When a bird sings, you may think you’re hearing music. But are the melodies it’s making really music? Or is what we’re hearing merely a string of lilting calls that appeals to the human ear? Birdsong has inspired musicians from Bob Marley to Mozart and perhaps as far back as the first hunter-gatherers who banged out a […]
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An Ancient Egyptian Mural Offers an Exquisitely Detailed View of Several Bird Species
A century ago, archaeologists excavated a 3,300-year-old Egyptian palace in Amarna, which was fleetingly the capital of Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten. Situated far from the crowded areas of Amarna, the North Palace offered a quiet retreat for the royal family. On the west wall of one extravagantly decorated chamber, today known […]
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Alli Smith, of the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory, offers beginner tips for exploring the wide world of birds.
This summer, as part of The New York Times birding project, The Times will be sharing a series of prompts to help readers learn how to get started birding. Begin with something foundational: Learn to identify a few of the birds most commonly seen near where you live. For beginner tips, The Times spoke with […]
Read More Alli Smith, of the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory, offers beginner tips for exploring the wide world of birds.
This summer, as part of The New York Times birding project, The Times will be sharing a series of prompts to help readers learn how to get started birding. Begin with something foundational: Learn to identify a few of the birds most commonly seen near where you live. For beginner tips, The Times spoke with […]
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For These Bird Flu Researchers, Work Is a Day at the Very ‘Icky’ Beach
It was a glorious day for field work on the shores of the Delaware Bay. The late afternoon sun cast a warm glow over the gently sloping beach. The receding tide revealed a smattering of shells. The dune grasses rustled in the breeze. The beach vines were in bloom. And the bird droppings were fresh […]
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How Did Birds First Take Off?
In 1993, “Jurassic Park” helped inspire 9-year-old Stephen Brusatte to become a paleontologist. So Dr. Brusatte was thrilled to advise the producers of last year’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” on what scientists had learned about dinosaurs since he was a child. He was especially happy to see one of the most important discoveries make it to […]
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Sparrows Are the Main Suspects in a Bird-Nest Murder
To Mulvihill, killing house sparrows is an all-too-typical human response. “Let’s be honest,” he said. “If bluebirds and eastern phoebes have an enemy, it is we humans, not the house sparrows we brought here.” First, Mulvihill pointed out, we wanted the sparrows to control pest insects. “They did that, and made themselves at home.” he […]
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Three Years After a Fateful Day in Central Park, Birding Continues to Change My Life
Birding, however, offers things those other passions do not. It’s accessible. No matter where you are around the globe or what kind of environment you’re in — city, suburb, country, mountains, woodland, field, swamp, shore or sea — the presence and variety of birds are astonishing. With birds, no matter the time of year, there’s […]
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They Cuddled a Kiwi. New Zealand Said, ‘Stop That.’
Shy and retiring by nature, with a preference for solitude and the dark, few would describe Paora, 4, as a natural diplomat. Yet this Miami-based kiwi — one of about 60 of the flightless birds living in zoos outside their native New Zealand — has been forced into the international spotlight, literally and figuratively. Footage […]
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A Vanished Bird Might Live On, or Not. The Video Is Grainy.
If there’s new hope, it’s blurry. What’s certain: the roller coaster tale of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a majestic bird whose presumed extinction has been punctuated by a series of contested rediscoveries, is going strong. The latest twist is a peer-reviewed study Thursday in the journal Ecology and Evolution presenting sighting reports, audio recordings, trail camera […]
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Pale Male, Famous Central Park Hawk, Is Dead at 32. Maybe.
Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who took up residence on the ledge of a ritzy Manhattan apartment building 30 years ago, became the subject of hundreds of newspaper articles, at least three books and an award-winning documentary film and counted Mary Tyler Moore among his fans, was pronounced dead on Tuesday evening. But then again, […]
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Shorebird festival entertains birders of all ages and abilites
The 31st annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival last week fulfilled its promise to provide activities for birders of all ages, abilities and experience to celebrate the spring migratory return of Alaska’s shorebirds. Along with traditional “boat on water” and “feet on trails” guided tours, events included casual birding walks that also offered wheelchair accessibility, activities […]
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The Anhinga or ‘Devil Bird’ Lands in New York, With More to Come
For two weeks, a strange bird has perched in Brooklyn over the treetops of one of the Three Sisters Islands in Prospect Park Lake. It shows no signs of heading back to the place it most likely came from in the South. Meet the anhinga, a large water bird with a snaky neck that has […]
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Shorebird Festival opens this weekend for all birding enthusiasts
Registration is still open for the 31st annual Shorebird Festival, running May 3-7. This year’s festival, co-hosted by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Islands and Ocean Visitor Center and Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, will offer a number of events for local and visiting birding enthusiasts to celebrate the spring migratory return of […]
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Bird Flu is Killing Off the World’s Birds
Seabirds that nest in great colonies are a little more visible. Such dense nesting also makes them more vulnerable to contagious disease, and many kinds are long-lived, maturing at relatively late ages, which leaves their populations slower to rebound. During nesting season last May, at a colony of sandwich terns on the coast of France, […]
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Let’s Protect Children at Least as Well as We Protect Ducks
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, commercial hunting was devastating populations of ducks, geese and other water birds. In response, Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918, granting the United States Fish and Wildlife Service authority to regulate the killing of migratory birds nationwide. Now waterfowl are thriving in North America, […]
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I Am Haunted by What I Have Seen at Great Salt Lake
From a distance, it is hard to tell whether the three figures walking the salt playa are human, bird or some other animal. Through binoculars, I see they are pelicans, juveniles, gaunt and emaciated without water or food. In feathered robes, they walk with the focus of fasting monks toward enlightenment or death. This was […]
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Shifting Weather Patterns Bring New Bird Species to New York City
If you need proof that climate change has altered the wildlife of the city, look no further than the black vultures soaring above Midtown Manhattan. These hulking, baldheaded scavengers have a wingspan that measures nearly five feet and have traditionally inhabited South America, Central America and the southern United States. But the black vulture seems […]
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Audubon Society Keeps Name Despite Slavery Ties, Dividing Birders
The National Audubon Society announced on Wednesday that its board of directors had voted to retain the organization’s name despite pressure to end its association with John James Audubon, the 19th-century naturalist and illustrator who enslaved people, drawing backlash from fellow bird groups that have already changed their names. The bird conservation group said its […]
Read MoreScientists Investigate a Bird Flu Outbreak in Seals
Last summer, the highly contagious strain of avian influenza that had been spreading through North American birds made its way into marine mammals, causing a spike in seal strandings along the coast of Maine. In June and July, more than 150 dead or ailing seals washed ashore. Now, a study provides new insight into the […]
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U.S. Considers Vaccinating Chickens Amid Bird Flu Outbreak
Cases typically involve people exposed to poultry. In the United States, the C.D.C., in partnership with state and local public health departments, is monitoring people who are exposed to H5N1. As of last week, 6,315 people had been monitored; 163 reported symptoms; and one tested positive, according to Dr. Tim Uyeki, the chief medical officer […]
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What Sounds Did Dinosaurs Make?
In the next generation of dinosaur-based blockbuster films, some of the star creatures could perhaps sound more like a bird and a little less like a roaring lion. At least that’s a possibility raised from new research published this month, although very little is really understood about dinosaur vocals. But a research team has drawn […]
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Cocaine Bear, Meet Cannabis Raccoon and McFlurry Skunk
In September 1985, the authorities discovered the body of Andrew Thornton, a drug smuggler, in a Tennessee backyard. He had a bag full of cocaine, a failed parachute and the key to a small airplane, which turned up at a crash site about 60 miles away. Investigators spent months searching for the rest of Mr. […]
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Horseshoe Crabs Are in Trouble. How Much Longer Can We Rely on Their Blood to Test Our Drugs?
Sanofi Pasteur, Pfizer and Roche-Genentech, sharing Lilly’s concerns about the depletion of horseshoe crabs, are also making the long transition to using rFC. A green light from U.S.P. would save drug makers “weeks of laboratory validation tests and documentation for every new product and subsequent F.D.A. regulatory review and approval,” according to Ned Mozier, a […]
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Flaco the Owl Spreads His Wings, Devours Rats and Learns to Survive
Halley Barton was at a dinner party with friends on Saturday night when someone in the group shared the news that the Eurasian eagle-owl Flaco had coughed up a pellet of animal matter — rat fur and bones — in Central Park. The announcement, she said, had been greeted with cheers because it meant that […]
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Flaco, Central Park Zoo Owl, Tastes Freedom and Isn’t Rushing to Return
At around 10:30 Thursday morning, a half-dozen young women from Australia climbed a large rock outcropping near Central Park’s south end and began to snap pictures of one another with the skyscrapers of Billionaires’ Row as their backdrop. Like virtually everyone passing through the area in the February chill, the women appeared unaware that nestled […]
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Judge John Hodgman on Bird-Watching Etiquette
Alex writes: My fiancée, Edie, is a bird-watcher. Often when we’re walking, she’ll stop and demand silence to use her birding app, which identifies birds by sound. This interrupts our chats, and the app records me saying dumb things. Please order Edie to stop. Since her app seems to routinely capture you “saying dumb things,” […]
Read MoreWindow Stickers to Prevent Bird Strikes Only Work One Way
Turning off lights is another important step people can take to help birds, and not just in windows. Lights draw in and disorient birds. Experts recommend using a motion sensor for outdoor lighting, especially floodlights,. Still, most strikes occur during the day, according to the American Bird Conservancy, and while people often assume that high-rises […]
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