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What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

by Anders Gyllenhaal August 20, 2020

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 summer 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:

August 20, 2020 0 comment

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Featured

Beverly’s Basics: Four tips for getting the most from your birding binoculars

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal August 13, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Heading Title

Last of three parts

So my friend gets interested in birding and tries out some binoculars. Then she comes to a complete standstill. “There’s something wrong with my eyes,” she says. “Binoculars just aren’t for me.”

This scenario is not uncommon, and it makes me want to shout: Don’t give up! There are tricks! Here, let me show you …

The truth of the matter is that learning to use binoculars is not easy. Even experts like Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, agree.

“The idea of them is simple: I can magnify what I’m seeing? Awesome. Sign me up,” Farnsworth said. “But it can be really difficult at first.

“Trying to stay focused on the bird, and then bring the tool up to your eyes is not the easiest thing to learn,” Farnsworth told my husband Anders in a recent interview.

Binoculars can utterly transform what you see, as with this Great Blue Heron’s piercing stare.

The infuriating thing to me is that you buy binoculars, and they don’t come with instructions. Therefore you assume it’s easy and automatic. When it’s not, you think something must be wrong with you.

When I was starting out as a birder — reading guidebooks and casually scouting for resources — nothing I found touched on the basics of using binoculars to see birds. But as I point out in my post I’ll call “Why Binoculars,” they simply transform your birding experience into something glorious.

So, without further digression, here are my four essential tips for learning to bird with binoculars. They work, and it’s worth it. I promise.

1) Get set up

First, adjust the eye cups. If you wear glasses or sunglasses, screw the cups all they way in.

If you don’t wear glasses, screw the eye cups all the way out. Don’t press the eye cups too hard against your eye sockets or it will distort the image.

Everyone’s face is different, and you want your binoculars to fit. Pull the binoculars barrels apart as far as they’ll go, then lift them up to your eyes. Now squeeze the barrels together until you only see one image through both eyes — a perfect circle.

This usually puts the barrels closer together than you might expect.

Once you’re seeing just the one image, find a good spot on your face for the barrels to rest securely. This is usually the top bone of your eye socket (brow ridge). If you’re wearing glasses, you might find you can use the top rim of the frames a “shelf.” For me this helps keep the binoculars steady for longer periods.

This is the last of three posts on binoculars, the central equipment for birders. The first piece was about the why good binoculars will change your life on the trail. The second post addressed how to buy your first pair of binoculars. These and other posts aimed at the new birder can be found on Beverly’s Birding Basic page here.

2) How to focus

There are two wheels to adjust. The one in the middle is the focus wheel. Look at something stationary in the middle distance with both eyes open, and move the wheel to bring it into focus.

The details of Belted Kingfishers, skittish birds you can’t usually get close to, fill your viewfinders with a good pair of binoculars.

It’s important to keep an index finger on the focus wheel and learn to adjust it as you move your eyes from one object to another. Even the smallest movement can put an object out of focus, and twirling the wheel is necessary. Eventually this will feel natural, and you’ll adjust the focus wheel without even thinking about it.

The second wheel is called the diaopter and is usually part of the right-hand eyepiece. It needs adjustment only once. The purpose of the diopter is to compensate for the differences between your eyes. No two eyes are the same, and don’t have the same ability to focus.

To adjust the diaopter, put a lens cap over the right barrel. Keep both eyes open and adjust the focus wheel. Next, put the cap on the left barrel and, keeping both eyes open without squinting, use the diopter adjustment to bring your view into sharp focus.

Click here for an excellent, very detailed tutorial from Birdwatching.com on how do each of these focusing steps and why they’re necessary.

3) How to find the bird

Locating a bird through binoculars isn’t necessarily automatic. There’s a disorientation that comes in the instant your eyes go from a wide, faraway view to such a close-up, magnified view. It tend to scramble your brain.

With practice, you sort of train your brain. Or you get used to the disparity. (If I go for a month or so without birding, my brain has to be trained all over again.)

Mockingbirds are good species to start out with.

