Los zarapitos pico largo ( Numenius americanus) son las aves playeras más grandes de América del Norte. En su ritual de cortejo, el macho vuela trazando una serie de arcos en el cielo mientras emite sus llamados. Fuera de la temporada de reproducción, se posan y buscan alimento en parvadas…

When a pair of Western Grebes decides it’s time to mate, they call loudly and approach one another. Each bird curves, then straightens, its long neck gracefully. They then face each other, necks on the water’s surface, their bills flipping up drops of water. If attraction prevails, they…

The Mississippi Kite is one of America's most elegant raptors. These dove-gray birds spend the summer hunting over plains and woodlands in the southern United States. They often nest colonially — unusual for hawks — with a half-dozen pairs in sight of one another in a grove of tall trees…

Helmeted Guineafowl are known for moving in frantic flocks, often running and squawking about. In their native range – from Senegal to South Africa – these chicken-sized birds are favored prey of wild cats and Martial Eagles, so they need to be alert! Because they’re also spooked by…

¿Por qué los tordos son negros? Una posible respuesta es que el negro destaca sobre casi cualquier fondo en la naturaleza. Los tordos – como esta bandada de tordos sargento ( Agelaius phoeniceus) y tordos cabeza amarilla ( Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) – se alimentan en el suelo. Cuando…

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge was set aside to protect the fabled Okefenokee Swamp of Georgia and Florida. Tall cypress trees and Spanish moss give the swamp a prehistoric appearance. The Prothonotary Warbler is one of the most striking of the swamp’s denizens. Having wintered in…

The Yellow-billed Cuckoo, one of two species of cuckoos in North America, lives in broadleaf forests throughout the East and riparian stands in the Southwest. Cuckoos were common breeding birds in the Pacific Northwest as late as the 1920s, but then they disappeared. The Black-billed…

Most bird species in North America mate for a single breeding season. Some may team up again the following year, just because both stay in - or return to - the same territory. Fewer than one-fifth of Song Sparrow pairs are reunited. Hawks, eagles, and ravens have wide territories, thus few…

A century of logging and fire control has taken its toll on the mature pine forests of the West, the preferred nest site for this Lewis's Woodpecker. But there is hope. Lewis's Woodpeckers also nest along rivers in large cottonwoods, trees of little value for timber. Also, many remaining…

Sapsuckers drill small holes in the bark of favored trees, then return again and again to eat the sap that flows out. And hummingbirds, kinglets, and warblers come to the sap wells to eat the insects trapped in the sap. Although a sapsucker, like the Red-breasted Sapsucker pictured above…