Thank you! These herons are local celebrities, and they aren’t shy. Great photo subjects!

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, breeding plumes raised, posing beside Iris pseudacorus — beautiful, and unfortunately invasive in NA wetlands. Alas, the heron didn't make the landscaping decisions. Sandy Creek Park, Durham, NC. #YCNH #PetalsAndPerches #BirdOfTheDay

Rorschach test, avian edition.

Striking Great Egret! The water handled the symmetry.

#BirdOfTheDay #Reflections #GREG #birding

"Can I help you?" TFW you make eye contact with a Great Egret and realize you're the one being watched. Its neck is a spring-loaded spear, with 20 cervical vertebrae coiled and ready to strike at fish faster than you can blink.
#GREG #LongNecks #BirdOfTheDay

I previously posted about some cool genetics re: this bird's golden color. Check it out!

Prothonotary Warbler clinging to a tree trunk, its vivid golden-yellow head and breast contrasting with olive-gray wings. The bird is angled upward mid-climb, sharp black bill in profile, surrounded by soft-focus green foliage. April, 2025. Sandy Creek Park, Durham, NC.

April's golden ticket just arrived. Prothonotary Warblers migrate from Central and South American mangroves to breed in southeastern bottomland swamps; a very long journey for a bird that weighs less than a AAA battery. Durham, NC. #BirdOfTheDay #PROW #warblers

Rear view of a male Indian Peafowl in full display, showing the radiating green iridescent upper tail coverts from behind, gray rectrices fanning beneath them for support, warm brown wing coverts flanking the body, and fluffy white undertail feathers. Key Biscayne, FL.

Nobody photographs the back of a peacock display, which is exactly why you should. The brown wing coverts, the gray structural rectrices doing all the work, the fluffy white undertail. Every diva has a stage crew. #BirdOfTheDay #Feathers #INPE #IndianPeafowl

Thanks, Alan! I’m eagerly awaiting their return any day now, and this year, I have more Jewelweed than ever!

Johnny Randall's original dissertation on the subject.

When orange and yellow jewelweed co-occur, bumblebees prefer yellow, just for the color. Hummingbirds lean toward orange. Neither preference is exclusive, but it means orange jewelweed's fate depends more on hummingbirds in mixed stands (Randall 1988). #NativePlants

The relationship between nectar spur curvature in jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) and pollen removal by hummingbird pollinators Floral nectar spurs are hypothesized to have had a major role in the evolution of floral diversity and plant-pollinator coadaptation. We examined variation in the degree of nectar spur curvature in tw...

The curved spur on the jewelweed isn't decorative, it's part of a pollen delivery system. More curvature = more contact with the hummingbird's upper bill = more pollen deposited. Evolution acting as engineer. Travers et al. 2003. #NativePlants #RTHU

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovering mid-flight at an orange jewelweed flower, wings blurred with motion, surrounded by green foliage and dangling jewelweed blooms.

Jewelweed and hummingbirds: a 20-million-year-old handshake. The flower's spur is sized exactly for that bill, and the pollen lands exactly on that forehead. Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Durham, NC.
#BirdOfTheDay #SmallBirdsInFlight #RTHU #NativePlants

Golden-crowned Kinglet standing on snow-covered ground among scattered brown oak leaves. Bright yellow-orange crown stripe visible on its small round head. Bird is puffed up against the cold. January, 2025.

A Golden-crowned Kinglet picking through snow and oak leaves back in January. Weighs as much as two nickels but spends the whole winter here, burning through its body weight in insects daily just to stay warm. Durham, NC. #BirdOfTheDay #weather #GCKI #birding

Great Blue Heron photographed from directly below in flight, wings fully extended against a pale blue sky. Backlit feathers show detailed barring patterns. Legs trail behind the body.

Great Blue Heron overhead! Wingspan: 6 ft (1.8m) — wider than most humans are tall. Standing height: 4 ft (1.2m). Weight: about 5.5 lbs (2.5 kg). They're essentially a fishing spear disguised as a kite. Durham, NC. #BirdOfTheDay #LargeBirdsInFlight #GBHE

Close-up of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron mid-swallow, tossing a crawfish into the air against a backdrop of green vegetation. The bird's heavy bill, orange eye, and blue-gray plumage are sharply detailed.

"I'll try the lobster." Yellow-crowned Night-Heron with a specialized crustacean-crushing bill to back it up. Sandy Creek Park, Durham, NC. #BirdofTheDay #snacks #YCNH #birding

Adult Egyptian Goose foraging on green grass with five small downy goslings clustered around its feet. Warm brown and chestnut plumage with iridescent green wing patch, dark eye patch, pink legs and bold orange eye. Goslings are fluffy brown and cream. Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, FL. February 1, 2024.

