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Birding

This small wooden box may hold the future of hi-tech birding

by Anders Gyllenhaal January 6, 2021

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The future of hi-tech birding arrived in a small FedEx package the other day. It was a delivery we’d been looking forward to for months, so we went right to work.

The Haikubox, which stands about a foot tall, records songs and calls and immediately identifies the bird species.

Within minutes, I slipped the sleek, wooden box out of its container and plugged it in on our porch, where it went right to work on its ambitious task: Recording all the birdsong, calls and chips from the yard and instantly suggesting which birds are behind every peep.

Not long ago, we wrote about the smartphone apps you can take on the birding trail if you need help identifying birds by ear. This new invention, called the Haikubox, is the mother of the birdsong ID tools. It’s designed to be set up at your home and detect every nearby bird around the clock, day in and day out.

It’s like an instant X-ray of your avian neighborhood – or at least it will be when the development and fine-tuning is done about a year from now.

We’re lucky enough to be among the 20 testing volunteers to test out the preliminary version of the Haikubox. We plan to follow its creation and let you know how it goes on its way to the retail market. It’s expected to cost somewhere under $500, although the price hasn’t been set.

January 6, 2021 0 comment

Birding Birds stories

Looking for resolutions? Here are 10 ways to sharpen your birding skills

by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal December 31, 2020

written by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal

It’s not the best time to go birding in many places, but it is the perfect time to plan how we can become betters birders in the year ahead.

Over the last year, as thousands of newcomers found their way to birding amid the pandemic, we developed a series of posts in a Flying Lesson’s section called Beverly’s Birding Basics. We’ve collected them all on this page, along with links, suggestions and tools.

Beverly with her binoculars and birding bag, both topics in these posts.

Here are the 10 best of these posts. They cover everything from how to get started as a birder to how to find the right binoculars, from which birding apps are most effective to what you might want to take on the birding trail.

You might even find a self-improvement goal or two if you’re still looking for resolutions.

A good place to start is with the basic equipment of birding. Beverly’s three pieces on binoculars were among the most popular post of the year — and continue to draw constant traffic.

Experts say a good place to start as a birder is to learn the common birds, such as this Eastern Bluebird.

Enhance your birding life: The first to mention is her story on how a good pair of binoculars can change your birding life, a post that explores the power and beauty of seeing birds up close.
Get the right first pair: The logical next post on how to buy your first pair of binoculars, which is a lot more complicated than you’d think.
Make the most of those binoculars: The last of this series is her story on how to make the most of your binoculars. It’s tempting to think that binoculars are a snap to use, but there are important things to understand as you get serious about birding.
Advice on getting started: Our next recommendation is a post that gathers advice from some of the best birders around on how, where and when you’ll have the best success as you get started.
Learning to bird by ear: As you get deeper into birding, identifying birds by their calls and songs is key skill. This post makes the case that while it’s not easy, putting in the time will deliver years of rewards.
Birding apps can be a big help on the trail. We look at which apps are the best, and which can help in what ways.
Find the best birdsong apps: And if birding by ear doesn’t come easily, there are now more than a half dozen smartphone apps that will help do the work for you. Here’s our analysis on which of these works best.
Back-yard birding: Particularly during the pandemic, many birders have rediscovered the pleasure of birding in their yards and neighborhoods. This post looks at the apps that can help with that.
Follow birding etiquette: We all need to learn the obvious and subtle rules of birding, and Beverly’s post on how she learned them the hard way is a nice read full of advice.
Take the next steps: Beverly’s post on how to elevate your birding skills has been one of the most popular.
Be a generous birder: And lastly, we’ll offer up our essay on the importance and returns of helping others in their birding journey. Here’s to a great year of birding ahead!

December 31, 2020 0 comment

Birding Featured Photography

What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

by Anders Gyllenhaal December 30, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

We’re winding up the year sharing the most popular — and we hope most compelling — Flying Lesson stories from 2020. Most of the posts are profiles of bird encounters, including this story, photos and video of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds we spent time with this summer.

Only when we slowed the video way down and then blew it up could we see the ferocity of the encounter: The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovered above its competitor, then slammed bill-first into the female like a tiny gladiator.

The clash sent the two tumbling into the air. (See the video below.) Once again, the alpha male had done his job in the survival-of-the-fittest world of this smallest, most acrobatic of species.

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird comes in for a landing on a favorite feeder. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Much of the daily routines of nature are invisible to us. They take place deep in the woods, fields or wetlands, often at speeds that obscure any real details. Even the most avid birders get mere glimpses of how birds interact.

But the spread of hummingbird feeders all across the U.S. each doesn’t just help support these birds. In exchange for a supply of hummingbird sugar water, we get a close-up look at the way birds establish territories, settle into pecking orders, help and compete with one another and fight to survive.

