Innehållsförteckning för January/February 2023 från BirdWatching

CONSERVATION A conservation organization has purchased 432 acres of land in the Dominican Republic that will considerably expand a nature reserve and safeguard habitats for the vulnerable Bicknell’s Thrush and a variety of endemic species. AVOID THIS SCAM Some BirdWatching customers recently received bogus renewal notices from a company called PMB Pacific Magazine Billing LLC. Read how to avoid falling for this scam in the “News & Features” section of our site. Subscribe to our newsletter: birdwatchingdaily.com/newsletter Become a member of BirdWatching: birdwatchingdaily.com/memberships Enter our current contest: birdwatchingdaily.com/photo-contests Follow, like, and share! FACEBOOK: BirdWatchingMagazine INSTAGRAM: @birdwatchingmagazine TWITTER: @BirdWatchDaily FLICKR: BirdWatching group photo pool…

A new species of owl was described recently from Príncipe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in Central Africa. The newly recognized owl is now officially known as the Príncipe Scops-Owl, or Otus bikegila. “Otus” refers to a group of scops-owls found across Eurasia and Africa, while the species epithet “bikegila” was chosen in homage to Ceciliano do Bom Jesus, nicknamed Bikegila — a former parrot harvester from Príncipe Island and now a ranger at its natural park. “The discovery of the Príncipe Scops-Owl was only possible thanks to the local knowledge shared by Bikegila and by his unflinching efforts to solve this long-time mystery,” said the researchers who formally described the bird. “As such, the name is also meant as an acknowledgment to all…

Highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza (HPAI) swept across North America beginning in late 2021 and continuing throughout 2022. The strains have infected wild birds, backyard flocks, commercial poultry facilities, and wild mammals. In response, commercial poultry companies culled millions of chickens and turkeys, and federal agencies kept tabs on wild birds by testing dead birds, gamebirds killed by hunters, and live birds that were sampled via USDA’s National Wildlife Disease Program. The data show 108 species of wild birds that have been infected with bird flu in the United States. They include 50 species with three or fewer recorded cases, but several species had between 15 and nearly 500 cases. The USDA database of infected wild birds totaled 3,375 cases through October 28, but it clearly doesn’t account for…

GIVEN NO ENCUMBRANCES, somebody else’s expense account, and perhaps a private jet, I have summarized here the birding locations I would wrap into my perfect birding year. It’s not a Big Year but an itinerary tailored to engage the birding spectacles of the continent, starting with Newburyport, Massachusetts, on January 1. Yes, it’s cold, but species like Little Gull, Snowy Owl, Great Cormorant, Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, and white-winged gulls (i.e., Iceland and Glaucous) are cold-weather birds, and Newburyport is where you find them. The chowder is pretty darn fine, too. What kind of chowder? You jest! Then, to thaw out later in the month, I’d probably head for southern Florida, home to birds of a semi-tropical flavor, and perhaps tuck in a winter pelagic trip out of New Jersey…

THREE SAD, SWEET whistles in a descending pattern — oh, dear, me — make up the simple song of the Golden-crowned Sparrow. It’s a common voice of summer in Alaska and northwestern Canada, and it’s also heard from wintering flocks all along the western edge of the continent. The Golden-crowned Sparrow is a bird of the West — or, to be precise, the far West. Its breeding range encompasses most of Alaska and the westernmost provinces of Canada, and its normal wintering range extends from southern British Columbia south through Washington, Oregon, and California into northern Baja California. Even just a little farther east, such as in Arizona or Utah, it’s only a scarce visitor. This distributional pattern is not matched by any other bird. Like the White-crowned Sparrow, which…

GREAT HORNED OWLS Danielle Rockett of Ottawa, Ontario, captured second place with this image of a Great Horned Owl and its young owlet in their nest. “Every year, in late December, a pair of Great Horned Owls come to a park where I often go birding,” Danielle says. “They always use the same nest. I spent two hours gawking at them as they guarded three lovely, furry little chicks. While still in the nest, the mother owl would tear food into small pieces and feed it to the owlets. This photo shows one of the owlets with mom after a feeding. Their look was so intense, it seemed as though the owlet was telling mom, ‘Thank you for the lovely meal.’” Danielle used a Nikon D7500 with a Tamron 150-600mm…

The Pale-headed Brushfinch was rediscovered in west-central Ecuador almost 25 years ago — following three decades without a record of the species. The expedition that found this “lost” bird was spearheaded by Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco with American Bird Conservancy (ABC) support. Unfortunately, at the time, the species numbered only about 15 pairs. And as far as anyone knew, the Pale-headed Brushfinch only occurred on about 60 acres — an area the size of one or two U.S. high school campuses. Jocotoco and ABC immediately began conservation efforts by acquiring, protecting, then improving habitat for the brushfinch. Over the past few decades, the bird’s story has become a shining example of how, even in a small area, a species can be saved from extinction by following clear-headed strategy based on…

It was a clear day, but at nearly 12,000 feet, the crisp air steadily permeated my layers, and snow crept into my hiking boots, advancing toward my already-numb toes. I continued climbing up a snow-soaked slope at Guanella Pass in Colorado, leaving postholes as I progressed incrementally toward a level spot from where I could methodically scan my surroundings. Guanella Pass rises 3,000 feet above the town of Georgetown in north-central Colorado. In late November, the landscape around the pass was already in the grip of winter — gleaming snow blanketed the slopes, icicles hung from gray cliffs, and snow-drenched spruce trees were visible far below. I was looking for ptarmigan, small grouse with an odd common name. Derived from a Scottish Gaelic word, ptarmigan means “croaker” because of the…

