BirdWatching Community

An open letter to our forum and gallery contributors

Chuck Hagner — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT

I apologize for the form-letter approach here, but I need to let you know about something important:

As you may know, in August 2012, Madavor Media purchased BirdWatching magazine from Kalmbach Publishing Co. Since the sale, the BirdWatchingDaily website and all its contents, including its photo galleries and forums, have remained on fileservers housed at Kalmbach.

We are grateful to Kalmbach for extending this courtesy to us but don't want to overstay our welcome. Indeed, the terms of the sale prohibit us from doing so. For this reason, on May 29, we will migrate the website to new servers.

When we do, we will launch a new website. The new site will have the same name (BirdWatchingDaily) and the same URL (http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com), and much of the content will be the same. The new site will have photo galleries, but it will not have forums, and, unfortunately, we will not be able to transfer images from our existing photo galleries and forums to the new galleries.

We value your many contributions to the site. Your informative forum posts and your beautiful images have been a vital part of the browsing and viewing experience for visitors to the site for years. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

We want you to continue to be a part of the BirdWatching community. After our new site launches, we hope that you will not only post new photos of birds but also re-post some or all of your images in the new photo galleries. I'll post instructions for how to upload your photos to the new galleries in the days ahead.

Finally, we recognize and appreciate that many of you have posted much valuable information as a resource for other birdwatchers in our forums. Thank you for doing this. If you haven't saved a copy of your posts already, I encourage you to do so before May 29.

Thank you again for your many contributions to BirdWatchingDaily.com. We look forward to working with you on the new site in the future. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.

Best regards,

Chuck Hagner
Editor
chagner@birdwatchingdaily.com

10 huge discoveries uncovered with small geolocators

Matt Mendenhall — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:50:00 GMT

A top-notch article ("The Golden Age of Tracking," pictured above) in our forthcoming April issue explains how tiny new tracking devices known as geolocators are rapidly changing what we know about the migration of Northern Wheatears, Flammulated Owls, and other birds. Author Anne Murray spoke with researchers who have used geolocators to uncover migratory secrets and pinpoint wintering and breeding areas for species such as Golden-crowned Sparrow, Willet, and Swainson’s Thrush.

A sidebar in Murray’s article summarizes 10 recent discoveries about North American birds revealed by geolocators. Here I’ve added additional information about each finding, including links where you can read abstracts or whole papers, see photos, and learn more about the researchers.

1. Northern Wheatear

Three birds have confirmed the astonishing migratory routes of Northern Wheatear. A bird from Baffin Island in northeastern Canada crossed the Atlantic to winter in western sub-Saharan Africa, and two wheatears tagged north of Fairbanks, Alaska, flew over the Bering Sea and through northern Russia and Kazakhstan before crossing the Arabian Desert to wintering areas in Sudan, Uganda, or Kenya. The Alaskan birds’ average round-trip distance — 18,640 miles (30,000 km) — is the longest known migration of any songbird.

Researchers Franz Bairlein and Heiko Schmaljohann of the Institute of Avian Research in Germany and colleagues described the study in August 2012 in the journal Biology Letters. (Schmaljohann took the above photo of a wheatear wearing a geolocator.)

In a September 2012 paper in Animal Behaviour, they explain the biological mechanisms at work when wheatears fly halfway around the world. The scientists have also used geolocators to track wheatears that nest in Europe; they described the birds’ routes to and from Africa in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

2. Burrowing Owl

Males and females that breed in Washington and Oregon spend winters far apart. In a study in which 25 geolocators were recovered from 93 tagged owls, researchers found that most females flew south to California for winter, while most males wintered in eastern Washington; males that nested in Oregon flew north in fall. The scientists say males choose to stay close to their breeding areas so they can get back to their territories quickly in spring.

David H. Johnson, director of the Global Owl Project, and Troy I. Wellicome, a Species At Risk biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, conducted the study and will describe it in a forthcoming research paper. We're looking forward to learning more after they publish their results. (Their colleague Greg Green photographed the owl at right wearing a geolocator.)

3. Rusty Blackbird

A previously unknown migration route was uncovered when three tagged blackbirds were recaptured in 2010 at nesting areas near Anchorage, Alaska. The birds migrated through the central provinces and states and used stopover sites in Saskatchewan, the Dakotas, and Iowa. Fall migration lasted 72 to 84 days, while the spring trip was completed in 16 to 30 days.

James A. Johnson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and colleagues reported the results in the December 2012 issue of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.

4. Wood Thrush

Tagged thrushes that were recaptured two years in a row at breeding sites in Pennsylvania did not follow the same migration route from their wintering areas in Costa Rica each year, possibly due to the effects of wind, stopover habitat, and each bird’s physical condition. The date they began migrating didn’t change much, however. Each bird departed within about three days of the date it left the year before, suggesting that a strong internal schedule drives the urge to fly north.

The research comes from the lab of Bridget Stutchbury, Canada Research Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology at York University in Ontario and author of the 2007 book Silence of the Songbirds. In 2009, she became the first scientist to track songbirds with geolocators when she and several colleagues announced the results of groundbreaking research with Purple Martins and Wood Thrushes. (We reported on her research on our blog and in "Birding Briefs.")

The new study appeared in the open-access journal PLOS One in July 2012 and was written by graduate students Calandra Stanley, Maggie MacPherson, and Emily McKinnon, postdoctoral fellow Kevin Fraser, and Stutchbury.

5. Gray Catbird

Birds tagged in parks near Washington, D.C., spent the winter in southern Florida or Cuba. Researchers reported that the finding supports data accumulated over decades of banding work: that catbirds breeding near the East Coast winter in Florida and the Caribbean, while catbirds breeding in the Midwest winter in Mexico and Central America.

Thomas Ryder and Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and geolocator designer James Fox, formerly of the British Antarctic Survey, explained the results in the July 2011 issue of The Auk, the quarterly journal of the American Ornithologists’ Union.

6. Flammulated Owl

A long-suspected wintering area in southern Mexico was confirmed in 2011, when four tagged owls were recovered near their breeding areas in central Colorado. The birds covered the 1,500-mile (2,500-km) distance in one to two weeks in fall; the return flight took a month or more. In northern Utah, HawkWatch International tagged 24 owls in 2012 (including the bird being released at right); when the birds return this spring, their geolocators should provide more information about wintering areas and migration routes. Stay tuned.

Brian Linkhart, associate professor of biology at Colorado College and the world’s foremost expert on the species, reported on the route to and from Mexico at the 2012 North American Ornithological Conference in Vancouver. Learn more on page 214 of the conference’s abstract book.

See photos of owls in the hand and read more about the project on the blog of Phoebe Parker-Shames, one of Linkhart’s students who assisted with the research.

7. Snow Bunting

Spring migration lasts about 12 days longer than fall migration, according to new data from geolocators worn by 13 Snow Buntings that nest on East Bay Island in northern Hudson Bay. The finding is highly unusual because most songbirds fly north in spring much faster than they fly south in fall. Scientists say the birds appear to make long stopovers, possibly in large groups that enable individual buntings the best chance to avoid predation by Peregrine Falcons.

Christie Macdonald, a graduate student at the University of Windsor, and several colleagues described the discovery in the open-access journal Animal Migration in November 2012. Macdonald tagged about 90 birds in two summers on the remote island.

8. Black Swift

Winter records of northern Black Swifts were nonexistent until researchers at the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory tracked them with geolocators. They discovered that the birds fly 4,350 miles (7,000 km) south, from Colorado to lowland rainforests in western Brazil, at an average speed of 212 miles (341 km) per day.

Jason Beason, special monitoring projects coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, and colleagues placed geolocators on four swifts in August 2009 and retrieved three the following spring. They reported on the migration path and wintering area in the March 2012 issue of The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.

In December 2012, a photo of an alleged Black Swift was taken at the Tambopata Reserve in southern Peru, not far from the area in Brazil that Beason identified as the wintering area of the tagged birds. If confirmed, it would be one of the only sight records of the species in South America.

9. Pacific Golden-Plover

The large shorebirds set groundspeed records of 60 mph as they flew 9,900 to 14,900 miles (16,000 to 24,000 km) on a previously unknown circular migration route around the Pacific Ocean. The birds flew from American Samoa in the South Pacific to a stopover in Japan before completing their trip to Alaska. The return flight from Alaska to American Samoa lasted just six and a half days.

A group of 14 researchers from four nations announced the findings in July 2012 in the Wader Study Group Bulletin. Lead author Oscar “Wally” Johnson, an ornithologist at Montana State University, has been studying the shorebird and its migratory habits for decades and co-authored the Pacific Golden-Plover account (No. 202) in the Birds of North America reference series.

10. Purple Martin

Birds of the eastern subis subspecies were tagged in far-flung breeding sites in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Minnesota, Virginia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas. When their geolocators were retrieved, the data revealed a surprise: The birds share a broad, overlapping wintering area along the Amazon River in northern Brazil. In contrast, martins from the western arboricola subspecies appear to have a distinct wintering region in southeastern Brazil, approximately 1,800 miles (3,000 km) from the core wintering region of the eastern subspecies.

Fraser and Stutchbury of York University and 12 colleagues published the research in December 2012 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. --Matt Mendenhall, Managing Editor

Our past articles about geolocators

Pacific Golden-Plover’s circular migration route, October 2012

Geolocators reveal Red Knot flights, June 2012

Black Swift winter site, June 2012

Veery migration and winter ecology, December 2011

Songbirds migrate three times faster than expected, June 2009

Photos

Burrowing Owl wearing a geolocator by Greg Green

Flammulated Owl being released wearing a geolocator by Mike Shaw

Purple Martin by Daniel Cadieux

Friday photos: Towhees

jkuczynski — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 20:24:00 GMT

Compare photos of Eastern, Abert’s, California, Green-tailed, Canyon, and Spotted Towhees. The images are from our galleries. Enjoy!

Share your bird photos in our galleries.

View the contents of our August 2012 issue.

Compare photos of Eastern, Western, Gray, Loggerhead, and Cassin’s Kingbirds.

EASTERN TOWHEE: Online member The Scavenger photographed this debonair black-headed male.

