birding
grrlscientist | August 9, 2007tags: birding, birds, ornithology, blog carnivals
The 55th edition of the bird blog carnival, I and the Bird, is now available for your reading pleasure. As usual, this blog carnival is a big one, so there's plenty there for you to read.
grrlscientist | July 27, 2007tags: AOU, American Ornithologists' Union, ornithology, checklist supplement
The new AOU checklist update has been published and is available as a free PDF. The only major split that is obvious to a quick inspection is that the Bean Goose is now split into two species.
grrlscientist | July 27, 2007tags: Falcon Fascination, peregrine falcon, streaming video
Powerful and fast-flying, the peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus, hunts medium-sized birds, dropping down on them from high above in a spectacular stoop. Virtually exterminated from eastern North America by pesticide poisoning in the middle 20th century, restoration efforts have made this species a regular, if still uncommon sight in many large cities.
Thanks to Charlie from KQED Public Broadcasting in San Francisco, I have embedded a wonderful video about the resident SF peregrine falcons (below the fold). These amazing predators…
grrlscientist | July 19, 2007tags: recurve-billed bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii, ornithology, birds, avian, endangered species
Female Recurve-billed Bushbird, Clytoctantes alixii. More images below the fold.
Image: Chris Sharpe 2004 [larger].
[listen to this species' song]
Chris Sharpe emailed me this following statement about the Recurve-billed Bushbird rediscovery, which I quote in full. I also present Chris's original 2004 images here, although some of the images will re-appear on this site soon (one will be the featured image for the next issue of Birds in the News, for example).
The Recurve-billed Bushbird,…
grrlscientist | June 29, 2007tags: blog carnival, birds, birding, ornithology
The 52nd edition of I and the Bird blog carnival is now available for your reading pleasure. As usual, they included one (and only one) of my many submissions, along with lots of other essays that you are sure to enjoy.
grrlscientist | June 29, 2007tags: book review, birds, birding, ornithology
Gulls are found nearly everywhere, from their usual haunts on the shorelines of oceans, lakes and rivers, to newly tilled fields, garbage dumps and sewage treatment plants. Due to their ubiquity, they are popular among birdwatchers, but gulls are often challenging to identify because they can take up to four years to mature, and they have different plumages each year. They also have seasonal differences and individual variations in plumage as well. Further, considering that, for most people, one "seagull" looks just like all the others,…
grrlscientist | June 14, 2007tags: blog carnival, bird, birding
I and the Bird, issue 51, is now available for your reading pleasure. Not only have they included a piece that I wrote, but as an added bonus, this issue is a sweepstakes where those people who correctly answer 20 questions will be placed into a drawing for a brand new copy of The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds (Cornell University Press, 2006), signed by the author, Steve Kress. Now you really want to read that blog carnival, don't you?
grrlscientist | June 14, 2007tags: book review, birding, birds, Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches, Mike O'Connor
Have you ever wondered if backyard birds can choke on peanut butter? If robins really are the first birds of spring? Where should you hang your new bird feeder? Whether there is such a bird as a horned House Finch? If the white Aflack bird a duck or a goose? What birds do when the temperatures and wind chill fall below zero? If penguins have knees? The answers to all these questions and more can be found in a delightful little book, Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? And Other Bird Questions You Know You…
grrlscientist | April 4, 2007A new blog carnival, the 46th edition of I and the Bird, is now available for your reading pleasure. This is a big one, packed with lots of birdie goodness.
grrlscientist | March 22, 2007The 45th edition of I and the Bird is now available. This blog carnival is devoted to wild birds and birding and also includes lots of great photographs!
grrlscientist | March 22, 2007tags: Long-whiskered Owlet, Xenoglaux loweryi, birds, birding, ornithology
Long-whiskered Owlet, Xenoglaux loweryi.
