It's Time to Redefine 'Birding'

Language matters. As birders, the words we use signal what we value. To nurture a community as wonderfully diverse as the birds we love, we need to ensure our language is as welcoming and inclusive as possible. One easy way to do this is to redefine “birding” and who a “birder” is. In my work as the coordinator for Birdability, a nonprofit whose mission is to share the joys of birding with people who have disabilities and other health concerns, and outreach coordinator for Talkin’ Birds, a radio show and podcast about birds and conservation, I often hear birdwatching defined as a more relaxed, leisurely appreciation of birds.

The Basics Of Bird Migration: How, Why, And Where

Geese winging their way south in wrinkled V-shaped flocks is perhaps the classic picture of migration—the annual, large-scale movement of birds between their breeding (summer) homes and their nonbreeding (winter) grounds. But geese are far from our only migratory birds. Of the more than 650 species of North American breeding birds, more than half are migratory.

Birds migrate to move from areas of low or decreasing resources to areas of high or increasing resources. The two primary resources being sought are food and nesting locations. Here’s more about how migration evolved.

To Save Birds, Keep Your Cat Indoors

When a Chicago animal shelter deliberately released 1,000 feral cats earlier this year to control a rodent problem in the city, they may have unintentionally put a more desirable group of animals in harm’s way: songbirds. Domestic cats kill more than 2 billion birds each year, making them one of the largest human-caused threats to birds.

As birds face the challenges of a changing climate, habitat loss, and transcontinental migrations, we should protect them by keeping our cats indoors.

A shocking study published in 2019 showed that there are almost 3 billion fewer birds in North America now than there were 50 years ago.

How Listening to Birds Can Protect the Seal River Watershed

Audubon and the Seal River Watershed Alliance, an Indigenous non-profit coalition, have worked together to record the sounds of a critical bird breeding area.

An exciting new collaboration was started this spring between the Seal River Watershed Alliance, an Indigenous non-profit coalition of four First Nations and one Inuit organization, and Audubon’s Boreal Conservation program. The Seal River Watershed Alliance (SRWA) was started in 2019 by the Sayisi Dene First Nation, Northlands Dene First Nation, Barren Lands First Nation, and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation and with support of the Arviat Hunters and Trappers Association.

Drought? This Is What Climate Change Looks like in the West

A personal take on Audubon’s work to make the arid West more livable for people and birds.

Living back East for a few years, I missed the expansive bright blue skies of the Rockies. Now that I’ve returned to the West, I’m remembering the smoky haze that fills the sky. I’m remembering how the smell of summer has turned into the smell of smoke from wildfires. How the ash from fires hundreds of miles away sometimes coats your car and porch furniture. But it’s getting worse.

Sneaky Thieves Steal Hair From Foxes, Raccoons, Dogs, Even You

It’s simple: Mammals have hair or fur. Birds want it.

As anyone who has ever tried to eat french fries on a beach will attest, stealing is not an uncommon behavior among birds. In fact, many birds are quite skilled at bold and brazen theft.

Scientists have documented several species of birds, including magpies, bowerbirds, and black kites, looting everything from discarded plastic to expensive jewelry to decorate their nests. And then there are birds who want hair, and will go to great lengths to get their beaks on it.

Birding: Before Migrating South, Birds Must Freshen Up

Molting, which typically occurs between nesting and migration, allows birds to replace worn feathers with new aerodynamic ones in advance of their long flights.

The nesting season has come to a close for many of our Maine birds. That means that many of our migratory breeding birds will be departing soon for their wintering grounds. Some have already left. Our swallows and many of our flycatchers are among the earliest migrants. We’ll have to wait until 2022 to see barn swallows and cliff swallows.

A Rare ‘Bird of Two Worlds’ Faces an Uncertain Future

Marbled murrelets could benefit from a unique research project that’s uncovering information to help better protect this endangered species.

One thing sets marbled murrelets apart from other seabirds: They forage at sea but nest inland in mature forests. That makes them a “bird of two worlds,” says Oregon State University animal ecologist Jim Rivers.

But this unique characteristic also increases their vulnerability. Climate change threatens murrelets’ food sources in the ocean, while on land, logging, wildfires and habitat fragmentation have diminished their nesting forests.

A Bird in the Hand…

The Greek fabulist and storyteller Aesop is credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop's Fables.

Many of Aesop’s fables involved different species of birds that are given human attributes including: Crow, Peacock, Swan, Dove, Nightingale, Raven, Jay, Crane, Partridge, Eagle, Stork, Gull, Kite, Pigeon, Swallow and Owl.

The life of Aesop remains a mystery to this day and many scholars believe Aesop was not an actual person, but a collection of moral fables handed down through the ages.

Barry the Owl Brought Us Together. What Will We Do Without Her?

A community formed in Central Park around a barred owl with a charming, people-friendly personality. Saying goodbye isn’t easy.

She was a charismatic creature, as sassy and confident and constant as Harry Potter’s beloved Hedwig. As wise and playful a teacher as Merlin’s Archimedes. And in real life, an owl unusually accommodating of the many humans who gathered in Central Park every day to watch her snooze in her favorite hemlock tree or fly out through the Ramble on her nightly hunting rounds.

Santa Barbara Birding: The Magic of the Pelagic

Ocean Birding Has Its Challenges but Also Potentially Great Rewards

It had been two years since I had been on a pelagic birding trip — COVID had put a damper on boat travel — and I was itching to get back out to sea. I signed up for Island Packer’s 12-hour deep-water excursion out of Ventura on July 31, fortunately reserving one of the last spots on this sold-out trip. Pelagic birding is one of the most difficult types of birding because the birds are often distant, appearing and disappearing behind swells, and seen from a sometimes violently moving platform.

The Audubon Mural Project Brings Threatened Birds Back to New York City

From purple finches to whiskered screech owls, artists are expanding a colorful flock of public artworks in Upper Manhattan. New York City is a far cry from the places many people think about when it comes to bird-watching, but if a group of artists has its way, that could very well change. Since 2014, Avi Gitler, an art dealer and the owner of Gitler &____, an art gallery located in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood of Hamilton Heights, has been working with the National Audubon Society to recruit artists to create colorful murals and other public art pieces focused on a single subject matter: birds

Poem : The Year of the Goldfinches

There were two that hung and hovered by the mud puddle and the musk thistle. Flitting from one splintered fence post to another, bathing in the rainwater’s glint like it was a mirror to some other universe where things were more acceptable, easier than the place I lived. I’d watch for them: the bright peacocking male, the low-watt female, on each morning walk, days spent digging for some sort of elusive answer to the question my curving figure made. Later, I learned that they were a symbol of resurrection. Of course they were, my two yellow-winged twins feasting on thorns and liking it.

Birds Of All Feathers: 20 Inspiring Photos Winners Of Bird Photographer Of The Year 2021

The Bird Photographer of the Year (BPOTY) has unveiled the winning photos of its international 2021 competition.

The image below of a road runner stopped in its tracks at the U.S.-Mexico border wall was this year’s overall winner.

The photo by Mexican photographer Alejandro Prieto was selected from more than 22,000 submissions by photographers from around the world and takes a £5,000 grand prize and the coveted title of Bird Photographer of the Year.