Not a goose. Not originally from Egypt. Not native to Florida. But when you have five kids, taxonomy is the last thing on your mind. The Egyptian Goose is a shelduck that escaped captivity and has built a life where it found itself.
#BirdOfTheDay #AdultsWithChicks #birding

Blue Grosbeak perched on bare gray branches, facing right. Vivid deep blue-indigo plumage with russet-brown wing bars, heavy silver-gray conical bill, dark lores. Soft green-yellow bokeh background with a few pine needles visible. North Carolina, July 2025.

The Blue Grosbeak: half color, half engineering. "Gros bec" in French is literally "big beak." He is a seed-crushing specialist wrapped in indigo. Don't let the pretty color distract you from the serious hardware. #BirdOfTheDay #Blue #BLGR #birding

Mute Swan standing in shallow water with both wings raised and spread behind its body, mid-flap after bathing. White plumage with textured neck feathers, orange bill with black knob. Dark feet visible in calm gray water, green shoreline blurred in background. Cape Island, Cape May, NJ. September, 24, 2024

Every waterfowl bath seems to go the same way: dunk, preen, stretch, flap. If you see a Mute Swan working through its ablutions, just wait. The finale is coming.
#BirdOfTheDay #WingsOpenNotFlying #MUSW #birding

Thank you! This was my first (and so far only) Fox Sparrow, and it just happened earlier this year. Such a big sparrow! I thought it was a thrush at first. Taken from my kitchen window - so lucky I had my camera sitting next to me, and my reflexes were working.

Reaction-diffusion models of within-feather pigmentation patterning Feathers are complex, branched keratin structures that exhibit a diversity of pigmentation patterns. Feather pigments are transferred into developing feather keratinocytes from pigment cells that migrate into the tubular feather germ from the ...

Prum & Williamson (2002) modeled how bars, spots, and chevrons all emerge from the same developmental toolkit -- just different parameters in the follicle. The chevron is what you get when temporal banding meets helical barb growth. Studied in chickens, but the geometry applies to any feather.

Fox Sparrow perched on a bare branch, facing slightly left. Rich rufous-brown upperparts with bold white breast heavily marked with dark chestnut chevron-shaped streaks and spots. Olive-brown crown, pale lower mandible with yellow base, russet tail. Soft gray-green bokeh background with bare twigs. Durham, NC. February 2026.

A Fox Sparrow's breast chevrons are (likely) a reaction-diffusion pattern; melanin pulses during feather growth, unfurling into V-shapes as the barb ridges spiral out of the follicle. Same math Turing described in 1952.
#BirdOfTheDay #speckled #FOSP #birding

Thank you! This bird put on a long preening show for me on this day.

Great Blue Heron perched on a wooden post, bill open wide revealing a vivid orange-red gape and interior. Blue-gray plumage with shaggy breast feathers, backlit by soft green bokeh with sparkling highlights. Wispy feather filaments visible near the bill.

Great Blue Heron on a post, mid-yawn, showing off its vivid orange gape that you don't see when the beak is closed.

Even dinosaurs need to stretch. Durham, NC.

#BirdOfTheDay #OpenBeak #GBHE #birding

If you have any other feature suggestions or issues, I really welcome any input!

Thanks, Rob!

@themurmuring.bsky.social we have a mealworm feeder near our window, and the robins love it. In fact, this one thinks it belongs to him and only him!

There's a continuous play option in settings - no timer!

American Robin perched on a pale branch, head tilted up with bright yellow-orange bill. Black head with broken white eye-ring, rich burnt-orange breast with subtle feather scalloping, dark gray-brown-black back and wings. Soft, muted orange, green and gray bokeh background.

Turdus migratorius -- for some, but in NC, they never leave. We get these colors year-round: black velvet head, burnt-orange breast, bill like a shard of gold. The beautiful American Robin, so common and so underrated. #BirdOfTheDay #tricolour #YearRound #AMRO

Thank you, Dr. Bergstrom!

A Great Egret stands on a tree branch, head tucked under a raised wing as it preens its inspects its feathers. The bright white plumage fans out against a soft green forest background, with the orange/yellow bill visible among the feathers. Durham, NC, July 28, 2025.

Great Egret conducting a full feather audit where every plume is accounted for, inspected, and zipped. Durham, NC.

#BirdOfTheDay #Preeners&Scratchers #GREG #birding