It has only been a week since winter rudely and abruptly arrived in Michigan. And what more appropriate bird to ease our transition to Arctic-like weather than a Snowy Owl? This bird was found by a friend who was driving…
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Seeing a Peregrine Falcon is not very unusual in southeast Michigan. Although they were not historically found in these parts, they were introduced into the city of Detroit beginning in 1987 as part of the Midwest Peregrine Restoration Program (MPRS)….
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Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) are one of my favorite birds. Quite a bit of my research focuses on their migratory ecology, and it’s always nice to have a genuine fondness for your study subject. The other day at home I…
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I know you are not supposed to click your own Google AdSense ads, but recently there were two ads for purveyors of bird’s nest soup, and I had to go see what that was all about. I knew that bird’s…
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I’m discouraged at the number of House Sparrows I see nesting in bird boxes in my neighborhood. Some of our neighbors have allowed us to put hole restrictors on their boxes to keep the House Sparrows out and allow smaller…
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With the arrival of spring, I am again working on documenting breeding birds for our state breeding bird atlas. In my highly urban county, it seems reasonable that House Sparrow, European Starling, and Rock Pigeon are nesting in every quarter-township…
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I’ve written before about Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis), a common little sparrow throughout much of North America. This species generally breeds at high latitudes (e.g., across Canada), or further south at higher altitudes (usually over 1500 feet/460 m). There it…
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Recently, we have been being warned left, right, and center that avian influenza H5N1 was likely to enter the United States via migratory birds this year (or this spring, or next week, depending on the tenor of the article). I…
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There are only two families of birds found just in the West Indies. One is the Dulidae, consisting of one species, the Palmchat (Dulus dominicus) of Hispanolia. The other is the Todidae, or todies, of which there are five species….
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Over the weekend, an Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea) was found near Point Pelee, Ontario. The sighting of one of these birds in the United States always creates a sensation, because it is a bird of the high Arctic, and fewer…
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