ABERT’S TOWHEE: You can see Abert’s only in the Southwest. Jaygee1 found this bird at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, Arizona.

CALIFORNIA TOWHEE: This bird was at Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, California, east of Los Angeles. Online member RaptorCA took the photo.

GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE: A rufous cap, white throat, and olive wings are field marks of this species. Maxmast found this one far east of its normal range: at Possum Branch Preserve in Clearwater, Florida.

CANYON TOWHEE: Raptrlvr watched this bird in his backyard in southwestern New Mexico.

SPOTTED TOWHEE: This bird, a cousin of Eastern Towhee, held still long enough for West Coast Birder to photograph it at Iona Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Bird-Watcher or Bird-Getter?

Chuck Hagner — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:33:00 GMT

In Born-Again Bird-Watcher, a provocative article in our August 2012 issue, Vermont birder Maeve Kim recounts her evolution from a wonder-filled bird-watcher to a joyless bird-getter and describes how she rediscovered what it was about birding that once filled her with joy. It's a great read.

In the issue, we asked readers to tell us about their own birding, about the differences between bird-watching and bird-getting, and whether they regarded themselves as Bird-Watchers or Bird-Getters.

As you can read below, the responses we received were eloquent, passionate, and fascinating. Please join in! Your comments and letters are welcome. -- Chuck Hagner, Editor

Read "Born-Again Bird-Watcher" by Maeve Kim (subscription required).

See the contents of our August issue.

Takes one day at a time
My heart was so very warm as I read the article Born-Again Bird-Watcher. Maeve Kim captured what my husband and I so often feel as we go on our birdwalks. We want it to be like it used to be when we were awed by the first time we saw a Scarlet Tanager. I found myself saddened, just the other day, as I turned my back to the singing scarlet beauty because I was searching for that Hermit Thrush that I hadn't ever gotten to photograph. How sad it was to be that Bird-Getter!

Sometimes I just can't seem to help feeling disappointed... or feeling guilty for feeling disappointed, when only "the usuals" are out. I guess that is because there are so many beautiful birds that we haven't yet seen; we have been birding for only three years.

We love to plan trips just to find some bird that is not native to New Jersey. April we are on our way to South Texas to see the Painted Bunting and other birds that we might never otherwise get to see in New Jersey. I guess that what comes with the excitement of finding new birds is the disappointment of NOT finding them as well. It's a balance that we strive to reach.

I hate the thought of being bored by Scarlet Tanagers or Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. We do chuckle every time we hear those beautiful sounds in the woods, like a symphony of praise to our ears. They never really do bore us; for a moment we only believe they do... but we know better. Perhaps we are recovering Bird-Watchers and only slip occasionally into being Bird-Getters. We take it one day at a time.

Great article! Thanks! -- Lisa and Ben Fassett, Budd Lake, New Jersey

Enjoys old friends
I really enjoyed the article Born-Again Bird-Watcher. I am more of a watcher than a getter also. I enjoy adding names, but I still like to just sit back and observe old friends that come to my feeders or at the local park. Like the writer, I hope I never tire of watching the beautiful birds we are blessed with. Keep up the great work on your magazine. -- Lee Dusing, Winter Haven, Florida

Learns from the best
Yes, I am a twitcher (bird-watcher), as they say in New Zealand. Like Clive Rainey in the article about President Carter (A Life Bird for a President, August 2012, page 24), I began watching/noticing birds as a Habitat for Humanity staff person in the western region of the United States. Although I do keep a life list and began separating out just my Oregon birds last year, I love watching intently whatever bird is near me. I look up behavior when I have time in one of my reference books (recommended in your reviews).

About once a year, we attend a small bird festival somewhere in our state to learn from the best birders. Thankfully, we have an excellent local teacher of birding by ear, Dave Tracy. He annually conducts such a group, free, for the East Cascades Audubon Society, taking us every week during the spring along a stretch of our Deschutes River in one park to hear and see migrants coming through. From March until June, from frigid mornings to warmer ones, Dave also shows us how to be Bird-Watchers, not Bird-Getters. Thanks for asking. -- Annis Henson, Bend, Oregon

Joys of not getting
Slow down, linger, watch, listen, enjoy, learn... I love the messages in Maeve Kim's article on the joys of not getting. -- Don Kroodsma, Hatfield, Massachusetts

Experiencing isn't identifying
Usually I don’t respond to opinions, editorials, or essays in newspapers or magazines, but I took great interest in the essay Born-Again Bird-Watcher by Maeve Kim and felt compelled to respond. I too have found myself in both categories: Bird-Getter and Bird-Watcher. And I agree with most of the points made by the author. Birds like Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are not only beautiful in their own right but fairly easy to identify.

I did, however, find fault in the author's desire “to be the one who identifies it.” In my opinion, unless you have discovered a new bird unknown to any field guides, then you have not identified anything; you have only experienced one of God’s creatures that someone else had given a name to because long ago it had not been given a name. In other words, at the moment a bird is first found and named, it can no longer be said that one can identify it by using one’s own skills because someone has already done that. Maybe it’s just a question of semantics, but I think that what you are actually doing is playing the game of Old Maid (so to speak) by experiencing something in the field and matching it to a picture in a field guide or an image from a field guide in the recesses of your mind.

I guess the same could hold true for those who want to identify solely on the basis of the bird’s song or call. If that song or call is locked into the memory channels of your brain and it can be retrieved to match it up with the correct bird, then you have also just experienced a bird that someone has already identified and recorded on an audio field guide. However you slice it, we are just recreating something that has already been achieved by someone else.

We are, though, experiencing it for ourselves for the first time, and we get the added benefit of not being required to use artistic skills to draw a bird or record the sounds it makes. We can simply bask in the experience and call it a bird that we have seen and or heard.

Being an avid birder, I have met and known quite a few deer hunters who have put down their rifles and taken up the bow. To them, it is a matter of wanting more of a challenge. Maybe it’s the challenge that is part of the basis for Ms. Kim’s do-it-herself attitude, but I don’t think so. I think the author is truly blessed with her life and wants to soak up all the beauty that God has created. Praise God for that!

I do think, however, that tools like the listserv and the iPod are wonderful in that they help us not only to find birds but also to lock in to a bird’s true identity. If you are basing some of the tougher-to-get birds solely on a song from an iPod, then you are not “learning anything,” as the author states. Or are you? I think the more data that one can gather increases bird knowledge, so in this case, more is definitely better. As I always say, repetition breeds knowledge. So I am discouraged with the fact that the author dislikes “luring away” birds by using iPods or by having a slight dislike for the listserv.

I do agree, though, with the fact that the bird-getting can be a huge distraction to life with all of the time spent chasing and feeling the competitive pressure. I know -- I did a Big Year just last year, and it was fun but at times stressful. I have just recently fallen back into the Bird-Watcher category. In fact, as I have been ruminating and writing this article, I had to pause twice. Once was to investigate why a group of Blue Jays were squawking (possible hawk present). The second was just to listen to the sounds of a Common Loon overhead.

Isn’t God awesome! Let’s give Him the praise for not only creating all the birds but also for giving us the tools we need to play this game of Old Maid. Now wouldn’t it be nice if more Bird-Watchers or Bird-Getters for that matter, would commit themselves to being in the true sense of the phrase “born-again"? -- Peter J. Makousky, Anoka, Minnesota

No expectations
Thank you for Maeve Kim's article Born-Again Bird-Watcher.

My husband and I are relatively new to birding (two years). Thinking back to why we started, I realize it was because it was easy -- birds are all around us -- and inexpensive -- all you need is a good pair of binoculars and a guide book. Also, birding provides countless levels of participation. You can watch your backyard birds passively, if that's all you're in the mood for, or you can go on a field trip, become fully engaged in listening and looking, and see what happens.

Half the fun is having no expectations and being thrilled with what Nature presents to you at each opportunity. Life is stressful enough without letting bird-getting turn a wonderful, relaxing hobby into something that becomes totally goal-oriented and competitive. -- Karen Hielsberg, Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Recognition of kinship
I read Maeve Kim's article with a recognition of kinship. I, too, started out as a bird-watcher and now am one again, though mainly because age and infirmity prevent my going afield in search of additions to my life list. I never was a hard-core lister, anyway.

My husband and I started with a feeder at our first home in Columbus, Ohio, and continued when he was transferred to northwest Indiana, where we took a birding class, including field trips, at Indiana University. Another transfer brought us to the Atlanta area, where an Evening at Emory class introduced us to Joe Greenberg, PhD, a great birder, whose class consisted of field trips. Trips to the Georgia coast and Florida panhandle increased my list, and we took several birding tours in Arizona, Texas, and Oregon. Then our group of birders, including Joe, got too old for field trips. Joe died a little before my husband did.

Now I am back to being a Bird-Watcher. I get much pleasure out of seeing parents bringing fledglings to my feeders, and the highlight of spring migration was a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak on the hopper feeder. Over the years, I have landscaped our backyard with birds in mind; the back third of my acre lot is devoted to native plants. The Brown Thrashers, mockingbirds, and robins clean the beauty berries as soon as they ripen, and I entertain a flock of Cedar Waxwings when the Nellie Stevens hollies are in berry.

During the past weeks of drought and record-breaking heat, this 84-year-old woman has struggled to keep five bird baths cleaned and filled, but it has been rewarding to see the birds drinking and bathing. This year, for the first time, two families of catbirds have called my yard home. P.S. I participate in FeederWatch. -- Theda Davis, a Bird-Watcher, Lilburn, Georgia

Keeps list but doesn't count
Many thanks to Maeve Kim for her super article. Birds bring me lots of pleasure, so I'm a Bird-Watcher, but I am always delighted to see a new bird and check it off on my list, the index to one of my favorite birding books. I don't know or care how many birds are on my list. -- Ida Luttrell, Houston, Texas

A watcher always
Definitely a watcher. Always was, always will be. Great article, thanks. -- Ray Denenberg, Silver Spring, Maryland

Nothing wrong with getting
I enjoyed Maeve Kim's essay very much, as it contained information several eastern Massachusetts birder friends and I have discussed over the years. I can't find fault in Ms. Kim's logic; it's just that my situation seems a little different than hers.

