Short posts highlighting a recent subject
Male Hooded Warbler in his preferred habitat of dense understory. In this case north GA rhododendron & mountain laurel along a small creek. Hooded Warblers are bucking the trend of declining populations. Their numbers are actually increasing as they expand their breeding ground range northward into New England & Ontario as average temperatures increase. This […]
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Honestly, this is a clickbait title. I don’t think there is a singular ‘most beautiful’. There is just too much unique beauty spread across all the bird taxonomic families. That being said, for me, Painted Buntings are on the top of the list for songbirds. Well again, in honesty, certainly they earn a place in […]
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A Conservation Success Story In Progress In Oct 2024, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers were downlisted from endangered to threatened status under the Endangered Species Act. It is now April 2025. April is Earth Month. A month set aside to showcase all the days spent conserving, protecting, managing the nature that surrounds us. To showcase, with the 22nd […]
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A pair of Yellow-crowned Night Herons have returned to Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, our neighborhood nature preserve ITP (Inside-the-Perimeter Atlanta). Last year they successfully nested and fledged a juvenile. They appear to be another species whose breeding range seems to be moving north. Range maps shows their northern boundary as the Fall Line, the geological […]
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Cedar Waxwings are notorious frugivores. They have been known to gorge on overripe fruits & berries until they get tipsy & fall out of the tree\shrub. But if there is a hatch of flying bugs, like midges, they can rival flycatchers ‘sallying’ to take the insects on the fly. Especially in the spring when the […]
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Red-headed Woodpeckers are strikingly beautiful birds. They are in trouble. But we can help them in our yards. Their numbers have declined 1% per yr, 54% total, since the mid-1960s. They have made it to the Yellow Watch List “for species that require constant monitoring and long-term assessment to prevent further declines.” What are the […]
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Hermit Thrushes are the only species of the five Catharus family thrushes (brown-backed thrushes, Hermit, Veery, Swainson’s, Gray-cheeked, Bicknell’s) that winters in the US. Their taxonomic cousins migrate on to Central and South America.Hermit Thrushes are hardier and more cold tolerant than their taxonomic cousins. They can also accommodate more berries and fruits in their […]
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Golden-crowned Kinglets are tiny birds, not much bigger than Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, that can withstand extreme cold.Most Golden-crowned Kinglets, breed across Canada. Then they migrate to spend winter across much of the US, including the upper mid-West. Also, there are populations that are year-round residents in higher elevations of the Appalachian Mountains & mountainous West. This […]
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Eastern Bluebird sitting on fence line on the side of a country road in Georgia. Many young birders see a beautiful &, to them, common moment. Some would say iconic. But for me it is indeed beautiful (& photogenic) moment but it’s a special sighting for a different reason. Growing up in the 1960-70s as […]
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