The only population of Snail Kites in North America is in FL. There are 1,000 birds, up from 10 in 1965. They are listed on the federal & state endangered species lists. Snail Kites are extreme specialists. Armed with a strongly curved bill, purpose built for plucking meat from a shell, their diet is almost […]
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Prothonotary Warblers should be known, in my opinion, as the field mark appropriate, easier to remember & pronounce, Golden Swamp Warbler. This is another example of obscure 18th century conceitful naming. Prothonotaries are papal clerks that wear yellow robes. Yellow being the only common characteristic & certainly not a connection known by common folks, especially […]
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Velociraptor, or at least one of their descendants a Hermit Thrush, visiting our yard. There is consensus among many scientists that today’s birds are dinosaurs. Fossil evidence points to the theropods, a family of three-toed predators that included Velociraptor mongoliensis and Tyrannosaurus rex as the evolutionary lineage. Theropods share hinged ankles, swivel-jointed wrists, wishbones, and […]
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Rusty Blackbirds are the Poster Birds for North America’s declining bird populations. In the last 40 years their populations have declined 75% across their range & plummeted 85-99% in some localities. This is even more rapid than their cousins in the Grasslands category of species that is leading the decline in North American bird populations. […]
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Established in 1931 to protect habitat for migratory birds (and as we now know Monarch Butterflies) in the Big Bend Region of Florida’s Gulf Coast, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is one of the oldest refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Located 25 miles south of Tallahassee and just east of Florida’s Forgotten Coast […]
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Storks are creatures of folklore. As North America’s only native stork, when Europeans arrived, wood storks assumed the role of baby delivery from White Storks. This celebrity status did not protect them. Populations plunged from 20,000 nesting pairs in the 1930s to less than 5,000 pairs by the 1970s. Almost all nesting in the Everglades […]
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“The annual Wings Over Water festival is held each October to celebrate the wildlife and environment of coastal North Carolina. This wildlife festival includes over 90 trips & programs involving birding, paddling, photography, art, and natural history, and helps raise funds for local National Wildlife Refuges.” Ann and I attended the 2022 festival. Even though Ann […]
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In field guides, this species is listed as Swainson’s Thrush, with a note that they are often called Olive-backed. And a case can be made for Salmonberry Bird, at least for the population on the NW coast of the U.S. and the coast of Canada’s Inland Passage. I’m going with Olive-backed because it could be […]
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A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird caught in the act of ‘hawking’.
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Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding on a tiger lily bloom: I say feeding because she could be sipping nectar or eating insects attracted to the nectar. Hummers rely much more insects than it appears because we are spoiled by the sight of them on flowers. 60+%, depending on time of year, of their diet can be […]
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