Lark Buntings are migratory sparrows that live in grasslands from south central Canada to the northern plateaus of Mexico. For most of the year, the buntings are brown, white and streaky. They spend the winter traveling in large, nomadic flocks in search of seeds and insects. But as spring…

If you’ve already done things around the home with birds in mind, consider one more action that might be less obvious. Turning the thermostat down a degree or two in the colder months and up a degree in the warmer months might seem more about personal preference or energy bills than birds…

Osprey are birds of prey with a wingspan more than 5 feet across. These large raptors construct huge stick nests that get up to 6 feet wide and 12 feet tall! While the Ospreys only occupy the upper portions of this structure, other birds have been observed taking up residence in the nooks…

During migration, some birds change orientation and travel almost the same distance — but in the opposite direction — as the rest of their species. The phenomenon is called misorientation. First-year birds are particularly susceptible. Many vagrant birds never find their way back on course…

Black-and-white Warblers are tiny songbirds that breed in North America’s deciduous forests and winter as far south as Colombia. They feast on insects gleaned from leaves or plucked from cracks in tree bark. You’ll often find them clinging to tree trunks or the undersides of thick branches…

We often think of birds migrating south in the fall. But many species kick off their big trips surprisingly early in the year. Shorebirds nesting in the Arctic tundra are an extreme example. Birds like the American Golden-Plover have a small window of time to build a nest, find a mate, and…

Every good investigator knows to stay vigilant for suspicious behavior. But not every unfamiliar bird is caw-se for alarm. In this episode of BirdNoir, Private Eye Michael Stein reveals that there’s more to a crow than meets the eye.

Owls are magnificent animals that share our cities with us, and live in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. They range in size from huge, like the Blakiston’s Fish-Owl of Eastern Asia, to the songbird-sized Elf Owl, weighing less than half a deck of cards. Owls play key roles…

White-winged Doves are common throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and North America’s Desert Southwest. Like the closely related Mourning Doves, they primarily eat seeds and grains. But in the Sonoran Desert, White-winged Doves time their migration to sync up with the Saguaros’…

At midday, it might seem like the birds that were so active in the morning have gone silent, maybe even vanished. But cormorants rally in the afternoon, offering a second chance to see and hear them. During the breeding season, Double-crested Cormorants have two peaks of fishing activity…