Welcome to Birding Online! Here, all ABA members can access the extended online content from the February 2017 issue of Birding magazine. The complete issue, containing both print and online content, can be found at:

aba.org/birding-february-2017/

The ABA’s 2017 Bird of the Year is a real beauty, and an important spotlight on pressing environmental issues: the Ruddy Turnstone. Read more about why the Ruddy Turnstone is our Bird of the Year at http://aba.org/boy/. The February cover features a stunning painting of the Bird of the Year by artist Sophie Webb. This issue contains an interview with the artist about her process making the painting, and what Turnstones mean to her, which you can read here. Each print issue sent to members contains BOY stickers, a coloring sheet, and a wordsearch. If you’re a member, you can print out more coloring sheets and wordsearches by downloading and printing their pages in the online issue (coloring sheet here, wordsearch here).

Ruddy Turnstones. Painting by © Sophie Webb.

As always, the February issue contains spectacular News and Notes by Nick Minor. The sections on seabird colonies and bird dispersal were published in the print issue, but the section on the future of earbirding is online for members only. If you are a member, you can read all of the extended online content here.

The Featured Photo from this issue (below) provides us with a unique challenge. You may already know some field marks to identify this bird – but are you missing one important mark? Read Tony Leukering’s analysis of this photo in the online issue here, or join the discussion on the ABA Blog here.

Photo by © Tony Leukering.

This February’s Book Reviews come to us from Sheridan Coffey, reviewing Border Sanctuary: The Conservation Legacy of the Santa Ana Land Grant by M. J. Morgan; Ernie Jardine, reviewing Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific by Donald Kroodsma; and Rick Wright, reviewing The Natural History of Edward Lear by Robert McCracken Peck. You can read the full Book Reviews online here. Or, you can read the Book Reviews on the ABA Blog: here for Sheridan Coffey, here for Ernie Jardine, and here for Rick Wright.

Members can access all of this online content and more – not just from the February 2017 issue, but for all recent issues – at aba.org/birding-archive/. To navigate the entire online issue, visit the Table of Contents and click on any header to be directed to that section of the issue. Not a member, but interested in finding out what all the fuss is about? Become a member here!