It’s best to starting with birds that remain mostly still for long stretches while they’re hunting, feeding or resting. Herons, hawks, woodpeckers and birds at bird feeders are good examples. Also, especially on spring mornings, usually skittish songbirds perch out in the open and sing for long stretches. The Northern Mocking bird is capable of singing on one branch all day long. Some species, like the Eastern Phoebe and Belted Kingfisher, will settle on a specific branch out in the open. Although they’ll fly off to catch prey, they’ll come back to this same branch fairly often.

There are two good ways to locate a bird through binoculars. Here’s method No. 1, which I’m going to call “The Statue”:

First of all, freeze your body, stay still, and keep your eyes on the bird as best you can. Without moving your head or your eyes, pull the binoculars up to your face. Your eyes should land exactly on the bird. This is not as easy as it sounds, so practice on any small object until you get the hang of it.

Here’s a second technique that’s a bit more cumbersome, but it works for me. I call it “The Bull’s-eye Method” because it’s a lot like target practice. For this method, you don’t start learning with an actual bird. Instead, do this:

A) With your naked eye, pick out an ordinary tree branch that’s not too small and not too far away. This is going to be your Bull’s-eye (i.e. the bird). Try to find it with the binoculars. Sometimes you can’t find it. So here’s what you do next:

B) With your naked eye pick out something so distinctive that there’s no question as to what it is when magnified. It must be stationary, not too small and fairly close to your Bull’s-eye. For example, this can be a jagged dead branch or a patch of colorful dead leaves or even the base of the tree.

We’ll call this focal point “Tinkerbell” because she’s going to guide you to the Bull’s-eye.

C) Note whether your Bull’s-eye is to the right or left of Tinkerbell, and also whether it’s above or below her. Now look through the binoculars and focus on Tinkerbell. Remember where she is in relation to the Bull’s-eye? Slowly move the binoculars in that direction — right or left, up or down — until you see the Bull’s-eye. Voila!

The more you try, the better and faster you’ll get. Once you can easily find the Bull’s-eye, repeat steps A, B, & C until you get good at finding the actual bird.

Male Northern Cardinals stand out because they’re plentiful and bright red year round.

Practice with common birds that are around a lot so you don’t get frustrated when they fly off. Robins and many sparrows spend a lot of time on the ground, which makes it vastly easier to spot them. Male cardinals have the added advantage of brilliant red feathers.

With both of these methods, when you land on the bird, it’s important to remember that your brain will require a short moment to adjust to the aforementioned magnification disparity.

So, these are the quick tips that work for me. For a terrific, more detailed tutorial on how to bird with binoculars from Birdwatcher’s Digest, click here.

4) Proper Posture and Finer Points

For most people, using binoculars and looking up for long periods can strain neck and back muscles you don’t normally use in this way. It’s called “Birder’s Neck.” Varying your body posture can help with the fatigue.

The natural tendency is to stand with your elbows fully extended, especially when looking straight up. (Like the photo here.)

However, I find that if I stand with my elbows tucked when looking straight ahead, (like the child pictured here), my muscles don’t tire as fast.

Along these lines, remembering to use proper posture is really important. The natural tendency is to hunch your shoulders. Just don’t! Pull your shoulders down and back, away from your head.

Now align the rest of your body — back straight, ribs lifted, pelvis tucked, abdominal muscles tight. (This has the added benefit of being good exercise for your abdominal muscles, which will support your spine.)

For some of us, standing this way isn’t natural. When my back starts to hurt, I’m reminded to check my posture.

If you’re near a fence or another structure the you can rest your elbows on can also help. (Be sure to check that fence for ticks or spiders.)

Last but not least, keep those lenses clean! Do not be tempted to breathe on your binoculars and wipe them with your shirt. That’s one sure way to ruin them. That said, looking through even slightly smudged or dusty glass matters. Some binoculars come with a cleaning kit and instructions. But if not, here’s how:

Before putting your binoculars away, use a soft brush to sweep away any grit from the body and lenses. A cheap, medium-size makeup brush does the trick. Next comes a rub with a pre-moistened lens towelette that’s approved for optics or electronics — i.e. one that’s alcohol- and ammonia-free. Or use a Q-tip moistened with lens cleaning solution. Finally, give a rub with a dust-free lens cloth, such as the cloth you’d use for cleaning eyeglasses.

This is supposed to be fun!