I have been bird-watching for 65 years. I have also been an avid bird-getter (within my ability and means) for over 50 years. I am passionate about birds to the extent of sitting and enjoying each little summer family of parents and new ones coming to our feeders, while scanning the evening skies for interesting flyovers. I love looking down from the cliffs of Acadia and seeing the red legs and feet of the Black Guillemots. I'm using this as a metaphorical example of bird-watching, as did Ms. Kim. But at the same time, I wouldn't want to be in that area without checking the inland trails and spruce clumps for Boreal Chickadee, etc., and would feel a disappointment at going back to Massachusetts without seeing one.

To me, the spiritual enjoyment of watching the birds is augmented by the excitement of the chase after rare birds locally or life birds on occasional travels. When traveling, one has to study what to look for where and be prepared to identify an unfamiliar species and view it critically and in context with the new habitat. We who have discussed this realize that bird-getting is addictive and leads to bad habits -- quick IDs, accepting others' IDs in order to tick a species to make the list longer, etc. But it doesn't have to, with a good conscience in place and the desire to WATCH everything new.

I personally do experience disappointment at missing a sought-after species. I'm built that way. I haven't reached the point of not caring about anything beyond my patch, and I don't think I ever will. But I very well appreciate living in a highly migratory spot south of Boston, where there is a substantial variety of local residents, plus an amazing group of migrants that use the area. There is ample opportunity to study the molts and age phases of shorebirds and terns, etc. That is bird-watching also. It is educational and stimulating. And while doing this, vagrants have shown up and sometimes been identified because of the intense watching.

So in summary, I'm of the school of thought that bird-watching is a basic and necessary life style, and there is nothing wrong with being a getter at the same time. -- David T. Brown, North Quincy, Massachusetts

Each bird an individual
I can proudly say that I am a bird-watcher or feather-watcher.

Yes, I've got lists on bits of paper from trips we have taken, but they are stuffed away in books and file folders. No, I do not have a life list, but I imagine that it would be extensive, as I've traveled a lot. Yes, today we drove an hour each way to see the Indigo Bunting on Pine Flat Road in Sonoma County. No, I do not play bird songs to attract birds. I've always been just happy knowing that a certain species is in the area, even if I don't see it.

As for the gentleman who said "Like we haven't seen enough of them already" when referring to the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, our northern California guru birder and all-around wonderful person Rich Stallcup would say, "Ah ha, but have you seen that Rose-breasted Grosbeak?" Remember, each bird is an individual, after all.

Thank you. This was a wonderful article. -- Marcia Johnson, Sebastopol, California

Listing enhances watching
I enjoyed Maeve Kim’s article Born-Again Bird-Watcher but disagree with her characterization of birders as either listers or watchers. Not only is it possible to engage in both activities, they frequently complement each other. Bird listing gets a birder out in the field more frequently. This leads to more opportunities to watch birds. I use eBird, so I have my life, state, county, and year lists automatically maintained. I love those lists and the friendly competition that they encourage.

I also love observing birds in my yard as well as farther afield. I recently went out looking for a Virginia Rail for my county year list. But that didn’t stop me from being thrilled with the Little Blue Heron that I found. I watched the heron for quite a while, observing plumage details and his feeding style. This morning, I observed a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird at my feeder. I wondered how late I usually see males, and because I keep lists, it will be easy to compare the dates for the last sightings from year to year. Lists help you see patterns in migration, a form of observation.

I could go on and on with examples of how the activities of keeping bird lists and watching birds enhance each other for me. Most of my birding friends also keep lists but still find joy in watching the common birds of our area. -- Shelley Rutkin, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Misses the point
I read the article on birdwatching vs. birdgetting in the August issue. I am as far from a Bird-Getter as one can possibly be. I don't even keep a list. I could probably go through a species list and say, "Yes, I've seen that" or "No, I've never seen that," but that would entirely miss the point (for me, anyway.) -- James Smith, Columbus, Ohio

Read "Born-Again Bird-Watcher" by Maeve Kim (subscription required).

Read "A Life Bird for a President" by Phil Hardy.

See the contents of our August issue.

Friday photos: Kingbirds

jkuczynski — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:02:00 GMT

Compare Eastern, Western, Gray, Loggerhead, and Cassin’s Kingbirds in the photos below. You can spot each species in North America, but the Loggerhead is more likely to be found in the Caribbean. The images are from our galleries.

Share your bird photos in our galleries.

View the contents of our August 2012 issue.

See five photos of hummingbirds from around the world.

EASTERN KINGBIRD: Gman79 photographed this bird as it sat along a country road near Albany, Georgia.

WESTERN KINGBIRD: MiaM came upon this yellow-bellied bird in Utah County, Utah.

GRAY KINGBIRD: This bird was chasing its lunch. Hunter58 took the photo.

LOGGERHEAD KINGBIRD: Pedro William heard these two birds fighting in Guajataca State Forest, in the central northwestern part of Puerto Rico.

CASSIN’S KINGBIRD: This bird had just taken flight when RaptorCA snapped this shot at the Hansen Dam in Sylmar, California.

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Film about Central Park and its birders explores birdwatching, 'this deeply human activity'

Matt Mendenhall — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:15:00 GMT

The birds and birders of New York City's Central Park have been described in our magazine and others numerous times. They've been the subjects of great books like Red-Tails in Love, Birds of Central Park, and Central Park in the Dark. And who-knows-how-many blogs and websites are devoted to the topic.

Now, a fantastic new hour-long documentary puts the birds and birders of Central Park on film. Birders: The Central Park Effect will debut on HBO on Monday, July 16, at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Legendary birder and tour leader Victor Emanuel called it "the best film about birding that I have ever seen." I wholeheartedly agree.

Jeffrey Kimball, the film's producer, director, and cinematographer of all its bird and nature footage, provides a few bits of off-screen narration to set the stage. Mostly, he tells the story through interviews with birdwatchers and scientists young and old, famous and not.

He begins in spring, the most exciting time of year to bird the park, then proceeds through summer, autumn, winter, and the following spring. Woven throughout the film are gorgeous images of Great Egret, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Cooper's Hawk, Hooded Merganser, and dozens of other species. (Birders who make lists of birds they see or hear in films will be busy keeping track of all the birds here!) Before I say more, here are shots of a few of the birds from the movie:

Baltimore Oriole

Common Yellowthroat

Cooper's Hawk eating a pigeon. (Amazing closeup!)

Eastern Screech-Owl

Northern Flicker. The video of it singing from a nest hole is gorgeous!

If Kimball had focused simply on the birds, however, he would have had a 10-minute short at most. After all, the reason Central Park is great for birds is simple: when they're migrating, they need a place to eat; Central Park is a big oasis in the urban jungle; and consequently, birds show up. John Fitzpatrick of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Red-Tails in Love author Marie Winn explain that aspect of the story quite well for Kimball.

It is the birders' descriptions of why they bird and what birds mean to them that make the film so enjoyable and heartwarming. They give the movie an emotional anchor not often found in nature documentaries. It's a safe bet that HBO would not have picked up the film had it focused solely on birds.

"HBO is the ideal home for 'The Central Park Effect' and gives us the ability to tell an important story to millions of people," Kimball told Indiewire last spring. "Even though it's set in the middle of New York City, this is a story about people's connection to nature. It's important for us to realize that as the world becomes more urbanized, nature doesn't have to entirely disappear from cities."

The people we meet — and won't soon forget — include:

Jonathan Rosen. The author of the bestseller The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature and other books describes the moment 15 years earlier when he first learned about warblers and that they'd soon be migrating through Central Park. The discovery, he says, changed his life.

"I don't think of it [birding] as a hobby any more than I think of raising my children as a hobby," he tells Kimball. "You're simply embedded in this deeply human activity."

Starr Saphir. She is "the matriarch of Central Park birders," says one regular birdwatcher. Saphir (pronounced "sapphire") leads bird walks four times a week in spring and fall and has been doing so for almost 30 years. Kimball shows her in action, finding birds and pointing them out to others. When she says, "I could keep this up for hundreds of years," it's obvious that she's not joking. Kimball also visits her at home, where she shows him her notebooks in which she records her daily sightings. "I have about 80 notebooks altogether," Saphir says.

She also reveals that she has terminal breast cancer, but it doesn't seem to have slowed her down. If anything, she seems to appreciate birds more. "Looking at birds," she says, "really takes away sadness in a lot of us. Looking at birds takes you out of yourself into the real world." (The Wall Street Journal recently profiled Saphir here.)

Lloyd Spitalnik (above) and David Speiser (right). The photographers and good friends bird the park often. Both have contributed to BirdWatching.

David's photo of a Yellow Warbler was on our June 2012 cover, and we've published several of Lloyd's photos, many of which were shot in the park. When asked if they ever got tired of looking at cardinals, their answer is immediate: "No!"

Lloyd continues: "How could you? Honestly, how could you? If you get tired of looking at the common birds, you might as well just pack it in." Something tells me he and Maeve Kim, author of "Born-again Bird-watcher," are kindred spirits.

Later, David and Lloyd lament the decline in overall numbers of birds that visit the park. Lloyd calls it an "unbelievable decrease."

Chris Cooper. One of the park's regular birders whose enthusiasm for birds is infectious. We watch him calling a fellow birdwatcher on his cell phone to report a Prothonotary Warbler, see him craning his neck to get a view of birds high in the trees, and learn that his friends don't understand his obsession. "They know from experience, from April 15 to Memorial Day, they won't see me… because I'm birding." (Follow Chris on Twitter, where he only reports rarities from Central Park.)

Anya Auerbach. For me, 15-year-old birder Anya is the heart and soul of the movie. She takes her binoculars everywhere (except school), has dreams about birds, and simply loves to watch birds. She's a bright, happy young woman who interrupts herself to call out bird IDs. Perhaps her presence in the film and her zeal for birds will inspire more young people to get outside and explore nature.

Jonathan Franzen. The celebrated author of The Corrections and Freedom (and a board member and spokesperson for the American Bird Conservancy) says he was introduced to birding in the park one spring day years ago. "It was like the trees were hung with ornaments," he recalls. "It was amazing."

He continues: "It was one of the rare times in an adult's life when the world suddenly seems more magical rather than less."

