Cedar Waxwings are dining their way north: Don’t...
Tanagers are one big, beautiful family of birds....
They unlock the Earth’s treasury of hummingbirds. Does...
Pittsburgh’s National Aviary takes you around the world...
“He’s close.” On the trail of a rare...
It’s a bird-eat-bird world: Pileated Woodpeckers on the...
Tree Swallows caught in midair: A rare glimpse...
What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches...
Can we save this globe-trotting sandpiper? Only if...
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Birds storiesPhotographyVideo

It’s a bird-eat-bird world: Pileated Woodpeckers on the attack

by Anders Gyllenhaal December 27, 2021
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Two male Pileated Woodpeckers battle for supremacy. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

We heard the clamor from our woodpecker’s nest and instantly knew something was up. The bird’s usual call was replaced with a high-pitched, staccato screech and both the male and female birds leaped around their tree as if the place was on fire.

Last week, we wrote about the idyllic life these two Pileated Woodpeckers created within a few steps of where we are camping. This week, we got a reminder that nature is unpredictable and sometimes violent. By the end of the week, the pair were forced out of their nest just as they were trying to start a family.

The cries we heard that day were the precursor to an attack from another Pileated Woodpecker who wanted to take the place of the male. We scurried over to see what was going on just as an attack was about to begin. The two male birds jumped from one branch to another, howling furiously. Then they tumbled to the ground as if in a western, falling head over tails as they wrestled. We though the duel might be over, then the two males flew to the top of the nesting tree and began circling each other while trading jabs and squawks.

We’re closing the year by publishing the most popular posts of 2021 — which was our year of travel across the country. Each weekend, we’ll run an updated version of the original story, a kind of tour of the birdscape from North Carolina to Hawaii, Florida to Wyoming. We’ll feature Snow Geese, Sandpipers, Hummingbirds, Tree Swallows, Pileated Woodpeckers and Palilas, the rare the Hawaiian honeycreeper. We hope you’ll come along with us on the tour. But if you’d like to skip ahead or go back and read one you missed, click on the links on these birds. Wishing you a wonderful year of birding ahead. 

Pileateds are the largest woodpeckers in North America, more than a foot tall with a wingspan of two feet. They are powerful birds with large claws and sharp beaks. All of those tools came into play as these two battled for the advantage.

Finally, our original male took a powerful swipe at the intruder, who then flew off in what turned out to be the end of the threat. Both the male and female climbed up and down their nesting tree, ready for another assault that never came. Eventually, they settled down and went back to readying the nest they’d worked on for the past two weeks.

Here’s how it looked in a video: 

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December 27, 2021 0 comment
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Birds storiesPhotographyVideo

It’s a bird-eat-bird world: Pileated Woodpeckers Part 2

by Anders Gyllenhaal March 24, 2021
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Two male Pileated Woodpeckers battle for supremacy. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

We heard the clamor from our woodpecker’s nest and instantly knew something was up. The bird’s usual call was replaced with a high-pitched, staccato screech and both the male and female birds leaped around their tree as if the place was on fire.

Last week, we wrote about the idyllic life these two Pileated Woodpeckers created within a few steps of where we are camping. This week, we got a reminder that nature is unpredictable and sometimes violent. By the end of the week, the pair were forced out of their nest just as they were trying to start a family.

The cries we heard that day were the precursor to an attack from another Pileated Woodpecker who wanted to take the place of the male. We scurried over to see what was going on just as an attack was about to begin. The two male birds jumped from one branch to another, howling furiously. Then they tumbled to the ground as if in a western, falling head over tails as they wrestled. We though the duel might be over, then the two males flew to the top of the nesting tree and began circling each other while trading jabs and squawks.

Pileateds are the largest woodpeckers in North America, more than a foot tall with a wingspan of two feet. They are powerful birds with large claws and sharp beaks. All of those tools came into play as these two battled for the advantage.

Finally, our original male took a powerful swipe at the intruder, who then flew off in what turned out to be the end of the threat. Both the male and female climbed up and down their nesting tree, ready for another assault that never came. Eventually, they settled down and went back to readying the nest they’d worked on for the past two weeks.

