Not really. A recently-published study used high-speed video of hummingbirds hovering in simulated rain to investigate questions of how hard it is to stay airborne while simultaneously getting wet (and heavier) and getting pelted with water drops that must be a significant blow to their 4 gram bodies. The conclusion is that the birds have […]
Is it hard for hummingbirds to hover in the rain? Read More »
Thanks to reader Skip Pothier for sending in these photos. They show a Purple Finch with yellow color instead of red. My first thought was to call it a male that didn’t develop the full red pigment (a similar variant due to poor diet and/or poor health is fairly common in male House Finches) but
A Yellow Purple Finch in Ontario Read More »
With the annual publication of the supplement to the AOU checklist, here is a listing of the changes to names in the Sibley Guide to Birds. There were a lot of other changes announced to names of neotropical birds, which are not discussed here. There were also some big changes in the sequence of species
Name changes of birds in the 2012 AOU supplement Read More »
An interesting study published recently found that cowbirds in bright sunlight were slower to detect predators, and cowbirds in shade were quicker. The study concludes that the delay happens because the cowbirds are slightly disabled by the glare of the bright sun. Could this explain why small birds are hard to find in bright sunny
Birds slow to react to predators because… the sun gets in their eyes Read More »
Here is a photo of a white heron, taken by Constance Mier on the main shoreline of Biscayne Bay National Park, near Miami, Florida, on May 25, 2012. You can see more of Constance’s photos at her webpage: http://cmierphotoandfitness.net/myphotos.html [mtouchquiz 49]
The painting featured here was done during my recent birding workshop at the Pine Butte Guest Ranch in Montana, and is being auctioned to support the great work of Kate Davis’s Raptors of the Rockies program. The auction will run until Sunday evening, June 17th, and can be seen in the sidebar to the right.
The joy of finger-painting Read More »
In the Sibley Guide to Birds I wrote that Western and Clark’s Grebes are “incapable of walking”. I thought they could only push themselves along on their bellies, but I should have known that I was flirting with danger by writing such an absolute statement. Soon after the book was published I heard that they
Western Grebes can walk! Read More »
I’ve just posted a new painting for auction. You can see the auction and closing time in the sidebar to the right. This is a small gouache painting of a singing male Common Yellowthroat, which will be appearing here soon in a blog post about bird song. For more images and more details about the
New art for auction Read More »
After my post a few days ago about the unusual Cattle Egret in Florida, I heard from two people with interesting observations to add. Robert Edgar and Sarah McKenzie sent the photos featured here and said “We photographed a very similar bird on 1 May 1995 at a breeding colony in the Nile Valley, Egypt.It
More unusual Cattle Egrets Read More »
Among the many benefits of paying attention to bird sounds is that they give you an insight into what the birds are doing. Through their songs and calls the birds announce not only their presence, but also what they are doing. One example is the mobbing of predators. Birds give alarm calls when they see
Understanding Alarm Calls of Birds Read More »