Tag Archives: Birds

Ornithologist, conservationist Robert Ridgely receives 2013 Allen Award

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology bestowed its prestigious Arthur A. Allen Award for 2013 to Dr. Robert Ridgely, at a ceremony May 14 at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library. The award, named for Cornell Lab founder Arthur Allen, was established in 1967 to honor those who have made significant contributions to ornithology by making it [...]

New Crossley ID Quiz Challenges You to ID Raptors From Above

Click image for a larger version. (Right-click to open in a new window if you’d like to have the photo visible while you read the answers below.) The new Crossley ID Guide: Raptors came out in April. Crossley’s innovative technique of cramming lots of photos onto a page seems to work especially well with such large birds [...]

Bicknell’s Thrush Surveys Turn Up Illegal Clearing in Dominican Republic

Surveys for a rare North American songbird are shedding light on illegal forest clearing in the Dominican Republic, according to researchers from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and Grupo Jaragua. The ongoing cutting in Sierra de Bahoruco National Park threatens some of Hispaniola’s last remaining undisturbed cloud forest. The park’s forests are a winter home [...]

Behind the Scenes of Imperial Dreams: A Pennsylvania Dentist in the Mountains of Mexico

Living Bird editor Tim Gallagher’s newest book, Imperial Dreams, hit bookstores on Tuesday with its tales of exploring Mexico’s Sierra Madre in pursuit of the largest woodpecker that ever lived. The book has received some great reviews, and Tim will appear on the Diane Rehm show on Thursday, April 25, 2013, to discuss it. Here’s a [...]

A Hawk-Watching Quiz on the Prairie, Crossley Style

  (Click image for a larger version) The new Crossley guide hits bookstores this week, bringing Crossley’s unique approach to the task of helping you identify more raptors—whether they’re familiar, unfamiliar, faraway, backlit, immature, adult, light-morph, dark-morph, soaring, hovering, or sitting. With raptors for a subject, this guide concerns itself with far fewer species than [...]

What’s It Like to Find 264 Species in One Big Day? [video]

Big Days are intense: Last year, our Team Sapsucker spent all 24 hours of April 27 scouring central and eastern Texas for birds. They had three dozen species on their list before dawn broke, and hit triple digits shortly before 8 a.m. They kept going, adding an average of one species every 11 minutes throughout [...]

Sharpen Up Your Sharpie ID With New Crossley Raptor Guide

(Click image to enlarge) We were pretty impressed with Richard Crossley’s first bird ID guide when it came out in 2011. So we can’t wait for the next installment: a guide dedicated specifically to raptors, due out in April 2013. Could our excitement have anything to do with his coauthors? Yes it could: they include [...]

Vote in March Migration Madness and Get Your Own Printable Bracket

Our third annual March Migration Madness tournament kicked off on Tuesday, March 12, when the Whooping Crane faced off against the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. After more than 2,700 total votes, the crane stretched its long legs and walked away with the victory. It will reappear in Round 2 against the winner of the American Kestrel vs. [...]

Weighing the Fate of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse

UPDATE 2: Owing to public interest, the Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the public comment period. If you have not already commented, you can submit comments here until April 2, 2013. UPDATE: We received many requests from readers for information on how to submit a public comment on the proposed listing of the Gunnison [...]

Why So Red, Mr. Cardinal? NestWatch Explains

By Jason Martin and Robyn Bailey In many parts of North America, handsome male Northern Cardinals are already singing to attract mates. A bird so visible in the winter landscape begs the question, “How does a flame-red bird that nests close to the ground manage to be so common?” Many people puzzle over how this [...]