Here’s how it looked in a video: 

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March 24, 2021 2 comments
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FeaturedSpeciesVideo

It’s springtime — and these Pileated Woodpeckers get down to business

by Anders Gyllenhaal March 17, 2021
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

We’ve always been drawn to Pileated Woodpeckers. Who can resist these magnificent birds, with their striking yodel, two-foot wingspan and bright red crests set against more than a foot of jet-black plumage?

The male Pileated outside its nest. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal.

So when two of these woodpeckers showed up for several days running in a dead tree right next-door to our campsite, we were captivated. It was hard to get anything done; they’d sound off a dozen times a day, and I’d have to drop everything and see what was going on.

The female outside their nest cavity

 

Something was up indeed: It’s springtime – and we had a romance brewing before our prying eyes.

We’ve always had to catch Pileated Woodpeckers in brief glimpses when they’d appear on a birding walk, or zip by overhead on their way to somewhere else. This encounter turned out to be different. The pair decided to build their nesting cavity 30 steps from our spot on the edge of the busy Land Yacht Harbor Airstream park in Central Florida where we’re spending a few weeks. They seemed used to people and didn’t mind my keeping up with their progress.

They chose a tall dead pine and started chopping out their cavity 25 feet up the trunk. The male did most of the work in the beginning, then the female took over. She was tireless, working away for hours at a time, then picking up mouthfuls of chips and tossing them out the front door as if spitting tobacco juice.

Here’s a video of the two working on their nest, to the Beatle’s love song, “I will:” 

 

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March 17, 2021 1 comment
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Birding researchConservationPhotographyVideo

Keeping up with the Jays: Half a century of research is slowly paying off

by Anders Gyllenhaal March 9, 2021
written by Anders Gyllenhaal
 

The Florida Scrub-Jays have come to recognize the white Ford pickup that bumps along the sandy roads headed their way. They’ve long since become accustomed to the familiar figure that jumps out of the cab and starts walking along the roadway. The birds are zipping his way at full speed within a minute or two of his arrival.

It’s the monthly census at the Archbold Biological Station– and the jays are more than willing to be counted. 

The driver is Reed Bowman, the state’s expert on Scrub-Jays who’s spent 30 years studying these endangered birds in search of a way to help their population rebound. The monthly census gives the birds something they want — peanuts that Bowman scatters along the road to draw the birds. And Bowman gets what he needs: a close look at the birds to make sure they’re all accounted for and healthy.

Reed Bowman checking off the jays he’s spotted. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

“Here they come,’’ Bowman says, on his second stop of the morning, where the jays were particularly eager to reach him.  They land and wait in the stunted oak undergrowth nearby. Then they plunge forward and go after the treats. Bowman raises his binoculars and quickly spots the colorful bands on their legs that identify every individual bird.

“See that white and green (band), that bird right there?’’ he says. “And there’s red, (and) red. They both have antennas sitting on their back. A little bent up, but not bad.’’

Bird counts everywhere are an important part of tracking the health of species in general, but the regular census at Archbold stands apart. Every month for the past half century, the Archbold bird staff has fanned out across the 8,000 acres dotted with pines, stunted oaks and palmettos to build an unparalleled historic record of the Florida Scrub-Jay population.

About 85 families of jays live here, one of the few areas where they’re stable and even increasing on some tracts. Researchers believe the answer to saving the disappearing species lies in this intense study. It focuses not only on population size, but on their overall health, how the birds live, particularly how they mate, build nests and raise young.

Can Florida and the endangered Scrub-Jays co-exist? 
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March 9, 2021 0 comment
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Bird of the WeekVideo

A Green Heron’s Fishing Lesson: Knowing just when to strike

by Anders Gyllenhaal May 11, 2020
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

The Green Heron, moving so slowly that it blends into the background, is all but invisible. That can be a fatal mistake. 

Gradually lifting one foot, then the other, the heron edges forward until it’s within striking distance of its prey. Then with breathtaking speed, it snaps up a tiny fish in a single move and swallows almost as quickly, before it moves on to the next encounter. 