Here’s a video about the fierce competition playing out around the feeders:

December 30, 2020 3 comments

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding

The free Merlin app puts the magic into bird identification

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal December 9, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

For a beginning birder, learning to use the Merlin Bird ID smartphone app is a bit like a child learning to ride a bike.

There’s the fear of falling right before a delicious rush of adrenaline kicks in. You may be wobbling along, but there’s this faith that with practice, with perseverance, a bicycle will give you the feeling that – like birds – you, too, can fly.

Here’s the amazing thing: Merlin Bird ID is not a mere two-wheeler. This free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is more like a revved-up sports car. It has the power to advance your birding prowess from zero to 60 in six seconds flat, as the saying goes. Flying indeed.

Even the app’s name promises wizardry. The best, most basic function of Merlin is that out of more than 6,000 bird species included, the app can help you know in an instant the name of the bird you’re looking at.

“Merlin doesn’t tell you exactly what bird, but it narrows down the possibilities,” said Jenna Curtis, a project manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who works with engagement among eBird users. “Then it’s up to you to decide if it’s the right bird.”

When I first started birding, Merlin taught me most everything I needed to know, (or had the ability to absorb), about each new bird I saw. The sense of immediacy and mastery was intoxicating, propelling me from one bird to the next.

This is the good news. The bad news is that you have to learn to drive this magic machine. Fair warning: If you have the love-hate relationship with technology as I do, sometimes Merlin’s brilliance is mind-boggling. You just want to scream HELLPPPP, or at the very least, slow down!

Samples of Merlin app pages

December 9, 2020 0 comment

Bird of the Week Birding Birding research

Can the Wild Turkey survive? Thanksgiving is the least of its troubles.

by Anders Gyllenhaal November 22, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Something is after the Wild Turkey. Actually, almost everything is.

A Wild Turkey in Northern Virginia.

A combination of coyotes, loss of habitat, hawks, hunters, climate change and troubles in the nest is undermining the species that once competed for the title of national bird. In parts of the country, populations are down by half and the overall drop is about 15 percent.

“A lot of things like to eat turkeys,” said Michael Chamberlain, a University of Georgia wildlife expert who leads a 15-state consortium working to find a response.

For the past half century, the Wild Turkey was the poster bird for how to bring back a species approaching extinction. Starting in the 1970s, after decades of overhunting and habitat loss, hunters, environmentalists, wildlife managers and researchers joined forces in a campaign that pushed the nationwide population up to more than 7 million birds.

Michael Chamberlain

But today, the combination of accelerating development, warming temperatures and all those predators has started setting back that progress, particularly in southern states. “We thought maybe it was just a natural phenomenon, where the population had peaked,” said Chamberlain.. “But fast-forward to today, the populations are not doing as well.”

November 22, 2020 0 comment

Birding Conservation Photography Species

Petrels and Shearwaters: The coolest birds you never see

by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal November 7, 2020

written by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal

A Black-capped Petrel shoots along the surface. The bird above is a Great Shearwater. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

The first Black-capped Petrel appeared nearly two hours into the trip, well off the bow of the boat, zipping along the ocean’s surface like a missile. It was mostly a blur, but it gave us a taste of what was to come.

Petrels are in the seabird family, which includes some of the most impressive and endangered species on Earth. They live their lives on the open sea, weathering the harshest elements, flying hundreds of miles at a time, feeding on fish and coming to shore only to breed.

Seabirds won’t come to you. If you want to see petrels, shearwaters, skuas and jaegers, you have to go to them.

The best place to do that is off the coast of North Carolina, where the islands that make up the Outer Banks jut far out into the ocean. Here, the warm Gulf Stream that attracts seabirds comes close enough to reach in a long day’s boat trip.

Leaving Hatteras before dawn

We set off before dawn on this clear Saturday in mid-October aboard the Stormy Petrel II, a 61-foot fishing boat piloted by Brian Patteson. The bird-obsessed captain has done as much good for seabirds along the Atlantic Coast as anyone. Every year, he makes 40 to 50 trips to the Gulf Stream, ferrying hundreds of birders out to sea for a precious look at the birds collectively called “pelagics.”

Great Shearwater

On every trip, Patteson and his crew count the birds and submit their data to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird list, which helps scientists track the health of the species. Patteson and his assistant, Kate Sutherland, also compile their own data over time to help them analyze how the pelagic populations are faring in the long run.

Passengers watch birds from the stern.

You’ll find all the details on lining up a trip at the end of this post.

November 7, 2020 3 comments

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Conservation How we're birding now

Lessons in generosity: Birds benefit when we’re all welcoming on the trail

by Beverly and Anders Gyllenhaal October 7, 2020

written by Beverly and Anders Gyllenhaal

Smack in the middle of bustling Washington, D.C., near the highest elevation of the city’s Rock Creek Park, lies a clearing that’s proven to be a prime spot to see migratory birds.

At dawn every spring morning, some of the country’s best birders sit here, along a stone wall, sharing their wisdom with anyone who happens along. These veterans are beyond generous, throwing out identifications with the glimpse of a flight pattern or silhouette. Lucky for us, this became our birding classroom each migration season while we lived nearby.

