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My feelings about shorebirds came back to me a few days later, as I observed a mixed group of peeps and Dowitchers at Mecox Inlet, eastern Long Island, not far from where Peter Matthiessen once observed the shorebirds of Sagaponack, the stars of the first pages of his classic The Shorebirds of North America (1967). Pete Dunne and Kevin T.
Here are some things I’ve learned from the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean by Scott Weidensaul: The Burrowing Owl is the only North American owl species where the male is larger than the female, albeit, only slightly larger. And the term is ‘non-reversed size dimorphism.’).
It actually makes a lot of sense, the geographic features of the isthmus between North America (including Mexico, because Mexico is part of North America) and South America cut across political lines, as do birds. It is the first bird field guide to every country of Central America (plus the islands governed by those countries).
A breeding bird atlas is a special kind of book. For birders, it’s the extremely large book, shelved in a place where it can’t crush the field guides, used to research the history of a bird in their area. So, what exactly does a breeding bird atlas contain? The resulting book, 616 pages in length, 6.4
And now we have the third iteration in Audubon’s guide book history: National Audubon Society Birds of North America. The National Audubon Society Birds of North America covers all species seen in mainland United States, Canada and Baja California. I didn’t.). This is a fairly large book: 907 pages; 7.38 GUIDE COVERAGE.
That still leaves 11 Warblers that breed in Michoacán. Like the Common Yellowthroat , the Yellow Warbler breeds no further south than the central Mexican highlands. I must admit that I had the idea the Grace’s Warbler , common in our pine forests, were also at the southern edge of their breeding range here.
The second edition of the National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition has one of the longest book names in bird bookdom: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, 2nd Edition: Now Covering More Than 1,000 Species With the Most-Detailed Information Found in a Single Volume.
The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest North American breeding bird 1. The males arrive on breeding grounds before the females and, according to their range map, they probably breed here in Shasta County. References: 1 Birds of North America Online. Click on photos for full sized images. He’s moving closer.
I want to alert you to a recent study (from April) that looks at the plight of bird populations under conditions of climate change in Europe and North America. Data were collected from the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Pan-European Common Birds Monitoring Scheme. Why are Europe and North America different?
Let’s say you’re a bird wrapping up your breeding season in the north of Scotland—where do your thoughts turn when winter beckons? The researchers theorize that these birds might not be strays from the Scandinavian Phalarope population, but instead perhaps originally from North America.
They packed up in June of 2013 and headed south from San Diego with the southern tip of South America as their destination. The non-breeding distribution is virtually unknown, although they are suspected to winter in northern South America (Howell and Web 1995). Very little is known about this enigmatic species.
Very few birds – or animals for that matter – would plunge head-first into the churning cauldrons of some of South America’s most treacherous rivers. Red-ruffed Fruitcrows are a highly sought-after species and are tough to find elsewhere in South America. Torrent Ducks are the thrill-seekers of the avian world.
His second book on migration is a tale of many birds and many research studies all connected by the theme of migration and by his thoughtful narrative voice. Even if you have read about these research projects, Weidensaul’s accounts offer fresh angles and updated information. is through the personal and the specific.
The Mourning Dove ( Zenaida macroura) is among the most abundant and widespread terrestrial birds endemic to North and Middle America. Even though the female lays only two eggs per nest attempt, they enjoy a protracted breeding season in which multiple nesting attempts can occur every 30 days, and in Southern locations, nearly year round.
You don’t really know a bird until you’ve studied it on its breeding grounds. Getting intimate with a species over the course of the breeding cycle is one of the more rewarding aspects of birding, and field research too. Color markings on the legs and head are to identify individuals for research purposes).
Heermann’s Gulls form large breeding colonies on arid islands in the Gulf of California, Mexico, from March through July. The largest colony exists on Isla Raza, where an estimated 90–95% of the total world population breeds 1. This photo by Basar from Wikipedia Commons shows the adult in breeding plumage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUBX_tlHySc.
2012), and (4) Waterfowl of Eastern North America, 2nd ed. Every species account (well, most every account) includes information on habitat and talk briefly about range and distribution (there are no range maps in this guide); it is usually noted if the species breeds in Ontario, and often noted if it is migratory or residential year-round.
The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.” Plantema gives highly detailed information about the weather, terrain, ownership of and access to the islands and coasts where penguins breed. Press, 2011).
When Purple Finches leave Ontario in October and November, they return in mid-April to mid-May to breed. Red Crossbills comprise at least 10 “call types” in North America. White-winged Crossbills move east and west like a pendulum across North America searching for bumper cone crops. HOARY REDPOLL.
All New World Quail are highly gregarious, typically found in coveys or flocks except during breeding season. These could be the beginning of the formation of coveys, post breeding season flocks that form when the chicks become independent at about three months old. The birds scatter, sometimes in different directions.
Known as the Great Egret in the Americas, it was commonly referred to as the Great White Heron in the Old World. Recent research however has shown it to be more closely linked to Ardea -herons. The first level is the most harmless of them all since it only pertains to birders engaged in international conversations: its common name.
