As autumn days shorten and insect food supplies dwindle, migratory songbirds must prepare for their impending southward flight. This typically involves completing the post-breeding molt…

Mere hours old, a comical procession of 12 downy puffs drop one by one from their nest cavity 30 feet high in a white ash snag. Scrambling to keep up with their mother, a female wood duck,…

The migration of birds ranks among our planet’s most conspicuous, awe-inspiring natural phenomena. From nearly every corner of the globe, birds as diverse as hummingbirds and herons,…

Jays, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, juncos, cardinals – these are the staple birds of winter, familiar to nearly all feeder watchers in the Northeast. In some years, nomadic finches…

Feathers are the single, universal feature that distinguishes birds from all other creatures in the animal kingdom. These wondrous structures, among nature’s strongest and most durable…

As spring gives way to summer, the crescendo of birdsong in northern forests, shrublands, and fields begins to fade. Procreation replaces territory establishment and courtship, as the vital…

From the first harsh (but oh-so-welcome) kong-ga-ree of a red-winged blackbird as early as late February, to the complex and voluptuous harmonic of a wood thrush in mid-May, our northern…