Blogs

The Pacific Wren, seen here in Seattle's Discovery Park, has been recognized as a species distinct from the Winter Wren. Photo by Tom Talbott Fifteen new species are being added to the Check-list of North American Birds this year following recent decisions by the American Ornithologists’...

Don’t you just love the Yellow-rumped Warbler? It’s one of the most common warblers in North America. It’s usually the last to leave in the fall and one of the first to arrive in the spring. It’s often the most abundant in wintertime. And it’s got one heck of a great nickname...

This bird, photographed at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, Arizona, was formerly known as Common Moorhen. Now, following a determination by the American Ornithologists' Union that it is separate from the Common Moorhen of Eurasia, its name is Common Gallinule . Photo by Lois Manowitz The American...

In August, we learned that the American Ornithologists’ Union and other ornithological societies in the Western Hemisphere may merge next year into a new group tentatively named the Society for Ornithology . The move “would result in a clean slate for designing new governance and new journals...

Warblers, owls, hummingbirds, eagles, mist-netting, new books -- we covered that and lots more on this blog in 2011. Below are the 10 most popular stories of the year. 10. Checklist math: How four Yellow-rumped Warblers equal one Butter-butt Published June 15, 2011, at 10:12 AM Around the time the American...

Presidents, past-presidents, and other officers of the American Ornithologists' Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, Neotropical Ornithological Society, Association of Field Ornithologists, and other groups gathered in February in Dallas to discuss forming a new society for bird scientists. Photo...