IOANA SERITAN
Associate Editor, Birding magazine

Welcome to Birding Online! From this page, all ABA members can access the extended online content from the February 2018 issue of Birding magazine. The complete issue, containing both print and online content, can be found at:

aba.org/birding-magazine-february-2018

I’m sure all of you members have known for months, so this won’t surprise any of you, but still! The 2018 Bird of the Year is the Iiwi, one of Hawaii’s mesmerizing honeycreeper species. As always, you will find lots of Iiwi goodies in this issue: stickers, coloring pages, a word search, the gorgeous cover itself, and thoughts on our newest celebrity from the ABA President, Jeff A. Gordon. My personal favorite is always reading the artist’s thoughts on their cover. If you love that too, you can click here to flip straight to H. Douglas Pratt’s interview about this painting, his connection to Hawaii, and his ideas of how we can support conservation in Hawaii. If you want to know even more about the Iiwi, you can also visit the ABA’s Bird of the Year website!

Iiwi in mamane. Watercolor and acrylic on Arches watercolor paper by © H. Douglas Pratt.

And as a nice little teaser, Jeff wrote in his Birding Together address that “throughout 2018, we’ll be featuring one species of Hawaiian bird in each issue of Birding.” There’s a lot to look forward to!

In other news (and notes… ba dum tch), Nick Minor brings us extended online content for News & Notes! Click here to hop straight into the fray of his updates on gull taxonomy. In all honesty, I am no expert on gulls. I love them! But that love does not translate into expertise. This extended content presents a chance for people all over the spectrum, from novices like me to the gull experts among us, to get updated on who’s who in the world of gulls. Also, check out those beautiful photographs by Greg Neise and Amar Ayyash!

From honeycreepers to gulls to Eastern Whip-poor-wills, this issue has a lot of diversity… And that diversity is reflected in the Book Reviews, as well! February’s reviews span from Hawaii to Canada, and feature three completely different styles of writing. You can click here to jump to the beginning of the reviews in the issue. Beth Guldseth reviews A Perfect Day for an Albatross, by Caren Loebel-Fried, a book intended for young readers, but a lovely read at any age. Click here for her post on the ABA Blog. Dennis Paulson reviews The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands by Robert L. Pyle and Peter Pyle, a status and distribution book with the added twist of being an online read, only. Click here for his review on the ABA Blog. Rick Wright reviews Broken Wing by David Budbill, a novella about a black birder, a demographic that still has much room to grow. You can click here for his own post on the ABA Blog.

February’s Featured Photo took me completely by surprise. Anybody else? This issue’s photo and story are brought to us by Birding‘s own Editor, Ted Floyd, and photographer extraordinaire, Mia McPherson. It’s a good reminder to always keep your eyes open and your wits about you! You can take a peek at the authors’ perspective in the issue by clicking here, or you can join the conversation on the ABA Blog by clicking here.

October 2017, Great Salt Lake, Utah. Image by © Mia McPherson.

And of course I have to take a quick moment to mention this – you can even read some of my writing in this issue! Click here to read (and, I hope, enjoy) my love song to natural history museums. Please feel free to let me know what you think! If you have a favorite natural history museum, too, I’d love to hear all about it!

As always, this is only the digest! There is plenty more to see in the February issue. Click here to start right at the top with the Table of Contents, and find your own favorite article! Happy reading, and happy birding!