Franzen offers up more gems throughout the film, and while it's tempting to quote them all here, I won't spoil the film for you. Suffice it say, like all of Kimball's subjects, the guy has a way with words. --Matt Mendenhall, Associate Editor

Images from the film courtesy of HBO.

Birders: The Central Park Effect debuts Monday, July 16, at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO and will be replayed 15 more times in the following weeks. It is expected to be released on DVD, but the release date is not yet available.

Read more:

"Birding Central Park" by Geoffrey LeBaron, Birder's World, December 2007

"The Screech-Owls of Central Park" by Robert DeCandido, Birder's World, December 2002

"My Bird Problem" by Jonathan Franzen, an essay published in October 2010 on Oprah.com

Download a two-part brochure on the birds of the park from HBO

New research: Geese react sooner to oncoming planes with lights on

Matt Mendenhall — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 23:00:00 GMT

No, you didn't accidentally land on one of Kalmbach's websites about model planes, trains, or automobiles. The men crouching in the photo above with a remote-controlled airplane are wildlife biologists who may have uncovered a new way to prevent collisions between birds and aircraft. If, like me, you're frustrated that birds invariably end up being blamed for such accidents, you'll want to hear more about their findings.

First, a few introductions: From left in the photo are Steven Lima of Indiana State University, Bradley Blackwell of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center, and Esteban Fernandez-Juricic of Purdue University. Lima studies predator-prey interactions and other aspects of bird behavior; Blackwell focuses on species frequently involved with aviation accidents; and Fernandez-Juricic researches the behavioral and visual ecology of birds and other animals. Their expertise in these related fields of wildlife research are on display in a new paper published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology.

Using remote-controlled planes and 58 captive Canada Geese, the scientists and three other colleagues found that by turning on lights, aircraft can be more visible to birds, giving them more time to get out of the way.

"Birds see so much differently than humans do, so we cannot translate our own perceptual understanding to the problem of birds avoiding aircraft," says Blackwell.

Utilizing knowledge about birds' visual systems, the team tested the response of geese to three radio-controlled aircraft: the first with lights off, the second with lights on, and the third painted to resemble a bird of prey. On one plane, the lights were mounted on the landing gear and pulsed at a frequency of two hertz, a rate "considered safe for civil aviation pilots," the researchers write.

Here's a photo from the grass field where the study was conducted:

You can see a plane flying over four penned geese. Their wings were clipped so they couldn't fly away, but when the airplane approached and flew over the pen, they reacted as if it was a threat: They raised their heads, extended their necks, increased scanning, or crouched. The scientists placed 14 groups of four geese each in the pen to film and record their reactions to the plane. They conducted the study over two days in July 2009 in northwestern Ohio.

They found geese responded 4.2 seconds faster to the threat of an approaching model aircraft when its lights were on than when its lights were off. Also, the response to an aircraft with lights on was 5.6 seconds sooner than to the predator model. "Because Canada Geese will respond to aircraft approach as a potential threat," says Blackwell, "the theory behind how animals respond to predators is very applicable to understanding the response to aircraft approach, and we can enhance this response via lighting."

The research — the first to combine visual sensory ecology with anti-predator behavior — could set the aviation industry on the right track to developing lighting systems that will reduce the rate of bird strikes. It's also notable because most work aimed at preventing bird strikes is centered on airport properties — keeping big birds away from runways and surrounding fields. However, more than 20 percent of all bird-aircraft collisions reported to the FAA Wildlife Strike Database between 1990 and 2010 occurred at altitudes above 2,500 feet. And, according to a 2011 study, the accident rate is increasing faster for incidents occurring above 500 feet in altitude than for incidents at or below 500 feet. In other words, we're doing a pretty good job of keeping birds away from airports; not so much after wheels are up and the plane is climbing.

Consider US Airways Flight 1549, the flight that ended with the so-called "Miracle on the Hudson." The Airbus A320-214 sucked several Canada Geese into its engines about three and a half minutes after takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport at an altitude of 2,818 feet above ground level. (Analysis of the birds' feather remains later found that they were from a migratory population that may have come from the Labrador region of Canada.) Had the plane been lit differently and traveled on its way safely, would Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger have become a household name?

The scientists admit that studying penned birds that sensed a threat from a slow-flying remote-controlled plane isn't the same as what wild birds face from an oncoming 737 doing 180 to 600 mph.

"Nevertheless, our integration of sensory ecology and animal behaviour in an experimental approach can clearly be used to improve the potential effectiveness of aircraft lighting in the context of bird strikes," they write.

Next, the team hopes to expand their understanding of the visual ecology of other bird species commonly struck by aircraft so they can design aircraft lighting that will be seen by a range of species. "This is only the first step," Blackwell says. "As well as lighting, we also want to understand how to manipulate aircraft paint schemes so that birds find them easier to detect. It's exciting work." --Matt Mendenhall, Associate Editor

Photos courtesy USDA National Wildlife Research Center

Canada Geese culled in New York

When talking about birds and airplanes, it can't be us vs. them

Friday photos: Hummingbirds of the world

jkuczynski — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:48:00 GMT

Photographed in Tobago, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Guatemala, the hummingbirds below are great examples of the beautiful birds to be found in Central and South America. We found the photos in our galleries. Enjoy!

Share your bird photos in our galleries.

View the contents of our August 2012 issue.

Read about our readers’ favorite places to see hummingbirds in North America.

See five photos of birds of India.

RUBY-TOPAZ HUMMINGBIRD: RLewis0727 snapped this dazzling image of a hovering male at Adventure Farm near Plymouth, Tobago.

BRONZY HERMIT: JBirds got this close-up of a perched bird on Isla Colon in the Bocas del Toro archipelago in Panama.

LONG-TAILED HERMIT: Lorarend found this bird feeding at the Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica.

SWORD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD: This super long-billed bird was at the Yanacocha Reserve in the Mindo Cloud Forest of Ecuador. Online member PhotosByBen took the photo.

RUFOUS SABREWING: Maxmast caught this bird poking a flower for food at Finca El Pilar in Antigua, Guatemala.

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Friday photos: Birds of India

jkuczynski — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:11:00 GMT

Today’s collection of reader photos comes from our World gallery. They show just a few of the many colorful and exotic birds to be found in a beautiful, faraway country that we’d dearly love to visit someday – India.

Share your bird photos in our galleries.

View the contents of our August 2012 issue.

See five reader photos of Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

SPOTTED OWLET: SriniBirder photographed this owl, a relative of our Burrowing Owl, at Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore.

TAWNY EAGLE: Rishi Khanna snapped this photo, which shows well the tawny coloration that gave the bird its name.

LONG-TAILED BROADBILL: Debapratim Saha found this colorful bird in the Himalayan foothills on the outskirts of the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in Darjeeling.

PAINTED STORK: Bhasmang shot this gentle giant at the Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary in Gujarat.

ORIENTAL WHITE-EYES: Rishi Khanna found not one, but two white-eyes sharing a perch.

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Friday photos: Rose-breasted Grosbeak

jkuczynski — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:13:00 GMT

Which is more beautiful -- the male or female Rose-breasted Grosbeak? Sure, males stand out with their bright red chests, but as you can see in the photos below, females are striking too. We found the pictures in our galleries.

Share your bird photos in our galleries.

See a slideshow featuring photos of Rose-breasted and Black-headed Grosbeaks.

Read a magazine profile of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

View the contents of our August 2012 issue.

See five reader photos of hybrid birds.

ROSIE: This male was visiting a feeder in the Florida backyard of rstrick11 during spring migration.

LOOK: Bill McMullen snapped this shot of a female perched on a moss-covered stump in Prescott-Russell, Ontario, Canada.

FLY! A white-bellied male flashes the red under its outstretched wings. Paddler took the photo.

HUNGRY: Mnoasis33 reports that this female visited the backyard feeder for only a short time.

BEAUTY: A blooming apple tree fills the background of this portrait by Daniel Cadieux.

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Friday photos: Hybrids

jkuczynski — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:41:00 GMT

The birds below are unique; they’re hybrids. That is, they contain the genetic DNA for two different species. Look up each member of each pair in your field guide. See if you can spot the characteristics of each species in the hybrid. The photographs were taken by readers. We found them in our online galleries.

Share your bird photos in our galleries.

Eldon Greij discusses how we decide birds are, and aren’t, new species.

View the contents of our June 2012 issue.

See five reader photos of waxwings.

BLACK-THROATED GREEN x TOWNSEND’S WARBLER: Lorarend photographed this hybrid in Boy Scout Woods at High Island, Texas.

BARROW’S GOLDENEYE x HOODED MERGANSER: This male was discovered in 2006 in Alameda, California. Since then, it has been spotted regularly around the Lake Merritt area in Oakland, California. Mojoedevine snapped the photo.

VIOLET-CROWNED x BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD: Nnitzky found this hybrid at Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona, in February 2009. The bird lives there year-round. You can find it at the feeders.

CINNAMON x GREEN-WINGED TEAL: MiaM came across this fascinating duck in northern Utah.

BREWSTER’S WARBLER: Online member The Scavenger photographed this Blue-winged x Golden-winged Warbler singing the Golden-winged’s song at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in northwestern New Jersey.

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Friday photos: Waxwings

Chuck Hagner — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:05:00 GMT

Smart-looking waxwings typically show up in a flock, descending onto backyard trees en masse, then departing as quickly as they arrived. In the photos below, you can compare Bohemian and Cedar Waxwings. We chose the pictures from our galleries.

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See a great photo of a Cedar Waxwing and read how the photographer got the shot.

See the contents of our June 2012 issue.

See five reader photos of Burrowing Owl.

PAIR: GTPugh found these yellow-bellied Cedar Waxwing in central Virginia.

BANDIT: This gray-bellied Bohemian Waxwing looks like it was returning Daniel Cadieux's glance.

FLOCK: Online member woodwarf lane 1 photographed this flock of Cedar Waxwings in the early morning.

BEAUTY: This handsome Bohemian Waxwing was eyeing a berry in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. May Haga took the photo.

BUDDIES: These Cedar Waxwings are showing off their yellow tail tips. Bobvt photographed the birds near his home in northwest Vermont in May 2012.

Share your photos!

