* If you have not downloaded Merlin, do it today - it's free from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

* If you don't know about "The Lab", check it out: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

2. "Tiny tornadoes": In Ecuador’s Chocó Andino de Pichincha Biosphere Reserve, a 709,192-acre biodiversity hotspot northwest of Quito, hummingbirds thrive. The country is home to roughly 132 of the world’s 320-plus hummingbird species. On a single afternoon in the reserve’s Mashpi Cloud Forest, you might see a couple dozen of these species, from tiny green thorntails to velvet-purple coronets. The brilliant-colored avians dart and whizz between feeders, flying forwards, backwards, and in some cases, upside down. They’re dazzling to watch, but also incredible to hear. Their soft hums sound like little motors that, together, create a sort of natural symphony. But where does this distinct “buzz” come from? Or, to put it more bluntly, why do hummingbirds hum? (via Popular Science)

By Hap Ellis, (Young) Bonaparte's Gull - Kennebunkport, ME.

3. Not sure we appreciated the "Roadless Rule" but we do now - concerning: The Roadless Area Conservation Rule has conserved nearly 60 million acres of pristine forests across the United States for a quarter of a century. These forests are protected from unnecessary road construction, unsustainable timber harvests, and energy development, allowing vulnerable species to find a foothold in an otherwise shrinking landscape. At the time the rule was adopted in 2001, the forests covered by the Roadless Rule contained habitat for approximately 25 percent of animal species and 13 percent of plant species designated as Endangered in the United States. For 25 years, the Roadless Rule has safeguarded fragile ecosystems and protected biodiversity in some of the last undisturbed pockets of backcountry. Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has moved to rescind the Roadless Rule, giving the public a narrow window to weigh in during a comment period that closes on September 21. (via ABC Birds)

4. And down they come - Fall Migration kicks into gear: Signs of the waning summer are everywhere. The sun is setting earlier, yellow school buses are emerging from hibernation, and birds are showing up on weather radar once again. The fall migration is in full swing and we humans can follow along with BirdCast. Over the next two nights (August 25 and 26), BirdCast predicts that over 200 million birds will begin their long journey towards their head for their wintering grounds. Over 300 North American bird species are long-distance migrants, meaning they will travel hundreds to thousands of miles annually. These migrations can take days to weeks, depending on the species. BirdCast’s daily forecast maps show their predicted nighttime migration patterns that begin roughly three hours after sunset. The brighter and warmer colors represent more birds expected overhead. They are also updated every six hours. (via Popular Science)

5. "Migration stories..."kind of amazing": Bird migration is among the most noticeable, intriguing, and exciting phenomena in the North American annual cycle of nature. Like clockwork, warblers, orioles, and more turn up at our doorstep every year and mark the passing of the seasons. Unlocking the secrets of these ancient behaviors requires demanding fieldwork: coordinating boat schedules, rising before dawn, and carefully documenting birds as they pass through. Dr. Morris has been studying songbird migration on Appledore Island since 1990 and will share observations and insights resulting from the long-term bird banding station at the Shoals Marine Lab, at the 2026 Paul C. Mundinger Distinguished Lectureship at Cornell University on September 9, 2026. (via Cornell Chronicle)

6. Two pieces on bird flu in Australia caught our attention - the first from the NYT: Bird flu is sweeping across Australia, devastating its unique birds and mammals, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. Already, mass mortality events have killed more than 1,000 birds, and the disease has crossed into seals. Experts fear more deaths are likely. Australia confirmed its first case of H5N1 in June in a migratory brown skua, a sub-Antarctic species on the country’s southern coast. Since then, the disease has rapidly spread. To date, there have been 309 confirmed bird flu events, official data shows (the country is not counting individual bird cases, instead referring to events that could include one or more birds). Among the bird species to have died are greater crested terns, silver gulls (commonly known as seagulls) and little penguins. (via The New York Times)

(Bird Drawings From Friends) By Jennifer Griiffis - Broad-tailed Hummingbird - Eagle. CO.

7. And then from the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), more news: Bird flu has quickly spread around Australia since it was first detected in mid-June. As predicted, it spread from Antarctica to offshore Australia and then from beaches to inland waterways. As of late August there are more than 350 confirmed events of bird flu, including several mass mortalities. But hidden in the numbers are more than 20 distinct species of animal that have fallen to the disease. According to Rachael Gray, a veterinary pathology researcher at the University of Sydney who has worked with the seals for decades, looking to the global environmental picture, what is happening “is quite frightening”. (via ABC News)

8. What it takes - people like Mina Edison: Mina Edison would often sit on the porch of Seminole Lodge to observe ibises, long-billed curlews, Everglades snail kites, herons and bitterns. She installed numerous birdhouses along the riverfront to attract purple martins and other species. It wasn’t long before her husband, children and the Ford family took up bird-watching as well. A new exhibition in the Edison Caretaker’s House pays tribute to “The Birds of Southwest Florida.” It runs Sept. 1 through Dec. 6. (via WGCU News)

9. Sierra Club weighs in on birds and forest fire smoke: A bird’s life is exhausting. Certain migratory species fly over 3,000 miles in one go, and the most active of avians can stay airborne for up to six months. To fuel such feats of endurance, birds have adapted with a unique way of breathing. Their respiratory system features a series of air sacs that constantly pump fresh air into their body cavity. When birds breathe air that is high in particulate matter and other toxins, it puts them at risk of respiratory distress, cardiovascular symptoms, and, in some cases, death. With wildfire seasons becoming longer and more intense, researchers are investigating what increasingly smoky skies could mean for birds now and in the future. A study published last month in Biodiversity and Conservation provides some clues. (via Sierra Club)

By Hap Ellis, House Finch - Biddeford Pool, ME.

10. We're heading to Bulgaria! BBC highlights a Bulgarian bird guide: In 2013, I won a photo competition and my prize was a trip to shoot Balkan chamois. We were scouting for the next day’s action and, as we had sleeping bags and food, decided to sleep on the mountain. Our guide was a joker and told us there was a bear cave 300m away. We didn’t take him seriously. Well, it was a miracle we survived. It was the pop music on the guide’s phone that saved us, after we told him, for the fourth time, that there was an angry bear a few metres away in the dark. The guide lost his phone in the rush downhill and I didn’t get a single shot of a chamois. (via Discover Wildlife)

11. Update on the "aristocrats of the bird world": The UK’s rarest bird of prey has successfully bred in a secret location for a second consecutive year, with conservationists crediting one polyamorous male with bringing the species back from near extinction in the country. Montagu’s harriers – raptors referred to as the “aristocrats of the bird world” – were put on a red list of birds most at risk in the UK in 2021, with no breeding pairs spotted between 2020 and 2023. But one adult male known as AU is now keeping Britain’s “Monties” population alive. He’s responsible for at least 16 chicks since 2018. AU had previously bred four chicks with a female in 2025, after a six-year wait in the UK for new Montagu’s harrier families. (via CNN)

* More on Montagu's Harrier, which enjoys much brighter prospects on the continent, here: Montagu's Harrier - Circus pygargus (via Birds of the World)

12. More input on grassland birds and what it takes to reverse the declines we're seeing: Even in protected areas, birds are disappearing from America’s prairies, and unpredictable weather isn’t helping. That’s the takeaway from a new study by researchers at Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The study, published in the journal Ecological Applications, analyzed 16 years of bird survey data at 40 tallgrass prairie sites in western Minnesota. The sites were all protected areas — a mix of state parks, wildlife management areas, and private conservation easements. (via Eureka Alert)

(Photos from Friends) By Alexander Ellis, Western Tanagers - Greenough, MT.

13. Finally, you may never look at crows in the same light again!!: Almost every neighbourhood in North America has crows in it. Big glossy black birds, one of the most successful adaptations to human life any wild animal has ever managed, sitting in trees and telephone lines and city parks, watching people with what looks from underneath like ordinary bored attention. What most people who share their neighbourhoods with them don’t quite realise is that the birds are, in a very specific and measurable sense, watching. And, if you do the wrong thing to one of them, they will remember your face. For years. And they will tell each other. That last part, the telling, is the one that took the science a while to work out. (via Science Blog)

Go birding!

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Meet 12 Birds Your Can Only See on Spring and Autumn Migration”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Watch as Wensi returns to the Hellgate Osprey nest during a thunderstorm in Missoula, Montana.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Need a moment of peace? Spend some time with this tropical beauty.

2. Steeped in ancient (as in 334 B.C.) roots - Tokyo takagari: A centuries-old art form took flight this past week at Hamarikyu Gardens in Tokyo, where falconers showcased their craft against the backdrop of what was once a hunting ground during the Edo Period (1603-1868). The event, hosted by the Suwa Falconry Preservation Society, offered a glimpse into a tradition that has evolved over millennia but remains steeped in its ancient roots. And while the showcase was all about fun and education, like other sports involving animals, falconry is also serious business for competitors at the upper echelons of the sport. (via Japan Times)

By Hap Ellis, Wilson's Storm-Petrel - Gulf of Maine, 7 miles off Cape Porpoise, ME.

3. Check out this video - decoding the song of a zebra finch: (Video) Watch:

If you’re not a bird person, you may not be able to distinguish between the different sounds birds make. Birdsong — the courting and territorial vocalization of songbirds — has been studied for decades, but less is understood about bird chatter, or the other chirps made by all flock members throughout the day. Now, we have new insights into the meanings of their chat, thanks to Julie Elie, an associate project scientist in Berkeley’s department of neuroscience research. Elie has spent years listening to the zebra finch, a small, social songbird. Her patient studies have yielded new insights into the language of the tiny finches, and won her the 2026 Coller-Dolittle prize, which rewards progress towards interspecies communication. (via UC Berkley News)

4. No surprise (sadly): China is the world leader in solar power, but the country’s massive boom in this clean energy source could have unintended consequences for the country’s birds. Using birdwatching and policy data from more than 2,300 counties across China, a new analysis found that areas with stricter policies enforcing solar energy development have seen decreases in bird diversity over the last 10 years. The study adds to a body of evidence showing the negative impact of industrial development and habitat loss on birds. (via Scientific American)

5. Tell-tale stones: How do you know what a dinosaur ate? Guts rot away after death, so the details of dinosaur digestion remain obscure. The best indicators are teeth. Sharp, pointed teeth probably ripped chunks of flesh off prey for swallowing whole. Robust grinding surfaces suggest lots of chewing was involved. Yet many dinosaurs belonging to a group called the theropods, which gave rise to birds, lost their teeth altogether and evolved beaks. This has made it hard to work out what they ate and how they digested it. (via Economist)

6. What it takes - kudos to these ranchers and farmers: At a perilous time for America’s grasslands and the birds that depend on them, the National Audubon Society is proud to recognize seven Wisconsin farms and ranches newly certified as Audubon Certified Bird-Friendly Land. Earned through Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program, the newly certified operations are Bouressa Family Farm near New London; Prairie Pastured Beef near Rudolph; the Kerstiens Family Farm near Stitzer; the Kieckhoefer Family Farm near New Richmond; Willow Creek Ranch near Coon Valley; Riemer Family Farm near Brodhead; and Sedge Wood Farms in Cornell. Audubon Conservation Ranching is a science-based certification program that works with farmers and ranchers to address the steep decline of North America’s grassland birds while supporting healthy, productive agricultural operations. (via Audubon)

(Photos From Friends) By John Fitzpatrick, Stilt Sandpiper - St. Croix River, MN.

7. More to a nest than a place to raise young says this study: As they build their nests, many birds are known to interweave dried grasses and other materials with green plants, such as fresh leaves, grass stems, herbs and aromatic leaves. While this behavior is well documented, why many bird species choose to add fresh plants has remained unclear. Researchers at Bielefeld University in Germany recently combined and analyzed evidence from earlier studies to shed more light on the possible reasons many birds decorate their nests with fresh plants. Their paper, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, suggests that green nest material can boost birds’ fitness, though more studies are needed to clearly elucidate its benefits. (via Phys Org)

8. Jeff Wells (who among many other things is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab) asks "What would a 4 second dream be like?": We’ve all heard it, right? The unexpected bit of song or surprise call…from a bird? OK, maybe you need to be bird-oriented to key into sounds like that. We certainly are! Evidence: Over the weekend, while our dog was making his final sniffs around the yard and otherwise taking care of doggy business, we heard, erupting from the hedges in our neighbor’s yard, the boisterous sliver of Song Sparrow song. We’d stayed up late to finish a movie, so this was around midnight. The stars were brilliantly shining down through the cool air. All was peace and quiet. And then, that chortle—-just one phrase, sung just once. Then all went silent. (via Natural Resources Council of Maine)

9. More from Jeff - Field notes from his trip to the Tar Heel State ..in August (yikes!): Like early migrating birds, we have recently made a trek south from Maine to North Carolina. It’s not the time of year when most Mainers head south—not when temperatures have regularly been in the nineties in the Tar Heel State. We traveled to Durham, North Carolina, to help our son move and settle in for the start of his first semester at Duke Law School. For us northerners, the temperature and humidity have been pretty tough, and we haven’t had much time to look for birds and other creatures. But we have enjoyed experience birds in a new place. Of course, very few birds are singing in August, especially when the sun is scorching. The ones we’ve heard singing are largely the same ones we might hear in Maine—birds like American goldfinches and song sparrows. (via Boothbay Register)

10. Fall migration means "Lights Out": A recent study estimates that more than 1 billion birds die per year in the United States as a result of building collisions. Small structures like residential homes and apartments that are more abundant and scattered across the landscape are responsible for many of these bird-building collisions. That’s why it is so important for homeowners, renters, and building managers to turn off unnecessary lights at night now through November thirtieth. As fall migration brings greater bird traffic to our area, join the growing Lights Out movement. Here is what you can do to help no matter where you live or work. (via Audubon)

(Photos From Friends) By Elizabeth Rand, Peregrine Falcon - Chicago, IL.

11. Maybe not "nicer", just hungrier?: In the wake of Spokane’s historic wildfires, birds of a different feather are flocking together. And area birders, dedicated as always, are watching and listening. From a scientific perspective, it’s too soon to know how local birds were affected by the trio of blazes dubbed the Spokane Complex fires. Previous wildfire studies show that flames and heavy smoke push mobile birds to outlying areas. And birds, like humans, are especially vulnerable to smoke produced by urban wildfires, due to the release of toxic compounds from burning buildings, vehicles and plastics. Spokane-area birders have been documenting their observations on social media and the online citizen-science platform iNaturalist. Not surprisingly, the heavily burned zones are mostly absent of birds. (via The Spokesman Review)

12. For our backyard birders - more tips from Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman: “New neighbors moved in nearby and put up four feeders, but birds no longer visit my feeders. Will they ever come back?” asks Birds & Blooms reader Jill Sosnowski of Roscoe, Illinois. Birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman say, “Birds sometimes seem like fickle guests, jumping ship as soon as they get a better offer. About all you can do is provide high-quality bird food, keep your feeders clean and hope the birds rediscover your hospitality. Focus on seeds such as black oil sunflower and Nyjer (thistle), and try suet cakes hung on tree trunks. It helps if your feeders are fairly close to shrubs or trees so birds can quickly take cover if they feel threatened. And if you provide water in a bird bath that’s kept clean, all that might be enough to lure your birds back.” (via Birds and Blooms)

13. Rare Bird Alert: We include this week's field notes from Nantucket because we love the rare visitor (a Marbled Godwit) and the historical notes (going back to Audubon's time) are interesting: A Marbled Godwit was the rarity this week, sending birders scurrying around to try to see it. First found Aug. 16 at the Creeks, it continued there on Monday morning, until flushed by several kayakers, dog-walkers and beach walkers. It disappeared shortly after 8:30 a.m. It, or another one, was then spotted at Clark’s Cove about 10 a.m. It could certainly have flown the distance in the elapsed time. But are there, were there, could there, be two? Two seem unlikely as most sightings have been of single individuals. But we did see two together at Smith’s Point in September 2022. Until we get enough birders stationed at all the likely places we won’t know for sure how many. This is why the Christmas Bird count needs so many people. In any case, it was a delightful sight for all who chased it successfully. (via The Inquirer and Mirror)

14. An unusual story which caught our eye: After my husband died, the birds started behaving strangely towards me. This was not my imagination; it really happened. On my daily walks, I was startled by how close they came to me – approaching, hopping alongside me and chirping. If there were a lot of them – and if there was no one else around – it felt as if they were accompanying me, maybe trying to convey something. Of course, it occurred to me that this might be a message from my husband. When you are newly bereaved, it’s easy to grasp at any sign that your loved one might somehow still be there. But, in the case of my husband, I knew this could not be. He would never ever have chosen to come back as a bird. (via The Guardian)

By Hap Ellis, Wilson's Storm-Petrel - Gulf of Maine 7 miles off Cape Porpoise, ME.

15. Finally, we'll wind up with a "puppy story" (spoiler alert - about a crow not a dog): “Eat crow,” a popular saying goes. Crow, being a similar delicacy to “humble pie,” is the suggestion there. A food one is forced to eat when humiliated or proved wrong. Certain cultures have eaten crow, simply because they’re hungry. Though it’s not usually anyone’s first choice on a menu, no matter the era or poverty level. Crows are also traditionally thought of as spiritual talismans, symbols to guide observers from one realm to another, emblems of the unseen, markers of death… bad omens. On Monday, my family had a crow funeral in our backyard. We didn’t kill the crow. Or maybe we did. I’m not sure. We found the crow at the end of the Puyallup Loop Trail, which we hiked on Sunday. (via The News Tribune)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by BBTV Official, “Common Tailorbird: 50 Days from Nest to Independence”

Cornell Live Bird Cam - The hummingbird feeder at Canopy Tower received an interesting late night visitor this past week!

Cornell Live Bird Cam - It's banding day for Āwheo the Northern Royal Albatross!

2. If you are modeling a dawn chorus, you'll need to utilize "catastrophe theory": Every morning, groups of birds start singing and chirping around the same time, typically when the sun starts rising. While zoologists have been studying this collective bird behavior, called the dawn chorus, for decades, the factors driving it remain poorly understood. Alexander R. Kaye, a researcher at the University of Warwick, recently created a mathematical model of the dawn chorus to explore how the behavior of individual birds contributes to its emergence. His model, outlined in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggests that bird social interactions and individual responses to environmental cues shape this well-documented phenomenon. (via Phys Org)

By Hap Ellis, Snowy Egret - Cape Porpoise, ME.