The unforgettable plumage of a Pileated Woodpecker. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

We’ve been thinking about that experience as we’ve pondered some questions we believe are more crucial than ever: What’s the best way to make progress as a birder? What helps move you from novice to intermediate, from backyard birder to one who takes birding vacations? And how can we welcome anyone interested in nature to learn what we’re seeing?

The way of birding is definitely a path, and ours started with simple curiosity about what we were seeing on weekend trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. We’ll never forget our first encounter with a Pileated Woodpecker or the time we stumbled upon an Indigo Bunting singing in a field filled with wildflowers. In the early days, we once followed a flock of vultures for half an hour, wondering if they might be some type of unusual hawk.

Not long after, we registered for a beginner’s bird walk. Our leader pointed out species we didn’t know existed and gave us a peek through his powerful binoculars. The world of birds came into focus for the first time, and that changed everything.

This is our new column running in the latest issue of American Bird Conservancy magazine and reprinted here with permission from the Bird Conservation quarterly. The column, under the name Flying Lessons, is meant to draw on our travels to explore what we’re learning from birds. While we had to put off our birding trips this spring and summer, we’re now back on the road again. We’ll post these columns as they appear. You can get a subscription to the magazine if you donate $40 or more to the conservancy. Here’s the donation link.

October 7, 2020 1 comment

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Flying Lessons essay How we're birding now Migration

How is a warbler like an apple-glazed donut? Both are impossible to resist.

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal September 29, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

There’s a spot on the boardwalk next to the Town Hall in Duck, N.C., that everyone knows is famous for doughnuts. This morning dozens of customers wait in line for up to half an hour, and the fall menu boasts flavors like Pumpkin Streusel, Pumpkin Roll and Maple Bacon.

A.Chestnut-sided Warbler, one of the many warblers passing through the Duck boardwalk region. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal.

Only a few yards away there’s another place that should be famous, but very few people have ever heard of it. Here, atop the live oaks and the willows is a different fall menu — the Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Black-and-White, Prairie, Palm, Black-throated Blue and Northern Parula warblers.

Doughnuts are my weakness — oh the lengths I will go and the calories I’m willing to trade. Today at the donut shop there’s a deliciously wicked autumn confection called Caramel Apple Pie (apple glaze with salted caramel drizzle), and my stomach is growing.

These flavors won’t be around for long, but neither will the fall warblers – hands down my favorite birds.

Many of them have flown in from their nesting grounds in Canada and the Northeast, touching down on the Outer Banks only long enough to fatten up for the next leg of a journey to the Gulf of Mexico, then across the waves to their wintering grounds in Latin America. According to eBird, there’s a darn good chance of spotting 15 types of warblers and a “reasonable” chance of seeing 11 others along the boardwalk today between the Methodist Chapel and the Duck Donuts shop. That’s almost a third of all the warblers found in the U.S.

Here’s a video of a Black-throated Green Warbler, frantically collecting fuel for its migration:

September 29, 2020 0 comment

Birding Flight Photography

Ode to a Red-tailed Hawk: Electrifying, grace and power wrapped in feathers

by Anders Gyllenhaal September 22, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Every bird in flight is beautiful in its own way. But to me, there’s nothing as electrifying as the sight of a hawk spreading its powerful wings, soaring through the air, and once in a lucky while, passing close enough to show the edges of its feathers ripple in the wind.

The other day I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk perched on an irrigation rig in a field roughly a quarter-mile away. Suddenly it saw something move on the ground near me and was instantly in the air headed straight in our direction.

The hawk is made for hunting with eyes that work like binoculars, and so it can see small animals from 100 feet in the air. Its stare has the intensity of a spotlight, and its talons the strength of 200 pounds per inch.

All this was on display as this hawk came toward me and passed by 20 feet away. Then, in a move I didn’t expect, the magnificent raptor landed on a post not 10 feet from where I was standing.. It stretched its body, swiveled its head to survey its new surroundings and clenched its talons in the air.

Here’s a video of my hawk on its post:

The hawk was a juvenile, probably less than a year old, and apparently not experienced enough yet to fear humans.

All summer long, I’ve encountered juvenile birds unsure of how to behave, hesitant as they explored the world for the first time. There was a juvenile Eastern Bluebird who, like this hawk, hung around like we were best friends. Sometimes the young birds will still be in training with their parents. But eventually they have to head out on their own, and many have long migration trips ahead.

The hawk took off and circled around the nearby field, landing a few times without catching anything. Then he returned to a post again just a few feet away. He looked at me as if he’d never seen a person: interested and curious, with an intensity that lets you know what it’s like to be hunted by a Red-tailed Hawk.

Finally, he few off and circled the field until he disappeared into the woods. Here’s a gallery from this lucky encounter:

September 22, 2020 2 comments