Articles Archive
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New Feathers, New Look
When they arrive each spring, displaying color and song and romance, birds are faithful to their given names. Chestnut-sided warblers have chestnut sides. Indigo buntings are indigo. And scarlet tanagers are scarlet. But no more. The summer of songbird love is over. The molt begins.
Most birds gradually replace (molt) some or all of their feathers after the breeding season.… (more)
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Nesting Time
The Bicknell’s thrush looked like a greedy patron at a salad bar. Stuffed into her bill were a crane fly, a moth, a pupa of some kind, and what looked like a caterpillar. But that apparently wasn’t enough food. She returned later and gathered a heaping plate of earthworm.
Yet the thrush wasn’t being greedy at all. Instead, by… (more)
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Fireworks
Most of the time, a male ruby-crowned kinglet is a fraud with feathers. When he appears, neither ruby nor kingly, you may wonder how he got his name. Pale green and gray, small and fleeting, he is among the plainest birds in the woods. You may even turn your binoculars instead toward the warbler or woodpecker. But resist the urge… (more)