3. The pro's and (some) cons of marsh restoration: Long-term tidal marsh restoration in central California wetlands is bringing back important breeding habitat for birds. Wetlands along the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers have been strictly controlled for more than a century by a series of levees that drained wetlands. But while some more recent changes seem to encourage the presence and diversity of marsh-breeding songbirds and waterbirds, blanket changes discouraged the presence of a few open-water and mudflat species. “In the delta landscapes, if the goal is trying to recover this larger suite of species, including shorebirds, maintaining open areas of water and tidal mudflats is an important restoration consideration,” said Jason Riggio, an ecologist at the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology at the University of California, Davis. (via Wildlife)

4. Twitchers' delight - More hoopoes visiting the UK: Flamboyant in appearance, the hoopoe is a welcome Mediterranean sight – and a bird with varied cultural resonance. Might Britain’s warming climate enable it to colonise the country? Every spring, particularly if pushed by strong southerly winds, a number of the hoopoes butterflying their way north fly beyond their normal breeding range. Many of these ‘overshoots’ reach Britain, delighting birdwatchers and the general public alike. According to the scientific journal British Birds, almost 7,000 hoopoes have been spotted here across nearly 60 years of record-keeping. This century, intriguingly, the number of overshoots has markedly increased. In the noughties, an average of 93 hoopoes graced Britain each year. In the 2010s, the annual mean rose to 120, and during 2020–23, it reached 153. (via Discover Wildlife)

* More on the Common Hoopoe here: Common Hoopoe - Upupa epops (via Birds of the World)

5. Endangered in Timor-Leste: On April 20, Jafet Potenzo Lopes was surveying the south coast of Manatuto municipality, in Timor-Leste, when he recorded something he had not seen in years: three Timor green pigeons, alive, in a location where the species had never been documented before. Lopes is one of Timor-Leste’s few field ecologists. He was born and raised in the village of Com, inside Nino Konis Santana National Park — the last place on Earth where a viable population of this species, Treron psittaceus, still survives. He has spent more than a decade walking through forests, coastal habitats and mountains across the country, documenting what remains. Researchers estimate that only 100-500 Timor green pigeons remain globally, and believe the true number is probably toward the lower end of that range. (via Mongabay)

By Hap Ellis, Least Sandpiper - Cape Porpoise, ME.

6. Extreme weather now a predictor, says Yale team: Scorching heat waves, severe cold snaps, and other extreme weather events are limiting where species can exist — and affecting biodiversity estimates — for more than 500 North American bird species, according to a new, Yale-led study. The issue is particularly acute in the Great Plains and southwestern regions of the United States, where species ranges and total species counts are significantly overestimated when variable and extreme weather are not considered, the study says. The findings were published in the journal Global Change Biology. (via Yale News)

7. Shooting Crows - trouble in Singapore: On a Friday afternoon in July, a pest control officer patrols the grounds of Sungei Tengah Lodge, Singapore’s largest dormitory for migrant construction workers, picking up birds in various stages of distress. Some are twitching, others are wobbling, as if drunk. The officer tosses the birds, which he had poisoned with baited scraps a few hours earlier, into a garbage bag. Most of them are still alive. The bagged birds will later be gassed using carbon dioxide, a culling method for “pest” birds the authorities say is “humane” — a claim contested by animal welfare groups. Birds considered pests in the tropical metropolis are the common pigeon (Columba livia), Javan myna (Acridotheres javanicus) and house crows (Corvus splendens), which are not protected under the Wildlife Act and routinely culled in response to complaints from the public. Known as “nuisance” birds, they’re framed as invasive species that are noisy and a threat to public health and local biodiversity by competing with and, in the case of crows, preying on native birds. (via Mongabay)

8. Only 584 to go: On a brilliantly bright afternoon in his gallery and studio in Bolinas, a small town on the northern California coast, Keith Hansen was putting the finishing touches on a watercolor of an almost improbably flamboyant painted bunting. With an ultra-fine sable brush, he made a few intricate additions to the cobalt blue plumage on the bunting’s head, and, satisfied with his work, slipped the watercolor into a stout binder that every few days welcomes a new addition. “That was number 420,” he said. Or to put it another way, just 584 to go. Hansen, a renowned ornithological illustrator and author, has a monumental task – a hand-painted compendium of every one of the roughly 1,000 bird species ever recorded from the US and Canada, including those found in waters up to 200 miles from shore, Hawaiian birds not included. When finished, it will complete the visual backbone of an app called Flock, whose mission, compared with that of most apps, is quietly subversive. (via The Guardian)

9. A fun story on Utah's hummingbirds (jealous are we New Englanders!): Every summer, Utah hums with life, in no small part because of hummingbirds. One moment a flower hangs quietly; the next, there’s the unmistakable buzz of wings moving so fast they’re almost invisible. A hummingbird hovers for only a few seconds before darting away to the next bloom. That brief visit is part of a remarkable journey unfolding across Utah. For wildlife biologists, late summer marks one of the busiest times of year for hummingbird research. Across the state, researchers carefully capture, band, and release hummingbirds to better understand these tiny birds — how they migrate, where they stop to refuel, and what habitats they depend on along the way. The birds themselves are surprisingly diverse. (via Utah Public Radio)

By Hap Ellis, Lesser Yellowlegs - Cape Porpoise, ME.

10. Hoping to find the elusive Pel's Fishing-Owl? You need this woman: All birdwatchers have a bucketlist sighting that generally requires some effort, and is oftentimes either elusive or a rarity. For many, the Pel’s fishing owl is that bucketlist bird. Patchily distributed, this uncommon owl is found in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa’s north-eastern reaches. These large, ginger-rufous owls live exclusively near permanent water sources, one of which is the Mkhuze River in northern Zululand. For many years, birders have flocked to Mkhuze Game Reserve specifically to see the Pel’s fishing owl, but due to the nature of its habitat, after any significant rainfall, the fig forest – where this owl occurs – is flooded and closed to visitors. After going to Mkhuze in December and being unable to go on the fig forest walk for this reason, my husband and I returned to the game reserve last weekend with the hopes of ticking off this lifer in the drier climate. Crisis averted! A local guide who lives in the KwaJobe area, adjacent to Mkhuze Game Reserve, has stepped in to the breach and takes birders on walks through the fig forest just outside the reserve, from the Ophansi gate. (via Zululand Observer)

* Pel's Fishing-Owl - Scotopelia peli (via Birds of the World)

11. A California Condor will do that to you: My earliest memory of watching a bird was actually a memory of listening to a bird. My grandmother, who had 10 grandchildren—I was one of her youngest—took me for a drive from her home in Novato to the coast. I think this was the first time I got to spend time with her, just she and I. The pretext for the drive was to go to the coast and watch for whales. My grandmother drove a diesel-powered Mercedes that seemed like a big luxury, since our family car required me, the youngest of four, to sit in the front seat between my parents on any drive we took. I remember looking out the window in my early teens and seeing green grassy hills. We drove along with our windows rolled down. At one point in our drive my grandmother turned to me and asked, “Do you hear that?” We pulled over to listen and she told me that what we were hearing was the song of the meadowlark. (via Alameda Post)

12. Speaking of condors...: Two California condors who had been trapped in a Big Sur sanctuary during the Timber Fire were freed Tuesday after fire officials escorted staff to open their pen, the Ventana Wildlife Society said. The condors, the largest North American land birds, were recovering after receiving treatment for lead poisoning at the Big Sur Condor Sanctuary, which rehabilitates the endangered species and has helped grow the state’s population. “Thankfully, as of yesterday afternoon, we took care of the primary concern, which was getting those two birds back out into the wild,” said Kelly Sorenson, the Wildlife Society’s executive director. (via KOED News)

13. Arghhh - The DOGE effect at work on our wildlife refuges?: Seven months ago I visited the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge in Stanislaus County, as part of a birding trip to see wintering migratory birds. Even on chilly January days in years past, it was possible to see and hear more than 100 kinds of birds at the Vierra Wetlands nestled inside the 7,500-acre refuge. But during my visit the seasonal wetlands were dry, and dozens of species like the snowy egret, northern shoveler and the strikingly colorful wood duck did not appear. Instead, I saw an empty basin rimmed with dried up cattails and bulrushes. The wetlands, which are part of a larger pit stop for birds along the Pacific Flyway, was empty not because of drought but because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t have an on-site refuge manager dedicated to opening the levees that flood the wetlands. The last person who oversaw that task retired in 2024 and the wildlife service hasn’t filled that position. (via Cal Matters)

By Hap Ellis, (Another, more assertive) Snowy Egret - Cape Porpoise, ME.

14. From Russia with...more insights on the science of migration: Every year, millions of migratory birds travel between different geographical regions on Earth to find food, escape cold weather or reach safe environments to raise chicks. To determine which direction to fly, these birds rely on various types of sensory cues and information, including the magnetic field surrounding our planet, known as the geomagnetic field. While various past studies suggested that Earth’s geomagnetic field plays a role in the orientation of migratory birds, how birds detect this invisible signal remains widely debated. A leading explanation is that magnetic fields subtly alter light-triggered chemical reactions inside a protein in birds’ eyes called cryptochrome. Researchers at Saint Petersburg State University and the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences recently carried out a study aimed at further testing this theory. (via Phys Org)

15. Helpful Hint Department - fishermen (and women) take note: Animal advocates say discarded fishing line, hooks and lures are injuring native birds across northwest Ohio, cutting off circulation, fracturing bones and leaving wildlife in prolonged distress. Rachel Shamy, founder of the all-volunteer Quack Pack and a volunteer with Nature’s Nursery, said her group receives calls each week about local birds trapped in abandoned fishing equipment. Rescuers say birds that receive timely intervention can be treated and returned to their habitats. Birds with severe infections or mutilating injuries often face humane euthanasia. (via 13 ABC News)

16. And this week's book review: It might be surprising to find a book about birds written by an actress rather than an ornithologist, but Lili Taylor’s new book is about more than just our fine feathered friends. The actress turned writer is as adept at writing about the mysterious lives of birds and the birder communities that love them, as she is at acting in films ranging from her debut in Mystic Pizza (1988) to independent film classics Household Saints (1993) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), to her recent role as the governor of New York in the Marvel Comics television show Daredevil: Born Again. The book details Taylor’s fascination with birds over a period of years, but more than just a book about birds, the book is about her fascination with them and is written in a voice that will have you as excited and curious about them as she is. (via Provincetown Magazine)

17. Finally, a paean to a very cool warbler: Long ago, before sea level rise and then politics intervened, man and other animals moved freely through the Bering Strait region between Asia and North America. Today there are still a handful of migratory birds maintaining that connection, making a marathon annual journey from their nonbreeding areas in Asia and Africa to insect-rich breeding grounds in northern North America. The tiny arctic warbler is one of those long-haul, transcontinental travelers. The arctic warbler is a zippy little greenish-brown songbird, and a prize that many visiting birders hope to find when they come to Nome. (via The Nome Nugget)

*More here: Arctic Warbler - Phylloscopus borealis - (via Birds of the World)

GO BIRDING!!

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by The Bird Guy.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Watch Āwheo, the Northern Royal Albatross chick, take a stroll.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Iris leaps into action when an intruding Osprey approaches Wensi,

* The trailer is here: Wild Inside | Trailer

2. Very strong breeding season for Maine's Atlantic Puffins: On July 24, a research crew studying puffins on Eastern Egg Rock spread out among the boulders to mark burrows where they had seen birds delivering fish to chicks. As they did that, they also saw puffins disappear in new crevices between boulders with fish. When the crew members returned to their research cabin and revised the summer’s tally of burrows where puffins were trying to raise a chick, they realized they had confirmed a record 192 active burrows. Since then, the crew discovered eight more, making it 200. Calling the count a “massive Easter egg hunt,” Alison Ballard, a wildlife biologist who is supervising the project, said the record snuck up on them. (via The Maine Monitor)

* More on this beautiful seabird here: Atlantic Puffin Overview, (via All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

* Fun Instagram post from Eastern Egg Rock here:

3. Surviving storms on the Florida coast: When Florida’s coastal residents get word of an incoming “tropical storm,” they likely only consider the minor inconveniences that follow: double red flags, no swimming due to rough waves and rip currents, potentially flooded roads, and the inevitable post-storm cleanup. What receives far less attention is the lasting impact these storms can have on the wildlife that also share our beaches. While sea turtles are often the first species that come to mind when discussing storm impacts, they aren’t the only ones affected: coastal nesting birds, including Black Skimmers and Least Terns, also call Florida’s beaches their temporary home. (via Audubon)

(Photo from Friends) By Kathy Wall, Atlantic Puffins - Eastern Egg Rock (last week), Gulf of Maine.

4. How researchers reconstructed digitally a Dodo's brain: The dodo may have disappeared more than 350 years ago, in the late 17th century, but its legacy has endured right up until the present day as a symbol of human-induced extinction. These extinct birds are often thought of as fat, fumbling fools, though according to a new study that has scanned several skulls, this reputation may be unfounded. (via Discover Wildlife)

5. Cornell Lab (and its partners) mix AI and citizen science (eBird!) to introduce BirdFlow: How can we identify specific bird species as they undertake their annual migrations? In the U.S., scientists have long relied on weather radar data to track flocks of birds migrating across the country. But that came with a caveat: the birds appeared as blobs on the radar, much like dark clouds. They couldn’t tell what species of birds they were looking at. A new tool is helping scientists and conservationists bridge this gap. BirdFlow combines citizen science observations with weather data and artificial intelligence technology to help scientists detect specific species and predict their migration routes. The tool was developed as a collaboration between Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (via Mongabay)

6. AI also goes to work on evolutionary science: University of Michigan scientists have used artificial intelligence to uncover a striking pattern in the evolution of Passeriformes, the vast bird group that includes most songbirds. Their analysis suggests these birds did not evolve at a steady pace. Instead, major changes often arrived in rapid bursts that lined up with shifts in Earth’s climate. (via Science Daily)

7. Gerrit Vyn is back from America's Arctic before returning in September. He documents a difficult, cold summer in the Arctic but the millions of birds who come to breed hopefully held their own:

8. Concerning - Seabirds and the effects of El Nino: Every month, Giovanny Suárez Espín walks a beach near his home in southern Ecuador, monitoring for dead seabirds. Usually, he sees maybe a handful. But on recent surveys, the sand has been littered with carcasses. “Every 10 steps you took, you found five or 10 birds, and it kept going,” said Suárez, who works for American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit group. “On the three-kilometer walk, we saw lots of dead birds the whole way.” In June, Suárez and others tallied 638 dead birds on the beaches of three provinces in Ecuador, about seven times the number found over the previous year and a half combined. In July, they counted an additional 968. The seabirds could already be victims of the building El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon whose effects are now occurring while the planet dangerously warms. (via The New York Times)

By Hap Ellis, Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Kennebunkport, ME.

9. And if it isn't El Nino, it's industrial fishing's "bycatch": Researchers at American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and its Ecuadorian Seabird Bycatch Reduction Program (ESBRP) are voicing concerns over the alarming number of dead and starving seabirds currently being found along the coasts of Ecuador. Unusually warmer water conditions caused by El Niño, which are disrupting food sources that seabirds depend on, are believed to be the reason thousands of birds are washing up dead on Eastern Pacific coasts, as recently reported in California. Volunteer artisanal fishermen who partner with ABC to directly reduce seabird bycatch threats have been helping report and record the unusual increase of beached and floating seabird carcasses in nearby waters. (via ABC Birds)

* If interested in perils of fishing gear in the seabird's world, read "The Eye of the Albatross" by Carl Savina - wonderful book.

10. As Fall migration gets underway, a short reminder of how birds manage these incredible journeys: Just imagine: traveling thousands of miles, crossing continents, year after year, without ever losing your way. How do migratory birds pull off this jaw-dropping feat? With a mix of sun, stars, scents, and even the Earth’s magnetic field, these winged navigators are equipped with what you could call a true biological GPS. Let’s take a closer look at this natural marvel. (via Futura)

11. A paean to one strong woodpecker that bounced back: Pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) are the largest woodpecker in North America — nearly the size of a crow — with a black body, white facial stripes, and a red crest. Pileated comes from the Latin pileatus, meaning “capped,” a reference to the red crest that looks like a cap atop its head. If the bird seems familiar, it may be because of its resemblance to Universal Studio’s Woody Woodpecker cartoon character. Woody borrowed the pileated woodpecker’s red crest, loud call, and enthusiastic drumming. But real pileated woodpeckers do not have Woody’s blue feathers, yellow beak, or frenzied laugh. (via Cambridge Day)

12. Avian flu news from Down Under (not good): It has only been three weeks since H5 bird flu was detected on South Australia’s Limestone Coast and already encounters with sick or dead birds are becoming commonplace. Maureen Christie, who lives in the seaside town of Carpenter Rocks, has been observing and protecting birds in the region for decades. She is now witnessing many stricken and suffering. The state’s south-east is renowned for its bird life, she said, which includes resident hooded plovers and oyster catchers, along with fly-ins from other countries, such as double-banded plovers, red-necked stints, sanderlings and ruddy turnstones. (via The Guardian)

13. "Black and Tan" is one rare Bobolink - check out why: Back in early spring, Luke Dahlberg, conservation seed program manager with the nonprofit Citizens for Conservation, was spending his Sunday at the office. His “office,” to be fair, is the 200-plus acre Hill ‘N Dale nature preserve near Barrington Hills, and Dahlberg wanted to take advantage of the lighting to photograph birds, specifically male bobolinks arriving on their breeding grounds after wintering in the pampas of South America. After snapping pictures of every bobolink in sight, Dahlberg went home and began scrolling through his camera roll. One bird stood out. Male bobolinks, as with many bird species, have far more striking breeding plumage than their female counterparts. Dahlberg described the fellas’ white back and black undersides as looking like a tuxedo worn backwards, with a blonde patch on their heads lending a Dennis Rodman-circa-mid-‘90s vibe. The bird in question didn’t quite fit the profile. (via WTTW News)

(Photo from Friends) By JoAnn Riggle, Northern Pygmy-Owl - Eagle, CO.

