Birding Online: September 2024

IOANA SERITAN
Associate Editor, Birding magazine

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The September cover of Birding magazine features a silhouette of a Resplendent Quetzal flying from left to right with its tail feathers trailing behind it. The sky in the background is a light pink color.

On the cover: A Resplendent Quetzal leaps across a lilac sky. Photo by (C) Jesús Antonio “Chucho” Moo Yam.

Green lightning strikes on September’s cover, with a stunning Resplendent Quetzal leaping from a treetop in Honduras’ La Tigra National Park. Birding‘s Latin American Correspondent, Jesús Antonio “Chucho” Moo Yam, traveled to Honduras and Guatemala in search of these incredible birds and the people who love them.

The September Birding Interview also ventures south to speak with Mercedes “Meche” Alpízar, a birding guide, conservationist, and educator based in Costa Rica. Alpízar talks about the importance of ecotourism and conservation in Costa Rica, how she started the “Niños y Aves” (Children and Birds) project to teach young kids about birds, and how her Big Year challenged her.

In “Tools of the Trade,” Kevin Loughlin reviews the OM-1 Mark II Mirrorless Camera Body, a camera that he’s put through its paces inside and outside of the United States, used in low light and among fast-moving warblers, and accidentally dunked for a quick dip in the surf at the Galapagos Islands.

Even in our regular patches, birds continue to surprise us, like the locally rare Sabine’s Gull that surprised the ABA’s Wayne Klockner in Maryland, and the Inca Dove x Common Ground Dove hybrid that called out to the Bird of the Year Artist, Natasza Fontaine. It was the dove’s sounds that piqued Fontaine’s interest among the familiar birds of her neighborhood; as she says, “being in tune with the soundscape of your local patch can help you find typically overlooked birds, yielding exciting and potentially insightful discoveries.”

Speaking of sound, vocalizations are just one of the many traits Gene Koziara uses to tell apart Louisiana and Northern Waterthrushes in the Southeast. Koziara shares all his tips and tricks, from plumage and leg coloration to timing of migration.

As always, the Book & Media Reviews take their full form online. In this month’s issue,

  • Steve Hampton reviews “Birding While Indian: A Mixed-Blood Memoir” by Thomas C. Gannon
  • Carl Safina reviews “The Screech-Owl Companion: Everything You Need to Know About These Beneficial Raptors” by Jim Wright and Scott Weston
  • David Irons reviews “Vagrancy in Birds” by Alexander Lees and James Gilroy

There’s more to see in the September issue, so dive in and enjoy – and until we meet again, happy birding.