Science editor Gus Axelson recently posted about how the warblers of Europe don’t exactly measure up to our spectacular American warblers. That got the attention of Wesley Hochachka, assistant director of our Bird Population Studies program. Wes is an avid birder and has spent plenty of time in the field in both North America [...]
Science editor Gus Axelson is just back from a tour of eastern Hungary sponsored by Swarovski Optik. (Look for his story about bird conservation in Hungary to appear in a future issue of Living Bird.) As Gus returned to the world of American Redstarts and other brilliant warblers, he turned his attention to a more [...]
After watching The Big Year on Friday, our group convened to hash out what we thought. We liked the movie a lot, but as we talked about nitpicky details and larger themes, the reactions were wide-ranging. Among our group was one person with a life list over 3,000 species, several more experts, some casual birders, [...]
There’s been an immense amount of concern and confusion about what caused thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds in Arkansas to drop dead in the middle of the night on New Year’s Eve. The general public and media outlets have been calling us with questions, but it’s been very hard for anyone—even the biologists working on the [...]
Back in the olden days, “Hello world!” was the traditional greeting whenever anyone logged onto the Internet for the very first time. And this week we had our own “Hello world” moment when we launched the Cornell Lab’s Facebook page. http://twitter.com/#!/lab_of_O/status/2352832678199296 If you’re a Facebook user, we hope you’ll stop by our page, “Like” us, [...]
(Click photo for larger version) It’s technically still fall, even if we do have snow on the ground already. Perhaps the warm colors in our photo quiz will bring back some toasty memories of birding a couple of months ago. Did you see any of the above species? For that matter, what are the species [...]
It’s nearly winter, and those of you lucky enough to live near some beaches or mudflats probably enjoy gazing out over motley assortments of shorebirds like this one. Until you can get outside, though, cast your eyes over this photo and help us answer the question: How many species are in this photo? (Of course, [...]
