Prothonotary Warblers, aka Golden Swamp Warblers to us southerners, like these photographed in Bocas del Toro, Panama 11/01-02/24, are starting to head back to the swamps of the Southeast & waterways of the mid-west. They have been ‘wintering’ during the rainy season (our fall & winter months) in the tropical rainforests and mangroves of Central […]
Read More
Great Blue Herons’ plumage patterns, especially along their long necks, are a form of ‘disruptive coloration’: Distinctive designs such as stripes and\or spots that break up the animal’s outline. For some species this is more critical than ‘concealing coloration’ because they live in a variety of habitats with a variety of background colors making it […]
Read More
I joined Jared Lloyd, founder of PhotoWild Workshops, and five other photographers in Panama the last week of November and first week of December 2024. We participated in Jared’s Wildlife of Panama workshop. This post is about the first in-country destination, Bocas del Toro archipelago, and the workshop education content and in-the-wild hands-on practice. I […]
Read More
Gray Catbirds can’t pass up ripe fall berries. In this case native American Beautyberry berries. Gray Catbirds are not alone. Birds, especially migrants, use the high fat & nutrient content of berries they co-evolved with. These nutrients help resident species prepare for winter. They also aid migratory species successfully make their trips back to tropical […]
Read More
Barred Owls are busy in the fall. They start or renew pair bonds and reclaim nesting sites. Young adults build new nesting sites. All this activity is hard to miss because there is a lot of communication between pairs and between young interlopers. It is the hooting season. This is all in preparation for an […]
Read More
Swainson’s Thrushes, aka Olive-backed Thrushes, hopefully Olive-backed replaces Swainson’s in the coming removal of eponymous English names by the American Ornithological Society (AOS). It is easy to miss Olive-backed Thrushes in their deep-forest, forest floor haunts until they sing. Like their forest thrush taxonomic cousins they have a flutelike upward-spiraling ethereal song.But even then you […]
Read More
Female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds seem to never stop feeding, even for simple body functions. But of course, what goes in has to go out. This is especially true for hummers. Hummingbirds are unique ‘peeers’ in the bird world. Every day, hummingbirds ingest their body weight + in nectar. That nectar is 75 – 80% water. To […]
Read More
This Veery is a forest thrush & Yard-Lifer for our urban yard deep in metro-Atlanta. Veeries are long-distance migrants. They spend the summer in the forests of Canada & northern U.S. (& a few at the highest elevations of the southern Appalachian Mts) & winter in central and southern Brazil. To make this trip, they […]
Read More
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds’ tongues are not simple straws. They are shapeshifting, liquid trapping and transport, nectar pumping devices. The tongue’s tip is forked and can spread and close. There are two grooves in each tip that expand when the tips are open and flattened. The grooves compress and create tube-like structures when the tongue is retracted […]
Read More
There are barred owl behaviors that suggest they have a ‘loving’ relationship with their partners. This statement of anthropomorphism makes scientists squeamish and adamantly remind us we can’t decipher what the owls are really thinking or ‘feeling’. But to be fair, they struggle to scientifically establish their own feelings: “Love may be defined as an […]
Read More