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...
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...
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!
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...
With outstretched wings, a male Buff-breasted Sandpiper tilts its bill upward and does the "shake". Several females scrutinize his dance in their search for the best male to father their young. Nearby, other males dance at their mating posts hoping to attract female attention.
One constellation most people can recognize is the Big Dipper. Did you know that the two stars farthest from the handle of the Big Dipper point toward the Little Dipper, and that the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper is the North Star? Did you also know that the North Star is the star...
Like a centurion standing guard, the Cedar Waxwing strikes a commanding pose with its natty garb and erect profile. It's very name, Bombycilla , speaks of well-kempt fashion. "Bombux" or "bombukos" comes from the Greek root for "silk". The "cilla" comes from Modern Latin, and (mistakenly by...
In the cool mist of a waterfall, several black arrows dart back and forth to the recesses behind the falls. Behind this veil of cascading water in the damp moss-laden cliffs, hidden and safe from predators, are nests of the northern subspecies (borealis) of the Black Swift. Restricted to the...
Rice bird, meadow-wink, skunk blackbird, reed bird, butter bird—these various names for the member of the blackbird family most commonly known as the bobolink reflect the diversity of ways in which humans have looked upon this gregarious songbird.
The bobolink has been the source of inspiration...
Bottomland forest on a hot June day. Dark and murky. Quiet except for the buzz of a million mosquitoes and the sounds of occasional splashes and bubbles in the tea-stained water.
Suddenly, a flash of golden-yellow darts across the background of muted greens and browns. The bird lands, throws back...
When we think about birds migrating to the tropics, we often focus on nearby areas such as Mexico and the Caribbean. However, each fall, millions of songbirds migrate from North America to their wintering areas in the northern Andes of South America.