Please share your photos of birds! To do so, you must be registered on www.BirdWatchingDaily.com and have a valid screen name. Register here. After you have registered, choose the gallery in which you want your image to appear. Then click “Upload Image.”

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BirdWatching is now available in a digital format! You can read the magazine on your computer, iPad, and Android tablets and smart phones. Order a digital subscription, a print and digital combination, or add digital to your existing print subscription by calling our Customer Sales & Service Department at (800) 533-6644.

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Layne Kennedy is our Featured Photographer for June

Matt Mendenhall — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:02:00 GMT

Today I have the privilege of introducing you to the work of acclaimed photographer Layne Kennedy. He is our "Featured Photographer" for June.

Layne takes photos of landscapes, mammals, flowers, thunderstorms, the stars, sled dogs, birds, the people of Burning Man -- you name it. He also enjoys making photos with his iPhone and teaching others to do so, as he explained recently on his blog. That's Layne at right with Uusaqqak Henson, grandson of polar explorer Matthew Henson. (Layne was on assignment in Greenland to cover the Polar Inuit people for Smithsonian magazine.)

In 2005, Layne met Editor Chuck Hagner in the Bahamas. Chuck was researching a story for Nature Conservancy magazine about Kirtland's Warblers and the scientists who study them on the island of Eleuthera; Layne shot the photos that accompanied Chuck's article.

In his "Featured Photographer" gallery, Layne presents 12 handpicked photos, each as stunning as the last. The haunting portrait of the Boreal Owl above is among them. Enjoy the gallery, and be sure to click "Full Screen" so you can see the photos big! --Matt Mendenhall, Associate Editor

About our Featured Photographers:
Featured Photographer is a new, fun feature on our website. Every month, we invite one of our favorite photographers to handpick and describe a selection of his or her photos.
>> We started in March with the photos of Marie Read.
>> In April, we presented photos by Brian E. Small.
>> For May, we featured Mia McPherson's photos.
>> This month, we are happy to showcase the work of Layne Kennedy.

Dos and don'ts of summer bird feeding

Chuck Hagner — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:04:00 GMT

This blog post and photo come from Contributing Editor Laura Erickson. Laura's column "Attracting Birds" -- about attracting, feeding, sheltering, and understanding the birds in your backyard -- appears in every issue of BirdWatching magazine.

Read Attracting Birds.

Read more about Laura Erickson.

Feeding birds in summer is a topic fraught with controversy. Some people adamantly oppose it, fearing that birds may grow dependent on us, that summer feeding may hold migratory birds in inappropriate habitat or lure birds to their deaths in window collisions, diseases, or predation by Cooper’s Hawks or outdoor cats. They also feel concerned about baby birds receiving an inappropriate diet at a time when they need protein.

Other birders are equally adamant in defending summer feeding as a mutually beneficial and time-honored tradition, pooh-poohing the risks as no worse than birds face elsewhere.

As with many issues, both sides are partly right. Goldfinches regurgitate a slurry of seeds, and doves produce “pigeon milk” in their crops, but virtually no other feeder birds feed seeds to their young. Our feeder offerings can often supplement the food adult songbirds are getting, keeping their own nutrition level high as they search for insects to feed their young. And summer feeding provides nourishment for our own souls as we watch birds at close range. I’ve taken some of my favorite bird photos at my own feeders in summer. I set out a camouflaged tent-style photo blind and click away to my heart’s content.

But the risks of summer feeding are real. To enjoy its pleasures with a clear conscience requires attention to preventing possible hazards. Here’s what to keep in mind:

* If you see birds that may be sick, close down the feeding station.

* Make sure any windows within about 30 feet of your feeders are visible to birds or have external screening. The American Bird Conservancy now sells special tape to apply in a grid on the outside of windows to make them more visible to birds.

* If any hawks nesting in your neighborhood are hunting in your yard, you may want to close down your feeding station during the time they’re present. If you keep the feeders up, make doubly certain your windows are bird-safe.

* Keep feeders clean, birdseed dry, and hummingbird solution fresh.

Read Laura’s article about feeding hummingbirds.

* Try not to subsidize birds that are already benefitting so much by humans that they’re out of balance with other species. When crowds of House Sparrows, starlings, pigeons, or similar species visit, it is sometimes kindest for your neighborhood birds to close down the station for a couple of days.

* Finally, it’s perfectly okay for adult orioles, catbirds, robins, and other species to enjoy grape jelly now and then. But if you notice them bringing fledglings more than once or twice a day, take in the jelly for a week or so. Growing birds need diets high in proteins, not carbs but, like human children, prefer sweets and may sometimes eat more than is good for them. -- Laura Erickson, Contributing Editor

Laura Erickson writes the column Attracting Birds in every issue of BirdWatching Magazine.

Read her article about feeding hummingbirds.

Read how winter finches give clues that spring is on the way.

Read more about Laura Erickson.

See the contents of our June 2012 issue, on newsstands now.

Friday photos: Burrowing Owl

jkuczynski — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:03:00 GMT

Delightful, football-size Burrowing Owl, shown below, can be found throughout the western half of North America and in Florida. Enjoy the photos! They’re from our galleries.

Submit your photos to our galleries.

Watch a video of a Burrowing Owl guarding its nest.

Read an article about the Burrowing Owl from BirdWatching magazine.

Read about our readers’ favorite places to watch owls.

Our June 2012 issue is now online!

See last Friday’s photo collection: Kingfishers

READY POSITION: Johnson jin photographed this alert owl near the Salton Sea in California.

SPREAD ‘EM: MiaM found this juvenile fluttering its wings in the early-morning light at Antelope Island State Park in Utah.

PEEK-A-BOO: Bradwatson saw this owl near a prairie dog town at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa.

GROUP SHOT: Snooked snapped this photo of four owls at Brian Piccolo Park in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

PROFILE: MiaM took this photo as the sun came up at Antelope Island State Park in Utah.

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Friday photos: Kingfishers

jkuczynski — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:11:00 GMT

You can find Belted Kingfisher across North America, Ringed Kingfisher in South Texas, and Green Kingfisher in southern Texas and southeastern Arizona -- or you can look below! We chose the images from our photo galleries.

Submit your photos to our galleries.

Find out what other birds we’ve featured on our blog.

Discover why the female Belted Kingfisher is more colorful than the male.

Our June 2012 issue is now online!

See last Friday’s photo collection: Flocks

BELTED KINGFISHER: Mike Daley (krzirsh) discovered this female kingfisher perched on a branch over a small lake in Rock Island, Illinois.

BELTED KINGFISHER: This female flew over Cbbortz at Alcoa Marsh in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

RINGED KINGFISHER: This kingfisher is found in the U.S., but Lora Render photographed this male in Costa Rica.

GREEN KINGFISHER: This male was fishing on the San Marcos River in San Marcos, Texas. Gallery contributor tropicbird took its photo.

GREEN KINGFISHER: Lora Render spotted this female Green Kingfisher along the San Marcos River in San Marcos, Texas.

Watch a video of a Black-capped Kingfisher in Thailand banging a crab against a wood post.

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Your memories of nightjars

Chuck Hagner — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:29:00 GMT

In a newsletter mailed in February 2012, we asked readers to share memorable experiences with one or more nightjars -- Common Pauraque, Chuck-will's-widow, Eastern and Mexican Whip-poor-wills, Buff-collared Nightjar, and Common Poorwill. We printed a handful of the responses in the article Finding Nightjars in our June 2012 issue; additional responses are below. Please feel free to write a comment sharing your own nightjar memories! -- Chuck Hagner, Editor

Read the article "Finding Nightjars."

See the contents of our June 2012 issue.

Sign up for our free twice-monthly newsletter.

Chuck-will's-widow
We have at least two Chuck-will's-widow on our property, one on either side of our meadow, and in the early evening they call back and forth across the meadow. They start off softly and get louder and louder, and then they back off again to silence. It's sweet. Thanks for asking! -- Patti McLead, Johnson City, in the Texas Hill Country

Every spring and summer, we hear Chuck-will's-widow calls that are usually on a ranch across our back fence. Once in a while, they are so close that we know they are in the brush on either side of our lot or in our back yard. When hear them from a little distance, the call sounds more like "weird will," but up close, it's obvious where they got the name, as you can hear all the sounds. -- Jim Neely, Dripping Springs, Texas

We live in the Midlands of South Carolina. Our home backs up to a nature reserve with pine trees and leafy deciduous trees. There is flat land with tall weeds and grasses. In the spring at night, we hear the Chuck-will's-widow's distinctive call. It sounds both haunting and serene as we sit on our porch and feel the comfort of nature so close by. -- Maxine, South Carolina

One time, while sneaking about near a cypress swamp in Orlando, I had the good fortune to flush a Chuck-will's-widow from the ground. It landed on a nearby branch, and I did get a photo. -- Sue Wetmore, Brandon, Vermont

This was a common night-time bird song at my lake house on Lake Travis, just west of Austin, Texas. The area is dense with scrub cedar and live oak and a near proximity to water. The "singing" would always occur at dusk and last for at least a couple of hours. -- Kenneth Newell

Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will's-widow
Wanted info about these birds? My only experience of hearing these birds is on the BBS routes I do each year. Their vocals are always welcome because they're sounds I never hear anywhere else! I've never seen either bird. I heard a whip-poor-will one time only one year of probably 15 on a Lamar County route (Vernon, AL). I hear a Chuck-will's-widow every year on a Pickens County route (Carrollton). One year, there was two. Both species were heard at approximately 5:30 am. I wonder if it's like this for other birders? -- Sam Bowman, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Eastern Whip-poor-will
Back in the 1980s, we were camping in the Nicolet National Forest of northern Wisconsin. We apparently shared the campsite with an Eastern Whip-poor-will. Need I say more? We did not sleep well! -- Emily Wilson, Green Bay, Wisconsin

Whip-poor-will
My most memorable experience was sitting in my minute office late at night at the Sharon Audubon Center in Connecticut, when suddenly it began to call outside my window. The habitat was a yard backed by woodland. I never jumped so high! -- Martha Hansen, Fort Davis, Texas

