Apr 08 2025
Few birds create a sense of scale quite like the Andean Condor. With enormous wings stretching more than 10 feet from tip to tip, this legendary scavenger can glide above mountain valleys for hours while barely flapping. The Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) is one of the largest flying birds on Earth and possesses the longest …
Aug 03 2024
Few birds look as though nature used quite as many colors as the Gouldian Finch. With a brilliant purple breast, golden-yellow belly, green back, turquoise collar, and a head that may be black, red, or yellow, this small Australian songbird is often described as a living rainbow. Native to the tropical savannas of northern Australia, …
Jun 09 2024
The Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) is one of the most characteristic little birds of western North America’s mountain forests. Tiny, energetic, and remarkably well adapted to cold environments, it spends much of its life among pine, fir, spruce, and other conifers. At first glance, a Mountain Chickadee looks much like several other North American chickadees: …
Jun 09 2024
Few North American birds have a lifestyle quite as extraordinary as the Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). With its bold black, white, and red plumage, pale eyes, noisy calls, and highly social personality, this western woodpecker is memorable even before you discover what it does with acorns. Instead of simply eating acorns as they find them, …
Jun 09 2024
With its jaunty forward-curving topknot, intricately patterned plumage, and habit of scurrying across the ground in groups, the California Quail (Callipepla californica) is one of the most distinctive birds of western North America. It is especially associated with California’s chaparral, oak woodlands, foothills, and brushy suburban landscapes. California Quail spend much of their lives on …
May 24 2024
New Zealand is one of the most extraordinary places in the world for birds. Long geographic isolation, the absence of native terrestrial mammalian predators other than bats, and an enormous range of habitats allowed birds to evolve in ways rarely seen elsewhere. Some became flightless. Others filled ecological roles that mammals occupy on other continents. …
May 23 2024
The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is one of the most unusual woodpeckers in North America. Rather than excavating its nesting cavities in dead or decaying trees, this highly specialized bird makes its home almost exclusively inside living pine trees. It depends on mature, open pine forests of the southeastern United States—especially the fire-shaped longleaf pine ecosystem. Known …
May 23 2024
The Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) is one of the most spectacular songbirds of eastern North America. A breeding male can seem almost impossibly bright, with a scarlet-red body set against jet-black wings and tail. Yet despite those dramatic colors, Scarlet Tanagers can be surprisingly difficult to find. They spend much of their time high in …
Apr 12 2024
The deserts of western North America may look quiet at first glance, but listen carefully in the cool hours after sunrise and you may hear a surprisingly rich song pouring from a cactus, mesquite, or low desert shrub. The singer could be one of the region’s desert-dwelling thrashers—long-tailed, strong-legged songbirds specially suited to life in …
Apr 11 2024
The Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) is one of the most impressive owls of the northern forests. With an enormous round head, piercing yellow eyes, finely patterned gray plumage, and a wingspan approaching five feet, this bird can appear almost impossibly large when perched silently at the edge of a snowy meadow. Its appearance is …
