Welcome to the August 2021 issue of Birding Online! Here, ABA members can enjoy extended online content, including gorgeous photos of Pileated Woodpeckers and Crested Caracaras, full-length Book and Media Reviews, and more.
In 2020, the ABA restructured its membership program so that its members now have online access to North American Birds, in addition to Birding. This means that North American Birds is now accessible to a wider audience than ever!
Birding editor Ted Floyd returns to join host Nate Swick in another round of "Random Birds", the most fun you can have with a bird list and a random number generator. Ted and Nate talk mergansers, bluebirds, nighthawks, and more as they continue their journey through the combined list of the birds read more >>
Highlights this week include a Lesser Sand-Plover on the central coast of California, a very nice bird away from Alaska. Plus a hummingbird first for South Carolina and a spate of notable Northern Wheatear and Magnificent Frigatebird records in the midwest and east.
ABA Travel
When you travel with the ABA, you help build a better future for birds and birding. The ABA offers a carefully designed program of birding travel experiences that not only let experience and thrill of seeing great birds and traveling with friendly, interesting people, they give you the satisfaction of knowing that you are supporting local on-the-ground conservation efforts as well as the ABA’s ongoing work to inspire all people to enjoy and protect wild birds.
Below is a sample of what we’ve got going. Click here to view all of our tours >>
My maternal grandfather died well before I was born, so all I got is stories. But stories can be powerful. Like this one: the story that my grandfather’s life would have been vastly different had he grown up with a Peterson field guide.
Birders love fall migration, and they love it for lots of different reasons: there are more birds because it’s after breeding season, migration lasts longer than in spring, and the birds themselves move more slowly, often lingering for longer in desirable habitat and sometimes affording twitchers a little extra time...
A few sparrowy things comprise this month’s quiz, so break out your reading glasses, as we may need to delve into minutiae. I can hear the cheers, now! Everyone loves sparrowy things...
Every summer, birders anxiously await publication of the “Check-list Supplement” by the American Ornithological Society’s Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of North and Middle American Birds (a.k.a. the NACC). The supplement (available linked to here eventually) details revisions to the NACC’s Check-list. Here's a rundown of the more significant revisions.
Mountaineer Books, a Seattle-based book publisher specializing in outdoor and conservation titles, has recently produced a slew of exciting bird books, including Paul Bannick's Snowy Owl and Great Gray Owl, Kim Long's What Birds Eat, and Molly Hashimoto's Birds of the West.
National Audubon Society's Birds of North America and Trees of North America are surprising, impressive, scholarly, and worthy additions to any naturalist's library.
Fall 2021 has been exciting at Gambell. Highlights from late Aug through mid-Sep include a “Siberian” Common Chiffchaff (representing one of no fewer than four Phyllloscopus species present) and an especially cooperative Middendorff’s Grasshopper Warbler. Common Snipe, Willow Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Little Bunting, and Mountain Bluebird were also notable.
In 2004, Mark Obmascik suddenly burst onto the birding scene with the release of his first book, The Big Year—and his fame escalated when Hollywood made it into a movie in 2011.
Mountaineer Books, a Seattle-based book publisher specializing in outdoor and conservation titles, has recently produced a slew of exciting bird books, including Paul Bannick's Snowy Owl and Great Gray Owl, Kim Long's What Birds Eat, and Molly Hashimoto's Birds of the West.
Fall 2021 has been exciting at Gambell. Highlights from late Aug through mid-Sep include a “Siberian” Common Chiffchaff (representing one of no fewer than four Phyllloscopus species present) and an especially cooperative Middendorff’s Grasshopper Warbler. Common Snipe, Willow Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Little Bunting, and Mountain Bluebird were also notable.
In 2004, Mark Obmascik suddenly burst onto the birding scene with the release of his first book, The Big Year—and his fame escalated when Hollywood made it into a movie in 2011.