Birds in Focus

Two wings and a prayer will carry a blackpoll warbler on a remarkable journey to South America this autumn. Well, two wings, a prayer, and the energy packed into a scoop of Ben &…

The northern cardinal, crimson and crested, is an avian icon, one of the most recognizable birds on the continent. But the rosebreasted grosbeak is also a cardinal. So is the scarlet tanager.…

Songbirds pouring from the skies before dawn. Thousands of hawks gliding past a mountain summit. Rare oceanic birds blown in to shore. Birdwatching like this doesn’t necessarily begin…

The herring gull, one of our most cosmopolitan bird species, thrives in picnic areas or parking lots, at farms or fast-food joints, at sea or in sewage lagoons. The ivory gull, the embodiment…

It is a monumental decision in the life of any birdwatcher. At stake is nothing less than the pleasure you get in the company of birds. So here is some advice on buying and using binoculars.…

Color, music, grace, and flight mingle in the lives of most birds. But no bird, at least here in the Northeast, pulls it off like a warbler. Warblers are in a family called Parulidae, known…

The black-capped chickadee may be the perfect songbird. It is vocal and approachable, inquisitive and dependable. Even the casual birdwatcher finds in the chickadee a neighbor, a friend, an…

A forester cannot properly describe a tree without terms like “crown” and “trunk.” A hunter can’t boast of a champion white-tailed buck without discussing the finer points of its…

They are the epitome of avian energy, hovering, darting, and flowing like no other birds, almost as if they weren’t birds at all but rather androids or creatures borne from the sparks of…

Across great distances they migrate, powered on a diet of arthropods and a blast of determination. When they stop to visit, they are among the most watchable of all wildlife, feeding and…

For those of you struggling to learn bird identification, here’s an innovative system to help you name any species you encounter. That’s right. No more pesky field guides. Your…

No birdwatcher’s life is complete without experiencing the penetrating gaze of a great gray owl. Even a glance from those lemon-yellow eyes will cut through your Carhartts. Designed for…

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…

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…

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,…