Indholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2022 i BirdWatching

CONSERVATION The Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 30 for failing to designate critical habitat for the Eastern Black Rail. The rail needs healthy and intact wetland habitat to survive. PHOTOGRAPHY In July, the National Audubon Society announced the winners of its 13th annual Audubon Photography Awards. The grand prize went to Jack Zhi for this image of White-tailed Kites exchanging prey. Follow, like, and share! FACEBOOK: BirdWatchingMagazine INSTAGRAM: @birdwatchingmagazine TWITTER: @BirdWatchDaily FLICKR: BirdWatching group photo pool…

Birders have speculated for decades that Eastern Meadowlarks in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico may be a distinct species, and now, it’s official. The North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has separated the lilianae and auropectoralis subspecies of Eastern Meadowlark into a new species known as Chihuahuan Meadowlark (Sterna lilianae). The news appears in 63rd supplement to the Check-list of North American Birds published in the journal Ornithology. Chihuahuan Meadowlark breeds from northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, and western Texas (and possibly southeastern Colorado) to northern Sonora and northern Chihuahua in Mexico. And separately, the subspecies auropectoralis breeds in Mexico, in southern Sinaloa and Durango south along the coast to Nayarit and in the interior to Michoacán and México states. The new species winters from…

For decades, birders and ornithologists have lamented lagging sightings of the Evening Grosbeak across its North American range. A study published in June by Oregon State University biologists quantifies the bird’s long decline. In the 1970s, Oregon State’s campus in Corvallis, in the western part of the state, attracted springtime flocks of grosbeaks so vast an OSU statistics professor estimated that 150,000 to 250,000 birds were on campus daily. The new study says numbers of the species at OSU have declined an average of 2.6% per year over the last four decades. From 2013 to 2015, researchers produced a single-day high count of 1,442 birds during 117 surveys on the campus. In total, the researchers counted 8,407 grosbeaks. It’s unknown what’s causing the decline — disease, climate change, shifts in…

OF ALL THE bird-feeding items I write about, none is as controversial as grape jelly. Many people swear by it, especially during oriole migration, but others swear at the very thought of it, saying jelly is unnatural, unhealthy, and addictive. My own opinion is more nuanced. I’ve been setting out jelly at the beginning of May most years since I’ve lived in northern Minnesota. It provides usable carbohydrates right when migrants need that energy boost. Oriole feeders often have places to put small amounts of jelly. I also use an orange-colored plastic cereal bowl into which I put 4 or 5 tablespoon-sized plops of jelly. During the exceptionally cold spring of 2004, when I was feeding at least eight Baltimore Orioles and 20 Cape May Warblers, I had to replenish…

Getting there: Direct flights to San Jose (SJO) are available from many major cities in the U.S. Birding tours are common, or you can easily rent a vehicle to bird on your own (4x4s recommended, as many roads are in poor condition). Where I stayed: Savegre Hotel, www.savegre.com San Gerardo de Dota: This community bordering Los Quetzales National Park, in the mountains south of San Jose, is one of the best places to see Resplendent Quetzals in the country because the birds are in the area year-round. More than 150 bird species have been tallied in the area. The cost for a local birding guide is around $75 for two hours. The area has a few hotels and B&Bs. When to go for quetzals: Quetzal mating season is April and…

OF all the marvels of the living world, few are as astonishing as the annual migrations of birds. The idea that a tiny songbird, weighing less than half an ounce, can travel thousands of miles under its own power year after year is almost too great for the human mind to comprehend. The precise rhythm of these comings and goings has been noted as early as the writing of the Old Testament, when the prophet Jeremiah alluded to the “appointed times” of the “stork in the heavens.” Although humans have long observed that birds appear and reappear at certain times of year, we haven’t always understood how it happens. Aristotle surmised that swallows hibernated in the ground, an idea that would persist into modern times. He also thought that certain…