Many years ago, as an advisor to a group of Explorer Scouts, we camped out at the Ashford Scout Reservation, south of Dakota City, Nebraska. It was a beautiful warm night with a full moon, and a whip-poor-will did not cease its monotonous call until 3 am. I can still hear one of the scouts yelling in an un-scouting-like manner: "Shut up, you dang bird!" We were all bleary-eyed when the sun came up and activities were to start! Not a restful night in any sense of the word! -- Ed Sibley, Sioux City, Iowa

I spent my summers at my grandfather's cottage on the Ottawa River (Ontario, Canada) in the 1940s. Life was much simpler then, and children seem to have more freedom. But when the whip-poor-wills could be heard, we knew that we had to head home. Oh, how I missed that sound! Then one night on Jekyll Island, Georgia, a year or two ago, I again heard that sound. I was thrilled. Then, to my surprise, it proved to be the mockingbird singing his many songs... and bringing me so many memories. I will always cherish that sound, no matter what the source. -- Elaine Prebble

For a number or years, I have completed a Breeding Bird Survey in the inter-lake district of Manitoba. I catch a few hours of sleep, then begin the survey at about 4:45 in the morning in late May and early June. I look forward to that survey in part because I consistently hear the whip-poor-will where I park and sleep and then begin my BBS route. At daybreak, I can usually get at glimpse of this amazing bird swooping around for the abundant insects. -- Lewis Cocks

One spring evening, around dusk, a friend and I were at Afton State Park in Minnesota. The park is a mix of woods, mostly deciduous, and prairie. The terrain is hilly, with steep banks leading down to the St. Croix River. I had heard whip-poor-wills there other years and was hoping to hear them again. Their call is such a beautiful and haunting sound. I began imitating their call as I remembered it, much to the amusement of my friend. Success! The whip-poor-will soon began conversing with me, or so I like to think. Another magical moment in nature! -- Mary Kay Lynch

Common Pauraque
We did not see the Common Pauraque but heard it whistle continually at night just a week and one-half ago when we were in western Belize at Chan Chich Lodge in the jungle area with high humidity. -- Bev and Martin Cooper, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Common Poorwill
Before last summer, when I accidentally had come too close to a Common Poorwill nest, the only other time I saw one of these birds was lit up by the beam of a headlight as it sat on the gravel surface of a back road, hunting moths. Living in the dry southern interior of British Columbia, it is always a treat and a bit magical to hear the first spring calls of the poorwill as they gurgle their "poor-WILL, poor-WILL" somewhere off in the darkness. Sometimes they call in flight as they head up to their breeding grounds in the hills along the canyons. While looking for a Common Nighthawk nest one day (for the BC Breeding Bird Atlas), I flushed a bird a few feet away into the nearby bunchgrass. It had been sitting on two eggs under a rock ledge, so I quickly took some photos, then moved on down the trail. The bird never made a sound. I posted the photos to a bird list and, to my surprise, was informed that my "Common Nighthawk" was actually a Common Poorwill, evident by its white eggs and rusty primaries! Even the local expert had never seen one of these nests, so it was a good addition to the Bird Atlas data and proved to me how little I knew about identifying this species. -- Laure Wilson Neish, Penticton, British Columbia

Several years ago, I was leading a hike at Roxborough State Park in Douglas County, Colorado. The hike started at 6 pm and was to end at 8 pm. The group consisted of people mostly interested in seeing the beautiful park with its soaring red rocks and unspoiled open space. The evening walk was cooled by soft breezes, and we expected to see deer or other wildlife. We were about halfway through the hike, approaching a historic ranch house on the property, when we first heard the tantalizing sound. Everyone stopped and listened as it came again and again. Finally, someone asked me what it could be. (The park has elk, coyotes, black bears, and mountain lions along with rattlesnakes, so visitors are sometimes anxious about venturing out). I identified the sounds as a Common Poorwill, a bird active mostly at night and very difficult to see. I suggested we enjoy the sounds and find photos of the bird later. Several people in the group were from out of state, and one corrected me, saying, "Don't you mean whip-poor-will?" I replied, "No, that is an eastern bird. In the west, we have the poorwill." "Never heard of it," he snapped. To this day, I feel that gentleman (and maybe some others in the group) thought I was making it all up. -- Doris Cruze

Read the article "Finding Nightjars."

See the contents of our June 2012 issue.

Sign up for our free twice-monthly newsletter.

Friday photos: Flocks

jkuczynski — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:52:00 GMT

A bird on the wing is beautiful, but many birds on wing can be downright captivating, as the photos below show. We found them in our photo galleries.

Submit your flock photos to our galleries.

Read about the many collections of bird photos we’ve featured on our blog.

Our June 2012 issue is now online!

See last Friday’s photo collection: Common Tern

BARNACLE GEESE: John photographed this flock flying over the water at the Viikki-Vanhankaupunginlahti’s Conservation Area in Helsinki, Finland.

EARED GREBES: Birds as far as your eyes can see! MiaM took this shot looking north from the Antelope Island State Park causeway on the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

SNOW GEESE: This large flock of geese took off near online member cleanin lady. You have to wonder how they keep from flying into each other!

Watch a video of Snow Geese flying from Freezeout Lake in Montana.

WHITE-FACED IBISES: Lois Manowitz saw this flock of ibises arrive at Cochise Lake in Willcox, Arizona.

ALL TOGETHER: MiaM photographed this mixed flock of Brown Pelicans, Black Skimmers, Laughing Gulls, and terns on the Gulf coast of Florida.

Watch a video of Chimney Swifts flying in to roost.

Attention!

We’ll be doing web maintenance on Monday, May 21. Our forums, this blog, and our photo galleries will be unavailable while we work. They will all be up and running again by noon on Tuesday, May 22. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Share your photos!

Visit our photo galleries.

“Like” us on Facebook!

We occasionally choose our Friday Photos subjects by polls conducted on Facebook. Why don’t you join the fun? “Like” us on Facebook.

We’re also available on the Kindle Fire through the Amazon Kindle newsstand and through Barnes & Noble’s Nook newsstand.

Until Sunday, read subscriber-only columns on bird ID by Kenn Kaufman and David Sibley

Chuck Hagner — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:05:00 GMT

Update, May 22, 2012: This story describes an open house that ended on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

We've removed all access restrictions on our website. From now until Sunday, you and everyone else -- non-subscribers as well as subscribers -- can view everything that we've published online, including columns by our bird-ID experts Kenn Kaufman and David Sibley.

Neither needs an introduction, I know.

Kenn is a well-known public speaker, artist, and naturalist, and the author of many popular books about birds and other wildlife, including the recently released Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding. His column ID Tips, featuring the photographs of Brian E. Small, appears in every issue. Read more about Kenn.

David is the well-known author of The Sibley Guide to Trees and the bestselling Sibley Guide to Birds, Sibley's Birding Basics, and Sibley guides to birds of eastern and western North America. His column ID Toolkit has appeared in every issue since December 2007. Read more about David.

We usually reserve "ID Tips" and "ID Toolkit" for subscribers only, but from now until Sunday, you can enjoy both columns even if you're not a subscriber. The reason is simple: We want you to see what our subscribers, including subscribers to our new digital editions, have access to all the time.

Here's what Kenn and David wrote in our last six issues:

Costa's Hummingbird and immature gulls
In our most recent issue, June 2012, Kenn showed how to identify female and immature Costa's Hummingbirds and what to look for to distinguish them from female and immature Anna's and Black-chinned Hummingbirds. David used two paintings of Herring Gull to explain what birdwatchers should look for to identify immature gulls.

Lincoln's Sparrow and drab warblers
In our April 2012 issue, Kenn told what to look for to distinguish Lincoln's Sparrow from Song Sparrow, while David explained what you should look for to identify unobtrusively colored birds. Sibley's paintings of Magnolia Warbler and Orange-crowned Warbler illustrated his column.

Ring-necked Duck and streaked sparrows
In February, Kenn explained how to distinguish female Ring-necked Ducks from similar-looking female Redheads and Greater Scaup. David provided paintings of Lincoln's, Savannah, and Song Sparrows to show how to tell apart similar-looking streaked sparrows.

Pine Siskin and duck's head contours
In our December 2011 issue, Kenn's subject was the Pine Siskin, and how to distinguish it from House Finch and Savannah and other sparrows, while David demonstrated how the contour of a duck's head can vary dramatically from the images shown in most field guides.

Tricky facial feathers and birds around Bosque
In October 2011, David explained how the tiny feathers located between a bird's eye and bill differ from other feathers, and he explained how your line of sight can change how dark or pale the feathers appear. Kenn described species that can be found around New Mexico's Bosque del Apache NWR: Ross's Goose, Townsend's Solitaire, Crissal Thrasher, Sage Sparrow, and "Gray-headed" Dark-eyed Junco.

Sanderlings and identifying birds by their flight style
Referring to photos taken by Brian Small, Kenn in August described what you should look for to recognize the Sanderling throughout the year, while David explained how you can use flight style to identify distant Song Sparrow, House Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Red-winged Blackbird, Belted Kingfisher, and other birds.

It's easy to see why Kenn's and David's columns are such popular parts of the magazine -- and really fun to read during our open house. But they're not the only subscriber-only column that you're able to read. Until Sunday you can also enjoy the following:

Read about the subscriber-only "Hotspots Near You" and feature articles that you can read until Sunday.

And don't forget: Even after our open house ends, there will be lots for you and other visitors to BirdWatchingDaily.com to read. Access to the following sections is always open:

Attracting Birds
Laura Erickson's popular regular column about attracting, feeding, sheltering, and understanding the birds in your backyard. Go to Attracting Birds.

On the Move, compiled by the project leaders of eBird
Photographs of birds that are migrating in North America right now, along with information about when and how they migrate and where you can see them. Go to On the Move.

Birding Briefs
Important news about birds and birdwatching, along with dramatic photos of recent rare-bird sightings. Go to Birding Briefs.

Bookshelf
Descriptions of notable just-published books about birds, along with publication information and links to booksellers. Go to Bookshelf.

Your View
Beautiful photographs of birds taken by BirdWatching readers. Go to Your View.

Getting Started
Info about how to attract and feed birds, identify them, choose binoculars, and make your birdwatching count, along with commonsense answers to questions about grackles, bald birds, baby birds, and bird emergencies. Go to Getting Started.