14. Rediscovery in Kenya's Boni Forest: Two Kenyan birders, James Apolloh Omenya and Simon Odhiambo, have gained global acclaim after their recent sighting of the elusive Red Weaver Bird in the Boni-Dodori Forest in Lamu County last month. The two birders have received global recognition in environmental conservation and ornithology for their recent sighting and documentation of the Red Weaver Bird, which had not been seen or documented since 2014. Speaking when he confirmed the sighting, Simon Odhiambo, a Murang’a County-based conservationist popularly known as The KenyanBirder, said the rediscovery of the Red Weaver Bird was a thrilling experience after an 11-day field expedition in the wildlife-infested and security-cordoned forest. (via Citizen Digital)

* More on the Red Weaver here: Red Weaver - Anaplectes jubaensis (via Birds of the World)

15. (Very) Rare Bird Alert: Presque Isle State Park, a 7mile-long spit of sand that juts into Lake Erie, is a mag­net for rare birds. But few have drawn the kind of crowds that Alaska’s state bird – the wil­low ptar­migan — did when it took a month­long vaca­tion on the beach, mark­ing its first ever Pennsylvania sight­ing. The plump game bird, about as tall as a crow, might be a little chunkier after eat­ing a bounty of food, includ­ing nat­ive wil­low leaves, on Presque Isle. The female wil­low ptar­migan (pro­nounced TAR-mi-gan) spor­ted her sum­mer plumage — a white under­belly topped by mottled brown plumage — when she was repor­ted on Presque Isle on June 21. But it seems she had already been in town for a few days. After a social media frenzy, someone con­tac­ted the Erie Bird Obser­vat­ory with pho­tos of the same bird on the pen­in­sula on June 16. (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

16. A birders' notes from the field - this from Puget Sound: I have just moved to Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula. The unincorporated town of Kingston sits on the west edge of the Puget Sound part of the Salish Sea, across, and a little south, from Edmonds. It is a beautiful area, with many tall Douglas Firs and Red Cedars. The new house is centrally located above an inlet of Puget Sound. This will likely be my very last home as I have reached 83. Our location is within a mile of the ferry dock and 20 minutes by car from Point No Point. The area is heavily forested and lush. Today (July 16) we had a heavy rain storm, complete with thunder and lightening! I’m glad for the rain. So far we’ve been lucky and have had no forest fires, but the summer is still young, (via Daily Kos)

By Hap Ellis, Glossy Ibis - Kennebunkport, ME.

17. Finally, "Gehen wir Vogel beobachten" - birding Berlin!: If it feels like all of your friends have suddenly acquired a new interest in birdwatching, then you’re not alone. A hobby once dominated by poorly dressed elderly folks has now become one of the fastest-growing pastimes in Europe, especially among the younger demographic. Last year, The Guardian recorded an increase of 1,088% Gen-Z birdwatchers in the UK, with similar numbers observed in Germany. The effect is a surge in influencers and TikTokers taking to social media to document their birdy experiences. News stories over the past few years have been dominated by bird topics, from the rapid increase in members in the Young Birders Club, run by The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union, to the surprise announcement of the Rebhuhn (partridge) as Germany’s 2026 Bird of the Year. In 2018, the Forschungsfall Nachtigall (Nightingale Project) was launched to map nightingales and their specific song structures across Berlin. (via The Berliner)

Videos of the Week

Video by PBS News, “The alarming decline of bird populations and why humans should care”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Here's a woodpecker roundup!

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Wensi has fledged!

2. An update on the controversial plan to save the Spotted Owl: The next casualty in the owl wars appeared in the pickup truck’s headlights like a ghost, gliding across the dirt road in California’s Marble Mountains and disappearing into the forest. Danny Hofstadter stepped on the brakes, rolled down the window, and listened. The eerie call of a barred owl emerged from the night—a sound people have likened to a throaty “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?” The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) wildlife ecologist quickly swung into action. He placed a small speaker on the hood of the truck and set it to play the same “Who cooks for you?” call on repeat, an irresistible provocation for the aggressively territorial owl species. Then, he pulled his 12-gauge Beretta shotgun from the truck’s cab and snapped a single birdshot-packed cartridge into place. (via Science)

More on the Spotted Owl here (via All About Birds)

By Hap Ellis, Fall Migration (Semipalmated Sandpiper) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

3. Looking (way) back – 40,000-year-old bird figurines: Archaeologists excavating in the famous prehistoric Hohle Fels cave in Germany have uncovered two bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory. ‪‪The thumbnail-size carvings add to the existing ‬‬evidence that ice age humans had a sophisticated artistic sense 40,000 years ago. When the birds were found in 2025, they were lying just 5 feet (1.5 meters) from each other in a layer dating back 40,000 years, according to the statement. The sculptures bring the total number of bird figurines from Hohle Fels up to three; a small water bird was found there in 2001. (via Live Science)

4. The downside of being beautiful: Sometimes the birds that shine the brightest flame out the quickest. A new study published recently in Conservation Biology has revealed that colorful birds are more likely to be listed as endangered than drabber species. This finding is truer in some parts of the world than others—colorful birds in Southeast Asia and South Asia, in particular, suffer from this bias. In some regions, the factor impacting colorful birds may be the pet trade, as these individuals are more popular, but it doesn’t explain the whole problem. “In Southeast Asia, the pet trade is a huge problem for songbirds, but in Latin America and Africa it’s probably habitat loss and climate change that are more important,” said study author Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, assistant professor in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a press release. This finding may also be due to an inherent bias in conservation attention—one previous study has found that ugly birds receive less conservation and research attention. (via Wildlife)

By Hap Ellis, Fall Migration (Semipalmated Plover) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

5. With Fall migration underway, we’ll be seeing a lot of these formations: Scientists have known for years that birds like geese and ibises gain an aerodynamic advantage from flying in a “V” formation. Now, researchers from Brown University have provided new insights into the nature of that advantage. In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Brown researchers Olivia Pomerenk and Kenny Breuer developed an aerodynamic model that simulates the forces at play when one flapping bird—specifically a northern bald ibis—follows another behind and off to the side, the classic V-formation sweet spot. The model showed that birds in that position experience an 11% reduction in the mechanical power needed for flight. Those savings are driven largely by a reduction in the vertical distance of their wing flaps. (via Phys Org)

6. Let’s go! Only 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle: Weeks later, I’m still enjoying my time from the Utqiaġvik Migratory Bird Festival. The fourth edition of the festival unfolded over three days in mid-June, at the Fred Ipalook Elementary School and birding sites throughout the community. The festival started in 2023 to bring together bird researchers, local residents, and visitors from Alaska and afar to celebrate birds and culture. Within the traditional homeland of the Iñupiaq people, the Utqiaġvik Migratory Bird Festival has deep multi-cultural character. Over thousands of years, the Iñupiaq people developed a complex culture and way of life rooted in relations with the land, waters, and wildlife. As the youngest of Alaska’s bird festivals, Utqiaġvik offers true grassroots ambience paired with a solid program. All events are free and open to the public, thanks to many sponsors, donors, and volunteers.

7. A beautiful Instagram post by Gerrit Vyn in America’s Arctic:

8. RIP Guy Tudor: Guy Tudor, a self-taught ornithologist, wildlife illustrator and MacArthur fellow whose field guides to birds trained generations of naturalists and citizen scientists about how to distinguish a Rufous-breasted Leaftosser from a Lesser Hornero, died on July 14 in Greenport, N.Y. He was 91. His death, at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, near his home, was caused by pneumonia, Claudette F. Welch, a friend, said. Digital avian databases like eBird were far in the future when Mr. Tudor first set about documenting swaths of the avian world in watercolors and gouaches renowned for their delicacy and precision, and for the artist’s singular knack for capturing the quiddities of winged creatures with paint and brush. (via The New York Times)

By Hap Ellis, Fall Migration (Hudsonian Whimbrel) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

9. Book Review from The Guardian: My children brought hawks into my life. My youngest son, especially, became fascinated by birds of prey at the age of six, drawing beautiful pictures and reciting endless facts to bird owners at various country shows. Eventually I decided, why not? We live in the countryside, after all, on Anglesey (Ynys Môn). So, during Covid, Bird, the Harris’s hawk, came into our lives. We got her from a breeder after she hatched. It was perfect timing: I was home-schooling my three kids, and at 2pm every day, rain or shine, with a brilliant local falconer, we would set out on to the headland to watch her fly. It was beautiful to see. For years, my youngest never missed a day, no matter how cold. (via The Guardian)

Note: Similar book – “H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald which was made into a film in 2025.

10. Excellent equipment review from the pro’s at B&H: Bird watching and photography seem to go hand in hand. While there are some who prefer to enjoy the sights free of distraction, there are others who like to record their findings to share with others. To do that, we need a camera and picking one can be overwhelming. Many opt for the tried-and-true bridge camera, but these are limited in the quality they can deliver. For this reason, we’re big proponents of the interchangeable lens camera systems, from DSLR to mirrorless. Years ago, bird watchers looking to seriously dabble in photographer fell into two schools: that of the Nikon D500 and that of the Canon 7D mark II. In those days, 10 frames per second continuous shooting rates, and 20 megapixels were all one could dream of. Today, things are quite different. (via B&H)

By Hap Ellis. Bonaparte's Gull - Goose Rocks Beach - Kennebunkport, ME.

11. Finally, get another cup of coffee and watch a wonderful 7 minute video from the Cornell Lab on the wonders of tree swallows:

2. And then on to the great birding debate in 1785: In the autumn of 1785—about a year after the Treaty of Paris was ratified, signaling the official end of the American Revolutionary War—a Massachusetts judge named Samuel Dexter wrote to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston about vanishing swallows. The academy had been founded five years earlier by John Adams and other Boston-area scholars and members of high society “to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Judge Dexter penned an account for the academy’s inaugural edition of its journal Memoirs about an event witnessed by his friend, Judge Foster of Brookfield, Massachusetts, who had watched a pond drained for repairs and claimed that, from the exposed mud, dozens of “house-swallows” (known today as Barn Swallows) struggled upward “as if returning to life.” (via Living Bird Magazine)

By Hap Ellis, Ospreys - Wells Harbor, ME.

3. Rushing to combat H5N1 in threatened New Zealand species: There is likely no nation more enamored of birds than New Zealand; birdsong marks 7 a.m. on public radio, its people describe themselves as Kiwis (after the native flightless bird), and every year one species is crowned the Bird of the Year in a popular vote. So, the discovery last week of two birds infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has rattled nerves. Millions of birds worldwide have died after becoming infected with the strain, and bird lovers worry it could pose an extinction risk to some of the South Pacific nation’s most prized natural treasures. In a step few countries have tried, New Zealand is now rushing to vaccinate 300 breeding pairs of five critically endangered native species to protect them from the virus. (via CNN)

4. Concerning Arctic news: Bids, not birds. That was the clear priority when the Trump administration held the highest value oil lease sale ever in the 103-year history of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A. The lease sale in March included parcels in and around the highly sensitive Teshekpuk Lake area. Teshekpuk Lake—the largest lake in Alaska’s Arctic, home to globally significant breeding populations of shorebirds and waterbirds such as eiders and loons—is one of five Special Areas in the NPR-A designated for protection by Congress for significant ecological values. In 2024, the Biden administration announced rules codifying protections limiting oil and gas development within 13.3 million acres of the Special Areas. A year later, by Executive Order, President Trump removed those protections. (via Living Bird Magazine)

5. "Conservation speed dating": The mood in the room is jovial, tinged with a little uncertainty about what to expect, when Justin Proctor—a conservation biologist with Virginia Working Landscapes, a program of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute that promotes sustainable land use—asks folks to find the map that includes their property and take a seat. After a quick round of introductions, the event begins and the room slowly fills with conversation. Ten minutes later, a bell rings, barely audible over the lively chatter, and the group of folks with name tags rotates to the next table. Speed dating has started. This kind of speed dating is about conservation, not romance. (via Living Bird Magazine)

6. From Science, what 116,000 songs from 3,160 passerine species revealed: Across the globe, birdsong is stunningly diverse—from the slow trills of a Northern Cardinal, to the flat whistle of a Three-wattled Bellbird, to the chirps and buzzes of a Barn Swallow. Behind this complexity, though, might lie a remarkable simplicity. According to a new study, the songs of most perching birds are built from just eight basic “acoustic motifs”—like up-and-down trills, one-note whistles, or jumbles of “chaotic notes.” Exploring these musical elements, the study captures a big-picture sense of how and why thousands of species sing the way they do. (via Audubon)

By Hap Ellis, Semipalmated Sandpipers - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

7. Saving the Common Swift in Jerusalem: Every spring at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a rabbi presides over a ceremony to welcome the arrival of the common swift in its great migration about 2,800 miles from Africa. Between February and June, men’s and women’s prayers at the wall mix with the calls of the birds that swoop and dart above this ancient religious site. These scythe-winged birds, researchers believe, have raised their young in the nooks and crannies of these stones since Herodian times, two millennia ago. Researchers have counted 88 nests in recent years. Modern translations of the Bible quote Jeremiah contrasting the regular visits of the swifts with the failure of many of the faithful to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. (via National Public Radio)

8. "(F)inding a lot of hope" in this study: Bird multitudes are slipping away on a global scale, but a new study offers hope for how we can be better neighbors to feathered friends. Researchers at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo knew, like everyone else in the bird world, that 3 billion birds have been lost in the last half century, but they wanted to know more about why. So they looked at changes in air pollution, light pollution, summer heat and eight other environmental and demographic conditions that affect birds. To their surprise, they found some species are doing well in some places with bad air or bright nights, thanks to what nature put in the birds’ survival toolkit. (via The Los Angeles Times)

9. RIP John Hilton Rappole, Smithsonian ornithologist who advanced the dispersal theory of bird migration: For much of the year, migratory songbirds were treated as temporary visitors to the tropics. They arrived from the north, spent the winter, and departed again. Ornithologists paid more attention to their journeys and breeding grounds than to the months they passed farther south. The birds were often described as transients, moving through tropical forests without becoming part of them. What they did there, and how firmly they occupied those places, remained poorly understood. Years of catching, banding, and watching them suggested a different account. In the forests of southern Mexico, individual birds returned to familiar patches and defended feeding territories. (via Mongabay)

By Hap Ellis, Short-billed Dowitcher - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

10. A paean to the Wood Thrush: The flute-like song of a Wood Thrush is one of the signature sounds of summer forests in the Northeast. But that familiar song is becoming less common as forests become increasingly fragmented and habitat conditions change. Many forest-dependent birds need a minimum of 200 acres of contiguous forest for suitable breeding habitat. This creates an opportunity for landowners large and small to make decisions that help sustain birds across the landscape. That’s the goal of Audubon’s Wood Thrush Project: helping landowners and managers understand what the Wood Thrush needs to thrive, and how local forests that benefit this beloved songbird also benefit an entire community of forest-breeding birds. (via Audubon)

11. Another "avian icon" for the Palmetto State: In April, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed the Prothonotary Warbler Recognition Act, which named that warbler as the official state migratory bird. The Carolina Wren is already the state bird of South Carolina, but this legislation—which passed unanimously with bipartisan backing in both chambers of the state General Assembly—added another avian icon for the Palmetto State to highlight its habitat for migratory birds. “This designation is about awareness and education, because the more people understand these birds and the habitats they depend on, the more likely we are to protect them for the long term,” said Rebecca Haynes, executive director for Audubon South Carolina. (via Living Bird Magazine)

12. Not one but two species in Indonesia: A songbird species previously thought to occur across two Indonesian islands has turned out to be two distinct species, according to a recent study. For more than 120 years, many scientists believed that Indonesia’s Babar Islands in eastern Banda Sea, and Tanimbar Islands, roughly 135 kilometers (84 miles) east of the Babar Islands, were both home to the cinnamon-tailed fantail (Rhipidura fuscorufa). But a team of researchers led by James A. Eaton of Birdtour Asia Limited and Alex J. Berryman of BirdLife International has confirmed that the songbird on Babar Islands is a distinct species, which they’ve named the cheerful fantail. (Rhipidura laguceria). (via Mongabay)

13. Travel tip for birders visiting Germany: We’re standing in the Wadden Sea mudflats on Norderney, an island just off Germany’s North Sea coast. It’s Friday evening at low tide. In the town centre, bars are pumping with music, but here, just 15 minutes along the southern edge of the island, it’s a completely different story. “A lot of the flora and fauna is found under the surface,” Andrea says, showing me the tree-like tops of sand mason worm casings and the tips of marsh samphire growing upwards like tiny asparagus. Flipping over a cluster of wild oysters, she startles a crab that raises its pincers in the air before wriggling out of sight once more. Orange-beaked oystercatchers scurry back and forth on the exposed seabed and a pair of spoonbills wade gracefully through the shallow water beyond. (via The Guardian)

By Hap Ellis - Wilson’s Storm Petrel - Off Kennebunkport, Gulf of Maine.

14. If you thought picking a new state bird in Florida was tough, how about the EU trying to pick between Beethoven and storks for new bank notes: The European Central Bank on Thursday unveiled a shortlist of new banknote designs and expects to ‌pick a winner by the end of the year in its effort to roll out more secure cash in the future. The 10 shortlisted designs, themed around “European culture” and “Rivers and birds,” will now be up for public debate. Europeans will have until September 21 to provide feedback. It is the first complete redesign of euro notes since their first issuance in 2002, the central bank said. The reverse side of the banknotes will include scenes of nature or public life themed around art, science or leisure. (via Reuters)

15. Looking for an August beach book: The world’s birds are in a critical state, under pressure from climate change, habitat loss and more. A 2019 study estimated that North America had lost one-third of its birds since 1970 — a decline of nearly 3 billion. Another study published in early 2026 found accelerating rates of decline for more than 60 North American bird species, potentially driven by factors including intensive agriculture. But as author Scott Weidensaul points out, some groups of birds are either thriving or rebounding. They include waterbirds like ducks, swans and geese, as well as raptors — birds of prey with sharp talons and curved beaks, like hawks, falcons and eagles. Weidensaul’s new book, “The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet,” surveys efforts since the 1970s to save birds in many locales worldwide and spotlights successes. (via Society of Environmental Journalists)

*Also by Scott: NYT bestseller "A World on the Wing".

16. Finally, "Living proof" - An essay on a sense of well-being through birding: I was 26, thriving in a corporate communications career, flying high. Then, like a bird’s nest in a windstorm, my life collapsed. Suddenly and without warning, I suffered a traumatic brain injury. Not even a creative writer like me could have scripted a wild plot twist like this. And, little did I know, birds would become a big part of my comeback story. I rolled my eyes when my neurosurgeon prescribed 90 minutes of walking daily. But walking around my suburban neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona, became my new reality. So, I walked … and I walked … and I walked. Behind the scenes, anxiety, stress, and sadness hovered like a cloud. It was hard to control my emotions. Then, one day on a walk, I spotted a pair of Great Horned Owls and three owlets in a palm tree. Seeing those downy, wide-eyed owlets nestled together stopped me in my tracks. And in that moment, I stopped worrying about my own life and started wondering about theirs. (via All About Birds)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by Natural History Museum, “Why does this bird start fires?”

