IOANA SERITAN
Associate Editor, Birding magazine

Welcome to Birding Online! Here, all ABA members can access the extended online content from the February 2020 issue of Birding magazine. The complete issue, containing both print and online content, can be found at:

This month, the cover shines with color, energy, and light. Tony Fitzpatrick designed this cover to celebrate the 2020 Bird of the Year: the Cedar Waxwing. The February issue is full of content that dives into the magic of waxwings.

Tony Fitzpatrick describes how he made this cover, how he feels about waxwings, and more in Birding magazine and the American Birding Podcast. Click here to go to the interview in the magazine. Click here to listen to the American Birding Podcast episode.

ABA President Jeff Gordon waxes poetic (pun intended) on the 10th anniversary of the Bird of the Year program in “Birding Together.” Click here to read what he thinks about the birds we’ve highlighted, and the birds we have yet to see.

Jennifer Rycenga delves into “the biology, cultural meaning, and general coolness” of waxwings in the magazine, which you can read by clicking here.

And our Featured Photo is just a little different than normal… Peter Pyle brings his technical expertise to a special candidate: the cover itself! Sure, the cover features two-dimensional birds. But we can still apply our three-dimensional puzzle-solving skills to age and sex these birds. Click here to flip open to Peter Pyle’s analysis.

In your physical copies, you should have also received your word search, coloring page, and Bird of the Year stickers. Enjoy! I hope to see some Cedar Waxwing stickers in the wild!

Moving on from waxwing content (for now), the February issue features two new — and very thorough — pieces on bird identification. First, Paul Hess’ “Frontiers in Ornithology” brings us a breakdown on Gray-cheeked and Bicknell’s Thrushes, which you can click here to read. Second, Jack Bushong and Steven Mlodinow team up to bring us their analysis of Mexican Ducks in the ABA Area, which you can click here to read. Both of these feature articles will be available as stand-alone pieces on the ABA website soon. Stay tuned!

The Book & Media Reviews, as always, can be found in the online issue. However, I would like to direct your attention to the new, shiny Book Reviews section of the ABA website. Here, you should be able to find all of the past and present Book & Media Reviews in one organized place. Nice, right?

• Click here to find Frank Izaguirre’s reviews of There are Birds by Stephanie Seymour, and Look at the Harlequins! by Stephan Nance.
• Click here for Audrey Addison’s review of Birds of the Pacific Northwest by John Shewey and Tim Blount.
• Click here for Kate Sutherland’s review of Oceanic Birds of the World: A Photo Guide by Steve N. G. Howell and Kirk Zufelt.
• And finally, John Kricher’s review of the 4th Edition of Ornithology is coming soon to the ABA website. For now, you can click here to read it in the online issue.

You can explore the online issue yourself by clicking here and going straight to the Table of Contents. We hope you enjoy! Happy birding. Find some waxwings for us!