My parting advice for learning to use your new binoculars is this: Refuse to be intimidated, and try not to get frustrated. Binoculars magnify all of Mother Nature’s majesty, be it dead branches, abandoned nests or turtles in a pond. But there is something singular and spectacular about coming eye to eye with a tiny little bird. It really doesn’t take long to get the hang of it, so just keep practicing.

Plural v. Singular

Fun fact: Technically we’re not discussing “a pair of binoculars.” By definition, there are two barrels on one binocular, thus the “bi.” If you hear birders say “a binocular,” they’re probably experts. Go stand nearby. Stay quiet, and point your binocular in the same direction they’re aiming. You’re likely to learn something and/or see something otherwise missed!

Because “binocular” sounds so odd and is rarely used, I’m going with the more common plural form.

August 13, 2020 3 comments

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Birding Basics Featured

Why good binoculars can change your (birding) life

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal July 14, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

First of three parts: Over three weeks, our posts will focus on the specifics of birding binoculars. Next installment: How to go about buying your first pair, followed by Beverly’s insights on how to use them effectively.

If you’ve never seen a bird through binoculars, you have my envy. Your future holds one of nature’s great wow moments – and one of its greatest ah-ha moments as well.

Remember the first time you saw something under a microscope? Or stars through a telescope? Seeing a bird with binoculars for the first time is just as magical.

Binoculars make even the most muted colors, patterns and textures pop. You can zoom in on facial details and head positions — or what I choose to experience a bird’s personality or even emotions, despite the fact that science doesn’t confirm if birds have them. But the mystery itself gives me goose bumps sometimes.

Binoculars let you see the fabric of a Song Sparrow. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Of course you get some of this with the naked eye, but binoculars intensify the experience. Have you enjoyed Anders’s photos here on Flying Lessons? He’s able to capture these incredible details thanks to the magnification of telephoto lenses – binoculars of a different sort.

And the wisp of red around the Red-bellied Woodpecker’s beak.

Going from the awe of that first glance to a sustained state of bliss takes practice, and a bit of instruction can help.

Why can’t you just pick this thing up and immediately have nature unfold in all its glorious minutia? There’s a disorientation that comes in the instant your eyes go from a wide, faraway view to such a close-up view. It scrambles your brain. The bird has lighted on a branch, but you’re focused on a nearby pine cone. By the time you figure it out, that bird is gone.

A good pair of beginner’s birding binoculars costs between $250 and $300.

You can tune in on the daily chores of birds, such as this Tufted Titmouse scarfing up breakfast.

Are you surprised? Many people are. Before you settle for those dinged-up binoculars your grandpa used in the war or the $50 ones from your kid’s field trip, hear me out.

Birding is not something you do once, like going to a gourmet restaurant for the best meal of your life. For that same $275 dinner, binoculars can serve up an exquisite plateful every single day.

For thousands of people, birding is a sport like golf or swimming. For thousands more, it’s a hobby like photography, playing an instrument or sewing.

This Barred Owl’s whiskers are visible.

You aren’t surprised when an aspiring golfer spends $275 on a first set of clubs. Did you know that a beginner sewing machine costs $275, too? You’d be lucky to find an entry-level violin or decent guitar for $275.

To make matters worse, as skills improve and dedication to the sport / hobby of birding deepens, many seasoned practitioners prioritize their way to buying optics that cost 10 times this much. If you’re merely surprised at the idea of spending $275 on binoculars, you’re likely horrified at $2,750.

Or the fluffed plumage of an Indigo Bunting

I am acquainted with many amateur musicians, cyclists, photographers, gourmet cooks and seamstresses who have gradually upgraded their equipment over the lifespan of a leisure pursuit. And to be fair, the first time I heard a friend spent $3,000 on a bicycle, $2,000 for a digital sewing machine or $5,000 on a guitar, what do you suppose my reaction was? Disbelief and horror, of course.

In defense of a hobby’s economic investment, you could earn money from it. Let’s say you play tunes for tips, win a contest, sell your custom-made clothing or hire yourself out as a birding tour guide. Your equipment could pay for itself.

Or you could help others by donating such income to charity.

