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Peeps
I spent an afternoon on the Conejohela Flats on the Susquehanna River yesterday. The water behind the dam was amazingly low, resulting in acres of mud. This benefited the birds by giving them more foraging habitat but made it a bit more difficult to get close looks at the birds. Least Sandpipers and Dunlin outnumbered [...]
Anna’s Hummingbird chirps with its tail
There is a story on BBCNews.com currently reporting on the finding that Anna’s Hummingbirds chirp with their tail. Using high speed video, some researchers were able to see the male’s tail feathers vibrating during their display flights. These display flights are exceptional because they can reach 50 mph in a dive to impress nearby females [...]
The fickle females of the bird world
A recent paper published at nature.com revealed how fickle the female Lark Buntings are when it comes to picking a mate each spring. It is generally thought that females of most bird species select their partner based on a few traits that lead to that trait being exaggerated in the male. A good example of [...]
New citizen science project to add to your schedule
This past February, the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) initiated the Winter Raptor Survey, a volunteer effort to determine winter abundances of raptors. The purpose according to the association’s website “is to get birders/raptor enthusiasts out in the field during the winter looking for diurnal raptors, and to provide those surveyors with a [...]
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