IOANA SERITAN
Associate Editor, Birding magazine
Welcome to Birding Online! Here, all ABA members can access the extended online content from the April 2019 issue of Birding magazine. The complete issue, containing both print and online content, can be found at:
aba.org/birding-magazine-april-2019
I hope you’ve been enjoying the April issue. Much like the February issue, you may notice a few new bits and bobs. The first one that I’ll draw your attention to is a collaborative forum with words from Birding team members Ted Floyd, Frank Izaguirre, Nick Minor, myself, Nate Swick, and Greg Neise. We share our thoughts on the evolution of Birding, and the ABA, in the coming years. Click here to enjoy.
Another change you may notice is that the column “Milestones,” which I have been privileged enough to edit for the last 3 years, is now called “Celebrations.” You can read a longer story on why we changed the name over on the ABA Blog. Have thoughts on the name change? Feel free to email me at iseritan@aba.org – and while you’re at it, send me a story you would like to celebrate!
Over in another recently-renamed column, “Frontiers in Ornithology,” we have even more online content for you than usual. For perhaps the first time, we have two features online that are not in the print edition of Birding. Such excitement! Such drama! Please enjoy Nick Minor’s presentations of new research on hummingbirds and migrant traps.
The next handful of articles are available in the print issue, but they deserve a nod nonetheless. In this issue, we have three feature articles from Tom Stephenson, Stan DeOrsey, and Mary Birdsong. Tom Stephenson teaches us how to identify Red-eyed and Philadelphia Vireos by sound… with our eyes. Stan DeOrsey takes us on a historical dive into the story of 19th-century bird introductions. I had the great pleasure of learning something new about the history of birding from this article. I hope you do, too! Finally, Mary Birdsong invites us to join her on her sightings of Piping Plovers at two vastly different points of their migration.
April’s Featured Photo made me pause for a moment. How about you? Take your first guess by checking out the Featured Photo below. Then, join the conversation on the ABA Blog. Finally, read our extended analysis of the photo on page 62.
December 27, 2018, San Francisco Christmas Bird Count. Photo by © Carla Din.
As always, the Book & Media Reviews spread their wings online. You can read all three reviews in extended form on both the ABA Blog, and in the online issue. Click here to flip open to the Book Reviews and enjoy them yourself. In order, you’ll find Julia Zarankin’s review of The Meaning of Birds by Simon Barnes (click here for the Blog), Manuel Lerdau’s review of Richard O. Prum’s The Evolution of Beauty (click here for the Blog), and finally, Chris Loscalzo’s piece on Birding in Connecticut by Frank Gallo (click here for the Blog).
This digest only scratches the surface of all of the articles, photos, and ideas in the April issue. Click here to jump to the Table of Contents and explore the magazine yourself. What’s your favorite piece?