The tiny tongue of a Yellow-throated Warbler in mid-song

But you might just need to accept the fact that if you’re lucky enough to have disposable income, the ability and the time to pursue a leisure activity, it’s rarely going to be free of charge. And relatively speaking, $275 isn’t excessive and shouldn’t be shocking.

Okay. Now that we’ve established that binoculars are to birding what cameras are to photography, my hope is that you’ll find your way to fairly decent ones and practice using them.

With patience and a bit of luck, God’s most glorious creatures will appear right before your eyes. You’ll never look back.

Next week: How to buy your first binoculars

Even from a distance, you can see the water droplets around an Osprey’s fishing expedition.

July 14, 2020 0 comment

Birding Featured

The magic of birds in motion

by Liza Gyllenhaal June 1, 2020

written by Liza Gyllenhaal

We’ve been watching the birds return to their summer homes these past few weeks. One morning, an explosion of bright orange hit the living room window as a pair of claws scrabbled at the iron mullions, trying to gain a foothold.

An American Robin collects construction materials

It was a Baltimore Oriole, come back to the place that had offered free orange halves the year before. I quickly nailed fresh oranges to the porch post and soon both a male and female (not to mention a sapsucker and red squirrel) were pecking at the fruit.

The orioles are nesting high up in the trees facing the house now. An American Robin has built her nest in the eaves of our barn. It’s a large, somewhat messy affair with straw, which I use to cover the vegetable beds in the winter, spilling down through the rafters.

American Robin

A clan of quarrelsome Blue Jays has commandeered the towering hemlocks by the garage where, last year, the hummingbirds nested. I’m not sure where they’ve moved to now; they seem to be coming from all directions as they swoop down to hover at the feeders.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The other evening at dusk I was standing in the dining room, looking out at the back garden, when a hummingbird stopped in mid-flight, wings beating 80 times a second, and stared back at me for what seemed like a long time. Who are you? it seemed to be asking. What are you doing inside when there are so many wonderful places out here to nest?

Blue Jay

Part of the joy of bird-watching is seeing them in flight. The hawk circling high above a field. An owl flapping silently into the woods at dusk. A crow pumping through the air on some purposeful errand.

Recently, I came upon a poem that I think captures the magic of birds in motion — far better than ordinary prose. It’s written by the American poet Li-Young Lee who was born in Djakarta, Indonesia, to parents who were political exiles from China. His father had been the personal physician to Mao Zedong.

I think it’s Lee’s innate understanding of these different cultures and languages that gives his poetry such spiritual grace and resonance.

One Heart

Look at the birds. Even flying
is born

out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open

at either end of day.
The work of wings
was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.

Li-Young Lee began writing as a student at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of five books of poetry and a memoir and has been recipient of almost all the major poetry awards.

This post is republished from Liza Gyllenhaal’s “Writer in the Garden,” an exquisite website devoted to the intersection of gardening, nature and poetry. Liza, who is Anders’ sister, is a novelist and avid gardener, who writes about life and nature in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. We love it when she takes up the topic of birds, or goes close enough that we can publish her pieces on Flying Lessons.

June 1, 2020 0 comment

Birding Featured How we're birding now

Flocks of new birders are turning out, which should be good news for birds

by Anders Gyllenhaal May 6, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

In the weeks leading up to Saturday’s Global Big Day, the eBird team at the Cornell Lab noticed something they’d never seen before.

The eBird smartphone app that has become the standard for filing bird sightings was flooded with new users. That was followed by tens of thousands of fresh checklists and thousands of reports from back yards across North America. In parts of the world, eBird observations jumped as much as 2,000 percent between this April and last.

Jenna Curtis

With much of the world at a near standstill from the coronavirus, it wasn’t surprising that people trapped at home would try birding to pass the time. But the dimensions of surge were so big, scientists guiding the project are hard at work to make sense of what they they’re seeing.

“We’re waiting kind of cautiously before we decide what we can really do with this,’’ said Jenna Curtis, eBird project co-leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “But it’s very exciting.’’

Pages from the eBird mobile app / Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The statistics tell one part of the story: eBird checklists, which birders file to Cornell based on the species they identify (by either seeing or hearing the bird), increased nearly 50 percent over a year ago. Some of the specific elements birders send in, such as bird audios and photos, saw similar or even greater increases.