Birders in the Americas may not be aware of it, but from the higher ground of a European perspective the American “warblers” are intensely overrated. Then there is the fact that indicus sparrows tend to avoid human habitations while domesticus doesn’t, leading to sympatric breeding with a disputed amount of hybridisation.
Many species that are currently common may stay that way, and some species will likely increase…and hopefully species besides House Sparrows , European Starlings , Rock Pigeons and Eurasian Collared-Doves , which those in North America know as the four avian horsemen of the apocalypse. Whats in it for birds?
With birds bedecked in their breeding best and filling the air with song, this is migration at its loveliest. Threatened by loss of habitat both on breeding as well as wintering grounds, a few species have even become endangered or at least on a perilous track towards that worrisome designation.
Proposal 2013-A-2 would split the “Guatemalan Pygmy-Owl” ( Glaucidium cobanense ) of southern Mexico and northern Central America from the widespread Northern Pygmy-Owl ( G. The proposal author (a Sage Sparrow researcher) argues that multiple factors indicate the birds deserve full species status. Sandwich Tern split.
A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Previously, even researchers had problems getting access to nesting Kirtland’s Warblers.
Smith is the Staff Scientist Emeritus with the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Centre in Panama. The work was widely cited, followed up with an article in Scientific American and the research appeared (and I may be wrong still appears) in textbooks. Do the Common Ringed type migrate through Europe and the Semipalmated head south?
It was on the island of Trinidad, at the Aripo Agricultural Research Station, where all of these photographs were taken. Trinidad is the northern limit of the range of the Red-breasted Blackbird , though it is unclear if the occasional birds that show up in Tobago are wanderers from Trinidad or northern South America or are breeding there.
One of the two sub-species of Red Knot occurring in North America, the Rufa subspecies breeds in the Canadian Artic Region and migrates along the east or Atlantic coast of the United States. The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia.
Over the next few days, the Alpine Accentors ( Prunella collaris ) will arrive on their high-Alpine breeding grounds – it is time to start singing, despite that the treeless Alpine landscape is still under metres of snow. all Alpine Accetor photos digiscoped (c) Dale Forbes. all Alpine Accetor photos digiscoped (c) Dale Forbes.
The chance that this was a real Turkey are not great, and the chance that Columbus actually brought breeding stock from Honduras to Spain is not great, so maybe, maybe not. The history of the Wild Turkey, the reduction to its original range, and its re-expansion and re-introduction, remains today unclear and in need of further research.
Holt founded the Owl Research Institute , an organization that focuses on long-term studies of a variety of species of owls, as well as their prey species and environments. The ORI maintains a research station in the Mission Valley of Western Montana, neighboring the Ninepipes National Wildlife Refuge.
If this was America, we might not be concerned because starlings are an invasive species, at least in North America. Researchers are wondering if the die-off might spread to other birds or even fish. This is not something I needed to tell you but there is some new research. Since then the deaths haven’t stopped.
This map shows the distribution of the World’s bird species, based on overlying the breeding and wintering ranges of all known species. It makes me think what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? Why am I here? And where all those birds are? Map by BirdLife International.
The Yellow-rumped Warbler ( Setophaga coronata ) complex is one of the most abundant and widespread representatives of the New World warbler family in North America, present in many parts of the United States even through the winter months, when the birds feed on small fruits and other foods, including sap.
A little bit of research when I got home unraveled the ways of publishers here and in Great Britain. The accounts aim for specificity and authority; dates and locations of rarity sightings are given, and research articles on nesting and behavior are cited. Even during the breeding season the birds appear to be quite unwary of humans.
The first is that the illustrations by Dale Dyer are based, and largely seem to be the same, as the illustrations for his previous guide Birds of Central America: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama (co-authored with Andrew Vallely, PUP, 2018). Doing this work takes time! I love the writing here.
Flight Paths traces the history of migratory research in nine chapters, starting with the earliest attempts to track birds, bird banding/ringing (which she traces back to Audubon), and ending with ‘community science’ projects such as Breeding Bird Surveys and eBird. THIS IMAGE NOT IN THE BOOK. Schulman, 2023.
And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. This book is essentially about those birds that breed on the continent south of the Sahara, a topic few birders are familiar with.
The newest bird on the brink to capture her fertile imagination is the California Condor, on which she graciously shares her research and ruminations: Sometimes as a writer you recognize there’s been something overlooked in your midst—something quietly abiding. Their size doesn’t escape you. You think of turkey dressed in black.
His summers during college were spent as a biological technician, monitoring breeding birds for Point Reyes Bird Observatory in Eastern Oregon, and also five seasons in Black Hills, SD, working for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory.
If you have read many of my posts here at 10000 Birds, you may have noticed that much of my research on bird species is derived from Birds of North America Online (BNA), a collaboration of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Ornithologists’ Union. This is the more widespread distribution map for the Purple Finch.
Some uncountable species, like Mitred Parakeets , are in fact way more numerous than some of the countable species and they are clearly breeding in well-established populations. I suspect that way more research and documentation is conducted on indigenous bird species.
But research has shown that some plovers even use the super-sensitive soles of their feet to detect movement beneath the substrate. Consider Estero Lagoon for example… In North America there are nine regular plover species, ten if you include the more vagrant Common Ringed Plover.
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