The strange and extremely rare Long-whiskered Owlet, Xenoglaux loweryi, has been seen in the wild for the first time on a private conservation area in Northern Peru by researchers. The bird, a species that wasn't even discovered until 1976, and until now was only known from a few specimens captured in nets after dark, was seen in the Area de Conservación Privada de Abra Patricia -- Alto Nieva. This sighting is considered a holy grail of South American ornithology and has not…
grrlscientist | December 15, 2006The newest edition of I and the Bird has me feeling fairly sentimental. Blame it on Duncan, the estimable host of this superb installment. Duncan was a part of the very first I and the Bird and has been an integral part of that community ever since, one whose continuing participation confirms that this carnival is representative of the best bird blogging from around the world.
Anyway, as I was saying, Mike has been subtly prodding Duncan to host IATB for a long, long time, though his entreaties probably lost any semblance of subtlety months ago. Why was so important? I and the Bird emerged…
grrlscientist | December 12, 2006
Peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus.
Orphaned image. Please contact me for proper attribution and linkage.
As I get my blog-feet under me, one of the things I plan to do is to resume publishing Birds in the News on Mondays, at noon, EST. Until that happy moment, perhaps you will enjoy seeing a peregrine falcon family in downtown Brisbane, Australia?
This well-designed site, Frodocam, has thousands of still pictures, galleries of video for you to watch using either Quicktime or Media Player, and lots of information about peregrine falcons so you can learn more about these, the fastest…
grrlscientist | October 13, 2006In this world, there are tortoises and there are hares. Birding is hardly a hare's game unless you're racking up a Big Day. Birds are generally as put off by the combination of reckless speed and arrogant sloth as old Aesop was. No, if you want to enjoy bird watching to the fullest, take the Tortoise Trail. This path has never been more rewarding than today, as one of my favorite bird photographers, Pam Shack, delivers a magnificent and melodious I and the Bird #34.
Regardless of the velocity at which your birding takes place, I and the Bird should be just your speed. Be sure to share your…
grrlscientist | July 19, 2006A bookseller in Seattle who was a friend of mine often told me that his customers really wanted a durable and reasonably-priced field guide that focused on Washington State birds and was targeted specifically to beginning, visiting and relocating birders. Finally, after years of breathless waiting, that book, Birds of Washington State, by Brian Bell and Gregory Kennedy was recently published (Auburn, WA: Lone Pine, 2006).
In short, Birds of Washington State is the most user-friendly bird field guide I've seen. It has a sturdy softcover that allows the user to quickly and easily flip through…
grrlscientist | July 7, 2006For those of you who are bird watchers, and those of you who research birds, you will be interested to know that the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) just published its 47th Supplement to their Check List of North American Birds -- its 6th Supplement since the seventh edition was first published in 1998. This Supplement is published after new data -- mostly DNA data -- becomes available to the AOU.
(below the fold)
According to this paper [free PDF], nine main changes are noted in this Supplement;
three species were added because AOU split them from species that already appear on the…
grrlscientist | May 30, 2006The Institute for Bird Populations announced that its journal, Bird Populations, will become entirely electronic beginning with its upcoming issue.
First published in 1993, Bird Populations fills a major gap in the scientific literature because no other technical publication is dedicated to the study of dynamic avian demography and biogeography from a global perspective. This annual publication carries peer-reviewed papers of original research, reports from major avian monitoring projects around the world, and review, synthesis and commentary articles.
Hattip: Thomas Gardali; PRBO…
grrlscientist | January 23, 2006
Ornithologist and Ivory-billed Woodpecker expert, Dr. Jerome Jackson, who has an impressive list of professional accomplishments, including the excellent book, In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker Amazon (2004), has finally spoken out about the rediscovery of the IBWO in a peer-reviewed paper [free PDF] that was recently published in one of the most respected ornithological journals in the world, The Auk.
In this 15-page paper, Jackson asserts that the evidence put forward by the search party participants simply doesn't rise to the level of scientifically valid "proof" as portrayed by…