This story happened near Ciudad Guzman, Mexico. It was about noon on a calm, sunny day in late February, the height of the dry season. Fine powder dust lay inches thick everywhere. Before me was a large, flat corn stubble field; not unusual in Mexico. But what was...
The moment I signed on as a participant in the Alberta Bird Atlas Project, I was no longer just a birdwatcher, content to wait for new species to appear on our acreage. I had become a bird hunter. My life for several weeks each spring was devoted to tracking down as...
One day in late summer a Great Blue Heron came stalking along the edge of the Rideau River. Gradually, he came closer until he arrived at the small spillway we had installed at the edge of our garden. Up he came, passing within a few feet of the two of us who were...
Question: Woodpeckers are pecking holes in my trees. Why are they doing this and will it kill my trees? The bird who is pecking holes in your trees is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a member of the woodpecker family. Whereas most woodpeckers will drill holes in trees,...
Question: There are Barn Swallows nesting on the side of our garage and they dive-bomb me and my husband whenever we go to the garage. Is there anything we can do to prevent this from happening (without harming the birds, of course)? Barn Swallows are fiercely...
Question There is a Robin which keeps banging into one of our windows. Why is it doing this and how do we stop it? Answer Male robins have two main goals in the spring: to attract a mate and to defend its territory. It is this second goal which results in them banging...
Birds are an incredibly diverse animal group. This is reflected in the large differences between some of the species with regards to their breeding biology, as you can see in this short list of facts about bird eggs. Largest egg — laid by the Ostrich, it...
It’s cold outside. Much of North America is in the midst of a deep freeze with the kind of cold that makes you wish you could hide under a large pile of warm blankets. But what do birds do when it gets this cold? Pull out a small pile of warm blankets to hide...
Long, trailing Vee’s of flying ducks and geese are one of the truly enduring images of wild animals. The sight of those wavering V’s crossing the sky means only one of two things: either spring has begun or winter is close at hand. In either case, there is...
The boreal forest in North America is a vast tract of coniferous and mixed coniferous-deciduous forest which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across northern Canada and through Alaska. The Canadian portion alone is approximately 2 million square...
One of the interesting types of data that scientists obtain through bird banding is information on the life span of many bird species. By re-trapping birds or receiving band reports from birdwatchers who find dead birds, scientists can use the database maintained by...
Have you ever tried to describe a group of birds but couldn’t find a more original term that simply “a flock”? Yup, it’s the same tired, old vocabulary used by everyone else. Well, there’s hope for those of you who want to stand out from...
Hollywood is the place where accuracy goes to die. And this is certainly evident with anything related to science or bird biology; neither field gets much respect from the movie-making bigwigs in Tinseltown. The world of birds is certainly no exception as directors,...
Alabama State Bird: Yellowhammer (Northern Flicker) Scientific Name: Colaptes auratus Date Adopted by the State: September 6, 1927 This bird, whose correct name is the Northern Flicker, is member of the woodpecker family. It got its colloquial name from the way it...
Here are some miscellaneous tidbits of trivia about birds. Songs & Calls Most songs sung per unit time: a Red-eyed Vireo, which sang 22,197 songs in the space of 10 hours. Most talkative bird: an African Gray Parrot, who had a vocabulary of 800 words. Greatest...
Collisions between birds and aircraft are a serious concern because of the danger to passengers in the aircraft and to people on the ground below. This concern is increasing as the number of civil aviation aircraft in the world increases, as does the number of airline...
There are all kinds of stories about the effects of birds striking airplanes in the air. Some of these stories have a veneer of truth about them but most often, they are exaggerated and overblown by a public fascinated by the Hollywood version of birds strikes, the...
Some years ago, our family, along with my brother’s family, were building a new cottage on a small lake south of Parry Sound, Ontario. We had the pier foundation put in by a contractor and were busy erecting the log walls on a clear, hot July day. The six...
A pair of Cedar Waxwings built a nest about 5 feet above the ground in a spruce tree adjacent to my workshop at our cottage at Kendleston Beach. It’s located about 50 miles north of Regina, Saskatchewan, on Last Mountain Lake. From the window in the workshop, a...
My older daughter, Marie, and I were hiking along the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park in Washington state one day in early August. We had been enjoying the wildflowers, and assorted birds such as Red-tailed Hawks, Golden Eagles, Gray Jays, Common Ravens,...