Cornell Live Bird Cam - A flock of Mourning Doves clears out as a Pileated Woodpecker crashes onto the Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Iris and Clark's nestling officially has a name!

2. Finding a "lost" lark in Chad: The morning of Feb. 2, 2026, started like many others for Pierre Defos du Rau and Julien Birard: It was hot and sunny with a gentle breeze, ideal birding weather. The two French ornithologists, who have been birding since their teens and have traveled the world in search of birds, were at Abou Telfane Game Reserve in central Chad, looking for migratory birds that visit Sahelian wetlands. The duo has surveyed birds in Chad since 2016, they said, keeping detailed records of the winged visitors that fly across the Mediterranean and the Sahara Desert to overwinter in the Sahel every year, and catch any signs of trouble. (via Mongabay)

* Rusty Lark - Calendulauda rufa - (via Birds of the World)

By Hap Ellis, Morning on the flats (Willet & Lesser Yellowlegs) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

3. From a UK column we like - a "magical encounter": It’s little wonder that sightings of the fairy bird feel magical. The red-necked phalarope is a pelagic species, spending most of the year out at sea feeding on plankton. It generally nests on Arctic tundra – Annagh Marsh is its most southerly breeding location in the world. Unusually, females are the more brightly coloured sex, and they compete for males , which do all the parental care once the clutch is laid. Indeed, during the week that I observed her mate, the female – her job done – could have crossed the north Atlantic to begin her migration. Joining flocks that breed across the western hemisphere, the Irish phalaropes migrate south along the eastern seaboard of North America, flying over the isthmus of Panama to winter in the tropical Pacific. (via The Guardian)

* More on the Red-necked Phalarope here - Red-necked Phalarope - Phalaropus lobatus - (via Birds of the World)

4. Birding Brooklyn: Spring migration generally runs from March 1 to June 15, with April being a peak month. Three hundred and fifty or more (350+) species of migratory birds are involved in this movement, experts say. If you want to watch this happen in Brooklyn, the borough offers plenty of places to do so. Each offers hundreds of species of birds and copious numbers of birds per species (Yes, there are experts and volunteers who actually count them.) There’s not a tree branch in sight that doesn’t have Mr. and Mrs. Name Your Favorite Species busily building their nests or hanging out once the eggs are laid and the fledglings have taken off. Let’s start with the birds everyone sees, whether they notice them or not. (via The Brooklyn Eagle)

5. There is an old saying "all politics is local". Well it appears that for birds, all environmental change is local too, says this study: A sweeping new Cal Poly study of North American birds reveals that environmental change does not affect all species equally and that a bird’s traits can explain whether populations rise or fall as local conditions change. The peer-reviewed research in the journal Current Biology, titled “Avian traits link divergent population responses to environmental change across North America,” of more than half a million bird captures collected across North America over nearly 30 years, found that the same bird species can fare very differently depending on where they live. (via Cal Poly News)

6. Rock on - the Purple Martin parties are back on in Austin: Since 2009, bird watchers have set up lawn chairs, picnic blankets and umbrellas in parking lots around Austin to watch the purple martins, according to Caley Zuzula, the program manager at the Travis Audubon. Thousands of these birds roost in the area during their migration between North and South America. As the birds return to their roost each evening, it’s considered a spectacle for the hundreds of people who show up to watch the show. Zuzula said the organization estimates 4,000 people showed up to last year’s parties across multiple weekends. (via KUT News)

By Hap Ellis, Morning on the flats (Short-billed Dowitcher) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

7. The importance of "cognitively simple techniques": Homing pigeons have the remarkable ability to find their way back to their coop, even when released many miles away in a new location. If they are released from the same location multiple times, they can become more efficient on each flight. However, scientists are investigating how the birds make these improvements. When pigeons fly together, can inexperienced birds actually learn from birds who have flown the route before, and find shorter paths home? In a new paper published in eLife earlier this year, a team of researchers from UMass Boston used computational models to simulate different learning mechanisms that homing pigeons could use for navigation. (via UMass Boston)

8. No surprise here with this study's findings: Who hasn’t dreamed of flying like a bird? But do birds actually enjoy flying as much as we imagine? A new study by researchers at Utrecht University shows that galahs, Australian cockatoos, almost always choose to fly when given the opportunity. And after several days of flying, the birds make more optimistic choices. These findings suggest that flying leads to positive emotions in the cockatoos. The study was conducted at Vogelpark Avifauna and was recently published in the journal Behaviour. (via Phys Org)

9. From New Zealand, this rare fossil goose shakes things up: Scientists have discovered a previously unknown fossil goose that challenges a decades-old theory about the evolution of New Zealand’s birds. The find suggests the country’s giant flightless geese evolved from much more recent arrivals, revealing a far more dynamic evolutionary history than once believed. The research, published in Historical Biology, was carried out by an international team from the University of Otago, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the University of Cambridge (UK). The scientists examined fossil material recovered from the well known St Bathans fossil deposits. (via Science Daily)

10. For protecting grassland birds, turns out "no-mow" is only part of a successful strategy: There may be a shift coming in how biologists protect Vermont’s grassland birds. Recent strategies to protect nests have centered around letting fields grow. Biologist Kevin Tolan from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies inspected a field at the base of Mt. Philo to see what might change. Tolan spent his day surveying a 40-acre field of private land being conserved for grassland birds. It takes roughly two hours to transect 10-by-100-meter sections, writing down dominant plants every two meters. The research will help calculate how much of the land that has been conserved to help birds is now hindering them. (via WCAX News)

By Hap Ellis, Morning on the flats (Semipalmated Plover) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

11. Power of eBird - 99,000 eBird checklists helped researchers reach this conclusion: When Canadian wildfire smoke turned the sky over New York orange in June 2023, people noticed the color. Birdwatchers noticed something stranger. Warblers stopped turning up. Not in one park or one county, but across a state’s worth of checklists, the small forest songbirds that birders find almost entirely by ear went missing from the record. An analysis of nearly 99,000 birdwatching lists suggests those birds may have gone quiet. (via Study Finds)

12. Avian flu news, this from NZ: The deadly H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed in New Zealand for the first time, sparking alarm that some of the country’s most beloved and vulnerable native birds could be wiped out if it spreads. A single ocean-going seabird, a brown skua, returned a confirmed positive test on Wednesday, after it was found on Petone beach in Wellington on 10 July, said Andrew Hoggard, the biosecurity minister. In New Zealand, where birds hold a significant place in the culture and ecosystem, the virus has the potential to be catastrophic. However, New Zealand has been preparing for the possible arrival of bird flu for years and a vaccination programme is under way for five species of endangered birds in captive breeding programmes, including the charismatic kākāpō and takahē. (via The Guardian)

13. One cool bookstore: One morning in April 2024, a tractor trailer holding 5,500 books parked beside a low stucco building in California. Waiting inside among empty shelves and used furniture, Lyzy Lusterman found herself in shadow, excited but wondering what she’d gotten herself into. Until then, Lusterman had been immersed in the music world as a pianist and publisher of specialized magazines such as Ukulele and Acoustic Guitar. Now she was the new owner of Buteo Books, the country’s largest bookseller focused on birds. “I think of myself as a pragmatic, risk-averse person,” Lusterman says. Launching into another niche business while using savings to open the brand’s first physical location? This seemed anything but. (via Audubon Magazine)

14. Rare bird alerts - one very cool bird appears in Alberta: ‘Conservation success story’: It’s hard to miss a five-foot-tall bird with bright white plumage. When Calgary birder Jonah O’Brien heard a whooping crane had been seen along a rural road about an hour northeast of the city Tuesday morning, he was quick to make his way there. “It’s really cool,” said O’Brien, who has documented more than 270 bird species in his birding career. It was his first time seeing a whooping crane, which is among the most coveted Canadian species for birdwatchers to find. Birdwatchers keen on finding whooping cranes in Canada typically have to go to Saskatchewan to catch the birds during their fall migration, which is why this summertime sighting in Kneehill County was a welcome surprise for Calgary-area birders. (via CBC News)

By Hap Ellis, Morning on the flats (Lesser Yellowlegs) - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

15. But even more "rare" is this bird that appeared on the tip of Cape Cod: This week the rare bird gods were feeling generous, granting me two hard to believe bird stories in the region. One is so ridiculous it sounds more like a Disney movie than an actual rare bird occurrence, complete with an unlikely friendship between a bird and a dog – I’m not making that up- but that one will have to wait. Local seabird expert Peter Flood was doing one of his weekend vigils out at Race Point in Provincetown on Saturday and seeing some of the usual summer suspects – a few shearwaters, Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, Common, Roseate, and Least Terns. It was a slow morning by Race Point standards until he noticed a kerfuffle among the loafing gulls – suddenly, they all took flight. He surmised the cause was a Bald Eagle, generally the only bird intimidating enough to rouse the large gulls. In his notes he said, with his usual deadpan humor, that the cause was “just a Crested Caracara”. (via Cape and Islands)

16. No surprise here: Four African protected areas have been ranked among the world’s top 20 birdwatching destinations, highlighting the continent’s growing position in the global birdwatching tourism market. Kenya accounts for two of Africa’s four parks in the rankings. The new study by UK travel insurance company AllClear ranked 115 internationally recognized birdwatching destinations across six continents using eight indicators, including bird species diversity, notable species, climate, accessibility, distance from airports, and daily travel costs. (via The Independent)

17. Travel tips for Alaskan birding: Alaska’s incredibly diverse landscapes – from vast wetlands to coastal islands to rolling tundra – provide habitat for almost 500 species of birds, both resident and migratory. Each year, 5 billion birds migrate to Alaska to feed, breed, and nest. With birding hotspots located throughout the state, from our largest cities to remote islands, and birding festivals held spring through fall, Alaska is one of the top destinations in the U.S. for birding enthusiasts looking to combine excellent birding with stunning scenery and adventure. Independent birding can be fun and rewarding, especially in easily accessible communities and national parks. For more remote locations, birding tours are available with professional guides who organize logistics and can help you identify rare species to add to your life list. There’s no shortage of stunning locations to catch a glimpse of Alaska’s birds. (via Travel Alaska)

18. Finally, Audubon offers a glimpse into the dark side (spoiler alert - night time birding): Spring birding can be an unforgettable experience, with surges of brilliant tanagers, warblers, and orioles brightening your local birding patch. But while most birders call it a day when the sun sets, the birds don’t stop—much of migration happens unseen at night. Now, more and more birders of all abilities are discovering the joy of listening to and recording the nocturnal flight calls, or NFCs for short, that birds make as they migrate. With user-friendly technology and the help of a flourishing community, it’s easier than ever to start identifying the birds that pass overhead at night. Among the hobby’s biggest draws: Nocturnal migrants aren’t dependent on the habitat below, so it’s possible to encounter a whole new suite of species you’re not used to seeing. And it doesn’t matter if you live in the quiet country or in a noisy city, since bird calls rarely share frequencies with urban noise. “Sky is sky,” says Joe Gyekis, moderator on the Nocturnal Flight Calls Facebook group. (via Audubon)

19. P.S. Do click on the Jamie Wyeth video on gulls below - short and wonderful!

Go Birding!

2. Jan Brueghel the Elder figured this out in 1611: Last year, scientists presented chilling evidence that helped solve a long-standing murder mystery. Europe’s largest bat species—the greater noctule—had been suspected of feasting on birds, but no one knew exactly how they caught and ate their prey. This past fall, a team reported the first known recordings of the bats nabbing, dismembering and chomping on migrating songbirds during night flights. But it turns out that the recent revelation for scientists may have been recognized hundreds of years ago by a Northern Renaissance painter. (via Smithsonian Magazine)

By Hap Ellis, Red-throated Loon - Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.

3. From an MIT lab, designing a robot to mimic a puffin (no easy task!): Mechanical engineer Raphael Zufferey’s lab at MIT contains a giant tank filled with bright turquoise water, an array of fans that can whip up a powerful wind, and small flying robots perched everywhere you look. It’s the robots that are the stars of the show here and they’re inspired by diving seabirds like the Atlantic puffin, which uses its wings to both fly and swim. “These puffins solve this really challenging task of moving in air, in water despite the huge difference in density,” says Zufferey. He and his colleagues wanted to see if they could build a bird-sized robot that could also move through both mediums and transition between them. It’s something no one had ever done before. (via National Public Radio)

4. From Ukraine, birders find ways to manage: “There’s a jay... That’s a bluethroat... Do you see the hen harrier? We’re lucky,” the 37-year-old photographer told AFP. Threatened in peacetime by deforestation, intensive agriculture, urbanisation, pollution, hunting and climate change, Russia‘s 2022 invasion has wrought yet more suffering on Ukraine‘s birdlife. The constant aerial bombardments have devastated wildlife and wrecked a delicate ecosystem across a 1,200-kilometre (750-mile) frontline – including birds‘ nesting grounds and migratory routes. Every dawn or dusk, Sevidov leaves his grey apartment block on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rig, an industrial city in central Ukraine, to see what birds he can spot. (via RFI)

5. While birds in Ukraine make the best out of a terrible situation: The war in Ukraine is also reshaping its natural environment. Sebastian Shukla explains. Watch video here. (via CNN)

6. A master class on the speed of animals (and birds): The most comprehensive analysis of body masses and speeds—including nearly 500 species (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, mollusks, and arthropods) with body masses ranging from 3 x 10−8 kilograms to 108,400 kilograms—found that the hump-shaped relationship between mass and speed can best be explained by the fact that maximum acceleration is limited because of restrictions on quickly available energy. Running and flying animals have an initially similar power-law increase of maximum speed with body mass (v = Mb, speed = mass raised to the power of b) but flying animals are nearly six times faster (exponent b is higher). (via LitHub)

By Hap Ellis, Saltmarsh Sparrow - Scarborough Marsh, Scarborough, ME.

7. Better mating through plastics?: Last summer, Cornell University undergraduate Jaden Salett ’27 walked, net in hand, through the grasslands of Lake Samsonvale in Queensland, Australia. Tropical shrubs filled the landscape with rainbow blooms, and tiny, long-tailed birds called fairywrens fluttered around him. It was a typical day of catching and tagging fairywrens as part of a long-term study of their social and mating behavior, until a flash of black and orange shot into his net. An ornamented male Red-backed Fairywren had darted toward a female caught moments earlier. When Salett and his fellow researchers retrieved the bird, they noticed a bright orange object clutched in its beak. It turned out to be a fragment of flagging tape—the brightly colored plastic strips that scientists use to mark nest locations during field studies. (via All About Birds)

8. A paean to one of our favorite birds: Hiking through mud, thick and slippery, puts a damper on anyone’s enthusiasm. Such was the case for my intern and me on a humid summer morning, making our way to our first Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo survey point. Slogging silently and grumpily down a soggy riverbed, my intern suddenly brightens, as if lit from within, and practically shouts and points hopefully “is that a cuckoo?” No, I reply, it is a Yellow-breasted Chat. Deflated, we walk on for three more vocalizations and inquiries—“a cuckoo?” Me: nope, a Chat. It got to the point that the intern would just look at me and point to some crazy array of sounds and I’d shake my head. Chats, all. (via Audubon)

9. A detailed look at bird strikes at airports: For millennia, humans gazed at the birds in the sky with an unquenchable envy. How could we learn to fly like them? This question dogged us until the Wright Brothers answered it in the early 20th century. Since then, human beings have been able to fly alongside the birds, sharing the same airspace. When creatures and machines collide, however, disaster can quickly ensue. Common sense led airport staff to keep birds off the runways to prevent accidents. A recent meta-analysis, published in PLOS One, confirmed a positive correlation between higher bird abundance and more frequent bird strike accidents. However, this correlation comes with some caveats. (via Yahoo! News)

10. Hong Kong crime report: Hong Kong customs officers have arrested two women at the border for allegedly smuggling animals after they were separately found with a dog worth HK$3,000 (US$380) and two endangered birds that could be sold for a total of HK$5,000. The Customs and Excise Department said on Friday that it had intercepted a 57-year-old mainland Chinese woman at the Lo Wu checkpoint’s arrival hall a day earlier and discovered the dog concealed inside her sling bag. The dog was estimated to have a market value of about HK$3,000. Customs said they arrested the suspect and handed the case over to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD). Customs officers also arrested a 46-year-old local woman at the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line checkpoint on Thursday, seizing two birds collectively worth about HK$5,000 from her backpack. (via South China Morning Post)

By Hap Ellis, American Goldfinch - Biddeford Pool, ME.

11. More on “forever chemicals”: New research has found young birds living near contaminated industrial and military sites in suburban Melbourne carry especially high concentrations of PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals.” In a study just published in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers from Macquarie University and Environment Protection Authority Victoria took blood samples from introduced house sparrows (Passer domesticus) captured at 16 locations in Melbourne’s southwest, including sites around the Williams Laverton Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) base and near the Altona Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Qenos chemical plant in Altona, and the Mobil oil refinery, also in Altona. (via Phys Org)

12. When in Missouri: There are many ways to mark the passing of time in your life: the arrival of wrinkles and gray hair, the new readers you keep stashed in your bag, or the tendency to feel like you might need hospitalization after one single night of sleeping funny. For me, it was a sudden and all-encompassing affinity for backyard birds that arrived somewhere around my 35th birthday. I discovered a little family of tufted titmice in a boxwood outside my home, and I fell in love. I’ve always passively enjoyed birds (especially crows, those little geniuses), but the day I dropped untold amounts of money on an extensive bird feeder system for my backyard and started to spend my free time staring at it with a Birds of Missouri illustrated guidebook in my hands? Well, there was no turning back from that. (via 417 Magazine)

13. UK twitcher’s notes: With hindsight, the late June heatwave was not the ideal time for my (very) old schoolmates and me to be cycling around Suffolk. Yet, despite the searing heat and the lateness of the season, the woods and hedgerows were still awash with birdsong. Chirping chiffchaffs, melodic blackcaps and warbling whitethroats were everywhere, while swallows twittered over fields and swifts screamed past rooftops in the towns and villages we rode through. I even saw a cuckoo – which I momentarily mistook for a sparrowhawk – flying fast and low across the road. But the biggest surprise was the number of yellowhammers we heard, each delivering their characteristic song: a rapid warble followed by a final flourish, often rendered as “a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no cheeeese”. (via The Guardian)

Don’t know Yellowhammers? Yellowhammer - Emberiza citrinella (via Birds of the World)

Photos from friends - By Chris Ellis - All smiles after finding singing Eastern Whip-poor-wills at 11pm at Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, ME.