BINOCULARS AND SPOTTING scopes are fundamental to birding. They have evolved as our hobby has evolved and so, too, has my understanding of their application and limitations. Calling upon my 64 years of experience with optics, I thought I’d share my thoughts about them, which hopefully will mitigate some of the challenges you face today. Here is the truth as I know it: 1. Binoculars are the defining instrument of bird study. Spotting scopes are specialty instruments. 2. Fact: Not all binoculars work for all people. That’s why there are different makes and models. 3. However: There is only one real test of a binocular: You bring them to your eyes; you focus on things quickly and easily. Really! It should be that simple. No formulas, no jargon, no nonsense,…

Author and naturalist Alexander Skutch, who wrote more than 40 books and over 200 papers about birds, described the male Resplendent Quetzal as “a supremely lovely bird; the most beautiful, all things considered, that I have ever seen. He owes his beauty to the intensity and arresting contrast of his coloration, the resplendent sheen and glitter of his plumage, the elegance of his ornamentation, the symmetry of his form, and the noble dignity of his carriage.” Here are a few facts about the remarkable bird. Range: Southern Mexico to western Panama, primarily in the canopy and subcanopy of evergreen montane forests, cloud forests, and thickly vegetated ravines and cliffs. The quetzal is found from 900-3,200 meters elevation (2,950-10,500 feet). Size: Birds are 36-40 cm (14-16 inches) long; the male’s tail…

I am sitting in a large room filled with sharply dressed people laughing and talking animatedly. To my left, education outreach experts conduct photo shoots with a dark-morph Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk. Encircling the room, tables loaded with auction items ranging from enviable birding gear to dream birding getaways await silent bidders. A steady stream of happy people approaches to introduce themselves and talk about birds, books, and birding, making this Yankee feel welcome and giving the room an enthusiasm that is positively palpable. It’s an energy generated not only by folks who have been pent up by COVID for the past two years but also by the cause that brings them together: raising money for one of the country’s most important bird-conservation organizations, Houston Audubon Society (HAS). Regional name, national…

Yampa Valley Crane FestivalSEPTEMBER 1-4Steamboat Springs, Coloradocoloradocranes.org Hummingbird Migration & Nature CelebrationSEPTEMBER 10-11Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, Holly Springs, Mississippistrawberry.audubon.org/hummingbird Audubon Society Of Rhode Island Raptor WeekendSEPTEMBER 10-11Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium, Bristol, Rhode Islandasri.org Puget Sound Bird FestSEPTEMBER 10-11Edmonds, Washingtonpugetsoundbirdfest.org Whooping Crane & Nature FestivalSEPTEMBER 10, 9 AM-3 PMPrinceton, Wisconsinprincetonwi.com/whooping-crane-festival Rockport-Fulton HummerBird CelebrationSEPTEMBER 15-18Rockport, Texasrockport-fulton.org/HB Houston Bird WeekSEPTEMBER 17-24Houston Audubon, Houston, Texashoustonaudubon.org/birdweek Fall Migration FestivalSEPTEMBER 17The Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor, New Jerseywetlandsinstitute.org/events/fall-migration-festival Xtreme Hummingbird XtravaganzaSEPTEMBER 17 AND SEPTEMBER 24Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, Lake Jackson, Texasgcbo.org Festival Des Oiseaux Migrateurs De La Côte-Nord (North Shore Migratory Bird Festival)SEPTEMBER 22-25Observatoire d’oiseaux de Tadoussac, Grandes-Bergeronnes, Quebecfestivalmigrateurs.com/en Hawk Ridge 50th Anniversary & Hawk Weekend FestivalSEPTEMBER 22-25Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve, Duluth, Minnesotahawkridge.org Wings Over Willapa FestivalSEPTEMBER 22-25Willapa National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Long Beach, Washingtonwingsoverwillapa.org Pascagoula…