This blog post is the fifth of five I've written about our online open house:

On Monday I told you about the subscriber-only "Hotspots Near You" and feature articles that you could read this week.

On Tuesday I listed the questions that Julie Craves has expertly answered in her last 10 "Since You Asked" columns.

On Wednesday I recommended the insightful and entertaining columns of Pete Dunne.

And yesterday I encourage you to consider "Amazing Birds" by Founding Editor Eldon Greij.

Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. Write to me! I look forward to hearing from you. --Chuck Hagner, Editor

Find out how you can read BirdWatching on your PC, Mac, iPad, and select Android tablets and smartphones.

During our open house, enjoy access to subscriber-only columns by Eldon Greij

Chuck Hagner — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:45:00 GMT

Update, May 22, 2012: This story describes an open house that ended on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

Welcome to Day 2 of our open house!

You may know by now that we've dropped all access restrictions on our website. From now until Sunday, you and everyone else -- non-subscribers as well as subscribers -- can view everything that we've published online. We've swung our doors open wide because we want you to see what our subscribers, including subscribers to our new digital editions, have access to all the time! Please have a look around.

Where should you start?

On Monday I told you about the subscriber-only "Hotspots Near You" and feature articles that you can read during the open-access period.

On Tuesday I listed the questions that Julie Craves has expertly answered in her last 10 "Since You Asked" columns.

Yesterday I recommended the always wonderfully insightful and entertaining columns of Pete Dunne.

Today I encourage you to consider just how much you'd already know about birds if you were a regular reader of Amazing Birds by Founding Editor Eldon Greij.

Eldon is professor emeritus at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he taught ornithology and ecology for many years. He left academe in 1987 to launch Birder's World (now BirdWatching) and served tirelessly as its publisher and editor. His column appears in every issue. Read more about Eldon.

Like our feature articles and the columns written by Julie and Pete, Eldon's column is usually reserved for subscribers only, but from now until Sunday, you can enjoy it even if you're not a subscriber.

The articles below will give you an idea of what you've been missing:

Sandhill Spectacle
In our December 2010 issue, Eldon wrote about a March trip to Nebraska's Platte River, the annual gathering place for hundreds of thousands of migrating Sandhill Cranes.

Avian Vision
In our February 2011 issue, Eldon described the retina, pecten, orbits, scleral ring, nictitating membrane, and other parts of birds' eyes and explained why the acuity of birds' eyes is at least two or three times greater than that of human eyes.

Watching Behavior
In his April column, he listed 10 intriguing bird behaviors you can observe in your backyard or neighborhood during the breeding season.

Hanging in Air
In June, inspired by a Ring-billed Gull that he observed hovering along the shore of Lake Superior on a windy day, he described the physics behind the bird's remarkable ability to make rapid adjustments to body and wing positions during flight.

Feeling the Heat
In August 2011, Eldon first explained why scientists agree that climate change is real and that an increase in global-warming gases emitted by humans is the reason. Then he described the challenges that the changing climate presents to Kittlitz's Murrelet, Red-breasted Goose, Yellow-billed Loon, Emperor and Adélie Penguins, the waterfowl of North America's Prairie Pothole Region, and other birds.

Audubon the Man
In October, Eldon explained the important roles played in the life of John James Audubon by the artist's father, his stepmother, his wife Lucy, the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Birding Moments
In our last issue of 2011, Eldon described four especially memorable birding experiences: finding Marbled Godwits with a friend after extricating a car from a muddy road, sharing an Eastern Bluebird with a birder whose mobility was limited by Parkinson's, taking a family member on her first birding trip, and sharing a day in the field with a daughter before her wedding.

Pugnacious Dancers
In the February 2012 issue, he wrote about the lobed feet, dense feathers, and other adaptations that enable grebes to live their lives almost entirely on the water.

How Birds Navigate
In April 2012, Eldon described the difference between orientation and navigation, and he explained the mechanisms by which birds interpret light of different wavelengths and changes in Earth's magnetic field to seek out particular destinations.

Texas's Cranes
In June, our most recent issue, he told about the habits, migration, and diet of the endangered Whooping Cranes that breed in Canada and spend the winter largely in Aransas NWR in Texas.

No doubt about it, Eldon's column is one of the most valuable pieces we're making available during our open house. But it's not the only subscriber-only column that you're now able to read. Until Sunday you can also enjoy the following:

Read about the subscriber-only Hotspots Near You and feature articles that you can read during the open-access period.

And don't forget: Even after the open house, there will be lots for you and other visitors to BirdWatchingDaily.com to read. Access to the following sections is always open:

Attracting Birds
Laura Erickson's popular regular column about attracting, feeding, sheltering, and understanding the birds in your backyard. Go to Attracting Birds.

Birding Briefs
Important news about birds and birdwatching, along with dramatic photos of recent rare-bird sightings. Go to Birding Briefs.

Bookshelf
Descriptions of notable just-published books about birds, along with publication information and links to booksellers. Go to Bookshelf.

Your View
Beautiful photographs of birds taken by BirdWatching readers. Go to Your View.

Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. Write to me! I look forward to hearing from you. --Chuck Hagner, Editor

Enjoy open access to our best feature articles this week!

Don't miss "Since You Asked" by Julie Craves.

Why you owe it to yourself to try "Birder at Large" by Pete Dunne.

Read BirdWatching on your PC, Mac, iPad, and select Android tablets and smartphones.

12 subscriber-only columns by Pete Dunne that you can read right now

Chuck Hagner — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:10:00 GMT

Update, May 22, 2012: This story describes an open house that ended on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

C'mon in! The front door is open wide!

From now until Sunday, you'll find no access restrictions anywhere on our website. You and everyone else -- non-subscribers as well as subscribers -- can view everything that we've published.

Everything.

So please make yourself at home. We want you to see what our subscribers, including subscribers to our new digital editions, have access to all the time! Don't delay: Open access will last for only a limited time:

Open access started today. It will end Sunday night, May 20.

Where should you start? On Monday I told you about the subscriber-only "Hotspots Near You" and feature articles that you can read during the open-access period. Yesterday I listed the questions that Julie Craves has expertly answered in her last 10 columns. Today I suggest you sit back and enjoy the wit and wisdom of Pete Dunne.

Pete is vice president for natural history information for the New Jersey Audubon Society, director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, the founder of the World Series of Birding, and the author of many well-known books about birds and birdwatching. His column Birder at Large is a highlight of every issue of bimonthly BirdWatching magazine. Read more about Pete.

We usually reserve Pete's columns for subscribers only, but from now until Sunday, you can enjoy them even if you're not a subscriber (or not a subscriber yet). Here are his last dozen essays; each one, in my opinion, is a gem.

Taken for Granted
In our August 2010 issue, Pete compared the status of the Osprey today, when the bird is so common that it's often taken for granted, to the dismal outlook that prevailed in the DDT-soaked days of the 1960s.

Back to the Source
In the October 2010 issue, Pete wrote about serving as an instructor at the famous Audubon birding camp at Hog Island, Maine, along with Project Puffin founder Stephen Kress, author Scott Weidensaul, and fellow contributing editor Kenn Kaufman.

Then and Now
In December, he described how birding binoculars have changed since the Cape May Bird Observatory conducted its first optics test more than a quarter century ago.

Finding Merit
In February 2011, Pete wrote about the hawk watch at Curry Hammock State Park on Little Crawl Key, Florida, and its official counter, Rafael Antonio Galvez. (Tour leader Mark Hedden also wrote about the hawk watch in October 2008.)

My First Field Guide
In our April 2011 issue, Pete offered a behind-the-scenes look at his incredible birding library and described the first field guide he ever owned: Birds: A Guide to the Most Familiar American Birds by Gabrielson and Zim. Was it your first field guide too?

Why Blue Jays Are Blue
Pete hypothesized about the eye-attracting plumage and disciplined behavior of Blue Jays in our June 2011 issue. "It's amazing, really," he wrote, "the things you can learn about a bird you've known your whole life just by spending time watching."

Miracle Wren
In August 2011, his subject was a Marsh Wren that he found twice: once during a Christmas Bird Count in December and then again in early spring, after it had endured one of the coldest winters in memory.

Touched Twice by a Master's Brush
In October, Pete described two instances when artwork from the famed wildlife painter Louis Agassiz Fuertes fell unexpectedly into his hands.

Ambassadors
In December, Pete related the first time he led a birdwalk (in the third grade, when he was eight or nine), and he explained the important role played by regular morning birdwalks conducted all over North America. "Many, perhaps most, birders," he wrote, "can trace association with the birding community to a walk that exceeded expectations and had them coming back for more."

Raptor Workshop
In February of this year, Pete explained why birdwatchers have always had difficulty telling Sharp-shinned Hawks from Cooper's Hawks, and he gave hawk-watch-tested tips, not for identifying the birds, but for recognizing them.

First Mornings
In April 2012, he described the thrill of seeing the Common (Eurasian) Cranes that gather in Israel's Hula Valley by the tens of thousands each winter.

The Marvel of Robins
In June, our most recent issue, Pete wrote about his personal bond with the ubiquitous and beloved American Robin.

As I mentioned, Pete's column is a real treat. Best of all, it's not the only subscriber-only column that you'll be able to read on BirdWatchingDaily.com as of today. You can also enjoy the following:

Read about the subscriber-only "Hotspots Near You" and feature articles that you can read during the open-access period.

And don't forget: Even after our open-access period, there will be lots for you and other visitors to BirdWatchingDaily.com to read. Access to the following sections is always open:

Attracting Birds
Laura Erickson's popular regular column about attracting, feeding, sheltering, and understanding the birds in your backyard. Go to Attracting Birds.

Birding Briefs
Important news about birds and birdwatching, along with dramatic photos of recent rare-bird sightings. Go to Birding Briefs.

Bookshelf
Descriptions of notable just-published books about birds, along with publication information and links to booksellers. Go to Bookshelf.

Your View
Beautiful photographs of birds (including the Sanderling at right) taken by BirdWatching readers. Go to Your View.

Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. Write to me! I look forward to hearing from you. --Chuck Hagner, Editor

Enjoy open access to our best feature articles this week!

