Image: The Ultimate Bird Drawing Throwdown Showdown Graphic featuring images of David Sibley and H. Jon Benjamin

Join BirdNote tomorrow, November 30th!

Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!

RESERVE YOUR SPOT

Shows With Contributions by Mick Thompson

A Hairy Woodpecker nestling peeks out from its nest hole in the side of a tree trunk.

One Species Caring for Another

In North America, the European Starling has gained a bad reputation for competing with native bird species for nest cavities. But researchers in Ontario, Canada, were surprised to see three Hairy Woodpecker nestlings receiving care from both a female Hairy Woodpecker and a European…
A Little Blue Heron stalks through water at a shoreline in sunlight. The heron has light blue body, a purplish neck and a very long sharp pointed beak.

What’s in a Name? A Bird!

Names are conventions, right? But some names contain something special: a bird! For example, the name Paloma comes from the colloquial name in Spanish for the common pigeon, but as a human name it often refers to doves. Or Garzón, my last name, is derived from Garza, or Heron, in Spanish…
A small bird with lemon yellow breast and light brown back is perched on a branch in partial sunlight

The Feminist Bird Club

The Feminist Bird Club, or FBC for short, is a birding group that’s intentional about making sure people from all backgrounds feel welcome, says FBC board member Jeana Fucello. At this group’s events, birding and social justice go hand-in-hand, says Kasia Chmielinski, the co-founder of the…
Black-throated Sparrow

What Do Desert Birds Drink?

In the desert Southwest, water can be scarce. Yet some birds, like this Black-throated Sparrow, thrive in a scorching landscape. The birds obtain moisture from foods like nectar and fruit, as well as insects and other prey. They tuck into the shade in the heat of the day, so they won’t…
A Summer Tanager with a wasp in its beak, and perched on a branch amidst green leaves

Summer Tanagers: Wasp Hunters

Summer Tanagers snatch bees and wasps in mid-air, as they buzz about. Bug in beak, the bird flies to a perch, slams the insect against a branch until it’s dead, then wipes it against the branch to remove the stinger before eating it. Summer Tanagers will also tear open paper-like wasp…
Two Mallard ducklings snoozing on a cement bank by the water, their beaks tucked beneath their wings

Where Birds Sleep

All birds need to sleep — or at least snooze — sometime during each 24-hour period. And most sleep at night. A bird (such as these Mallard Ducklings) may turn its head around and warm its beak under its shoulder-feathers. Songbirds find a protected perch, sheltered from rain and nighttime…
A Pair of Pacific Loons swim close together in a calm lake

Music of a Tundra Lake

Many of the waterbirds that winter along the coasts of the Lower 48 spend their summers breeding on tundra ponds and lakes. Loons, grebes, scoters and others call throughout the long summer days. Together, their voices create a symphony that evokes the Arctic north.
Male Spotted Towhee singing in sunlight, with his black head, throat and wing set off by his white breast and red eye.

Rachel Carson and Silent Spring

Among the most welcome features of spring is the renewal of bird song. Can you imagine a spring without the voices of birds? The silence would -- as they say -- be deafening, the absence of their songs like the loss of one of our primary senses. Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring…
A Snow Bunting showing its white winter plumage, with just small patches of dark on back and wing.

The Cool, Rugged Life of a Snow Bunting

The Arctic is still wintry when male Snow Buntings return to nesting areas in April. There's a big benefit to arriving early enough to claim a prime nest cavity in a rock face or under boulders, where it will be safer from predators. Nesting in chilly rock cavities means extra care must be…
Pair of Sandhill Cranes in flight

To Breathe Like a Bird

Birds have a highly efficient breathing anatomy that powers the exertion of flight. It is driven by large, thin-walled air sacs located throughout the body cavity that operate like bellows. This parabronchial system for extracting oxygen from the air has a far greater surface area than the…