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Birding for a Cause: Breeding Bird Atlases Need Your Help this Summer

If you’re ready to hit the road this summer, consider putting your birding skills to work for a great cause. Breeding bird atlases are heavily reliant on volunteer effort, and there are several occurring in North America right now that need your help!

New Challenge for Birders

Atlasing adds a new element to birding beyond [read more…]

The ABA-Leica Subadult Wheatears Ride Again; Here’s How to Help!

Each March, teams from around the world assemble in the Negev Desert of Israel for one of the world’s greatest birding competitions: a big day to see as many species of possible in 24 hours within the confines of Southern Israel. This epic game– fittingly named Champions of the Flyway– will take the players from [read more…]

Open Mic: A Better and Simpler Way to Record Bird Sounds with Smartphones

At the Mic: Kathi Borgmann

Ted Floyd, in his recent article in the Birder’s Guide to Gear, said it best—recording birds with your smartphone is awesome! The ability to record bird sounds with your smartphone opens doors that were at one time only dared by skilled recordists. And not only that, and as Ted points [read more…]

Open Mic: Diving Back into Birding at Sarapiqui

At the Mic: Jen Hajj, Specialty Group Travel Consultant at Holbrook Travel

Last November, I took my first birding trip to Costa Rica. I had been there before, long ago, with a college group. The academic trip was an introduction to the different regions and wildlife of the area, but it wasn’t a birding trip. [read more…]

ICYMI: Open Mic: A Veterinarian’s Perspective on the Feral Cat Issue

Issues concerning feral cat colonies and their impacts on local bird populations have been a hot topic of late. Birder, Veterinarian, and ABA member Brian Monk offers his thoughts. [read more…]

ICYMI: Open Mic: The Question of East Coast Pelagic Boundaries

When birders and state Bird Records Committees speak of a “state list” or a “first state record” – they are referring to bird species that have been recorded within a state’s official legal boundaries, as determined by U.S. law and court decisions. Whether on land or at sea, the legal borders of a state (or county or city) and its waters *must* be used in determining where a bird record is assigned. Otherwise it’s not truly a “state list” in any real / official capacity. [read more…]

Open Mic: Once Upon an Endling

At the Mic: Kate Garchinsky

I was 39 years old when I first learned the extinction story of the Carolina Parakeet.

I had been volunteering in wild bird care at Tri-State Bird Rescue in Newark, Delaware. Every day I spent there, I learned of another threat humans impose on birds. Car collisions, window [read more…]

Open Mic: On Being a Hatch Year Birder

At the Mic: Jeff Kietzmann

I am not sure how I ended up on Cottonwood Pass, at the continental divide, 12,126 feet above sea level, in the dead of winter, before sunrise, searching for a white bird in a snowy white landscape and freezing my Florida feet off at 9 degrees Fahrenheit; but there I [read more…]

ICYMI: Open Mic: A New Field Mark for Differentiating Stints and Peeps

Artist Catherine Hamilton draws attention to a field mark for differentiating dark-legged Old World stints and New World peeps that hasn’t been illustrated in any field guide to date. [read more…]

Open Mic: Idaho’s Humbanders and Their Discoveries

At the Mic: Elise Faike

In the early 2000s, Stacy Jon Peterson and Fred Bassett arrived in Idaho within a week of each other and started banding hummingbirds. With several assistants, they explored Idaho’s hummingbird inhabitants throughout the state. I first met them when Stacy accepted an invitation to visit my home in Challis in [read more…]