Gordon Orians, a writer and science advisor for BirdNote, reflects on how he developed an appreciation of birds and science during his youth. “I think I always had some sort of attraction to birds, and then I started going out bird watching with my dad,” he says. By the time Gordon was in…

As the sun sets off Maui, a pair of Hawaiian Petrels calls. Crow-sized seabirds with long, slender wings, the petrels sit at the mouth of their nest burrow, dug high in the rim of Haleakala volcano. To feed their young, adult petrels glide low over the dark ocean, snatching squid from the…

In 1974, Eurasian Collared-Doves escaped from captivity in the Bahamas and began to breed in the wild. Soon, they colonized southern Florida. They began expanding in a northwesterly direction, and by the year 2000, they had arrived in the Pacific Northwest. They thrive where backyard trees…

Birding guide Harry Fuller describes why national wildlife refuges and observing wildlife there (like these Northern Rough-winged Swallows) are so important. “It’s survival; it’s food; it’s energy; it’s family; it’s the youngsters; it’s the other animals around; it’s observing what’s going…

Beginning in 1911, miners in Great Britain carried a canary in a cage with them down into the mines. Why? Carbon monoxide can build to deadly levels, and it has no smell. If the canary weakened or stopped singing, miners knew to get out of the mine — and quickly. Why use a bird instead of…

Gull-watching is pretty tame along the coasts most of the summer. Many gull species retreat north to nest; a few others nest inland. Along the Atlantic, it’s mostly nesting Herring and Laughing Gulls (like this one) that stick around through summer. On the Pacific Coast, it’s Glaucous…

Strolling at sunset along the ocean beach at California's Morro Bay or Washington's Leadbetter Point, you hear a male Snowy Plover. At Milford Point in Connecticut, you might hear a Piping Plover. Plovers are threatened in much of their coastal ranges. Conservation efforts are afoot on the…

In a garden near the McKenzie River in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, a downpour pummels the landscape. Imagine a Rufous Hummingbird, like this male, out and about, extracting nectar, searching for gnats and aphids. A hummingbird's stamina against the heavy rain is marvelous. Consider this…

Even though it’s been known for many years that birds spit out caterpillars they find repellent, little research has been devoted to birds’ sense of taste. It wasn’t until the 1970s that a scientist found taste buds on the inside of a duck’s bill — more than 400 of them. An experiment with…

While small birds gather feathers and fuzz, an Osprey adds material to its showy nest, high on a tree with a broken top - or maybe on a tower. Take branches three feet long; add sticks, bark, and mats of algae; throw in some flotsam and jetsam, and you have an Osprey's nest. It's…