With a name that sounds like something out of the original Batman TV series, the Wandering Tattler might be something of a disappointment for those that happen upon this unspectacular looking shorebird. But, alas, this bird has intrigued researchers for decades. Wintering along the west coasts of Northern America, Central America, and South America — [...]

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Interesting thinky opinion piece in today’s New York Times about the mesmerizing habit of birdwatching, and what truths are revealed when one taps into the rhythm of avifauna: We can’t escape trying to see the future through birds. Too many canaries were deployed to detect gas leaks in coal mines, too many ravens launched from [...]

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Audubon is going big on hummingbirds this spring, and we want you to get involved. Download our free Hummingbirds @ Home app and start looking for the birds where you live. You can also record sightings directly through the website. You’ll have a great time, and help the birds at the same time. (photo by [...]

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If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve undoubtedly heard us talk about flyways, these massive migratory superhighways upon which birds travel from South America to Alaska. This blog tends to focus on the Pacific Flyway. The concept of flyways are key not only to our understanding of migration, but to how Audubon as [...]

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Decades ago, Pete Bloom helped capture the last wild California Condor for captive breeding — and thus helped save this marvelous species from extinction. He went on to become of our country’s best raptor field experts. You can meet Bloom at Los Angeles Audubon’s monthly program at the Audubon Center at Debs Park. He’ll be [...]

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Interesting read in Wired Science about how birds aren’t the only ones that pull together into large groups for safety and other reasons. (photo by Rich Hansen)   Share on Facebook

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Wow, this one’s hard to ignore. A new study conducted by Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service has greatly increased the estimated numbers of birds and other wildlife killed by domestic and feral cats each year in the U.S. The numbers are staggering. From the New York Times: In a report that scaled up local [...]

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Interesting article about how researchers are learning to track the Snow Bunting. (photo by USFWS) Share on Facebook

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The 2012 Audubon Christmas Bird Count has officially begun! We cannot contain our excitement about this year’s activities. In addition to our usual coverage, we have Nature Ali as a special CBC correspondent. Ali will be attempting to attend an almost record-breaking number of California counts and sharing every moment with us here on the [...]

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One of the big questions coming out of Hurricane Sandy was “What happens to the birds?” Well, certainly, big storms like Sandy take their toll on wild bird populations, but an amazing number emerge unscathed from big weather. A story in today’s New York Times analyzes how this is possible, and draws the conclusion that [...]

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Caught an interesting post on the listservs from Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in the Marin Headlands. Hawk-counters at the GGRO yesterday apparently recorded 295 sightings of Broad-winged Hawks from Hawk Hill during a 4-hour count period. This is a higher one-day Broad-wing count by a factor of five than has ever [...]

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Interesting new science seems to have answered the question as to why insects stopped growing in size over the course of evolution. While limited amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere was part of the reason, the other reason was that birds and bats proved adept at knocking out the larger bugs. Thus, we never got [...]

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KCET has posted a marvelous meditation on the irrepressible Scrub Jay, which apparently is responsible for helping replant vast areas of California desert wiped clean by wildlfires over the past few years. (photo by Peter LaTourrette) Share on Facebook

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Audubon California and our partners on the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership are out in the field surveying nesting success in rice fields and natural wetlands in the Central Valley. The goal is to compare nesting success in rice fields versus natural wetlands, and also rice fields where owners are managing to help birds versus those [...]

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Shorebird Conservation Biologist Monica Iglecia is currently monitoring shorebird nests all along the Sacramento Valley. She is placing ibuttons, small temperature trackers the size of watch batteries, into American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt nests. This is all part of our work with the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership. Three nests have received an ibutton, all within a [...]

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