BirdNote Daily

Trumpeter Swans weigh over 25 pounds and measure about five feet from beak to tail. They were nearly hunted to extinction by the turn of the twentieth century. In Arkansas, a small flock of Trumpeter…

In some parts of North America, Sandhill Cranes are common as ants at a picnic. In New England, on the other hand, they’ve been almost as rare as pterodactyls — until relatively recently! Birders beg…

Do you ever see flocks of birds in your yard that show up in droves one year, but are completely absent the next? Some nomadic species such as Pine Siskins move based on the availability of food and …

Roads can get people where they need to go. But they often run right through wildlife habitat, creating a deadly hazard for animals on the move. Liz Hilllard, who’s the Senior Wildlife Biologist for …

Brown-backed Solitaires are ordinary-looking: medium-sized, gray-brown birds. But they have one of the most melodic, complex songs in the world, ringing out year-round in high-altitude forests from M…

Look for the stories birds tell with their tracks in the snow. A crow swaggers, leaving right-and-left steps much as a walking human would. Juncos under a birdfeeder leave a hopping pattern of tiny f…

In this BirdNoir mystery, the private eye fields a call from a woman who says a large bird that looks like a Bald Eagle stole a Rainbow Trout from her pond. Through a process of elimination, the dete…

The emphatic hoots of a pair of Barred Owls resonate in the still of a winter's night. Like many owls, Barred Owls initiate their vocal courtship in winter. And they're among the most vocal. These ow…

The Wandering Tattler is one of the few birds equally at home along the coast and high in the mountains. They’re found far and wide along Pacific shores, living up to their “wandering” name and gaini…

Bluebirds can bring flashes of azure color and mellow songs to where you live. The best way to bring them close to home is with nest boxes. You’ll need an untreated wood box with a one-and-a-half inc…

Most baby birds are adorable little floofs — but not all of them. The tongue and palate of estrildid finch chicks are strangely spotted and ringed. They display these markings while they beg for food…

In 2018, paleontologist Daniel Field took a closer look at specimens from an amateur fossil collector. His team used micro-CT scanning, kind of like a high-energy CAT scan, to visualize the encased f…

Any hobby or special interest has its own jargon. You’ll pick up on the silly slang that birders use as you go – like calling the Yellow-rumped Warbler “butterbutt.” Still, learning a few basics of b…

Great Horned Owls excel at nocturnal hunting, thanks to their acute senses and stealth — but their feet let them secure squirming prey. The outermost of their four toes can rotate forward or backward…

Razorbills, a cousin to the puffin, nest in colonies on cliffs. Before they lay eggs, Razorbills take part in two unique social behaviors. In one, the Razorbills swim round and round in a tight mass,…

Red-bellied Woodpeckers are bold, conspicuous, and vocal, thriving in rural and urban areas east of the Mississippi. Like most woodpeckers, Red-bellieds eat lots of insects. But they also like nuts, …

The group of birds called “songbirds” — the perching birds — is incredibly broad. Half the world’s 10,000 birds are in the songbird group, and their range of body sizes is mind-boggling. One of the s…

Blackbird songs have a strange music. The Red-winged Blackbird can be heard in nearly every marsh on the continent — bold, brassy, and piercing. The songs may not seem musical, but they definitely ge…

Whistling as they fly, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks are gorgeous waterfowl with bright pink bills and legs, chestnut necks and backs, and black underparts. Though most whistling-ducks live in the tr…

It's winter, and apples litter the ground. A few still hang, frozen and thawed again and again. Suddenly a flock of hundreds of birds rises from the ground beneath the trees, swarming in tight format…