14. From India, a look at artificial islands as a conservation tool: For thousands of years, wetlands have provided natural nesting, feeding, and resting habitat for waterbirds. However, owing to changes in urbanization, agriculture, and water systems around the world, many species of birds have lost their homes. As a result, conservationists in countries such as the U.S. have begun building artificial islands in wetlands to give birds safer places to breed. Although artificial habitats cannot replace natural wetlands, studies suggest they can be important conservation tools. (via Times of India)

15. Some photography tips from a pro: When the Something Wild team is out in the field, host Grace McCulloch always brings at least one camera. So when extreme birder Gino Ellison came by the studio, it was an opportunity to learn Ellison’s methods for spotting elusive birds and capturing close-up bird portraits. In 2024, Ellison completed an American Birding Association (ABA) Big Year, documenting a staggering 803 bird species. Whether you are in your back yard with a basic pair of binoculars or carrying a mobile photography studio, Ellison has advice on sharpening your field skills. (via New Hampshire Public Radio)

16. For the back yard birders, innovation comes to… bird baths: Rachel Cericola is a writer covering smart home. In addition to testing hundreds of smart devices, she has also tested dozens of ice cream sandwiches. Ever since my son went to college, I’ve been missing something. Taking care of another living being becomes your everything, and when that’s gone, you’re left with a giant void. So I filled that void with birds. I started testing smart bird feeders, and the empty nest is now filled with actual birds. Instead of driving to hockey practice, clearing the always-present dirty dishes from the sink, and preparing family dinners, I’ve been hosing off the deck, scrubbing feeders, and filling seed bins. (via The New York Times)

17. Finally, check out the detail in these amazing quilts: Retired biologist Tracy McLellan stitches together her loves of bird photography, travel, and fiber arts into vibrant, hyper-realistic quilts. “It all started because I wanted to find a way to do something with my bird photos other than just letting them sit on my computer,” she says. McLellan has the photos printed onto fabric, then uses sewing techniques like free-motion quilting and thread painting to create lush textures, such as the hairlike feathers on a Rufous-necked Hornbill’s neck (based on a photo she took in Royal Manas National Park in southern Bhutan). McLellan has a collection of thread containing nearly 500 colors and shades, so she can match just about any hue in the avian spectrum. (via All About Birds)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by CBS News, “Nature: Puffins in Maine”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - A Cooper's Hawk decides to try for lunch at the Cornell Lab feeders.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Based on the available evidence, we believe it was the youngest fledgling from the Cornell Hawks Cam, P3.

By Hap Ellis, Bald Eagle - Northeast Harbor, ME July, 2022

Get Merlin/Go birding!

2. Case closed in Hawaii - feral cats guilty in grim deaths of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters: First come the killings. Then, inevitably, the comments. Whenever feral or free-roaming cats are deemed the culprits in a high-profile killing of Hawaiʻi’s native wildlife, such as the recent mass slaughter of ʻuaʻu kani seabirds on Kauaʻi, plenty of vocal feline enthusiasts raise doubts on social media and in posts below stories. Was it really cats? How can you be so sure? Wildlife managers in the islands constantly come across those scenes and, much like a forensic crime investigator, they know which clues conclusively reveal whether a cat, a dog or some other invasive predator killed the animal in question. Tell-tale signs are immediately there. (via Honolulu Civil Beat)

* More on this beautiful shearwater here: Wedge-tailed Shearwater - Ardenna pacifica - (via Birds of the World)

By Hap Ellis, Killdeer - Biddeford, ME.

3. On crows as friends - is the feeling mutual?: Annie first met Sal in early 2024, soon after she and her partner, Jack, moved into their house. She was removing old landscaping fabric when a crow landed on the fence and looked at her curiously. She pointed to where the lifted tarp had exposed fresh soil and was intrigued when the bird swooped down and grabbed a worm. “It seemed like Sal understood,” she says. American Crows all look more or less identical to the human eye. But Annie and Jack came to recognize Sal, a bold character with a distinctive hop due to a bad leg, and began offering the bird unsalted peanuts. The treats attracted a second, more timid crow, whose deformed foot also distinguished it. They called Sal’s buddy Pal. Within a few weeks, Annie and Jack were buying peanuts in bulk. Using food as a reward, they trained the two corvids to pay them regular visits. Or did they? Annie wondered whether, from the crows’ perspective, it might be the other way around. (via Audubon Magazine)

4. And the winner is...: A scientist who decoded the dictionary that a bird uses to communicate has won a $100,000 prize for making progress towards a world in which humans can talk to the animals – without being met with a blank response. Dr Julie Elie at the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded the 2026 Coller-Dolittle prize for two-way interspecies communication after working out the 11 core calls in the zebra finch vocabulary and their meanings. Her work revealed how the birds announce who they are and what they are doing, and recognise one another regardless of what they are saying by using individual signatures. She also found that at times, the birds confused calls with similar meanings more than those that sounded the same. (via The Guardian)

5. A new bird discovered in Japan (first time in 40 years!): A bird long thought to be a single rare species in Japan has turned out to be two. Scientists discovered that the elusive Ijima’s Leaf Warbler and a newly identified Tokara Leaf Warbler look almost identical, but their DNA and songs reveal they are distinct species. The finding marks Japan’s first new bird species discovery in more than 40 years and highlights how modern genetic tools are uncovering hidden biodiversity that would otherwise go unnoticed. (via Science Daily)

6. Manic manakins: Manakins can move so quickly that they often appear only as blurs of blue or red as they flit along the rainforest floors of South and Central America. The males, known for their elaborate courtship rituals, snap their wings, spin around their rivals and even do backflips to woo potential partners. Where do they get the energy? Previous studies have shown manakins possess fast-moving muscles and hearts that can manage short bursts of intense activity. Now, genetic research suggests that these evolutionary adaptations were made possible by an important dietary change: Before they could dance, manakins had to be able to detect and digest sugary fruits. (via The New York Times)

* More on the Lance-tailed Manakin here: Lance-tailed Manakin - Chiroxiphia lanceolata (via Birds of the World)

By Hap Ellis, Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 8 miles off Kennebunkport, ME.

7. What it takes (to reintroduce the Blue-winged Macaw to a rainforest): The first step in returning a blue-winged macaw (Primolius maracana) to the Misiones rainforest in Argentina takes place in Dante Di Nucci’s office. There, the veterinarian at the Güira Oga Wildlife Refuge examines the bird’s every feather, takes X-rays, runs blood tests, and treats existing wounds. The animal refuge center sits in Puerto Iguazú, in the far northeast of Argentina. Decades ago, the blue-winged macaw—a small parrot with bright green plumage, blue wings, and a distinctive red patch on its forehead, back, and belly—flew in noisy flocks over the rainforest. But with each health check, Di Nucci holds in his hands a species that no longer flies freely in Argentina. Hunting, the pet trade, persecution as an agricultural pest, and the loss of large nesting trees drove the blue-winged macaw to local extinction in the wild, although some birds still survive in captivity. (via National Geographic)

8. From Audubon - Building bird havens: For years, Joshua Harkness and his family had seen American Woodcocks on their farm and forest property Perry Hill in Amenia, NY, but only at the tail-end of winter. The woodcocks would arrive in March and utilize the family’s open meadow and grassy areas in an old cow pasture to “display,” making a spiraling flight up into the sky and dramatically plunging back down in an effort to impress a mate. But American Woodcocks require dense shrubby areas for nesting, and so Joshua hadn’t seen them later in the spring... until he made an important change. (via Audubon)

9. What it takes (to help the Eurasian Griffon in Serbia) - check out the climber approaching the nest!: Griffon vultures used to be on the brink of extinction in Serbia but are now making a remarkable comeback. Three decades of conservation work by the Serbian Foundation for the Protection of Birds of Prey have helped restore the population of one of the country’s most iconic protected species. The foundation supports the birds by providing feeding sites, organizing and running rehabilitation programs for injured vultures and monitoring the birds scientifically. But one initiative has captured the public’s imagination more than any other: people can now adopt a griffon vulture and even give the bird a name. (via DW)

By Hap Ellis, Common Yellowthroat - Wells Reserve at Laudholm, Wells, ME.

10. Well, that depends (on the wind and trees): In the flatwoods of South Florida, tiny brown birds emerge from the underbrush to sing from the branches of pine trees. To human ears, their songs sound nearly identical, but any given population of these birds — Bachman’s sparrows — uses as many as 120 different song types to communicate. Like human language, birdsong is dynamic. Every avian generation makes choices about which songs to continue singing, which to improve upon and which to drop altogether. A single Bachman’s sparrow might learn only 48 of the songs used by its community, and for decades researchers have been trying to figure out how baby sparrows choose which songs to adopt. Previous studies have focused on social and cultural factors. Now, a new study of Bachman’s sparrows reveals another possible part of the equation: the physical environment. (via The New York Times)

11. A study of the European Pied Flycatcher's migratory routes (some fly as much as 8,000 miles!!): Migratory birds such as the pied flycatcher typically have wintering locations in Africa close to others from the same breeding population. That means that birds breeding in the Netherlands run into each other again in Africa, while Spanish populations also end up close together. But how do they know where to go? A team of European researchers has tracked the migration of pied flycatchers from eight different countries, and also investigated what happens to the birds of Dutch eggs being raised by Swedish foster parents. The results of this study appear in Science. The researchers conclude that genes as well as environment influence where in Africa a bird finds its wintering spot. (via Phys Org)

12. A local pest in a LA neighborhood (last week's story) is key to an important species restoration effort in Bangladesh: Conservation authorities in Bangladesh say they’re still on track to fully release peafowl back into the wild, under a program that began with a “soft” release of the birds last year. But experts warn against rushing the release, noting that because the species has long been extinct in the wild in Bangladesh, habituating captive-raised birds to life in the forest won’t be easy. The Bangladesh Forest Department, with the support of nongovernmental organization Creative Conservation Alliance, in May 2025 moved 20 captive-raised common Indian peafowls (Pavo cristatus) into a forest enclosure within Madhupur National Park, which falls under the jurisdiction of the forest department’s Tangail division. (via Mongabay)

Photos From Friends by Christopher Ellis - Long-billed Curlew - Santa Barbara, CA.

13. Good news!: Black bears aren’t the only creatures making a comeback in Ohio. Sandhill cranes, once gone from the state, are also growing in number. And that’s good news for the Buckeye State. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced the results of the 2026 sandhill crane count on June 24. The bird, still a threatened species with only a few hundred individuals in the state, returned to Ohio in 1987. Their numbers has been slowly growing ever since. (via Akron Beacon Journal)

14. 17 pellets - one tough Golden Eagle in Scotland: Police are investigating the shooting of a golden eagle found with at least 17 shotgun pellets lodged in its body. The bird - which survived the incident - was released in the Lammermuir Hills in the Scottish Borders earlier this year as part of a pioneering project to boost numbers in southern Scotland. Squeagle - a four-year-old female - is fitted with a tag which showed she had travelled through Northumberland, the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales. A photograph on 4 May in Northumberland showed damage to her feathers before gamekeepers in the Lammermuirs noticed the bird was in pain and alerted the charity behind the conservation project. She was collected on 1 June and taken to the Scottish SPCA for assessment and treatment. (via BBC)

15. BNI shamelessly trying to connect the bird world with the World Cup: Border collies Ben and Sally have a special mission for the World Cup in Toronto: keeping the notorious Canada geese off the training pitch used by visiting teams to prepare for their games. It is hard work ‌that needs to be done twice a day, five days a week, while being on standby if the birds decide they would like some football action at the facilities in Centennial Park in the northwest corner of the city. But Ben and Sally are always up for the task.”They’re absolutely perfect work companions. They will work from (dawn till dusk) and still be wanting to go in the evening when we finish work,” said Gareth Williams, the owner of Border Control Bird Dogs, a goose management agency contracted for the job. Williams explained why the birds, which are protective and sometimes aggressive — with a reputation for occupying green spaces near airports and parks — are a problem for organizers of the global showpiece event. (via Reuters)

16. Finally from the WSJ, the Florida state bird battle continues: Tourist shops across Florida hawk T-shirts, hats and beach bags emblazoned with the flamingo. A two-story flamingo sculpture named Phoebe welcomes visitors at Tampa International Airport. Flamingo is the name of a magazine about the state. You can send your children to a Flamingo elementary school, buy groceries at a Flamingo supermarket, get your hair cut at the Stinky Flamingo Salon or enjoy adult entertainment at the Brass Flamingo strip club. It’s Team Flamingo against the ‘forces of Big Mockingbird’ in a political flap that’s consuming the state. (via Wall Street Journal)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by CBC, “Edmonton-area couple to bike 30,000 km to track bird migration”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Meet Āwheo!

Cornell Live Bird Cam - P2 has fledged from the Cornell Hawks nest!

2. Not since the Normans stormed the beaches in 1066: Twas a grim February teatime in West Wickham, south London, when I saw my first parakeet. About six of them, in fact. I looked up from doing the dishes, through the window overlooking the garden, and there they were, where no medium-sized members of the genus Psittacula should be. Half a dozen slashes of the most vivid green imaginable against the brown bleakness of late winter in suburbia. Wholly improbable, wholly mesmerising, wholly wonderful. This was 25 years ago and I’ve been a fan ever since. They have become a far more common sight since then, of course, as the title of Chris Packham’s latest documentary, Invasion of the Parakeets, suggests. There are now an estimated 15,000 pairs in the UK – the largest population in Europe. (via The Guardian, Channel 4)

By Hap Ellis, Anxious parent (Piping Plover) - Goose Rocks Beach, Biddeford, ME.

3. Can you connect birds and the World Cup? The NYT did!: Bird-watching and football have often felt like distinct hobbies. I spent much of the week before the World Cup trying to spot a Dartford Warbler deep in rural Cornwall, liable to be shouted at by men wearing khaki shorts if a twig accidentally snapped. (Unsuccessful, thanks for asking, but I did see my ‘lifer’ Great Northern Diver). Fast-forward 72 hours, and I was in the noise and fervor of Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron, watching South Korean fans drink tequila with their Mexican compadres, chasing a fitness update on Feyenoord’s Hwang In-beom, and making a mental note to check the identity of a tiny yellow songbird seen near the hotdog stand on the shuttle bus home. Granted, sometimes both birds and footballers can be hard to get hold of — while watching both involves a lot of sitting, staring, and waiting. (via NYTimes)

4. An "ancient version of the Merlin app": At an outdoor concert in Cali, Colombia, Esteban Valdivia is selecting his next instrument from what looks like a museum display. There’s an Incan deer skull, a Carchi syrinx, a flute made from the hollow quills of a condor. In all there are three dozen replicas of artifacts from ancient American civilizations that Valdivia, a classically trained flautist with a master’s degree in history and anthropology, has spent more than two decades mastering. But the object he picks up is one that he doesn’t play at all, strictly speaking: It is an instrument that plays itself. “This is one of the most incredible objects,” Valdivia says, holding up a two-chambered clay bottle decorated with a bird perched on a tiny house. It’s a replica of an artifact from the Chorrera culture on the Ecuadorean coast, circa 1500 BCE. Valdivia believes that this bottle isn’t just decorated with a bird; its sound is a deliberate imitation of the Gartered Violaceous Trogon’s call. (via Audubon Magazine)

5. Tattooing every FL species? Read on: The Gulf Coast city of St. Petersburg is a place where art and nature blend together to create a whole vibe: The Dalí Museum overlooks mangrove-lined waters, bird-themed murals dot the streets of downtown, the Florida Wildlife Corridor-led Wild Space Gallery hosts nature-themed art exhibits. Just outside of downtown at Tootsie’s Tattoo, artist Harley Babst (a.k.a. Grouchy Goblin Ink) is adding to the city’s art-and-nature reputation with a project of her own that’s getting a lot of attention. In April, Babst launched her tattoo bird guide project with a goal of tattooing every bird species found in Florida. After a feature in the local lifestyle newspaper, the project has exploded, with more than 45 requests in a matter of weeks. Babst also appeared on the local news to talk about the project. (via Audubon)

6. Jeffrey Wells on birds, sleep and micro-naps: We all know that there are species that vocalize primarily at night (owls, whip-poor-wills). But there are a few species that, while mostly day time singers, will also sing at night. Mockingbirds are one of the better-known species that sometimes do this. Years ago, we stepped out of a car at night at Mom and Dad Childs former home in Winthrop, Maine, and were shocked to hear a yellow-breasted chat singing away in the overgrown field nearby! Yellow-breasted chats are known to do this in their normal breeding range in the southern US, but they’re not even supposed to be here in Maine at all during the breeding season! In contrast, the song sparrow we heard at midnight didn’t seem to be actively singing like it does in the daylight hours. We had to wonder if its outburst was the avian equivalent of a human talking in their sleep, or even sleepwalking. (via Penobscot Pilot)

By Hap Ellis, Its newly hatched chick (Piping Plover) - Goose Rocks Beach, Biddeford, ME.

