Some birds just won’t do without a little pizzazz in their doing. Phainopeplas are among them, tip to tail. They are slight birds, the length of a pencil, and nearly as much tail as anything else. But their eyes are… Continue Reading
For some people, there is a hole in the sky, a blank spot. The condor is missing. When humans first crossed the Bering Strait into North America condors soared widely across the continent. Their fossils have been found along all… Continue Reading
This season last year we had a torrent of reports of lazuli buntings scouring through the Whiskeytown brush and in the chaparral all around the North State. These little birds attract attention because they are visually stunning. A superficial description… Continue Reading
If you stroll along the river much lately you likely see a brown bird the size of a handspan strolling, too. But you might notice that, unlike you, it is busy poking about the shoreline for insects and crustaceans, and… Continue Reading
American kestrels are striking, with burnt-red backs and tails, steel-blue wings on the males, and bold falconid markings, black and white on the face. All this is packaged into a little hawk that could perch on your finger, and can… Continue Reading
We are just beyond the United State’s election season, and it’s not too big a stretch to see red, white, and blue in some of our feathered aboriginals. Many colorful birds have headed to Mexico for the winter, but northern… Continue Reading
It doesn’t take much water for this goldfinch to enjoy a good bath! Photo by Larry Jordan Emily Dickinson famously wrote “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Now, under the oppressive disorientation of Covid-19, massive wildfires, technological manipulation, and political… Continue Reading
If you have a bird feeder in the continental United States you have almost certainly been visited by house finches. On both sides of the Mississippi their hungry flocks coat feeders like displays of cherry and root beer lollipops. They… Continue Reading
G-r-rick! G-r-rick! The woodland call of the ash-throated flycatcher manages to sound both dry and optimistic, and this bird has reason to feel both. It is well adapted to the summer conditions of the arid west. Although it sports a… Continue Reading
Nature with its feathers and its viruses does not dance for our pleasure or pain. Water does not need us to make a river. But we, of course, can both minimize natural suffering and enjoy natural beauties. There are uncounted… Continue Reading
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