Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Woodpeckers and their cohorts wrangle through the winter woods in search of high-energy food to fuel their active lifestyles.
8 Ways to Help Birds
A brand-new year lies ahead, full of possibilities and opportunities. Here are some suggestions for ways to help the birds (and other flying things) that bring such beauty and joy to our lives.
The Squeaky Bird of the Forest
These long-billed, active little birds zigzag all over a tree in search of a meal, sounding like tiny tin horns as they stay in contact with their kind.
Bird World Changes With the Seasons
We can take steps to assist migrants and even the odds for backyard birds who battle the elements during our long, cold winters.
A River of Birds Stream by at Night
Songbirds and shorebirds, geese and ducks and raptors spent the summer raising their young, but now it’s time to head for warmer zones, where food is more abundant.
Grosbeaks are the Bandana Bird
Remember that Coasters tune with the refrain: “He wears a red bandana, plays a blues pianna, in a honky-tonk, down in Mexico?” Well, who’s to say the rock and roll group’s song doesn’t also refer to one of the most beautiful birds in backyard and woodlot—at least until you get to the "pianna" part?
Blue Indigos Catch the Eye — and Ear
This little songster is heard more often than seen, but out in the sunlight on a summer’s day they’re among the most spectacular birds on the continent.
Nest Cams Put You in the Catbird Seat
One of the most endearing thing about birds is how much of their lives are lived on view, out in the open. We watch them drinking and bathing, foraging for food and eating it, resting on perches and even copulating. We can observe nearly every aspect of avian life—except for the most important of all, their lives as parents. That’s almost always been hidden, tucked away inside a cup nest back in a shrub or within a tree cavity. Until now.
It’s Hooting Season for Great-Horned Owls
Because their offspring have a long learning curve, our largest owls begin raising the next generation even as snow falls in the forest.
Watch for Handsome, Hungry Winter Finches
Crossbills, redpolls and grosbeaks, beautiful birds from the far North, are heading south to find enough food to eat.
Birds Triumph Over the Cold
A backyard scene: winds howl, clouds scud, snow accumulates but even in this maelstrom, dark little juncos hop under feeders, flashy red cardinals scratch under a pine tree, a natty nuthatch spirals down a tree trunk and big blue jays muscle in for a meal.
Downies, the Pocket-Sized Woodpeckers
As the season changes, our ‘old reliables’ are moving back to center stage in backyards and at bird feeders.
Birds Eating Weirdly
Birds don’t always order off the regular menu, including a robin who makes his own jelly worms to orioles dining on corn on the cob.
Cranes families are on the move
Standing in a large wooden viewing box in the pitch dark on early April morning, a group of us waited for thousands of sandhill cranes to awaken.
Songs subside as birds rear their young
Beaks stuffed full of insects to feed their young, most birds have retired their exuberant songs.
Blue Jays Get a Bad Rap
These handsome birds are worth a second look as they barrel through each day without any need for assertiveness training.
The Incredible Egg
Mother Nature designed an ingenious package for a young bird’s first few weeks of life.
Nature’s Turncoats
These "wild canaries" are highly social, spending most of their time feeding, flying and even sleeping as a flock.
