Welcome to Birdie Girl….some skillful advice for the creative fledgling.
Bird Conservation Groups Win Fight Against Great Lakes Wind Project
Camp Perry Turbine Would Have Set Dangerous Precedent - Washington, D.C., June 29, 2017 American Bird Conservancy (Michael Hutchins, Director of ABC) and Black Swamp Bird Observatory (Kimberly Kaufman, Executive Director of BSBO) have won their campaign to stop a...
Golden-crowned Kinglets & Bridges of Recall
When I was growing up, my grandparents owned twenty-six acres of woodlands and marshes that were a haven for birds. My grandfather took long planks, forming Zen-like bridges which zig zagged through the wetlands, creating a trail to the Baker River where we would...
Eastern Phoebe
This sweet bird greets me every morning outside my mom’s kitchen window in New Hampshire. Both the male and the female are building a nest under the back porch by the cellar door. They habitually place their mud, moss and grass nests in protected nooks on bridges,...
Western Bluebirds
To my delight, I saw six bluebirds at the birdbath in my father-in-law's garden. I was able to catch a couple of photos and work some drawings. Bluebirds have always been a rare sighting for me but the last few years I have been seeing more of them in Northern...
True Colors: How Birds See the World
Guest Author: Cynthia Berger IN THE EARLY 1970s, A RESEARCHER testing the ability of pigeons to discriminate colors discovered by accident that the birds can see ultraviolet (UV) light. The finding was deemed curious but not too important. “It was...
A tweet from the other side of the globe ~Purple Sunbird~ By Tahir Khan Arzani
Quest Writer: Tahir Khan Arzani from Lahore, Pakistan. This was the first tweet I got about thirty five years ago and then onwards I started getting them every day early in the morning from about one and half feet from my window. What am I talking about? I am sure you...
Red-Breasted Sapsucker
We’re lucky today in the northeastern corner of California to get a little rain. We live on the edge of the Great Basin high desert and the last few evenings have been wet ones. The air now has a fresh smell. Lilli lives on the far end of town. Sometimes we take our...
HANDLE WITH CARE from Reader’s Digest
BY SY MONTGOMERY FROM THE BOOK BIRDOLOGY Reader's Digest, June 2015(About Me & my Hummers!) ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS BUZELLI (detail) These fragile baby hummingbirds needed a mom. Instead, they got me. WHEN THEY WERE FOUND, the infants were nearly dead. Hatching from...
Steller’s Jay
One of my favorite artists is Beverley Hackett, a printer from Grass Valley, California, who passed away just few years ago. She did the above print of Steller’s Jays in 1982. I have it hanging on my wall near the window where as I watch the Steller’s Jays in the...
Black-Headed Grosbeck
This morning I saw four Black-Headed Grosbeaks, both males and females, at my suet. They were grabbing up the sunflower seeds with their heavy bills. The flamboyant male has a large, black head, cinnamon body with white-barred, black wings and short tail. I think the...
White Crowned Sparrow
White crowned sparrow Zonotrichia leucophrys, is a medium-sized sparrow native to North America. For the last couple weeks I have enjoyed the sweet white crowned sparrows in my yard here in Northern California. In the morning I listen to its distinct pleasing whistle....
Red-Winged Blackbird
Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, family Icteridae, a passerine bird. Above: drawings/photo-painting; (far left) Male red-winged blackbird, The nest, (right) Female red-winged blackbird. Artist: Brenda Sherburn These well decorated birds are the most abundant...