was 6, my dad and I were taking a winter walk along Boundary Bay, in southern British Columbia, when we encountered a group of adults. My curious eyes followed the direction of their numerous binoculars and giant telephoto ca
BirdWatching5 min read
ID TIPS: Violet-green Swallow
WHAT’S THE MOST beautiful swallow in North America? That’s a matter of opinion, of course. But more than one author — from John James Audubon to Florence Merriam Bailey — has been moved to superlatives in describing the Violet-green Swallow. Of cours
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Adaptability
Many species of swallow have relatively broad ranges, surviving under a variety of conditions. This is partly because of their generalized food source, flying insects caught in midair, available in practically any warm climate. The Violet-green Swall
BirdWatching2 min read
Appreciating Wingbars
BIRDERS TALK A lot about wingbars — contrasting bands of pale markings across a bird’s folded wing. The presence or absence of wingbars is one of the first things we learn to look for when we are learning to identify birds, and it is extremely helpfu
BirdWatching7 min read
The Home Field Advantage
IT’S SUNRISE — a new day’s first rays of light are just peeking over the nearby mountains and illuminating the surrounding vegetation in a warm bath of golden light. As the day starts, I’m sitting quietly in my photo blind waiting for a great bird ph
BirdWatching3 min read
Hotspots Near You
INTERIOR, SOUTH DAKOTA 43°44'57.15"N 101°56'30.41"W Badlands National Park contains unique geological features and is known as the world’s greatest mammal fossil bed. Specimens that have been found here date back as much as 40 million years. This bea
BirdWatching3 min read
Contest Winners
Last fall, we sent out a call for entries to our 2021 Bird Portrait Contest. And, wow, did bird photographers deliver! We received the most entries ever — 979 — since we started hosting contests a few years ago. Thanks to all who entered! The selecti
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Final Frame
Wildlife photographer Marie Read photographed this intimate moment between an adult Black Tern and its newly hatched chick from a kayak at Perch River Wildlife Management Area in upstate New York. The photo marked the culmination of a project that Ma

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