As a result, sometime this month, Cornell says eBird will reach a whopping 800 million total observations on birds – for a sudden boomlet at the world’s largest citizen science effort.

The other part of the story is how the surge plays out for birds. It’s almost certain to be a good thing, but it will take some time to know exactly how.

Is the quarantine giving birth to a new wave of birders, or will interest fade when schools and stores reopen? Will the avalanche of data lead to new discoveries about species, particularly those closest to where people live? Will the jump in birders strengthen conservation and raise public support for protections?

Flying Lessons: One of the intriguing elements of the eBird surge is what it tells us about the relationship between birds and people. While we travel in separate orbits, we react to each other in a number of ways, such as how our activities influence bird songs, and the way people are turning to birds in a troubling time.

May 6, 2020 0 comment

Birding research Conservation Featured

What the Grasshopper Sparrow is teaching us as it skirts extinction

by Anders Gyllenhaal May 2, 2020

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

For the next month or so, biologists from a coalition of wildlife agencies will be standing on the sidelines of a grassy prairie in Central Florida, pacing like worried relatives in a hospital waiting room.

A captive-bred sparrow steps from its cage.

They’ll be peering through binoculars and listening for bird calls for signs of the revival of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, whose total population has fallen to a just 30 breeding pairs.

Our article on the campaign to save the sparrow runs this week in the Washington Post. It’s a story about the mysterious decline of one of Florida endemic species and how a consortium of state, federal and non-profit agencies is staging a biological intervention sparrows bred in research centers to hold off extinction.

Sarah Biesemier (left) and Juan Oteyza, state biologists who oversee the project, arrive at the prairie with a carrying case full of sparrows.

It’s also a story about what’s happening on the front lines of the world of birds in a time of extraordinary change. On the one hand, researchers have built more tools, they’ve developed better research practices and they know more about birds like this sparrow than ever before. On the other hand, the threats to many species are unprecedented. A study in the journal Science a few months ago found that a third of North America’s breeding bird population has vanished in the last 50 years.

We came home from weeks in Central Florida, after visiting the research centers and talking to dozens of scientists, with a question nobody could answer very well: Do we have the collective wherewithal, and the financial and political capital, to put this kind of rescue mission together for the growing number of species certain to need it in the future?

Every grasshopper sparrow on the prairie is identified and tracked by four bands on its legs to follow their progress.

The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow is not the most likely candidate to win the kind of scientific full-court press it’s getting. It’s a small, brown, nondescript bird that’s never seen by most people. It’s found only on the Florida prairie, a unique environment slowly evaporating as the state grows. As a brand, this sparrow is on the far end of the appeal spectrum from such conservation successes as the Bald Eagle, the California Condor and the Osprey.

And yet, an ambitious plan has come together on behalf of this bird. It’s powered by state and federal researchers, some of whom have devoted their careers to studying Florida’s birds, and it’s supported by such non-profits as Florida Audubon and the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida (which just announced a grant for this project.) It is all the more impressive given the anti-environmental streak now running through modern politics.

The consortium makes a persuasive case that the grasshopper sparrow should be saved: It is one of the symbols of the Florida environment. With its haunting song and its place on nature’s ground floor, it’s a key piece of the puzzle of the biosphere we rely on. “The grasshopper sparrow is one of Florida’s flagship birds,” said John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Flying Lesson: The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow is a harbinger of a future in which many species are threatened with extinction. Researchers have built an ambitious rescue plan to save this bird, but is there enough public and political support to undertake missions like this for dozens of birds at the same time?

May 2, 2020 0 comment

Birding Birding guidance Featured

Here are 5 top-flight gift ideas for your favorite birder

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal December 3, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Finding holiday gifts for birders is relatively easy since birders tend to love all things birdy. And there are a lot of birdy gifts out there. The challenge is targeting the type of birder you’re dealing with, and then homing in on just the right choice for them.

Here are my five personal favorites for 2019:

1) If your spouse or someone else in your immediate family is an enthusiastic, shout-it-from-the-rooftops type birder, visit your local motor vehicles office for a personalized license plate.

