Green-crowned Brilliant (Heliodoxa jacula)
Have a splash of green! This phenomenal photo of a Green-crowned Brilliant (Heliodoxa jacula) was taken last year outside Monteverde in Costa Rica by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser. Even more jealousy-invoking was Sean’s note that he was using a 100mm lens for this photo of a juvenile male with birds pausing so close to their visitors. Sean is off to Costa Rica this week and we wish him a safe, wonderful and fantastic journey as he continues some important tropical research and conservation. Lucky for us he will be sharing photos, videos and accounts of his work throughout the winter,...
Read MoreWhite-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)
If you’re out and about enjoying fall foliage, heading to a farm or a pumpkin field, or spending time in other agricultural, grassy, weedy areas you may be about to see many White-crowned Sparrows like this autumn one. Here in Western New York we can find them in the dozens during the peak of migration. I remember – thanks to my eBird checklist – that I saw 41 of them at the Jamestown Airport this past May. I know there were likely many more present there. See if you can beat that total on a fall birding day!
Read MoreRoger Tory Peterson on the coast
#ThrowbackThursday to our own Dr. Roger Tory Peterson enjoying what looks to be a beautiful coastal view. I hope you’re also getting to spend the second half of August near the beach or the shore. We’re wrapping up our field season with the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds and saying goodbye to a near record number of juvenile Piping Plovers that we helped successfully fledge in 2014 across Connecticut.
Read MoreCommon Terns feeding young
We are getting to the hungry season with young birds of all sorts begging for food from their busy and tired parents. You have probably seen this happening in your yard for a couple of months. We are now into the season for waterbirds like the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) to be doing the same. Check out this video of a juvenile Common Tern begging for more even after an adult delivers a sizable meal! The squeaky wheel, it turns out, does indeed get the grease. Or the fish. Here are some photos of the foraging and feeding in action. That hungry little one was unhappy and then happy rather...
Read MoreConnecticut waterbirds in action
We are currently at the peak of activity for Connecticut’s waterbirds with terns, shorebirds and long-legged waders raising young across the state. The shoreline and its beaches, marshes and other waterways are full of activity with birds foraging, carrying food back to hatchlings or mates, defending territories and protecting eggs…there is something to look at everywhere! RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser and I have been hard at work on our Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds project and spent some time surveying this week collecting these photos along the way. Bear in mind when...
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