7. Which Cerulean Warbler? Using AI to go one step beyond Merlin: The research does not center on a specific bird species but on a specific bird. The project focuses on the cerulean warbler, a small blue bird whose numbers have fallen over time. While apps are already available to locate a specific species, this project aims to enhance that capability. “Scientists already have programs, and apps exist that can tell the phone user when they are hearing a cerulean warbler,” McNeil said. “We want to know which cerulean warbler is singing. We don’t just want to identify whether it is a cerulean warbler; we want to know which cerulean warbler it is.” That distinction could open a new path for conservation research. (via Phys Org)

8. A travel guide to America's prairies: It’s hard to imagine North America without grasslands. From the Great Plains to the Chihuahuan Desert, patchworks of grasses, wildflowers, and sedges carpet vast landscapes, laying the literal ground­work for unique commun­­ities of plants, animals, and people. People write off the prairie as “flyover country,” says Alison Holloran, former executive director of Audubon Rockies. Despite its vitality, this majestic ecosystem is in trouble. Development, agriculture, and invasive species have destroyed more than 300 million acres of prairie on the plains since European colonization. Today, native grasslands cover less than 40 percent of their historic span. These devastating habitat losses spell havoc for grassland birds, which have seen a 43 percent decline since 1970, the most of any avian group in North America. All is not lost, however. Thanks to preservation, restoration, and sheer immensity, extraordinary horizon-spanning prairies persist. To get a sense of the plains of yester­year and a vision of a grassland-friendly future, try visiting these oases. (via Audubon)

9. Live streaming a very secretive raptor in Sussex: A live stream of a nesting pair of honey buzzards is offering a rare glimpse into one of the UK’s most secretive birds of prey. The birds, which have laid two eggs in Sussex woodland, are being filmed around the clock as they incubate them and prepare for the arrival of chicks. Experts say it is the first time such detailed nesting behaviour has been captured for the species, which migrates from West Africa in May. “It’s phenomenal, it is such an intimate glimpse in to this secretive bird. We are already learning so much about their lives,” said Ash Walmsley, who is leading the project. Very little is known about the unusual species, which feeds on wasp larvae, as they are often misidentified. (via The BBC)

* More on the European Honey-buzzard here: European Honey-buzzard - Pernis apivorus -(via Birds of the World)

By Hap Ellis, Red-necked Grebe - Biddeford Pool, ME.

10. The Hollandse Kust now an SPA: The Hollandse Kust slots neatly into an emerging mosaic of protected areas. It connects the SPA Voordelta in the south and the SPA North Sea Coastal Zone in the north. At approximately 100,000 hectares (1,000 km²), an area slightly larger than all of Berlin and fills a long-standing gap. With this addition, the entire Dutch coastal zone will soon be protected under the EU Birds Directive. Later this year, the Dutch Parliament will publish a draft designation decision defining both the boundaries of the area and the species for which it is being designated. A management plan will follow, including conservation measures to prevent disturbance and habitat deterioration. Human activities will only be permitted if it can be demonstrated with certainty that they will have no significant negative effects on species the area is designed to protect. (via Birdlife)

11. Terrible news - H5N1 hammers remote Antarctic islands: Bird flu has killed thousands of southern elephant seal pups on remote Antarctic islands belonging to Australia, new research has shown. Heard and McDonald Islands, about 4,000 km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia, are home to over one million breeding seabirds and seals. Scientists, using data from last October and this January, estimate about 13,000 baby seals from a group of 17,000 on Heard Island were killed by the H5N1 strain of bird flu since last August, more than 75% of the entire group. They also found higher than expected deaths in penguin populations. Australia is the only continent with no cases of the H5N1 strain which has spread among birds worldwide and affected some mammals. (via The BBC)

12. More (bad) avian flu news: Egg production in Wisconsin is less than half of what it was a year ago, reflecting a major decline in the number of laying hens in the state. That’s according to the latest data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wisconsin produced 91.7 million eggs in April, the latest month available. That’s down 57 percent from the same month in 2025. The data shows there were 3.69 million laying hens in the state. It’s 56 percent lower than the previous April, when Wisconsin had 8.3 million birds. The state’s total laying hens fell dramatically last September, after Daybreak Foods’ farm in Jefferson County was hit by avian influenza and culled more than 3 million birds. (via Wisconsin Public Radio)

By Hap Ellis, Bobolink - Wells Reserve at Laudholm - Wells, ME.

13. In our search through digital lifestyle publications, we came across InsideHook and its "Take It From A Woman" column this week: One early spring, around three years ago, I found myself in an empty bar in Salt Lake City, Utah, with my dad. We had been skiing all day at Park City with my aunt and uncle, but had decided on a nightcap just the two of us. Taking a seat at the bar, we ordered two shots of whiskey and a couple of cocktails. After chatting with our bartender about the backwards alcohol laws the state enforced, our conversation somehow shifted to birding. I asked my dad, a longtime birder, what his birding White Whale was. He told me he’d already seen it — a golden eagle. The large and impressive birds of prey are found in the Northern Hemisphere, identified by their mostly dark brown feathers and golden nape, hence the name. While kayaking in the Hoover Dam, one of these birds had swooped down to the water, right in front of my dad’s kayak. He recounted the story, still with an air of both disbelief and wonder in his voice. (via Inside Hook)

14. Rare Bird Alert - There's off course and then there's WAY off course: An exotic visitor flew quietly into Kansas City recently, and no, it was not a World Cup tourist. As Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports, a Caribbean seabird landed in his very landlocked city, attracting flocks of birders and other curious observers, looking for a glimpse of the brown booby. The brown booby sighting set off urgent posts and rare bird alert emails. Birders came flocking to see what, from a distance, could be a big, brown duck. When it takes off, you can see the white under the wings and across the belly, and there’s a little blue around the eyes. (via National Public Radio)

15. As July 4th approaches hopefully we'll see more stories like this: With the well-being of protected bird species in mind, the Safety Harbor City Commission voted to change locations for one of the Tampa Bay area’s most popular July Fourth fireworks shows. The display will return to its original location, Waterfront Park, despite it being under repair. The commission voted earlier this year to move the celebration to Safety Harbor City Park because Waterfront Park is still undergoing repairs of damage sustained during the 2024 hurricanes. According to Mayor Joe Ayoub, it wasn’t long after the commission voted to change locations that wildlife enthusiasts alerted the city about the impact of the decision. People were concerned the noise from the fireworks would disrupt birds nesting near Safety Harbor City Park, Ayoub said, and scare them into leaving their babies vulnerable and alone. According to Pinellas County, the islands “support a variety of nesting species, including anhingas, herons and egrets,” which are all protected in Florida. (via St. Pete Catalyst)

16. Finally, if you have time, you'll get a kick out of this video: In many cultures, peacocks are considered symbols of good fortune, beauty and power. In Arcadia, California, however, many locals view these birds as a nuisance. In the late 19th century, a handful of peafowl were brought to the area from India. Today, hundreds of their descendants roam the streets, splitting residents over how the population of striking yet pesky creatures should be managed. In Our Neighbors, The Peacocks, this debate plays out on the streets and in the homes of pristine suburbia in Los Angeles County. (via Aeon)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by Virginia Tech, “Experiential learning isn’t just “for the birds’”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Motmot glamour shot!

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Fledgling Season.

2. BBC takes a look at Red-tailed Hawks in NYC's Central Park: Pigeons, check. Blackbirds, check. Blue tits, check. Hawks? Surely not! You’d be forgiven for thinking that large birds of prey would avoid one of the busiest spots in New York, but red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) have made themselves right at home in the huge park frequented by locals and tourists alike. Central Park includes 843 acres of parkland and is the most visited urban park in the US, with around 42 million people visiting annually. The park is also home to many species of flora and fauna, with certain areas – such as The Ramble – attracting hundreds of species of birds. The red-tailed hawk is a common bird of prey in America, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that it began to be recorded in Central Park. (via Discover Wildlife)

Photos From Friends: Cindy Rand, Bald Eagle - Chisel Peak, Lake Windermere, British Columbia.

3. "An almost unimaginable abundance has been lost." - 'The Book of Birds" review in the WSJ: Imagine a world without birds. Just now, a jet-black, golden-eyed currawong flew low past my study window, changing the view. Yet, as Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris tell us in “The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss,” “a great thinning of the skies is under way.” During the past 50 years in North America alone, the bird population has declined by some three billion. “Dawns and springs are quieter; the air emptier. An ancient avian orchestra is falling silent. An almost unimaginable abundance has been lost.” You’ve never read a bird book like this one, written and illustrated in a spirit of determined awareness, augmenting facts with spirited play. (via The Wall Street Journal)

4. From BirdLife International, "shared skies, shared responsibility": Several declining bird species have been hunted traditionally for centuries, but habitat loss, wetland degradation, pollution, climate change, and changing agricultural practices are the major drivers. While hunting is often not the primary cause of decline, in depleted populations, even small additional mortality can prevent recovery. Reducing avoidable harvest is an essential short-term measure while habitat restoration takes effect. Recovery is also a legal obligation: under Article 7 of the EU Birds Directive, hunting of listed species must be sustainable and may not jeopardise conservation efforts across their range. At the centre of this effort is the European Commission’s Task Force on the Recovery of Birds (TFRB), which brings together EU countries, scientists, and stakeholders to coordinate conservation measures for declining migratory game bird species. (via Birdlife)

5. Albania not for sale!!: If the real estate dreams of a billionaire political family come true, an island in one of Europe’s poorest countries will become a luxury hotel complex, sweeping up stretches of the wildlife-rich nature reserve that sits across the water. No public consultation has taken place, but there are signs the idea is on the way to becoming reality. Albania has been rocked by nearly two weeks of fierce protests after fences and heavy machinery came to a sensitive wetland and preparatory work began on the tourism vision of Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Marshes, dunes, lagoons and salt pans stretch across the dynamic delta of the free-flowing Vjosa River, which was declared Europe’s first wild river national park in 2023. It sits on a major migratory corridor, hosting about 12% of the country’s wintering waterbirds, and is home to Eurasian otters, loggerhead sea turtles, bottlenose dolphins and Albanian water frogs. Flamingos add bright shocks of pink to striking blue shallows. (via The Guardian)

6. A paean to "Tammie Norries" (aka, puffins): All my life I have been obsessed by black and white birds. Magpies are my tormentors, my morning omens of whether my day will be worthwhile or miserable. Penguins are my salvation. When I’m a little melancholy, I pop along to London Zoo to read them poetry. In my experience, they enjoy The Wasteland. There is another black and white bird that I have long found appealing: the puffin. My attempts to spot them, however, have been in vain. On a school geography field trip to the far north, I managed to see Iceland’s ugliest dog but no puffins. There seemed to be a family curse. My uncle was once booked a birthday trip to Puffin Island, off Anglesey, only to discover they’d all flown away. But then I blagged a trip to Shetland. (via The Spectator)

Photos From Friends: Chris Ellis, Smooth-billed Ani, French Guiana.

7. The dinosaur equivalent to a "person of interest": For years, a mysterious predator haunted the fossil beds of Changma Basin in northwest China. The site is known for a stunning aviary of fossilized birds, including some of the earliest known specimens from the group that gave rise to modern birds. But these specimens often turned up as broken fragments, including pellets that looked suspiciously like those coughed up by modern predatory birds, such as hawks and owls. Something, it seemed, was hunting these early birds. Now, paleontologists believe they may have identified the culprit: a new genus and species of carnivorous dinosaur. (via Science Alert)

8. Trade-offs for this tiny petrel- crosswinds v food: You might think birds skimming over the ocean wouldn’t seek wind unless it was pushing them in the right direction, but NASA-funded researchers have learned that storm petrels find stiff crosswinds worth the slowdown, in return for the clues and cues the gusts carry. In a paper published by the Royal Society’s Biology Letters May 13, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) found that Mediterranean storm petrels actively sought out crosswinds, which carried odors the birds used to navigate toward prey. The birds were effectively trading the extra energy needed to fly in a crosswind for the information it blows toward them. (via NASA)

* More on the European Storm-Petrel: European Storm-Petrel - Hydrobates pelagicus (via Birds of the World)

9. Twitchers delight!: It is a tropical bird typically encountered between west Africa and India, but last week a western reef heron arrived in north Wales in what is believed to be the first ever sighting in the UK. The heron was first spotted in Foryd Bay at the weekend before flying to nearby Caernarfon harbour where it fed among the boats. While the sighting has excited birdwatchers nationwide, experts said it also demonstrated how changing climate conditions have altered the bird’s range. “The fact that they are getting here in the first place, and then surviving, is likely to be because of increasingly mild winters,” said Nick Moran, training manager at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). (via The Guardian)

* More on the Western Reef-Heron from BOW: Western Reef-Heron - Egretta gularis (via Birds of the World)

10. "Magnifique...": It is peak tourist season at Westminster Abbey, and crowds bustle around its 13th-century gothic cloisters. They point at notable names, buried everywhere, including Charles Dickens, Sir Isaac Newton and more than 30 kings and queens. But this Thursday in the middle of May, the visitors only have eyes for one celebrity: Minerva. “Magnifique,” says a French woman with her son, while others gasp, point and snap away on their phones. Minerva is an 11-year-old gyrfalcon and she has no idea what ruckus she has caused. Her eyes are covered by a cerise pink hood topped with a theatrical plume to keep her calm and focused on her job. “That’s where the word ‘hoodwink’ comes from,” says her handler Wayne Davis, 63, from Avian Environmental. “Shakespeare used it and he made it a popular way of saying to deceive someone.” (via The Times)

Photos From Friends: Chris Ellis, Scarlet Ibis, French Guiana.

11. Birds in flocks - Defying Newton's third law: Birds in flocks, bacteria and cells: In many collective systems, individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings, seemingly defying Newton’s third law of motion—action equals reaction. These exceptions are known as nonreciprocal interactions. A Dresden physics team working with Roderich Moessner, a founding member of the Würzburg–Dresden Cluster of Excellence ctd.qmat, has now developed a theory that makes it possible to describe these interactions efficiently and simulate them far more precisely. (via Phys Org)

12. Birds and wind turbines (again!): Wind turbines generate climate-friendly electricity, but they can pose a danger to migratory birds. A study led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) published in Nature Sustainability shows that weather radar data could be used to reduce the risk of collisions with only a minimal impact on electricity production: by strategically shutting down turbines when particularly large numbers of birds are in flight. How many birds collide with wind turbines? In the continental United States, the annual figure is estimated to be between 140,000 and 330,000. However, there are no estimates for Europe, particularly for migratory birds during their nighttime migrations. Some measures are already in place, such as shutting down turbines during periods of heavy migration—on a single autumn night, an estimated 188 million birds may be on the move simultaneously in Europe. (via Phys Org)

13. Good observations on the Cornell Lab's remarkable Merlin app: For 22 years, I’ve had the honor of kicking off the Downeast Spring Birding Festival with a talk on how to identify birds by sound. During this year’s Q&A, somebody asked: “How many people in the audience use Merlin?” Almost every hand shot up. Merlin is the bird identification app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Download it onto a smartphone, and you’ve got a free bird expert in your pocket. It can identify many birds by sight and sound. It can also misidentify them. To be fair, Merlin doesn’t actually identify birds. It suggests potential identifications. I played with Merlin this week, trying to figure out why some of its guesses miss the mark. Since the weather was ideal for recording bird songs, I ventured outdoors at daybreak for five straight mornings. (via Bangor Daily News)

* Note too that the Lab's eBird team encourages users to not include a bird on an eBird checklist if you didn't actually hear it or see it for yourself.

By Hap Ellis, Common Tern - Biddeford Pool, ME.

14. No surprise - the backyard birding business is booming: Since the Covid-19 pandemic, interest in bird-watching has ballooned and drawn a younger demographic in the United States, boosting the sales of feeding hardware. Finches, warblers and other birds perch on feeders, birdbaths and bird houses in the yards of 59 million American households, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Nonetheless, Americans spend $4 billion a year on bird food alone. Demand for feeders and water suppliers could increase to $2.9 billion in 2035 from $2 billion in 2025, according to an estimate by Future Market Insights, a market research firm. (via The New York Times)

15. Pranks and pink flamingos: The use of pink plastic flamingos to signify graduations stems from a popular high school and college tradition known as “flamingo flocking” or “yard flocking.” Originally born from a legendary 1979 university prank, this whimsical practice has evolved into a staple fundraising campaign and celebratory milestone marker across the United States. As a victory stunt by the Pail and Shovel Party, which had won the student-government election, leaders Jim Mallon ’79 and vice president Leon Varjian x’83 purchased 1,008 plastic flamingos and planted them all on the hill. Why 1,008? The birds were sold by the dozen, and Varjian wanted to be able to say they had planted more than 1,000. “The smallest number divisible by 12 that’s over 1,000 is 1,008,” the late Varjian said in an interview. The “prank” continues today through Fill the Hill, an annual fundraising event that helps the UW address critical needs. The tradition took on a more poignant meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, schools like South Portland High School in Maine used hundreds of pink flamingos to physically fill empty football fields. Each bird represented a missing student at the canceled commencement ceremony, permanently cementing the flamingo as an emotional stand-in for a graduate. (via UW Madison & WMTW News)

16. Finally, Let's go! The Yakutat Tern Festival "re-terns": Some Southeast Alaskans may have only stopped in Yakutat on the “milk run” flight to Anchorage. But just beyond the tarmac lies a birders paradise. From black legged kittiwake’s nesting on the jagged edges of seaside cliffs, to a posse of surf scoters, riding the ocean waves in a v-formation as they forage for mussels off of the rocks below. But there is one bird in particular that has motivated a pack of over a dozen visitors across the country to wander through beach dunes early on a Saturday morning, armed with binoculars and zoom camera lenses: the Aleutian tern. Nate Catterson is the volunteer guide leading the trip. He began birding over a decade ago to learn more about his surrounding environment. Since then, he has worked to help track the migration of Aleutian terns, traveling as far as Indonesia. Yakutat is key to that research, since the village is home to the southernmost breeding colony of Aleutian terns. And they are not the only terns that make a pit stop here, with Catterson pointing out an Arctic tern landing a few feet ahead of the group. (via KCAW News)

* More on the beautiful Aleutian Tern: Aleutian Tern - Onychoprion aleuticus (via Birds of the World)

Go Birding!

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by Rick Andrews Wildlife, “Cantankerous Canada Goose”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Time for a nibble! An adorable Gray-headed Chachalaca chick stops by the Panama Fruit Feeder Cam.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - First feeding for the chick on the Hellgate Osprey Cam! Iris feeds her adorable chick.

2. A bird worthy of the royal treatment: Asian crested ibises have been revered and reviled at different times throughout Japanese history, but the endangered birds with long, curved bills; red faces and legs; and pink tinged wings are getting the royal treatment once again. On Sunday, the Japanese crown prince and princess attended a ceremony commemorating the release of eight crested ibises into the wild on Honshu, the country’s main island. It had been more than a half-century since the last such wild creature flew freely there, and the royals’ presence at the event signaled just how far these creatures have come in recent decades. Once widespread in Japan and beyond, crested ibises went from being fairly commonplace in the country to being on the verge of extinction. They are now seen as a symbol of successful conservation efforts and of international diplomacy. (via The New York Times)

By Hap Ellis, Piping Plover on nest - Wells Reserve at Laudholm, Wells, ME.

