Bird Studies Canada is entering its seventh season of Short-eared Owl monitoring in Ontario. North American and European researchers are working together to learn more about this poorly-understood species, which appears to be declining across its global range and is classified as a species of Special Concern in Canada. Bird …
Birds of many different families mimic the sounds they hear around them. Blue jays give a perfect rendition of the call of a hawk, which as sent me running to the window with my binoculars more than once. Crows have been heard to imitate the whine of a dog, the …
I admit it – the birding gods have smiled on me when it comes to owl sightings. I grew up in the northern boreal forest, where Great-gray and Great-horned owls were commonplace. In a South Carolina cypress swamp, a Barred owl flew in and landed about 12 ft away. A …
This is the sixth in a series of posts on birds at risk in Canada. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) lists 73 bird species as endangered, threatened or of special concern. This is a cautionary tale. A tale of how quickly a species numbering …
Hearing ranks next to sight in its importance to birds and their survival. The ear openings of birds are hidden under feathers, called auriculars, on the sides of the head. There is no cartilaginous outer ear as found in humans and other mammals. Birds are highly social animals, and depend …
I am definitely a fan of sit birding. You find a nice birdy location – say the edge of a marsh or along a riverbank – and then (here’s where it gets technical) you sit. As in down. Get comfy. Sit in your carefully chosen perfect location and wait for …
The most important act that a bird performs in the preening of its feathers. They begin by grasping with their bill, one feather at the base and nibbling towards the tip to remove oil, dirt and parasites. Or they may just simply draw the feather through the partially clamped bill …
I love it when owls throw up on me. One winter day when I was walking my dogs in a thickly wooded area, I sat down for a rest on a fallen log. As the dogs sniffed their way around the area, something fell from the sky and dropped into …
Birds have the best colour vision of all vertebrates. Some species even see ultra-violet light, which means they are able to pick up highlights and tones in plumage unseen by the human eye. Raptors, whose survival depends on hunting, have eyesight two to three times better than humans. Each image …
This is the fifth in a series of posts on birds at risk in Canada. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) lists 73 bird species as endangered, threatened or of special concern. It seems inconceivable that a member of the blackbird family could be listed …