Category Archives: Bird News

When you’re trying to study a group of animals that number into the billions, it’s hard to do it without the help of the average citizen. Luckily, this year the regular person stepped up to the plate for ornithologists and contributed in astounding numbers to the record-breaking Great Backyard Bird Count of 2012. The results [...]

Although you would think renewable energy sources like wind energy are amenable to birds and wildlife, the two have been at odds for a while. Like most controversial issues, different studies show different results, but anywhere between 100,000 and 440,000 birds die each year as the result of collisions with wind turbines (the 440,000 number [...]

The Northern Spotted Owl, a medium-sized owl with big expressive eyes, is a near-threatened species that’s well-known for causing controversy around the logging industry for contributing to a loss of jobs. Now, in another effort to reverse the decline in spotted owl populations, the government is causing controversy within the conservationism community. To help save [...]

Meet the Northern Wheatear, an insect-eating bird about 6 inches long that weighs less than an ounce. On the outside, it looks like any ordinary beautiful bird, but when you delve deeper, this is one of most hardcore travelers on the planet. According to the BBC, this little bird travels from the Arctic to sub-Saharan [...]

St. Valentine’s Day gets a lot of criticism for being a manufactured holiday that’s designed by corporations to get people to spend money. While businesses might pump up the holiday a bit, there’s actually an interesting origin story for the modern interpretation that’s associated with birds. For centuries, St. Valentine’s Day was just a day [...]

There are many birds you’re sure you are never going to see at your backyard bird feeder. For example, you probably never expect to see a Sri Lankan Frogmouth in your yard or a Frigatebird eating at your tube feeder. However, sometimes you could be surprised at what you might find. That’s exactly what happened [...]

Right before the sun sets over one Kentucky town, the sky turns black, but not for the reasons you’d expect. The sky actually turns black from thousands of black birds, mostly European Starlings, flying in huge murmurations. While large flocks of birds are not unusual, it can be pretty intimidating for anyone to see this [...]

The Snowy Owl, a beautifully majestic bird that’s only occasionally seen in the United States every few years, is swooping into the country in large numbers. This is a nice treat for enthusiastic birders who have yet to cross the Snowy Owl off their life list because the birds have been spotted across the country [...]

The next time someone calls you birdbrained, you should happily take that as a compliment because scientists have made yet another discovery that further indicates the intelligence of birds. I’m sure if you’ve watched birds in your backyard, you know just how smart they can be when searching for food or constructing elaborate nests. However, [...]

I have very fond memories of going to Almansor Park in California with my mom when I was a small boy to give bread to the ducks and geese. Knowing what I know now about some of the consequences of feeding geese bread, I would have probably fed them something else or nothing at all. [...]