Bird banding can provide valuable data on several fronts. From monitoring populations in an area, studying migration and various other study and research programs. So how does bird banding work? A typical day of bird banding for passerines (songbirds) starts before the sun rises, and in our case, that means 4:45 am. It’s still dark…
One of the highlights in spring is going birding to see and hear the colorful songbirds that have migrated back from their southern wintering grounds. These little songbirds are as brightly colored and diverse as their musical songs, whistles and trills. This colorful group is the parulidae family, also called the new world warblers or…
On August 30th 2020, a steller’s sea eagle was seen at Denali National Park in Alaska. This was not the first time this species has been seen in this state, but it was unusual in the fact that this individual was seen so far inland. Afterwards, on March 10, 2021, it was then spotted at…
In 1987 there were only 22 california Condors left in the wild, numbers had plummeted and it seemed certain that this great bird would soon become extinct. That’s when a plan was put into action and every single wild california condor was captured and put into a captive breeding program with hopes of saving this…
To start this series off with the honor of it being may 28th, which is whooping crane day, we will start with spotlighting this species and the process that it took to bring these species population to where it is today. While you may be familiar with this bird’s cousin the sandhill crane, the whooping…
The first saturday of September is international vulture awareness day! While these birds may not be everybodies favorite birds, they still fill a very important niche in the environment. They are the clean up crew! When an animal dies, scavengers like vultures will take care of the body. But the deceased animal could be carrying…
Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) A medium sized woodpecker native to the eastern half of North America. In their prefered habitat of deciduous woodlands and tree groves, they can be seen eating insects, fruits and seeds. This species is on the IUCN red list as near threatened due to losses of mature forests with nut crops…
The smallest and most common species of falcon in North America. It is one of the few birds of prey species that is sexually dimorphic, which means males and females have a different apearance. Males will have a slate colored head and wings with rusty backs and tails. Females are a reddish brown all over….
June 20 is National American eagle day. On this day in 1782, the bald eagle became the United Sates of Americas national symbol. This day we celebrate our national bird but also the conservation story of how close we were to loosing them and the effort and work that went into this to help bring…
Sometimes people will ask, why? Why fight to save some of these birds, will it really matter? Will it change anything or why spend the money or time to stop these species from disappearing? Some species that most of the world has never even heard of. But thankfully many people including myself believe they do,…