Birding Online: November 2021

IOANA SERITAN
Associate Editor, Birding magazine

Welcome to Birding Online! Here, all ABA members can access the extended online content from the November 2021 issue of Birding magazine. The complete issue, containing both print and online content, can be found here:

aba.org/birding-magazine-november-2021

“The Noble ‘O’o” by © H. Douglass Pratt.

This issue’s cover is a stunning painting by H. Douglass Pratt. It’s a gorgeous work of art – and there’s more to enjoy in the Birding Interview with the artist! Click here to flip open to the interview and learn about H. Douglass Pratt’s illustrations, Pacific Island birds, and more.

We’re lucky enough to welcome new team members at the ABA! Katinka Domen is our new Travel and Events Coordinator, Laura Guerard is the Young Birder Programs Coordinator, and Frank Izaguirre steps fully into the Birding Editor role. Click here to read their joint “Birding Together” column.

Field ornithologist and activist Sarah Kulis is legally blind and a passionate birder. In her feature article, she tells us how she fell in love with birding, what challenges make birding and ornithology more difficult for her, and why sharing her story is so important. As Sarah says, “We’re in the midst of a revolution—a revolution for race, gender, and sexual orientation equality. In this revolution, people with disabilities are important, too.” Click here to read her own words.

That’s only the first of November’s feature articles. Caroline Van Hemert takes us on a day trip with her family in Alaska and shows us the magic of keeping one’s eyes open in “Corvid Sense.” Tim Low delves into the distant past of passerine history to identify where songbirds got their songs in “The Songbird Story.” And Rick Wright explores where in the world the colloquial name ‘goatsucker’ even came from in “What the Goatsucker Means.”

November’s Featured Photo is a hummingbird, and you might be able to tell it’s either a Black-chinned or Ruby-throated hummingbird. But how to tell between the two? Jodhan Fine helps us walk the line. Click here to flip open to the photo, and here for the analysis.

Don’t forget to check out Nick Minor’s Frontiers in Ornithology, which tackles a new computer model developed to predict where migratory birds are in real time, and a recently discovered seabird hotspot in the North Atlantic.

As always, the Book & Media Reviews take their full form online. You can click here to open to the beginning of the reviews in the online issue. This month:

  • Frank Izaguirre reviews “All the Birds of the World” by Josep del Hoyo, and “The Largest Avian Radiation: The Evolution of Perching Birds, or the Order Passeriformes,” edited by Jon Fjeldså, Les Christidis, and Per G. P. Ericson
  • Rebecca Heisman reviews “I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird: A Daughter’s Memoir”
  • Marcel Gabhauer reviews “A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds” by Scott Weidensaul

And Frank’s Bird Book Bulletin spreads the word on recently published bird books & media that may be of interest to you, so make sure to check it out for your next read!

There’s plenty to enjoy this month! Click here to flip open to the Table of Contents and explore the issue for yourself.