Nicolas Lund, a.k.a. The Birdist, who writes about birding for the Audubon website, has this to say about spotting personalized plates: “I knew immediately that these people were my people. I didn’t even need to meet them. Personalized plates could be a great way to let everyone know how much you love birds without having to say a word.” Click here for Lund’s entertaining essay.

2) If your birders love to be in fields and forests, they really need tick protection.

Specially treated socks

Ticks are nasty creatures and cause a host of diseases in addition to Lyme. The best way to stay safe is to wear clothing treated with permethrin, a synthetic version of a chemical produced naturally by the chrysanthemum flower. Permethrin is EPA-approved for clothing, and it kills or disables ticks, mosquitoes, ants, flies, chiggers and midges on contact.

Although you can spray your own clothes with permethrin, there are factory-treated items containing the industry standard 0.52 percent permethrin that will last for 70 washes as opposed to four or so with the spray. So my favorite stocking stuffer this year will be these Insect Shield Sport Crew Socks for $10.95. You can find them for sale here.

December 3, 2019 0 comment

Birding Birding research Conservation Featured

New research finds 30 percent of the bird population lost over 50 years

by Anders Gyllenhaal September 19, 2019

written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Every birder will want to tune into a study published today in the journal Science that reaches a startling conclusion: Three billion birds — or 29 percent of the total population across all species — have been lost in North America since 1970.

The research is much more than a traditional study. All of the major bird organizations pooled resources to collect data from the last half century, track what has happened to every species and analyze the modern state of the avian landscape with a precision never before possible.

What this study means is that a sharp and widespread drop in the bird population is taking place. It includes not just the endangered species that get the most attention, but familiar, common birds like orioles, blue jays, sparrows, blackbirds that seemed to be thriving.

Grassland birds (down 53 percent) are losing habitat with the spread of farms, while coastal birds (down 37 percent) are affected by development and climate change. Populations of forest birds are down by about 30 percent from 50 years ago, and arctic birds are down 23 percent.

Go to the end of this piece for links to the many stories, opinion pieces, graphics and videos on this research. To read the Science paper itself, go to the website developed as part of this project, click “findings” at the top right and you’ll find a link.

One of the posters the Cornell Lab released with the study

The findings are so stark and surprising, the authors say, that they have reason to hope this might lead to the kind of public response that followed Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” that helped forge strong new conservation laws.

The research is delivered in the form of a dispassionate scientific study. But the authors –- a Who’s Who in ornithology — do not mince their words when describing the conclusions.

“This data suggests that we are facing the beginning of the end for nature as we know it,” said Mike Parr, president of American Bird Conservancy (ABC). “If we continue to put economic benefits first at all costs, that’s where we are headed.”

Declines among birds have been well studied in recent years, usually focused on those most threatened. Drawing on all the previous data, decades of bird counts and 10 years of weather radar, this study stands out for its breadth of data and sweep of focus.

“Multiple, independent lines of evidence show a massive reduction in the abundance of birds,” Ken Rosenberg, the study’s lead author and a senior scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy, said in a release this afternoon. “We expected to see continuing declines of threatened species. But for the first time, the results also showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds.”

September 19, 2019 1 comment

Bird of the Week Birding Featured

Listen up: This Bird of the Week is the Life of the Party

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal May 26, 2019

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

A birder walks into a clearing, and there’s a Song Sparrow singing its heart out. In chimes a Robin, followed by a Grosbeak and a Tanager, a Wood Thrush and a Warbler, all chirping at the same time.

Sounds like a bunch of songbirds out having a party. But it’s only the Northern Mockingbird. He is the party.

This could be the start of a great joke, but it’s just too infuriating. So many times it sounds like you’ve hit the birding jackpot only to be fooled by one wily, nondescript, gray-and-white bird.

It’s awful having your dopamine high dashed like that, and it’s happened more times than I care to count. Over the years I’ve come to seriously resent this bird.

So. The Mockingbird is a “mimic” – a type of bird who’s remarkable for his ability to imitate the songs of other birds. The male can have a repertoire of more than 150 songs, and he continues to learn new ones throughout his life. He even mimics the sounds of insects, animals and things that aren’t alive. Machinery for example. Researchers have identified Mockingbirds with 203 imitations.

May 26, 2019 0 comment