While people tend to consider penguins in terms of black and white, every once in a while one of these dapper divers drops the tuxedo for something along the lines of a summer seersucker… White Chinstrap Penguin © David Stephens, Lindblad Expeditions Used with permission Guests and expedition staff aboard Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Explorer were [...]

My name is Nate.  And I keep county lists. I realize that this admission tars me as the most obsessive and compulsive among a community of obsessive-compulsives.  I realize that listing is a reviled in birding culture as it is celebrated, and more listing even more so, but hear me out here.  I mean to [...]

It’s a mixed bag for our most charismatic of North American waders this week.  While the ultralight aircraft leading a flock of young Whooping Cranes to Florida may again take to the skies, that good news is tempered by the effects of the drought in Texas, which has already led to the death of at [...]

The family Picathartidae consists of two very unusual birds; White-necked or Yellow-headed Picathartes, endemic to the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa; and Gray-necked or Red-headed, restricted to Lower Guinea forests of Central Africa. Their strange appearance and habit of communally nesting in rock overhangs and caves has given them their alternative name of rockfowl, [...]

Researchers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama conducting a two-year study focusing on the diets of Tiger Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico have made an alarming discovery: not only are these sharks eating the expected fish and other assorted marine organisms, but they’re also eating land-based songbirds! ABC reports that the sharks are [...]

Most birders, including the American Ornithologists’ Union, accept Kumlien’s Gull as a subspecies of Iceland Gull. Others say that Kumlien’s Gull is a subspecies of Thayer’s Gull.  Still others say that Thayer’s Gull, Iceland Gull, and Kumlien’s Gull are all a single species and we all are kidding ourselves by pretending otherwise. What the heck is going [...]

Just two weekends into 2012, I already love this year. No doubt the weather has something to do with it; Rochester, NY may historically be one of the United States’ snowiest metropolitan areas, but we’ve been basking in almost vernal weather. Plus my New York Football Giants just advanced in the first round of the NFL playoffs. [...]

As of today, 8 January 2012, the Mountain Bluebirds in New York’s Suffolk County and Ontario’s Wellington County are both being seen. Both have stuck it out for awhile now and neither shows any signs of moving on, odd for birds that, from what I understand, tend to stick for a brief time when they [...]

Here’s hoping they get off the ground again soon!

It had to happen eventually! We have all been waiting for the rain to arrive and it seems to be later this Wet Season. The frogs must have been wondering what was going on, but now they are happy. It’s not “rain” here until we get over 10mm in a downpour, which has now officially happened [...]

The evocatively named Lake Panic is overlooked by a thatched, rustic style hide in one of the most delicious settings that a birder is ever likely to encounter. The bird life of Kruger National Park appears to be distilled into a small area surrounding the hide and they seem oblivious to the observers with their battery [...]

I got word of the Grace’s Warbler a bit late in the game. This is no one’s fault but my own; had I partied a bit less hearty on New Year’s Eve, I would have stuck with my original plan of going birding on January 1, which in turn would have led me to check [...]