Video Library: Large Gulls
The internet is full of wild bird videos. If you want to learn about the behavior and vocalizations, it can be a great place to start, at least for certain species. Gulls are a terrific example.
What Gulls Say
Gull enthusiasts are weird. They hang out at landfills. They go to the beach when it’s freezing cold, or just to see what’s in the parking lot. They’ll stare at a single bird for hours, puzzling over insanely minute details. When it comes to identifying a mystery gull, they look at everything; they ignore nothing. Except vocalizations.
The Left-handed Blackbird
What bird species always twists its head to the left when singing, never to the right?
The “Two-part Calls” of Empidonax
As far as I know, three species of Empids give these calls. In one species, the two-part call is familiar enough to be mentioned in field guides, at least. The two-part call of the second species is described only in the scientific literature. And that of the third is, as far as I know, being described in this blog post for the first time.
American Parakeets: Changing Tunes?
A couple of years ago I wrote about the importance of recording exotic birds in the places where they’ve been introduced, not just in their native ranges. In at least one species, some individuals sound different in their adopted country than do their ancestors back in the homeland.
Rufous Antpitta Feature
Antpittas are one of those quintessential groups of tropical birds. They may not be colorful, like tanagers, coatings, or manakins, nor are they large and noisy birds that are out in the open and in your face, like toucans or parrots. But there’s just something about them and their weird, nearly tailless bodies on top of stilt like legs, and their way of moving through the dense growth in bounding leaps that makes them irresistible.
King and Clapper Rails
Most of the time, the presence of one of these rails is announced solely by their loud, unmusical calls, leaving us to identify them solely by voice. It isn’t always possible, but today we’ll talk about when and how it can be done.
The “Meaningless” Calls of Red-winged Blackbirds
It’s tempting to think of bird sounds as though they were words and phrases, as though it were always the form of the sound that encoded specific messages to the listener. But that’s not how Red-winged Blackbirds work.
How Fast Is That Vireo Singing?
I can still remember the first time I heard a vireo “complex song”. I was taken completely by surprise, not even knowing Plumbeous Vireos had it in them to sing so awesomely.
Florida, Part 2: Keys to Piney Woods
In addition to all the immigrants that I targeted, I spent a good amount of time on some of the native species of Florida as well.