Birds

There have been recent rumors, on the Internet at the Arkansas and Tennessee birding listservs and at least one blog, regarding a paper by several researchers, including a well-known Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO) expert, that will question the validity of the…

In part 1 of “invisible birds” I described one of the often-heard-but-rarely-seen species I’ve encountered during my breeding bird atlas work, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. In keeping with the theme of yellow body parts, let me introduce the Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria…

You rely a lot on your ears when doing bird surveys, especially in the summertime. Thick foliage obstructs views, females are tending nests or young, and unless they are singing from an exposed perch, males may be hard to locate…

Some years I don’t catch many Tennessee Warblers (Vermivora peregrina), but this year seemed to be a good year for them. Their populations surge and wane with outbreaks of spruce budworms (Choristoneura fumiferana) on their northern nesting grounds. The budworms…

“The soft color tones combine to make a most charming picture of pleasing loveliness. He appears to be a well groomed aristocrat among birds.”

As I mentioned, on Saturday I participated in the North American Migration Count, in which individual counties are scoured by teams of birders each year on the second Saturday in May to produce a “snapshot” of spring bird migration. I…

Today, at dawn, I went out in the field to open my nets and heard the unique and exuberant R2D2-like song of the Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). They were back from their southern winter vacations. As a banding intern in…

“This is the most exciting ornithological discovery in a long, long time.”

Before retiring tonight, I checked my local birding listserv one last time. Just beginning to burn up cyberspace is a report that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker had been rediscovered in Arkansas in 2003, and been kept a secret until today…