We stumbled upon this magnificent bird last weekend at Raleigh, N.C.’s Crabtree wetlands. The swampy expanse not far from downtown is a feathered circus this time of year, with swallows circling constantly, warblers adding color to the trees, a Bald Eagle passing overhead, a Great Blue Heron snagging a fish of its own, and crows and grackles supplying the soundtrack.

All the while, the Green Heron makes its way around the shallow water, nearly invisible in all the clamor until it makes its move. 

Here’s the cast of colorful characters gathered in these wetlands:  

Our Green Heron, the star of the show

Yellow Warbler

Bald Eagle

Black-and-white Warbler

Palm Warbler

Eastern Phoebe

Great Blue Heron with its fish

Prothonotary Warbler

 

May 11, 2020 0 comment
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Birding researchConservationMigrationVideo

Probing a hummingbird mystery — one band at a time

by Anders Gyllenhaal November 7, 2019
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The tiny captive is a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, held firmly in fingers that are far bigger than he is. What happens next will help solve an intriguing migration mystery affecting one of the world’s most intriguing birds.

Along the North Carolina coast, hummingbirds are creating a birders’ kerfuffle by staying into the winter when they’re expected to be headed to South American with millions of their fellow migrants. Susan Campbell, an ornithologist from Southern Pines, and the state’s leading expert on hummingbirds, is trying to figure out why.

First, Campbell tags the hummingbird with a small aluminum band on his leg, then weighs and measures him and puts a dollop of white paint on his forehead. After a sip of nectar, this young male is ready to be set free in the woods near North Carolina’s Hatteras Island to join the research project.

Susan Campbell

“This is one of the last frontiers in bird research right now,’’ Campbell said. Over the past 20 years, she has banded some 4,000 hummingbirds in North Carolina in hopes of tracking their travels to try to make sense of these migratory patterns.

The banding last month was part of a demonstration to raise visibility of the volunteer campaign to study the 15 species of hummingbirds that migrate through North Carolina. This is one of the best places there is to do it: More hummingbirds have been spotted in North Carolina than anywhere in the U.S. but Arizona.

Here’s a video of the banding process: 

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November 7, 2019 1 comment
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BirdingVideo

Birding with a Banjo: The day tweet met twang

by Anders Gyllenhaal November 30, 2018
written by Anders Gyllenhaal

What do you get when you mix a songbird’s chirp with a banjo?

We found out one day last spring when we were camping near Charlottesville, Va., alternating between long birding walks and sitting by the fire. On a perfect afternoon, I dragged a chair over to a nearby creek and started tuning my banjo to play a few tunes.

That’s when a Tufted Titmouse chimed in. While not exactly beautiful music, the encounter isn’t like anything I’ve ever heard before. Here’s what happened:

A friend of ours, Robbi Farrell, pulled out her phone and videoed the scene as the Titmouse joined me in a long and lyrical duet of alternating tweets and twangs.

A Tufted Titmouse — not the one in a duet with my banjo — but a cousin a spotted some time later.

At times, it was hard to tell who was leading whom. 

Birds are always offering us lessons of one sort or another if we’ll listen. They have much to say, between mating songs, scolds to competitors and danger calls when a predator is approaching.

I couldn’t tell which of these I was hearing, and I only got a glimpse of the Titmouse. But it’s a conversation I’ll always remember. With the winter moving in and the birds heading south, this seems like the perfect time to share this video. We hope it puts you back in the springtime woods at least for a moment.

(Scroll down a bit to leave a comment.)

November 30, 2018 0 comment
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In-depth stories

Grasshopper Sparrow

Here are links to some of the deeper stories we’ve written for publications from the Washington Post to The Miami Herald exploring the frontiers of birding and avian research. This story for the Post was about the role of every-day birders in creating the largest citizen science project in the world. This piece for The Herald looked at the surprising strength of the Roseate Spoonbill in the midst of climate change. And this article and video for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer is about how some adventurous hummingbirds are abandoning their migration and staying the winter in the U.S. Our latest story in the Washington Post is about a rescue mission for the imperiled Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. 

