Last time we heard from Nate Senner, he was herding godwits in Chile. Since then he’s been to Peru for a three-week stint of shorebird-identification workshops with an incredible goal: to survey the entire coastline of the country. Here’s Nate with his first installment of how things went: Twenty-five years ago, two Canadian biologists undertook [...]
A recent article in Living Bird magazine posed the above question. In author Mel White’s case there were two frontrunners: the Andean Cock-of-the-rock, which tends to jump onto the list of anyone who’s ever seen a picture of one, and the much more obscure Bornean Bristlehead. White tells the story of how he was lucky [...]
Most scientific meetings, like last week’s AOU, begin each morning with a plenary in which a prominent scientist offers the perspective of decades of experience. But on the last morning, age yielded the floor to four young scientists (“newly minted Phds” in local parlance). Three were in the running for this year’s Young Professional Award: [...]
Living Bird editor Tim Gallagher took a short break from the AOU meeting last week to visit the San Diego Natural History Museum. He’s trying to piece together what happened to the majestic Imperial Woodpecker, a bird of Mexico’s high pine forests that has not been seen since 1956. The museum had two specimens of [...]
On paper, last week’s AOU meetings were a solid wall of plenary talks, 15-minute research talks, and evening poster sessions. But cracks in the full schedule—coffee breaks, field trips, dinners and drinks—left plenty of room for impromptu conversations and unscheduled idea-sharing. Dr. Alan Poole, editor of the Birds of North America Online, ran across two [...]
The 2010 AOU meetings have been going on all week, and Mike Webster, director of the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab, has been especially impressed with news of technological advances and the young scientists putting them to use. Mike has two fascinating stories for you: the gaudy courtship of frigatebirds hides a genetic objective, [...]
There’s a lot to love about birds, and a lot of joy to be had in sharing your delight. To help people get connected, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Cornell Lab have just launched a new online community designed with bird watchers in mind: We Love Birds. The free site allows members to [...]
It’s time for another annual meeting of the American Ornithologists’ Union. Just like last year in Philadelphia and 2009 in Portland, we’ll be bringing you stories from the floor of the meeting, where hundreds of ornithologists have gathered for four days of intense science. First up is Living Bird editor Tim Gallagher to report on [...]
The 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count coming up February 12-15 could be the greatest ever. It all depends on how many people heed the call to participate. GBBC coordinator Pat Leonard likes to think of each checklist a bird watcher submits as illuminating a small but important part of North America—your neighborhood. Each is [...]
Is everyone ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count next weekend (Feb 12-15)? It’s your annual chance to help scientists by watching the birds in your backyard for as little as 15 minutes, then reporting your observations to us. Birders in the United Kingdom just finished their own version of the count, called the Big [...]