Don't miss "Since You Asked" by Julie Craves.

Read BirdWatching on your PC, Mac, iPad, and select Android tablets and smartphones.

During open-access week, don't miss "Since You Asked" by Julie Craves

Chuck Hagner — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:45:00 GMT

Update, May 22, 2012: This story describes an open house that ended on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

Tomorrow's the day!

That's when we throw open the front door to this website, dropping all access restrictions, so that everyone -- non-subscribers as well as subscribers -- can view everything that we've published.

Don't miss it! As I wrote yesterday, open access will last for a limited time only:

Open access will start tomorrow, Wednesday morning, May 16, and it will end Sunday night, May 20.

This is a great opportunity for you to see what our subscribers, including subscribers to our new digital editions, have access to all the time.

At the top of their list (and ours, too) is Since You Asked, written by Contributing Editor Julie Craves. Julie is supervisor of avian research at the Rouge River Bird Observatory at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a research associate at the university's Environmental Interpretive Center, the author of an important and authoritative blog about coffee and conservation, and a longtime contributor to this magazine. Read more about Julie.

In Since You Asked, she answers your questions about birds. What type of questions, you ask? All kinds, as the following list of her 10 most recent columns shows.

Remember, we usually reserve Julie's columns for subscribers only, but from tomorrow until Sunday, everyone -- non-subscribers as well as subscribers -- can enjoy them.

Insecticides, Blue Jays, eggshells
In our most recent issue (June 2012), Julie answered readers' questions about pesticides and hummingbirds, paint-eating jays, and offering eggshells.

Cowbirds, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Northern Cardinal
In our April issue, she answered questions about how Brown-headed Cowbirds learn that they're cowbirds, where Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks roost in your neighborhood, and why Northern Cardinals tend to show up at feeders in pairs.

Cardinals, herons, and water
In February, she described the best ways to provide water to birds in winter, explained why Northern Cardinals are the last to arrive at backyard feeders, and told how Great Blue Herons survive in cold conditions.

Eye disease, nuts, and caching
In December 2011, readers asked about the status of eye disease in House Finches, whether birds dislike almonds or other nuts, and what chickadees do with the seeds they take from feeders.

Swiftlets and ticks
The subjects of Julie's October 2011 column were bird's-nest soup and the types and effects of ticks that prey upon birds.

Caves, hummingbirds, and rarities
In our August 2011 issue, Julie answered questions about birds that nest in caves, hummingbirds seen hovering near spider's webs, and the authenticity of the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect.

Feeding and spilled seed
In June, she told how to hand-feed birds and explained whether nyjer found beneath feeders is wasted seed or empty hulls.

Banding, bills, and pigments
In April 2011, she fielded questions about the effects of leg bands, whether there's a difference between the terms "bill" and "beak," and how common a black White-winged Dove might be.

Molt, woodpeckers, and orioles
On readers' minds in February 2011 were factors that determine when birds molt, whether woodpeckers commonly visit hummingbird feeders, and why orioles don't ordinarily use feeders in summer and fall.

Owl watching and color morphs
And in December 2010, Julie provided answers to readers' questions about the ethics of watching owls and red and gray screech-owls.

Cardinals, owls, eye disease, orioles, pigments, banding -- I told you Julie answered all sorts of questions! No wonder her column is one of the most popular parts of each issue of BirdWatching magazine!

Best of all, it's not the only subscriber-only column that you'll be able to read starting tomorrow. You'll also be able to enjoy the following:

Read about subscriber-only "Hotspots Near You" and feature articles that you can read during the open-access period.

And don't forget: Even after our open-access period, there will be lots for you and other visitors to BirdWatchingDaily.com to read. Access to the following sections is always open:

Attracting Birds
Laura Erickson's popular regular column about attracting, feeding, sheltering, and understanding the birds in your backyard. Go to Attracting Birds.

Birding Briefs
Important news about birds and birdwatching, along with dramatic photos of recent rare-bird sightings. Go to Birding Briefs.

Bookshelf
Descriptions of notable just-published books about birds, along with publication information and links to booksellers. Go to Bookshelf.

Your View
Beautiful photographs of birds taken by BirdWatching readers. Go to Your View.

Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. Write to me! I look forward to hearing from you. --Chuck Hagner, Editor

Enjoy open access to our best feature articles this week!

Read BirdWatching on a PC, Mac, iPad, and select Android tablets and smartphones.

Enjoy open access to our best feature articles this week!

Chuck Hagner — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Update, May 22, 2012: This story describes an open house that ended on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

I'm happy to announce that, for a limited time, we're throwing open the front door to this website, dropping all access restrictions, so that everyone -- non-subscribers as well as subscribers -- can view everything that we've published. Don't miss it!

Open access will start on Wednesday morning, May 16, and it will end Sunday night, May 20.

This is a great opportunity for you to see what our subscribers, including subscribers to our new digital editions, have access to all the time.

Of course, you and every other visitor to our site have open access to Attracting Birds by Laura Erickson and On the Move, by the project leaders of eBird, all the time. During our Open Week, you'll get to read these additional columns, which we usually reserve for subscribers only:

Since You Asked - by Julie Craves

Birder at Large - by Pete Dunne

Amazing Birds - by Founding Editor Eldon Greij

ID Tips - by Kenn Kaufman

ID Toolkit - by David Sibley

(I'll have much more to say about this magazine's stellar team of contributing editors as the week progresses. Stay tuned!)

What's more, you'll have access to every great birding destination we've described in Hotspots Near You. That's 140 great hotspots and counting! (These, too, are usually reserved for subscribers only.)

And you'll get to read every subscriber-only feature article we've ever published online. The articles below, from our last six issues, are just a sample of what we're making available to you for a limited time:

The Wonder of Wichita Mountains
Contributing Editor Laura Erickson's loving description of the successful decades-long work of population biologist Joe Grzybowski to preserve the endangered Black-capped Vireo at two locations in southwestern Oklahoma. Laura's article appeared in our August 2011 issue.

A Place to Come Back To
An unblinking look back at the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010 and an assessment of the effects of oil and dispersants on resident, wintering, and migratory birds. Published in October 2011, our first issue to appear after the spring migration.

Ultimate Falcon
Written by a wildlife ecologist and lifetime falcon researcher: a fascinating explanation of the hunting styles and winter movements of the world's largest falcon, the Gyrfalcon. We published this article in December 2011.

Precious Gold
A hot-off-the-presses description of what scientists are learning about the Golden Eagles that breed and spend the winter in the eastern half of North America. The big birds migrate annually along Appalachian ridges that are being developed as wind farms. From our February 2012 issue.

Terns in Paradise
Ah, Aruba! Writer Patrick Holian writes about his kayak excursion to a Globally Important Bird Area -- tiny reef islets off the coast of Aruba that are the only place in the world where 10 species of tern gather every year. Published in April.

Finding Nightjars
Nature writer Chris Duke explains where and when to look, what strategies to use, and what to look and listen for to add Common Pauraque, Common Poorwill, Chuck-will's-widow, Buff-collared Nightjar, and Eastern and Western Whip-poor-wills to your life list. The fifth in our popular series of birdfinding articles. From our June issue.

These articles are valuable, they're informative, they're easy and fun to read, and for five days, they're yours to enjoy. Don't miss your chance! Open access starts on Wednesday morning, May 16, and ends Sunday night, May 20.

And please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. Write to me! I look forward to hearing from you. --Chuck Hagner, Editor

Find out how you can read BirdWatching on a PC, Mac, iPad, and select Android tablets and smartphones.

Wild Birds Unlimited offers scholarships to Audubon summer camps

jkuczynski — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:46:00 GMT

The average young person spends more than 53 hours per week connected to electronic media -- more absorbed in the digital world than the natural world -- and Wild Birds Unlimited and the National Audubon Society are taking action.

For the sixth year, Wild Birds Unlimited and Audubon will provide scholarships to under-served children attending National Audubon Society summer camps nationwide. The scholarships allow young people to connect with nature and gain a desire to preserve it for future generations.

Wild Birds Unlimited says the idea to partner with Audubon came from the Richard Louv book Last Child in the Woods. In it, Louv describes the nature-deficit disorder afflicting our nation's all-too-wired youth. "By providing children with an opportunity to experience natural surroundings in these camps, we're building what often becomes a lifelong passion for nature and conservation," says founder and CEO Jim Carpenter.

Wild Birds Unlimited Pathways to Nature for Kids has granted the National Audubon Society $235,000 for scholarships since 2007, helping more than 1,250 kids age 6-17 attend Audubon summer camps. In 2012, $25,000 in scholarships will be awarded. At least 125 underprivileged children will have the opportunity to learn more about the natural environment.

Parents and caregivers can apply now to give their children the opportunity to attend one of these camps. Scholarship eligibility is determined by each Audubon Center. Please help us spread the word! -- Julie Kuczynski, Editorial Associate

Friday photos: Common Tern

jkuczynski — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:51:00 GMT

We love Common Terns. You can find them flying, feeding, tending young, or loafing near lakes and rivers and along coastlines across the continent. The photos below are from our photo galleries. Enjoy the images!

Submit your photos to our galleries.

Read about the many collections of bird photos we’ve featured on our blog.

Our June 2012 issue is now online!

See last Friday’s photo collection: Magnolia Warbler

HIGH FLYING: Bonesaw photographed this angelic-looking tern on an island that is part of the Isles of Shoals archipelago off the coast of Maine.

DIPPING: Jourdaj came across this tern along the shoreline of Mackinac Island, Michigan. It was dipping its bill in the water to feed on a just-hatched mayfly.

MORE FISH! KevinColton found this family on Eastern Egg Island off the coast of Maine. The chicks were calling out to their parent.

STRETCH! This tern was taking time out for a good wing stretch when online member KingFisher snapped a photo.

CAUGHT: Birdchaser took this shot of a tern flying against a pink sky. The bird had just caught a fish.

Share your photos!

Visit our photo galleries.

“Like” us on Facebook!

We occasionally choose our Friday Photos subjects by polls conducted on Facebook. Why don’t you join the fun? “Like” us on Facebook.

We’re also available on the Kindle Fire through the Amazon Kindle newsstand and through Barnes & Noble’s Nook newsstand.