Miami Herald’s Spoonbill package

Some favorite birds

Barred Owl Orlando, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Ruby-throated Hummingbird West Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Hairy Woodpecker Prime Hook Refuge, Delaware
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Prairie Warbler Cape May, New Jersey
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Red-bellied Woodpecker St. Joe Overstreet Landing, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Eastern Wood-Peewee Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Eastern Meadowlark Kissimmee, Florida
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Black-throated Blue Warbler Raleigh, North Carolina
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal
Northern Flicker Alexandria, Virginia
Copyright by Anders and Beverly Gyllehhaal

Birds in Flight

Roseate Spoonbill BIRDS IN FLIGHT FELLSMERE, FLORIDA OSPREY BIRDS IN FLIGHT Orlando, Florida American Flamingo BIRDS IN FLIGHT Rio Largartos, Mexico COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL EASTERN MEADOWLARK BIRDS IN FLIGHT KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA Red-shouldered Hawk BIRDS IN FLIGHT Orlando, Florida COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL PALM WARBLER BIRDS IN FLIGHT ORLANDO, FLORIDA BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER BIRDS IN FLIGHT LORTON, VIRGINIA BROWN PELICAN BIRDS IN FLIGHT ASSATEAGUE, MARYLAND COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL WOOD STORK BIRDS IN FLIGHT MELBOURNE, FLORIDA COPYRIGHT BY ANDERS AND BEVERLY GYLLENHAAL

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Quotes for the birds

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”

— Robert Lynd, Irish writer, essayist and journalist

Comments, Suggestions & Quips:

On How Birds Teach Humility:

–“NOB. Love it! Great little truths in this post.” – Chara Daum

— “Appreciate your insights, Beverly.” -Ruth Harrell

— “Loving your Flying Lessons blog.” -Susan May, San Francisco

On our offbeat video of a Tufted Titmouse singing along with a banjo:

“That is totally cool,” Tony Mas, Dahlonega, Ga.

“This brought a smile to us. Thanks.” John Deen, St. Paul, MN.

“Really amazing.” Florence Strickland, Sunset Beach, N.C.

On the Mandarin duck’s arrival in Central Park:

— “I think he gets his own Saturday morning now.” -Stephen Colby, Raleigh, N.C.

— “What a beautiful bird. Its colors look painted on. Magnificent.” -Christine DiMattei

On the falling numbers of Wild Turkeys:

“I was just mentioning this to a friend, how I used to see Wild Turkeys every time I hit a dirt road, and now it’s almost rare.” -Jeff Brooks.

“There are a hundred times more turkeys than when I was a kid. Fake BS to shake down donations and public funding.” -Vance Shearer

 

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About us

About us

We’re two journalists who’ve traded in our work in publishing and syndicated writing for following and photographing the birds. We live in Raleigh, NC, but are traveling the country every chance we get -- and are sharing the lessons birds are teaching us and the photos we take along the way.

Popular Posts

  • 1

    It’s a bird-eat-bird world: Pileated Woodpeckers on the attack

    December 27, 2021
  • 2

    What a show: Battle of the Hummingbirds reaches its peak

    December 17, 2021
  • 3

    How on earth? Great White Pelican shows up on the other side of the world

    February 6, 2020
  • 4

    How on earth? Great White Pelican shows up on the other side of the world

    December 13, 2020
  • 5

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

    November 22, 2020
  • 6

    Cedar Waxwings are dining their way north: Don’t miss the show

    April 17, 2020

Why Flying Lessons

This website is about what we can learn from the birds around us. Some of the lessons are obvious, such as the way birds can be a barometer of environmental changes. Others are subtle, like the way you, as an observer, have to adapt to navigate the world in which birds operate. We ourselves still have much to learn about birding, a late-in-life pursuit that has captivated us in retirement. But we decided to start writing about the lessons and teachings as we’re finding our way, in hopes that our storytelling and photography will help to celebrate a captivating element of nature.

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