3. 80% of Arizona wildlife depend on 2% of its landscape: The deserts of the American Southwest are a hotspot for a diversity of birds found nowhere else in the United States. Gambel’s Quail, Gila Woodpecker, and many more rely on habitats that most think of as hot, harsh, and dry. But, perhaps surprisingly, many waterbirds also call the arid region home for all or part of the year along their migratory journeys. In fact, on an average day during migration,some 250,000 shorebirds can be found in the wetlands of the Colorado River Delta—twice previous estimates. While only 2% of Arizona’s landscape is covered by rivers and wetlands, up to 80% of Arizona wildlife species are dependent on these areas — known as riparian habitats — for breeding, migration, shelter, and seasonal foraging throughout their lifetime. (via Audubon)

4. Black-crowned Night Herons - "the quintessential New Yorker" - are slowly disappearing in New York: Black-crowned night herons, with their muted colors and distinctive white tendrils, are quintessential New Yorkers. “They are fashionable, they stay out late and they love exploring new places,” said Dustin Partridge, the director of conservation and science atNYC Bird Alliance. The birds, about two feet tall, have been spotted in Harlem green spaces, along the East River in Queens and on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where they are rumored to be aficionados of the local rats. But the popular, stout birds could vanish from New York City in 11 years, going the way of the once-ubiquitous passenger pigeon, according to a new study by NYC Bird Alliance, a nonprofit formerly known as NYC Audubon, and several other groups, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Rutgers University. (via The New York Times)

5. Handcuffs and banknotes in a nest? Must be Bowerbirds: Bowerbirds in an Australian city use a range of human items—from glass and plastic to banknotes and even a pair of handcuffs—to impress females, shows new research in Royal Society Open Science. Male bowerbirds create an intricate tunnel of twigs called a bower, then gather colorful items to show to any females that visit. The new study, by the University of Exeter, compared items collected by bowerbirds in Townsville City and a rural area, both in Queensland, Australia. City birds gathered larger, more colorful decorations—mostly from human sources—than their more understated rural rivals. (via Phys Org)

* Same story from Discover Wildlife: Male great bowerbirds create intricate tear-shaped tunnels of twigs called bowers, which can be up to a metre long and half a metre tall. At one end, males place a collection of locally sourced, colourful items, which they then display to visiting females. Research in Royal Society Open Science shows that males living in urban areas use a wide range of items which they scavenge from humans. “Glass, plastic and wire were common choices, but we also found items including a pair of handcuffs, medicine jars at bowers near a hospital, and fluorescent mouth guards from a site near an Australian Rules football ground,” says Caitlin Evans from the University of Exeter, who studied the birds. (via Discover Wildlife)

6. They're back on the bridge - and not just any bridge: Nest boxes for the peregrines have been installed on both the American and Canadian sides of the bridge since 2010, placed at locations that demonstrated past nesting activity. In 2025, the resident pair of peregrine falcons hatched three chicks in the box on the U.S. side of the bridge. Over the years, the site has been a great success, hatching 47 falcon chicks since International Bridge Administration or IBA staff started counting the birds, Michigan DOT noted in a statement. Several years ago, the IBA added a video camera trained on the nest box, dubbed the “FalCam.” The popular live video stream – available at www.saultbridge.com/falcam-canadian-nest-box/ – offers bird watchers a close-up look at the seasonal activities of the falcons, which are also known as “raptors.” The best time to view the birds is when they’re nesting in the spring. (via Ashto Journal)

By Hap Ellis, Cedar Waxwings - Wells Reserve at Laudholm, Wells, ME.

7. Concerning news in Seattle: Bad news for Seattle birdwatchers: The Emerald City’s bird communities are in trouble. Average bird counts across Seattle dropped by 21% from 2005 to 2023, according to a new study from Birds Connect Seattle. The nonprofit’s “Neighborhood Bird Project” volunteers have been studying birds for decades at eight Seattle sites, including Golden Gardens Park, Seward Park, and the Washington Park Arboretum. Titled “Fewer and Fewer,” the study also finds that the city’s bird species diversity — or the total number of species present across those eight sites — fell 18% within the same time period. In addition, over half of the city’s bird species are in decline. (via KUOW News)

8. Tips on finding more birds: Birding during migration means ample op­portunities to rack up lifers; add to county, state, and patch lists; score the earliest or latest arrivals of species; and clock in record high counts. There are endless methods for finding birds that come with years of experience and experimentation. I’ve used a few favorite techniques to help me find 185 species, including rarities like Painted Bunting and Connecticut Warbler, in Brooklyn Bridge Park—a narrow, 1.3-mile stretch of urban waterfront in New York City that attracts nearly 5 million human visitors each year. By varying the way you scan for birds and strategize for birding, you’ll score lifers and rarities and gain a front-row seat to the spectacle of migration. Add in a little tech support from eBird and the Merlin Bird ID app, and you’ll take your birding enjoyment to a new level. (via All About Birds)

By Hap Ellis, Magnolia Warbler – Timber Point Trail, Biddeford, ME.

9. A walk in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve with Stanford students: On a foggy May morning at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (’Ootchamin ‘Ooyakma), the early birds got the birds. The early birds in this case were Stanford students in ecologist Rodolfo Dirzo’s ornithology course. These students traipsed through the muddy forests at dawn in the hopes of catching birds for an ongoing monitoring project with the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO). The course teaches students about the ecological pressures that shaped the evolution and anatomy of today’s bird species, and by the end of it they are able to identify around 70 different birds in California. (via Stanford Report)

10. When in Iowa: the University of Iowa touts its Museum of Natural History's specimen collection: Trove of birds in the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History can no longer take flight—but it still holds the secrets to past worlds in motion. With more than 31,000 avians, eggs, and nests, the museum’s ornithological collection features nearly all native Iowa species and seasonal visitors. This includes about 1,000 birds on display in the Hageboeck Hall of Birds as well as those in the century-old Laysan Island Cyclorama, a 360-degree view of a bird sanctuary on an outpost of the Hawaiian atoll. The museum’s specimens, which staff also catalogue in an international database, benefit students, scholars, and artists alike. Visitors can use the collection to explore everything from Earth’s shifting seasons and vanishing habitats to evolving avian forms. (via Iowa Magazine)

11. For your drivetime pleasure, courtesy of the NYT: Once thought of as a quirky pursuit for retirees, bird-watching has exploded in popularity in recent years. Surveys show that nearly 1 in 3 Americans now partake, with a notable spike among younger generations thanks in part to tech innovations like the Merlin Bird ID app, which takes the guesswork out of birdsong identification. These seven podcasts can help beginners to build a birding habit or regulars enhance an existing one, whether offering expert advice on equipment and logistics, digestible facts about the more than 11,000 species of bird worldwide, or stories about the psychological benefits of tuning into the winged world. (via The New York Times)

By Hap Ellis, Willet - Wells Reserve at Laudholm, Wells, ME.

12. Fifty-five chicks in two years - one prodigious pair of Orange-fronted Parakeets: Two critically endangered parakeets have been hailed as “super breeders” in New Zealand after the pair produced 55 chicks in two years — increasing the population by more than 10 percent. The native kākāriki karaka, or orange-fronted parakeet, was declared extinct in 1919 and 1965, only to be rediscovered both times in the depths of mountainous valley areas. It is the country’s rarest parakeet. Now, there are only about 450 left in the wild and in captivity. Conservationists are doing all they can to prevent the bird from going extinct a third time by creating predator-free sanctuaries and running breeding programs. (via The New York Times)

13. Helpful hint for backyard birders: If you want to keep backyard birds happy this summer, you might have considered investing in a bird bath – but dust baths are the often-overlooked detail that is just as important. While birds drink and bathe from fresh water sources like bird baths, they also clean themselves off in patches of dirt and dust. This is what helps them to keep their feathers healthy by removing excess oils, as well as mites and lice. So, before you remove every inch of dry or dirty ground in your yard, spare a thought for backyard birds and try creating a dust bath instead. This week, we reveal exactly how to do it, and why it’s so important – especially in the months ahead. (via Homes & Gardens)

14. Finally:

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by BBC News, “Catching the People Illegally Killing Britain’s Birds of Prey”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - The American Kestrel chicks will soon be fledglings.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Meet Clark the Osprey!

2. A "physical basis for what looks like a 'gut feeling' in bird navigation": Scientists in Germany have found a surprising solution to one of biology’s big mysteries — how birds and other animals sense Earth’s magnetic field to help them navigate accurately for thousands of miles. The team from Germany’s University of Bonn and Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour discovered that pigeons have iron-rich immune cells in their liver, which detect geomagnetism. (via Financial Times)

By Hap Ellis, Broad-winged Hawk - Kennebunkport, ME.

3. No more feathers for fashion - The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 revisited: Millions of birds were hunted each year for fashion, meat markets, sport, and trade, pushing some species toward collapse and silencing once-abundant flocks across North America. Out of this crisis came one of the most important conservation laws in United States history: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA). Passed more than a century ago, the law was one of the first federal environmental laws of its kind. It helped transform the way Americans thought about wildlife and remains a cornerstone of bird conservation today. In 1918, the MBTA began as a treaty between the United States and Great Britain, which represented Canada at the time. These countries were later joined by Mexico, Japan, and Russia. The MBTA’s purpose was simple but groundbreaking: to protect migratory birds that crossed borders and could not be safeguarded by individual states alone. (via CMNH)

4. Californians get ready for a Big Weekend: Conservation groups, bird organizations, and community scientists across California are preparing for the inaugural California Bird Atlas Big Weekend, a four-day effort taking place June 4–7, to document breeding birds as part of the first-ever statewide Breeding Bird Atlas (BBA). Thousands of Californians will spread out across the state’s coastline, deserts, forests, wetlands, valleys, and cities to document as many breeding bird species in as many parts of the state as possible. Dozens of community events are being organized by local bird and conservation groups. California is one of only six states that has never completed a statewide Breeding Bird Atlas, despite supporting more breeding bird species than any other place in the country. (via Audubon)

5. Once nearing extinction, news from the UK has this warbler slowly improving: A rare bird that was previously on the brink of extinction in the UK is making a comeback, surveys have shown. The Dartford warbler suffered from a population crash in the 1960s, leaving only a few pairs in Dorset. The latest national surveys have revealed a 44% increase in the species in the past five years, with 264 pairs counted in 2025. The RSPB said a record 97 pairs were at RSPB Arne, near Wareham, where the charity has been carrying out habitat restoration. The Heathland Birds Survey, carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the RSPB, aimed to survey nightjars, woodlarks and Dartford warblers throughout the UK and Channel Islands. (via BBC)

6. This is why you should buy USFW's annual Duck Stamp: New government funds will help conserve, restore and enhance migratory bird habitat across the country. The Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, a group tasked with considering and approving areas of land or water recommended for purchase or rental to conserve wetlands and related habitat for migratory birds, approved the funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Overall, the commission approved $44.79 million for migratory bird wetland projects and $22.6 million for land purchases on three national wildlife refuges across three states to conserve 5,254 acres. (via Wildlife)

By Hap Ellis, Prairie Warbler - Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, ME.

7. Cities as stopover sites (hello, Central Park!): Songbirds generally make their migratory flights at night, and during spring migration tens of millions of birds may be streaming north above us as we sleep. But when the sun rises, where do these tired birds choose to stop, rest, and refuel?You may picture a nature preserve or grassy field, but a study published earlier this year in the journal Nature Cities shows that a large percentage of these birds are making their “stopovers” in cities, illustrating the importance of urban conservation efforts. Ornithologist Miguel Jimenez was a Ph.D. candidate at Colorado State University when he led the study as part of his dissertation. (via The Revelator)

8. Actually, you're going to have to wait a bit, sir: A truck sold by a Kansas dealership cannot be taken from the lot by its new owner because a family of robins is living atop one of the vehicle’s tires. The relatively novel situation has gained widespread attention after the dealership in the Kansas community of Olathe wrote about it on its Facebook page – and it perhaps taught many that active robin nests are protected by federal law from the US. A few weeks earlier, employees at the Olathe Ford Lincoln dealership discovered a robin building a nest atop a tire of the truck in question. The bird laid four stunningly blue eggs over the next few days, the dealership wrote in a 14 May Facebook post. The eggs hatched more recently, and the robin is caring for the baby birds, the dealership said. (via The Guardian)

9. From Hawaii, the always touchy subject of cats: Native species in Hawaiʻi evolved without predatory mammals. Cats are known to directly kill individuals of most of our native species: palila high on Mauna Kea, ʻōpeʻapeʻa, or Hawaiian hoary bat, in our forests, manu o Kū, or white tern, in Honolulu’s trees, ʻalae ʻula, or Hawaiian moorhen, in our marshes, and mōlī, or Laysan albatross, on our bluffs and beaches. Beyond predation, cats spread Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite transmitted through their poop, that can sicken people, kill nēnē and — through rainwater runoff — kill spinner dolphins and Hawaiian monk seals.Stating facts does not demonize cats. Many of us share our homes with cats we love, indoors, where they thrive and native wildlife is protected. (via Civil Beat)

By Hap Ellis, Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Timber Point Trail, Biddeford, ME.

10. "Lights Out" in Utah: When you think of migrating animals, you might picture mule deer, or wildebeest — maybe even salmon. But some of the most extraordinary migration routes are carried out by birds, ranging in size from just a few ounces to a few pounds, and it’s happening here in Utah. “Birds live at a geographic scale that is so different than what we’re used to,” said Adam Brewerton, the avian conservation program coordinator with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. “Birds use landscape features and visual cues like stars, moon location,” Brewerton explained. “They’re really keyed into where light is and where light isn’t.” One way to reduce light pollution at home is to turn off unnecessary lights and consider installing shielded fixtures for outdoor lighting. Brewerton said there are uniquely designed programs to aid Utahns in this very task. “Lights Out programs, Lights Out Salt Lake City, Tracy Aviary has a lot of information and resources there for people.” (via Utah Public Radio)

11. The raptors the passengers on MV Hondius were looking for at the landfill: Birders visit landfills because they function almost like artificial feeding grounds, drawing gulls, rodents, scavengers, and eventually larger birds of prey into the same area. According to Audubon Magazine, some birds have become so dependent on landfills that their migration patterns have started to shift. In Europe, for example, White Storks increasingly remain near dumps year-round instead of migrating long distances. For birders traveling through remote places like Tierra del Fuego, that concentration of wildlife can make a landfill one of the most reliable places to spot several species in a single stop. The same landfill ecosystem that attracts birds alongside large rodent populations has also fueled debate over whether the site played any role in the MV Hondius outbreak. Local officials and birding guides have pushed back on suggestions that the landfill was definitively linked to the infections and suggest it may have occurred elsewhere. (via Discover Magazine)

By Hap Ellis, Willet - Granite Point Road Salt Pannes - Biddeford, ME.

12. A $100 billion market?: At Barnside Creamery in Oak Harbor, Ohio, Tonia Tice says she owes a lot of the seasonal ice cream stand’s success to birdwatching. And yet, it’s a hobby she doesn’t really know much about.“As their birding week festivities have come to be more known and have grown, so has our business right alongside of it,” she said. Her shop is on a rural stretch of road, about 25 miles east of Toledo. It’s under a migratory flyway, about a mile away from the Lake Erie shore, so lots of birds stop in the area before attempting to cross the lake. That’s why Northwest Ohio is home to the country’s largest annual birdwatching festival.It was chilly and cloudy at the start of this year’s festival. That’s not traditional ice cream weather, but it’s Tice’s biggest week of the season. And the local businesses that supply her ingredients know it.“When I call for my order,” she said, “They’re like, ‘Yep, it’s birding week, because Tonia just stocked up.’” (via Marketplace)

13. What the crow knows - the WSJ reviews Louis Lefebvre's "A Bird's IQ": In 1921, a series of petty crimes swept through Southampton, England. Morning after morning, residents would retrieve the bottles of milk on their stoops only to find that a thief had skimmed off the cream. The culprit: a half-ounce bird called the blue tit. It had somehow learned to peel off the bottles’ lids and gulp the cream down. Milkmen fought back in various ways, putting stones atop the lids and draping cloths over them. Nothing worked: The wily birds thwarted every defense. The behavior then spread to blue tits in other cities. Like avian Fagins, the birds were indoctrinating others to a life of crime. Ever since then, scientists have been fascinated by innovations in birds, and especially how those innovations reflect avian intelligence. (via The Wall Street Journal)

14. Finally, birding advice for non-birders: I would not call myself a birder, though I certainly love to watch the lively fluttering that happens on my front porch in the mornings. I start by pouring a couple soup cans worth of birdseed onto platforms I’ve nailed across the corner of my porch railing. Then glorying in a new day — though sometimes still a little grumpy about the state of our nation — I sit in my favorite chair (big enough to accommodate Jackson) and sip decaf while watching the birds through my glass sliders. (via Chinook Observer)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by BBTV, “The Kookaburra: The Legendary Snake Hunter”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - A big meal for the littlest Red-tailed Hawk nestling!

Cornell Live Bird Cam - The Northern Royal Albatross chick got his weekly weigh-in with Department of Conservation (DOC).

* Pale Male was memorialized 10 years ago in Marie Winn's "Red-Tails in Love" - a really fun read for a beach near you this summer.

