Birder's World Field of View
|
At the risk of giving credibility to a possible hoax, here's what we know about the latest report of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker sighting. If Daniel Rainsong has photos of a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker, as this press release claims , he has not yet shown them to two leading Ivory-bill experts. Van Remsen , curator of birds at Louisiana State University's Museum of Natural Science and an adjunct professor of biological sciences at LSU, told...
|
|
In our June 2008 issue, Jeffrey Wells, senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative , visiting fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology , and author of Birder's Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk , wrote an article about why the Endangered Species List doesn't come close to describing the status of all of America's birds. "Because listing under the [Endangered Species Act] is a policy process, not a scientific...
|
|
Our February 2010 issue, the first of the new year, is now on newsstands. I think you'll like it. Here are six solid reasons why: David Allen Sibley tells how head patterns match up with five feather groups on common backyard birds -- Black-capped Chickadee, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Downy Woodpecker, and Blue Jay. Kenn Kaufman explains why voice is the most reliable way to separate Oak Titmouse and Juniper Titmouse, western birds...
|
|
Here's a photo that grabbed our attention. An American Coot attacks a young chick and prepares to kill it. Bruce Lyon , professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California Santa Cruz, shot the photo during the course of a research project that found that the coot's reproductive life is full of deception and violence. Coots have evolved remarkable cognitive abilities that allow them to thwart other coots that lay eggs...
|
|
Contributions from two organizations have tripled the amount of a reward offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who shot and killed a Whooping Crane near Cayuga, Indiana. Defenders of Wildlife , a national non-profit conservation organization, and the Indiana Turn in a Poacher or a Polluter Program are each donating $2,500 to the reward for information that leads...
|
|
We have our second winner in our Readers' Favorites Survey ! In our December 2009 issue, we asked you to tell us your favorite places in the United States and Canada to see warblers, and as you did when we requested locations to watch eagles , you came through. Big time. Many, many thanks for taking the time to share your expertise, and thank you for your comments. Once again, your responses will help us paint a colorful, useful portrait of birdwatching...
|
|
For the cover of our December 2009 issue, we knew we wanted a shot of a winter finch -- one of a handful of hardy northern songbirds that wander unpredictably each year -- but we didn't know which one. We would have been happy with a Pine Grosbeak, White-winged Crossbill, or Purple Finch, but when we saw Marie Read's beautiful, engaging photo of a Common Redpoll, we knew we had our bird. Read is a talented nature photographer from Ithaca,...
|
|
After all the bad news about Whooping Cranes and their human caretakers — the shooting death of an adult female , the vandalism at the Operation Migration hangar , and the recent crash-landing of the top-cover Cessna in a farm field in southern Illinois — it's time for a bit of good news. The TD Friends of the Environment Foundation , a Canadian organization that funds local environmental projects, has announced that it is donating $15,000 to...
|
|
Matt, Julie, and I got some very good news this week: BirdersWorld.com received a 2009 silver Eddie Award for excellence in online editorial from Folio magazine. The Eddie and Ozzie Awards, conducted annually, are the largest awards competition in magazine publishing. The Ozzies recognize excellence in magazine design. The Eddies recognize editorial excellence. We couldn't be happier. See a list of all 2009 Eddie Award winners. As I'm sure...
|
|
A seven-year-old Whooping Crane — the only successful breeding female from the eastern migratory population — was shot and killed in western Indiana, near the town of Cayuga in central Vermillion County, officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the International Crane Foundation said today. The crane, known as 17-02, and her mate, 11-02, hatched two chicks in summer 2006 and one in summer 2009 at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central...
|
|
BirdsEye , a new app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, is being released today. It will show you the locations of bird sightings in your area -- as soon as they're posted to eBird . BirdsEye pairs reports from eBird with photos from VIREO , audio from Cornell's Macaulay Library , and text from Contributing Editor Kenn Kaufman (right). Read my description of the BirdsEye app. If you have iTunes on your computer, here's how to find BirdsEye...
|
|
In a recent article in Birder's World about birding with the iPhone (“In the know, all the time,” October 2009), writer Laura Kammermeier reported on an app that was still in development that taps into the bird sightings on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's popular eBird site. The app, BirdsEye , allows users to locate birds, find nearby birding hotspots, and keep track of their life list. Developers had expected to release the app in August...
|
|
December 9, 2009: Whooping Crane shot, reward offered Joe Duff, co-founder and lead pilot of Operation Migration , said today that the hangar used by the pilots and crew in Necedah, Wisconsin, has been vandalized, and many of its contents were destroyed or stolen. (I shot this photo of one of the parked ultralights from inside the hangar during the media tour that I led to Necedah last month.) A member of the Whooping Crane tracking team discovered...
|
|
There's more to enjoy during the FREE open-access weekend on BirdersWorld.com ! All the great features that normally are available only to registered users of BirdersWorld.com or Birder's World magazine subscribers are available to everyone. For free.What a great opportunity to find out what you've been missing! I wrote earlier about five of my favorite columns by Founding Editor Eldon Greij and then about five favorites from Julie Craves...
|
|
All the great features that normally are available only to registered users of BirdersWorld.com or Birder's World magazine subscribers became available to everyone today at noon Central. For free. What a great opportunity to find out what you've been missing! I wrote earlier about five of my favorite columns by Founding Editor Eldon Greij . Now I want to share five of my favorites from Julie Craves . Julie is the supervisor of avian research...
|
|
Receive news, birding event information, watching tips, and more from Birder's World's free e-mail newsletter.
|