ONE OF THE top bird-identification challenges in North America is the separation of Downy Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker. These two species are common almost everywhere, and they are regular visitors to backyard bird feeders, where everyone can see them. Their overall appearance is amazingly similar, and the only practical way to identify them is to focus on overall size and bill size, both larger in Hairy Woodpecker. If you are lucky enough to see them together, it’s easy to tell the two species apart because Hairy is unquestionably bigger and more powerful looking. Separately, though, it can be quite hard to determine whether a bird is large or small. The species also have a difference in tail pattern (Downy has small dark spots on its outer tail feathers), but this…

On October 17, 2020, Bobby Harrison was in a canoe on a southern waterway heading back to his car when a large bird flew in front of him, turned, and then flew down the channel and out of his sight. He says he knew immediately that the bird was an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Harrison has been searching southern swamps for the species for more than 20 years, and it was a sighting he had in 2004 with former Living Bird editor Tim Gallagher that set off a large search for the bird led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. That search effort ended in early 2007, and Harrison has continued looking for better evidence on his own ever since. And that’s what he says he obtained with the October 2020 encounter.…

If you’re camping in a forest 50 miles from the nearest coast, seabirds probably aren’t top of mind. But if you’re in the Pacific Northwest, you might be pitching your tent under the hidden nest of an endangered seabird called a Marbled Murrelet. Your trash could be their downfall. Messy campers attract crafty corvids like Common Ravens or Steller’s Jays, which eat murrelet eggs and chicks. An American Bird Conservancy-led initiative launched in Oregon this past summer aims to save murrelets from this fate by asking campers to pick up their crumbs. Marbled Murrelets are enigmatic little black-and-white seabirds that live along North America’s Pacific coast from Alaska to northern California. During the breeding season, they fly inland to lay a single egg hundreds of feet above the ground on…

MY rental 4x4 SUV glided down the narrow dirt road and seemed to keep descending even when I put my foot on the brake. I had read the last nine kilometers were rough (why I’d gotten the 4x4), and it felt as if I was going straight down a mountain cliff. Every few minutes, the straight down also involved a blind corner switchback, and it seemed around every corner was a driver headed up and out of the valley with far more confidence and speed than I had. And many times, there would be almost nowhere for either of us to go — with a rock wall to my right and sheer drop-off on theirs. Each time, I would just stop as far to the side as I could and…

How far would you go to conserve birds? Some scientists and volunteers take it to the extreme, risking bodily harm — whether from cliffs, undertows, frostbite, exhaustion, or armed poachers — and performing feats of athleticism that would make an X-Gamer proud. Obliterating the stereotype of pale and feeble scientists hunched over beakers, these “action-hero” avian protectors thrive in inhospitable places and are often on the front lines of the extinction crisis. (Though this profile focuses on birds, “extreme scientists” work across an array of fields, from deep-sea divers, spelunkers, and hurricane-exploring pilots to researchers who feed lab mosquitoes with their own blood.) “There’s just a ton of cool things that bird people do,” says Justin Hite, field supervisor at the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project in Hawai‘i, adding that,…

To help raise avian awareness, Houston Audubon coordinated the Bird of Houston contest in 2019. Through a series of brackets, thousands of Houston residents voted on the bird they most wanted to represent their city. Out of 60 species, voters pitted Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken against the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the final vote. The night-heron (below) prevailed to become the Bayou City’s official bird representative.…

KEY FIELD MARKS WHAT TO LOOK FOR Medium-sizedsandpiperwithverystocky, heavy-bodied shape, emphasized by short bill and legs. Shortandverythick with blunt, bulbous tip. Mostly black, with yellow at base of lower mandible. Relativelyshortandthick and dull to bright yellow. Mostlydarkduskygrayfor most of the year. Patterned with black stripes and spots, and with reddish-brown scapulars in breeding plumage. Juveniles are a more brownish gray with fine scalloping. Boldwhitestripeacrossdark wings. White rump contrasts with dark gray back and black tail. Surfbird, adult in winter plumage January in Los Angeles County, California BIRDS OF THE sandpiper family are remarkable for their variations in bill shape. Their bills can be short, long, or absurdly long; stout or slender; and straight, upcurved, or downcurved. Bill structure of each species reflects its feeding behavior…