One of the many (many, many…) side effects of becoming a birder is that once you start noticing birds, you start noticing other things with wings. For a growing number of birders, one of those things to catch our fancy is moths. And one of the great things about watching moths is that they become… Read more »
As a writer, editor, and all-around language lover, I am always delighted to come across new words—which happens a lot as I delve deeper into the birding world. Upon receiving a copy of Dr. Michael Kinsey’s Dreams of Zugunruhe, I was eager to jump in and find out what this big word in the title… Read more »
This will be my fifth Father’s Day without my dad, and I’d like to say it gets easier, but that’s not really true. I will never stop missing him with my whole heart, especially on holidays designed to remind me of him. However, I find it’s true what they say about how our loved ones… Read more »
Last winter during our annual Christmas Bird Count in southeastern Ohio, my team of birders visited an old barn known to have roosting barn owls, hoping to add them to our species list. While we did not lay eyes on the owl (darn it, would’ve been a lifer for me!), one of the leaders located… Read more »
My friend Karl, whom some of you may know by his Twitter handle @TheIneptBirder, posted this humorous graphic the other day, and I had to giggle because it’s so true. One minute it’s OMG SO MANY BIRDS ALL THE TIME IT’S SO EXCITING PLEASE DON’T LET IT EVER END! And then it ends. I imagine… Read more »
Like many of you, I’ve been marveling at the number of “pretty birds” coming through our backyards—grosbeaks, orioles, tanagers, and the like. My social media feeds are just full of amazingly colorful pictures! Many times in the past several weeks I have celebrated the timing of this seemingly banner year of bright and beautiful visitors… Read more »
I have several birding apps on my phone, but there is only one that I really use, and I use it almost daily during the spring: the Merlin Bird ID app, produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I sing its praises whenever I get the opportunity, especially to new birders, especially to young birders…. Read more »
Lately my Facebook feed has been chock full of orioles—everyone seems to have them! And not just one, but several orioles… one person reported having a dozen at their feeders this week! Orioles eating oranges, orioles eating grape jelly, even one adorable oriole peering in someone’s window seemingly looking for someone to supply more oranges… Read more »
One of my favorite perks of my job is that I get a fairly steady stream of texts, emails, and DMs asking for help identifying a bird. Most of the time I even know the answer! What tickles me most about this is who is doing the asking—friends from all areas of my life, often… Read more »
Like many of you, the staff at Bird Watcher’s Digest has been spending a lot of time lately in our backyards and local patches keeping an eye on the birds. To keep things interesting, especially as avian activity continues to ramp up with spring migration, we offer a fun twist on your socially distant birding—Bird… Read more »
