This species is well named for its blue-gray head that contrasts with white 'spectacles' yellow sides, white wing bars, a greenish back and white belly and throat. However appropriate the name, birders may find the process of naming this vireo confusing. It is clearly the victim of changing...
When birdwatchers list their most beautiful birds, the Swamp Sparrow is seldom, if ever, mentioned. In the world of ornithological aesthetics, sparrows get short shrift. They do not possess the vibrant and gaudy colors of a warbler, tanager, or toucan. However, some bird aficionados tire of spectral...
Like a sumo wrestler, the rufous hummingbird must rapidly gain weight and keep it on, despite extraordinary physical exertion. Weighing in at a little more than a penny, it must double its body weight in order to fuel its migration from breeding grounds in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska to northern...
Un ave migratoria Neotropical es un ave que se reproduce en los Estados Unidos y el Canadá durante el verano, generalmente entre mayo y septiembre, y que pasa el resto del año en México, Centroamérica, Suramérica o las islas del Caribe.
Volar proporciona la mayor movilidad y ha hecho posible la evolución de la migración aérea como un medio para aprovechar los recursos alimenticios distantes y evitar la tensión fisiológica asociada al clima frío.
Varias especies de insectos, entre ellas ...experimentan ciclos vitales durante los cuales las poblaciones de cada especie se mantienen reducidas por varios años y luego son seguidas de explosiones o erupciones poblacionales.
En medio de un ambiente cada vez más alterado y reducido, tanto en Norteamé-rica como en la América Latina, las aves migratorias han hallado un santuario en un entorno semejante al de los bosques en las plantaciones de café tradicionales.
A Neotropical migratory bird is a bird that breeds in Canada and the United States during our summer and spends our winter in Mexico, Central America, South America or the Caribbean islands.
The Turkey Vultures could be seen circling overhead from miles away and the smell was so strong it made your eyes tear. Pulling into the dump in Negril, Jamaica wasn't my idea of a fun way to spend a morning doing bird research in the West Indies, but it turned out to be a easy way to observe...
I commonly experience the Worm-eating Warbler in two ways. During the winter, walking through the tropical forest in Belize, I hear a soft rustling through the drone of cicadas. Whipping around to place my binoculars to my eyes, I glimpse a warbler hanging head down from a leaf draped from a small...
Not many raptors can match the buoyancy, ease and grace with which Mississippi kites conquer the sky. During their brief courtship period, the kites' aerial displays to their prospective mates are a sight to behold. Throughout the year, they occupy much of their time in flight during which they...
One might know the Summer Tanager by its alias, the "beebird." Due to its diet of bees, it is a well-known pest around apiaries and is persecuted by beekeepers. Primarily insectivorous, this tanager is considered a bee and wasp specialist, although it eats a wide variety of flying and non-flying...
This tiny tern once was considered the perfect size to adorn ladies' hats during the late 1800s. Least terns were collected by the thousands from the Atlantic coast for this decorative purpose, only to frighteningly diminish their numbers. Although the hunting of least terns has been outlawed, today...
Practically all of the birds have arrived from their migration and spring is in full swing when the eastern wood-pewee decides to grace us with its presence.
Those of you who have suffered from "warbler neck" may well have acquired this common birding malaise while attempting to find our Bird of the Month, high in the top of a spruce or hemlock tree. But as patient birders know, that pain in the neck can certainly yield rich rewards with even a glimpse...
Out on the range, in the sage and pine lives the Great Basin's indomitable, spirited Empidonax, the Gray Flycatcher. The subject of much confusion in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, this enigmatic, little gray bird was hopelessly misunderstood by ornithologists. It looks very similar to the...
Standing on a hilltop in central Panama in October, you might suddenly notice that the midday sky has gone dark. Sure, clouds have rolled in as usual during the rainy season, but this dark cloud takes on a different shape—the shape of thousands of birds! Hawks, on their annual migration are flying...
Over the quiet murmur of a woodland stream and the subtle whisper of breezes through the leaves of tall trees, the rich, liquid song of a Wood Thrush resonates through the morning air.
The largest of the nine swallow species that breed in North America north of Mexico, the purple martin (Progne subis) maintains a geographic range that swoops from the western to the central provinces of Canada, dives across the equator, and glides into the South American continent east of the...
The word pesticide is a catch-all term for chemicals that kill or control anything that humans have deemed to be a pest. A danger inherent to the use of synthetic poisons is that once the chemicals are released into the environment, they may harm unintended victims and have unanticipated effects.
January winds in Nantucket are wicked, a ferocious combination of arctic cold and New England dampness. Downtown streets and rural woods are nearly empty—tourists and birds alike having fled for warmer climes. The island is hospitable only to the large, heavy-coated northerners, like eiders and...
The appearance and behavior of Swainson's Hawk is much like its close North American relatives; Red-tailed ( Buteo jamaicensis), Broad-winged ( Buteo platypterus), White-tailed ( Buteo albicaudatus), Short-tailed ( Buteo brachyurus), and Ferruginous ( Buteo regalis) Hawks. Although its overall...