2. The Power of Merlin - powering an "avian tourism" industry in Columbia: Samantha Giraldo, 21, was at her family’s home in Colombia last Christmas when an email from a birding enthusiast in India, half a world away, arrived. Merlin and eBird, the world’s most widely used birding apps, had highlighted the Giraldo family’s small hotel — named after the guácharo, or oilbird, often found on the property — as a birding hot spot. He was preparing, he wrote, to make the long journey to see it. That was when Ms. Giraldo felt something fundamental had shifted. “So many people tell us that’s how they found us,” she said, referring to the apps. “Not just avid birders but backpackers, retirees, people who are new to this passion.” (via The New York Times)

By Hap Ellis, Cooper's Hawk - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA

3. Heartwarming story about Brian Lendrum, blind since infancy, birding by sound: For the past decade, each spring has been a little more quiet to Brian Lendrum. The 76-year-old birder likes to stand outside his home on the shores of Lake Laberge, north of Whitehorse, and record the calls and songs around his property. Then he listens back — and hears birds he missed while standing there. Lendrum, who is blind, spent decades learning to locate and identify birds by sound. But now, he said, as he ages his hearing is “just very, very gradually going down every year.” He first began to take notice of the avian soundtrack when he moved from Whitehorse to his more rural Lake Laberge home about 40 years ago. “I have been blind since infancy,” he said. “So naturally I pay attention to my ears all the time.” (via CBC)

4. Wildlife resistance can help! (Note: this may be the only time this year you will see the phrase "...the share of K. pneumoniae isolates resistant to third-generation cephalosporins..." in print): Red foxes and birds regularly cross between human-dominated and natural ecosystems. For this reason, they may be heralds of spreading antibiotic resistance into ecosystems unexposed to antibiotic pressures, a study done in Italy showed. Results indicated that the share of K. pneumoniae isolates resistant to third-generation cephalosporins – a key group of hospital antibiotics – was about five times higher in wildlife than in isolates from human hospital patients. This shows that studying wildlife resistance can be an effective tool to monitor antimicrobial resistance in natural environments, the researchers said, and called for improved wastewater management, a reduction of antibiotic pollution of water, and a restriction of clinically important antibiotics to human medicine. (via Frontiers)

5. Red-tails mating on Fifth Avenue is a feel good story, but wild bird sales in NYC? Not so much: The City Council will reintroduce a bill banning the sale of birds at pet stores across New York after a fledgling attempt last year didn’t get off the ground. Councilmember Harvey Epstein, a Democrat from Manhattan, will introduce the bill that would prohibit the sale of some birds in pet shops. These include non-poultry birds like parrots, cockatiels, finches, parakeets, and macaws. “Far too many birds sold in New York City pet stores come from out-of-state bird mills: massive commercial breeding facilities where thousands of birds are confined to cages and treated like inventory instead of living beings,” Epstein said in a statement. (via The City)

6. With all of the threats to existing bird populations, not sure spending money on "de-extinction" makes much sense: Colossal Biosciences—the same company that claimed to “de-extinct” the dire wolf and touted a “woolly mouse” bearing mammoth genes—announced the development of an “artificial egg” that it says is a step toward “resurrecting” extinct birds, including New Zealand’s South Island giant moa and Mauritius’s famous dodo. Many scientists disagree with the entire notion of “de-extinction.” “Nothing will ever bring back a mammoth; nothing will ever bring back a dodo,” says Victoria Herridge, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sheffield in England. “Extinction really is forever.” But Colossal’s “artificial egg” technology is intriguing. In past work in mammals, scientists have proposed impregnating closely related, still existent species with lab-created embryos carrying the genetic material of an extinct species. (via Scientific American)

By Hap Ellis, Eastern Kingbird - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.

7. From China, "Birdwatching cured my mental burnout": On Xiaohongshu, “birdwatching” has racked up over 820 million views. , 700 million plays. In the past year alone, birdwatching posts on Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) reached 1.2 times the total of the previous decade combined. But the most telling number is the , based on an official report from Xiaohongshu: two years ago, content creators in this space were around 35. Now, most are around 25 years old. The turn toward birdwatching is not an isolated hobby shift. But it is worth being precise about what makes this generation’s version different from what came before. (via Jing Daily)

8. Keeping track: Birds, lights, windows and migration in Chicago: Every morning during the spring migration season of March to June, Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, leads hundreds of volunteers who scour downtown Chicago searching for migratory birds that have collided with windows. Their busiest period is right now: Mid-May is the peak time for migratory birds to fly north through Chicago. And while millions of birds fly through Chicago this spring, conservationists, architects and city leaders are grappling with how best to protect hundreds of species, as the city serves as both a critical stopover site and a dangerous obstacle along that migration route. (via The Chicago Tribune)

9. A look at the Confluence Lab at the University of Idaho through the eyes of Lexi Arritt: Lexi Arritt likes birds. Migratory birds, songbirds, local all-year-long birds. She owns binoculars for bird watching, hikes birding trails and wears bird merch for fun. The University of Idaho English student who earned a master’s degree in Spring 2026 wasn’t always a bird buff. But her six-year long enthusiasm to recognize the songs, silhouettes and learn the names of feathered creatures also prompted her to look for new ways to talk about birds. Arritt is in the process of building a community birding web platform called Migratory Methods that will include narratives about the avian world, stories and poems, ornithological research, fly zone maps, bird identification, and a birder’s forum. (via University of Idaho)

10. And then looking into the eyes of a bird through the eyes of Sci-Fi novelist: On a cool April morning at the height of Washington, DC’s always brief spring, the science fiction novelist Ray Nayler and I found ourselves in a staring contest with the world’s heaviest flying bird. We were standing at the fenceline of the Kori bustard exhibit at Washington’s National Zoo when the largest of the already enormous omnivores broke away from its flock at the rear of the enclosure and began stalking toward us. Gray and black and white with a parrying dagger for a beak, the Kori bustard resembled a heron that had taken up powerlifting. (via Vox)

By Hap Ellis - Tree Swallow in a tree (and not a nesting box) - Biddeford, ME

11. New gear news: Spotting scopes are traditionally a wildlife and bird watching essential, offering a stable and highly magnified view of distant subjects — much greater than monoculars can — but little has changed in these devices for decades. That was until now. Meet the Go Birding M One Smart AI spotting scope — it looks just like a regular spotting scope, only it’s equipped with AI hardware and a host of handy tools that could change wildlife and bird watching. Following in the footsteps of the premium Swarovski Optik AX Visio binoculars, which we have tried and tested, the Go Birding AI spotting scope has ‘industry-leading AI recognition’ and can identify up to 10,000 species of birds. (via Tech Radar)

12. Costa Rica has long since taken notice of the power of avian tourism: Costa Rica will host the North American Bird Fair Costa Rica 2026 from June 4 to 7 in Sarapiquí, bringing together birdwatchers, nature photographers, tourism operators, educators, naturalists and conservation groups for a four-day event focused on birding, conservation and nature-based tourism. The event will take place in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Heredia, one of the country’s best-known birding areas and a long-running destination for visitors interested in rainforest wildlife. The fair’s program is expected to include field activities, talks, educational spaces, photography experiences, exhibitions, meetings with experts and activities tied to conservation and nature tourism. (via Tico Times)

13. From the American Ornithological Society, the James G. Cooper Early Professional Award winners are: Each year, the American Ornithological Society (AOS) recognizes early-career researchers with awards celebrating excellence in ornithology. This year’s early-career research awardees represent remarkable contributions to the scientific study and conservation of birds. The 2026 recipients will accept their awards and deliver plenary talks at the 2026 AOS annual meeting (AOS 2026) this August in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. (via EurekaAlert)

By Hap Ellis - Masked Booby - ~60 miles Off Cape Canaveral, FL.

14. Deep science: protein markers improve the accuracy and quality of bird DNA sequences: A new computational program, MicroFinder, enables faster and more accurate assembly of bird genomes. Improved genome assemblies will help researchers better understand bird biology, evolution, and help inform conservation efforts. Detailed in an article published in GigaScience, MicroFinder uses protein markers to improve the accuracy and quality of bird DNA sequences, particularly in their tiny and difficult microchromosomes—regions that normally make genome curation incredibly challenging and time-consuming. MicroFinder was created by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and has been made freely available to scientists worldwide on GitHub. (via Phys Org)

15. Book review: Birds are in trouble. In the United States alone, one-third of bird species are rated as of high or moderate conservation concern. North American forests have lost more than one billion birds in the past half-century. A 2019 study found that grassland bird populations have declined by 53%, and 90% of those losses come from just 12 of the most common avian families, including sparrows, blackbirds and finches (K. V. Rosenberg et al.Science366, 120–124; 2019). Naturalist Scott Weidensaul, the author of more than 30 books about birds and nature, calls this trend “a gut punch”. Weidensaul wrote about the wonders of bird migration and the challenges facing migrating birds at a time of rapidly changing climate and massive habitat loss in his 2021 book A World on the Wing. After a colleague suggested that he might write another book about what is going right for birds, Weidensaul responded with his latest work, The Return of the Oystercatcher. (via Nature)

16. Let's finish with a wonderful story about Iris, the Queen of Hellgate Canyon. Iris is a female Osprey in Montana and her story is worth your time over a second cup of coffee: An online sensation, Iris the osprey has captured hearts as viewers remain glued to her nest camera. Here’s why you should be watching. You probably don’t often think about how long wild birds live. While some species, such as bald eagles, have lengthy lifespans, others are with us only for a short while. With that in mind, birds that survive past their species’ typical lifespan can generate interest — especially if they happen to be the subject of a beloved, long-running nesting cam. Iris, the oldest known nesting osprey, is one such bird. Here’s why she’s remarkable. (via Birds and Blooms)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by 60 Minutes, “The Pigeon Mafia”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - European Starling fledgling’s sudden appearance in the nest.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Shhh... someone's sleeping.

2. The bird retina - "...a complete paradox": The retina is one of the body’s most energetically expensive tissues. Built from complex networks of sometimes more than 100 different types of neurons, retinal tissue consumes two to three times more energy than the same mass of typical brain tissue. That’s why most vertebrate retinas, including our own, are furrowed with dense, branching networks of blood vessels: to deliver oxygen and other ingredients for producing energy. But there’s a significant exception to this rule. Birds have retinas that mostly lack blood vessels. This may seem especially strange given birds’ exceptional vision. The bird retina is “one of the most metabolically active tissues in the animal kingdom, yet it worked with no apparent blood perfusion,” said , an evolutionary physiologist at Aarhus University. “It was a complete paradox.” For centuries this has puzzled scientists, who figured that the bird retina must obtain oxygen through a unique, undiscovered process. (via Quanta Magazine)

By Hap Ellis, Black-capped Petrel - North Atlantic off Charleston SC.

3. A look at fires in the Arctic: Right now hundreds of millions of birds are making their annual trek to settle down in their northern breeding grounds. As they fly hundreds to even thousands of miles, they stop occasionally to refuel—delighting birders as they go. Horton’s lab and the BirdCast collaboration use radar data to study bird migration patterns and generate a number of bird tracking maps that give birders a glimpse into how many birds are on the move—and offer Radar systems send out radio waves and then record any energy that is reflected back to their receivers. Information about how long it takes for the signal to return to the receiver is used to calculate how far away something is from the radar tower. Just like radar beams reflect off of the water droplets in brewing storms, they reflect off migrating birds. (via New Scientist)

4. Hantavirus latest - Don't blame Ushuaia say these birders: The hantavirus outbreak on a cruise that departed from Argentina last month has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Tierra del Fuego, a region well known for its biodiversity and bird-watching, authorities and guides say. Now, bird-watching may be at the epicenter of the outbreak on board the MV Hondius, in which three people have died and five others were sickened. The World Health Organization has said the first person with a confirmed case may have been exposed to rodents — which can carry hantavirus — while on a birding trip. The farthest stretches of the South American continent are a strong draw for bird-watchers. (via NBC News)

5. The honeycreepers who are quilty of "nest material kleptoparasitism?": When Mauna Loa erupted in 1885, it enveloped native forests on the island of Hawaii in a layer of basaltic lava flow. The magma eventually cooled, sparing a mosaic of scattered forests known as kīpukas that today are home to a unique set of forest songbirds. Hawaiian honeycreepers are adapted to the most unforgiving of ecosystems, surviving at high elevations where mosquitoes can’t go and equipped with curved bills perfectly suited to forage on the native flowers. Now, researchers have pinpointed yet another of their evolutionary tricks: opportunistic thievery. Researchers found that three species of scarlet and golden honeycreepers on Hawaii are adept at “nest material kleptoparasitism,” the practice of stealing material from the nests of others instead of finding their own. After using GPS tracking devices to monitor 216 honeycreeper nests, researchers found 39 instances of theft. (via The New York Times)

By Hap Ellis, Parasitic Jaeger - North Atlantic off North Carolina.

6. Everyone knows Merlin; not everyone knows BirdNet: Scientists have discovered that they can eavesdrop on the secret lives of birds using networks of inexpensive microphones, revealing complex behaviors across vast wilderness areas, according to research published in the journal Ecology. Previously, microphone technology that records sounds from wildlife had mostly been used to determine if a species was present in an area. Recordings could tell researchers what birds were present, but not what the birds were doing. Now, scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology show that recordings of bird songs and calls can also reveal details about bird behavior that are otherwise time-consuming and difficult for scientists to observe directly in the wild. (via Phys Org)

7. Twitchers in the Cotswolds: It’s early. 6:00 a.m. Wellies are pulled on and I’m out the door to meet ornithologist, naturalist, and wildlife guide, Dr. Ed Drewitt. I’m geared up for the dawn chorus for a birding tour, organized by Active England, where we walk from Upper Slaugther to Lower Slaugther, following the River Eye in England’s Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Drewitt’s hobby has always been birds. “My grandma would feed the starlings and sparrows, and we would go to the duck pond to feed the ducks,” Drewitt says. “I also had teachers that really encouraged my interests and gave me the confidence to think about it. A lot of bird songs I learned through my teenage years.” (via Forbes)

8. A look at the effects of climate change on chicks: Experiences in the first days and weeks of life can have a profound impact on humans — and birds. A new study led by Sage Madden, a graduate student in evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, shows how weather conditions and family dynamics affect the growth of barn swallow (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster) chicks. By tracking over 100 barn swallow chicks during their first two weeks of life, Madden and Professor Gail Patricelli showed that the chicks’ growth was stunted by cold spells if experienced within five days of hatching, if they were the smallest sibling, and if their parents brought less food back to the nest. Hot weather also stunted the chicks’ growth, during both early and late development, and parents were unable to buffer their chicks against the heat by feeding them more. (via U.C. Davis)

By Hap Ellis, Masked Booby - North Atlantic off Florida.

9. And the fish fight back: Beneath the tropical trees of southern Mexico, enormous shoals of sulphur mollies blanket the water surface of toxic sulphur springs, where survival depends on collective defence against relentless attacks from predatory birds. The tiny fish survive attacks of birds through creating spectacular collective waves. But new research now shows that their avian predators are adapting too, changing where they attack to avoid triggering the fish’s powerful group defence. The fish, in turn, appear to fight back with a surprising form of collective “memory.” (via Eureka Alert)

10. When it comes to bird collisions with wind turbine blades, hopefully this helps: Wind turbines are a net positive for a sustainable society, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an environmental impact. Apart from their material requirements, those giant, spinning blades can be lethal to unsuspecting winged animals like birds and bats. Although some reports dramatically overplay wind farms’ danger to flying species, there is no denying they can unintentionally kill anywhere from two-to-six birds and four-to-seven bats per megawatt every year. That may not seem like many fatalities, but every animal counts for an endangered species. To lower these risks, engineers are devising new ways to make wind turbines more visible and avoidable. One potential solution may involve taking a cue from some of nature’s most dangerous creatures. More bats and birds will steer clear of wind turbines when their blades are painted with colors similar to animals like venomous coral snakes and poison dart frogs. (via Popular Science)

11. Bird banding news from the Adirondacks: Writing from the Crown Point Bird Banding Station where we are in operation for the 51st year. At home, the night before I left, a black bear hit all my feeders and because I didn’t fill them that night and the birds had pretty much cleaned them out during the day before, it didn’t get much other than the fun of taking them all down. I had left my garage door down as I had the truck backed part way in the garage in the rain to load up but I went out just before going to bed, moved the truck and put down the door or it would have had a ball in the garage and that would not have been pretty. So, before I left to come here, I cleaned up the mess and am no longer feeding birds until I get my electric fence back in operation. (via Adirondack Almanac)

12. What it takes -to compete with 87 teams in NJ for the Big Day title: It’s just after midnight in north New Jersey when a white SUV pulls up next to a deserted park, and three teenage boys leap out into the dark. They sprint across a field, vault a fence and peer through binoculars — up toward giant nests atop a pole — all in the hopes of catching a momentary flash of a sleeping parrot’s tail. By the light of street lamps, they strain to get a look through the nests’ dark holes. Then, after 10 minutes of waiting, 16-year-old Otys Train calls out: “I’ve I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, I got the monk parakeet!” He and his friends, 17-year-old Jack Trojan and 16-year-old Zade Pacetti, have repeatedly come to this park late at night to try to find this bird. And tonight, the work has paid off. They’ve found their first bird of the 43rd annual World Series of Birding. (via National Public Radio)

By Hap Ellis, Osprey - Inland Waterway, North Carolina

13. Birder I.D. tips from a favorite local New England columnist: About this time every year, I offer counsel on how to make bird identification easier. Usually, the first step is to simplify the range of choices in front of you. The standard police lineup features six people from which the eyewitness is supposed to pick out the suspect. Imagine if that lineup consisted of 100 people. To reduce the overwhelming range of identification possibilities, birds can be divided mentally into smaller, more manageable groups. You can first divide them into two piles: birds you know and birds you don’t know. Then they can be divided by size, shape, color and field marks. Birds can be divided by habitat and behavior. It doesn’t take long before the bird lineup is suitably reduced to six or fewer. Simplification is the key. That’s my usual advice. But not today. Today, I recommend getting overwhelmed. (via Bangor Daily News)

14. BirdCast explained (again): Flock shape, speed and structure are key in deciphering whether radar readouts are birds, bats, insects or weather Right now hundreds of millions of birds are making their annual trek to settle down in their northern breeding grounds. As they fly hundreds to even thousands of miles, they stop occasionally to refuel—delighting birders as they go. The majority of their travelling happens at night, however; that’s one reason experts say to turn off unneeded lights during migration season. So how are bird enthusiasts able to track these migrations? It turns out the same radar that helps track storms has a big part to play. Horton’s lab and the BirdCast collaboration use radar data to study bird migration patterns and generate a number of bird tracking maps that give birders a glimpse into how many birds are on the move—and offer birding forecasts for the next few days. (via Scientific American)

15. Finlly, let's conclude with a short paean to one our most beautiful warblers: Warbler excitement peaks in Northern Ohio during the first couple weeks of May. In fact, the Biggest Week in American Birding — the celebrated warbler migration event in Northwest Ohio that brings thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of dollars to the area — is still continuing for a couple more days. Although warblers come in a variety of brilliant colors, the color most commonly associated with them is yellow, and much of their attraction is that they are migrating through the area. But there are exceptions. The cerulean warbler is not yellow, and it is not migrating through. It is a striking soft blue warbler that breeds here in Ohio and across parts of the Midwest. Its migration, however, is still remarkable, extending to non-breeding areas in South America. Each year, it migrates through the southern United States and Mexico, making the dangerous journey across the Gulf of Mexico. (via The Chronicle)

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by 60 Minutes, “In Comobia, Anderson Cooper discovers the surprising thrills of birding”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Fresh fish is served at the Hellgate Osprey.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - A Pileated Woodpecker enjoys some suet alongside European Starlings.