Apr 26 2025
A trip to the beach can be about much more than swimming, seashells, and sunsets. Coastal shorelines are among the most exciting places to watch birds, offering everything from tiny sandpipers racing ahead of the waves to pelicans gliding over the surf. Bird watching at the beach is especially rewarding because many species are easy …
Apr 19 2025
Sandpipers are among the most fascinating—and sometimes most challenging—birds to identify. A flock feeding across a mudflat may initially look like dozens of nearly identical little brown-and-white birds. Look more carefully, however, and differences begin to emerge. One bird has yellow legs, another has black legs. One has a short, straight bill, while another carries …
Apr 14 2025
Puffins have an almost irresistible combination of features: bright bills, expressive faces, compact bodies, and a slightly awkward walk that makes them look as though they are always hurrying somewhere important. Yet beneath their charming appearance is a remarkably well-adapted seabird capable of spending months on the open ocean and pursuing fish deep beneath the …
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. …
Dec 09 2023
The Giant Coot (Fulica gigantea) is an extraordinary waterbird of the high Andes of South America. Larger and heavier than most other coots, this imposing member of the rail family lives among cold lakes, lagoons, and marshes thousands of feet above sea level. With its dark slate-colored body, brilliant reddish legs, and striking multicolored bill …
Nov 26 2023
The Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is one of North America’s most recognizable plovers—and one of the few shorebirds you are just as likely to encounter in a parking lot, pasture, or athletic field as along the edge of a pond. Its bold double breast bands, piercing call, long-legged running style, and dramatic “broken-wing” performance make the …
Oct 15 2023
Kauaʻi is home to some of the most extraordinary birds in the Hawaiian Islands. From tiny honeycreepers living in misty mountain forests to albatrosses gliding above dramatic sea cliffs, the island supports birdlife shaped by millions of years of isolation. Some birds found on Kauaʻi occur throughout Hawaiʻi. Others are endemic to Kauaʻi, meaning they …