BALD EAGLE Stan Bysshe of Marshall, Virginia, took third place with this dramatic photo of a Bald Eagle in a snowstorm in Alaska. “Winter weather on the Kachemak Bay, Alaska, can change in a minute,” Stan explains. “On this February windy, gray morning, the weather turned into a sudden snow squall. When photographing birds in flight in low light, I often think of panning. The blowing snow was a challenge to keep off the lens front element, and it took many shots at 20 fps just to get one with the head in focus. Luckily, there were several eagles flying to and from a driftwood perch on the beach behind the inn where I was staying. So, while bad weather canceled our scheduled shoot, I had a chance to try…

Evening Grosbeaks Evening Grosbeaks are expected to move south in good numbers into southern Canada and the northern United States this winter, according to the Finch Research Network’s “Winter Finch Forecast.” As if on cue, in late October, a group of the birds turned up on Marie Read’s property near Ithaca, New York. Read created a pleasing setting for photos, using a moss-covered log from her woods that she set on a makeshift plywood table next to a sunflower seed feeder. She placed colorful leaves in the background and moved a photo blind into position. “One morning, a single Evening Grosbeak briefly visited the feeder,” Read says. “Next morning, there were 12 grosbeaks! I spread some seeds on the log and sat in the blind with my gear on a…

Godwit sets endurance record A 4-month-old Bar-tailed Godwit known as B6 set a new world record by completing a nonstop 11-day migration of 8,425 miles (13,558 km) from Alaska to Tasmania, Australia. This trip represents the longest documented nonstop flight by any animal. A team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Max Planck Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a study to track the migration of juvenile (hatch-year) Bar-tailed Godwits from breeding sites near Nome, Alaska. The study was established to better understand how the birds navigate their first migrations from Alaska to wintering sites. The work is part of a larger effort to understand the locations and times of the year where godwits face the greatest threats. A different Bar-tailed Godwit, known as 4BBRW,…

In June 2020, Stephen Gosser, a self-described “diehard birder,” was out in the woods of western Pennsylvania when he thought he heard the song of a Scarlet Tanager. The blood-red bird with black wings and tail is a favorite among birders for both its beauty and rarity, as the birds prefer to stay hidden high in the forest canopy. When Gosser finally located the songbird, he saw what appeared to be a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, but it sounded just like a Scarlet Tanager. He took some photos and called for backup — a team from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh arrived soon after to catch the bird and obtain a blood sample. To follow up on Gosser’s tip, a team of researchers led by Penn State University was able to use…

ONE OF THE great pleasures of winter is listening for drumming woodpeckers. Their loud tattoos ringing out on a frigid, otherwise silent northern landscape fill me with hope that winter will eventually come to an end even as I marvel at the adaptations that allow these splendid birds to slam their faces into solid wood. Natural selection would obviously favor physiological and morphological modifications protecting woodpeckers from concussions and long-term brain damage. But natural selection must also favor adaptations making their percussive pecks as loud as possible and their hammering as powerful as possible to dig out insects deep in the wood and excavate nesting and roosting cavities. The need for both protection and power would seem to be diametrically opposed. Traditionally, people have been more focused on understanding adaptations…

Ptarmigan are hardy grouse of Arctic and mountainous regions and spend nearly their entire lives above tree line, occurring on high latitude or alpine tundra. Only three species exist worldwide, and all of their ranges overlap in Alaska. In winter and early spring, all three species can occur side by side, and the Chugach Mountains outside of Anchorage are a great place to see the entire set. In case you’re lucky enough to see two or all three species in one area, here’s how to tell them apart. First, keep in mind that White-tailed Ptarmigan is smaller than Rock Ptarmigan, which, in turn, is smaller than Willow Ptarmigan. From October to April, all three species are almost entirely white. Willow and Rock have black outer tail feathers, which White-tailed does not.…

What if you could listen to the birds in your backyard 24 hours a day? I can’t do it. But the Haikubox can. I recently purchased the device and a required subscription. Think of it as a tool that will enhance your enjoyment of birding. Technically, it is a selective, sensitive microphone mounted inside a weather-resistant container. The Haikubox requires AC power, Wi-Fi, and internet access. It connects to a powerful neural network that suggests identifications for the birds it hears. Users can see and hear the results via an app or the Haikubox website. Haikubox uses BirdNET as its backbone and has some proprietary processing. The quieter the location you can find for the box, the better it will do. Mine is mounted on the back of my house.…

ONE OF THE challenges of understanding the color patterns of birds is that we only see the tips of their feathers, and feathers are flexible. This means that longer feathers on the body can move around a lot relative to their neighbors, and the color patterns formed by the tips of the feathers can change depending on where the feathers go. We see this a lot in the streaked patterns on the breast and flanks of many species. These feathers are particularly long and flexible, and the dark streaks on the tips of the feathers end up forming irregular wavy lines rather than consistent neat and even streaks. Shorter and stiffer feathers — for example, around the face and on the wings — move a lot less and form much…

GILDED FLICKER AND EUROPEAN STARLING Jim Burns of Scottsdale, Arizona, won first place with this remarkable photo of a fight between a Gilded Flicker and a European Starling. He took the photo at Tonto National Forest in Maricopa County, Arizona, on April 19, 2021. “Earlier in the spring, I had discovered a pair of Gilded Flickers excavating a nesting cavity near the top of a Giant Saguaro,” Jim explains. “As spring progressed, buds appeared at the top of the cactus, and I realized when it flowered it would be attracting other birds to the pollen and insects on the blossoms. I anticipated, correctly, that the flickers would never tolerate other birds feeding literally on their ‘roof,’ and I was able to spend several weeks photographing the often-spectacular aerial battles undertaken…