Category Archives: Birds

Birding the Western Ghats in Southwest India

Posted on November 5, 2016 by

The Western Ghats! A hottest hot diversity site recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and known also poetically as Sahyadri. The trick is how to penetrate this land of elephants and tigers, past the pot-holed roads and shrines. … Continue reading →

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Birding as a world citizen: ten tips

Posted on October 31, 2016 by

My favorite way to bird is related to the slow food movement: stay local, stay focused, and stay appreciative. So how can I keep to my principles when I bird in places as far away as the Western Ghats in … Continue reading →

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Birding from Lisbon, Portugal

Posted on July 22, 2015 by

Bernardo Barreto picked us up in his dark Ford at 7:30 from the Hotel Berna. We drove northeast out of Lisbon, crossing the Tagus on what might be called the third bridge, upstream from the 25 April bridge, half closed … Continue reading →

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Mexican-Ecuadoran secrets of the tufted jay, Cyanocorax dickeyi

Posted on August 13, 2014 by

Don’t you wonder why birds are where they are? Have you been on one of those guided birding trips where you hop in and out of the van spending ten minutes here, or five minutes there, to see the most … Continue reading →

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Scissor-tailed flycatchers at Mount Doom in Missouri

Posted on May 26, 2013 by

Scissor-tailed flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus) are highly uncommon in Missouri, but there is a pair nesting right by Mount Doom and yesterday we saw them flying in the distance, against the rocky nuclear waste site. The bird guides do not put … Continue reading →

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Birding the California coast at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara

Posted on February 19, 2013 by

Walk the same route over and over so you can get to know the common birds for that place     and notice the rarer ones. Here is a walk I took for three weeks while working at the Kavli Institute … Continue reading →

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Bald eagle swoops in for the kill – and misses

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

Currents of shore birds lifted above the Brazoria National Wildlife marshes on a cold February day. Thousands of sandpipers, dowitchers, yellowlegs, stilts, and ducks fled the hunting bald eagle. A blue-winged teal flew across the marsh, now high, then low, … Continue reading →

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