New podcast episode!
This month's panel is an exceptional one to end a month with. Host Nate Swick is joined by Stephanie Beilke, Andres Jimenez, and Ryan Mandelbaum for a fun and birdy conversation.
Listen here: www.aba.org/this-month-i...
new post: an interview with aaron soh, who has a passion not for finding things himself, but helping other people figure out what they’re looking at. he's uncovered several species photographed for the first time since their scientific description.
ryanmandelbirder.substack.com/p/documentin...
eurasian goshawks are so much less serious than american goshawks. like... chasing a snipe around the marsh?? get real
a small gull on a fence post next to a sign on a hill. the next photo zooms in to find out that...
...the gull is made of plastic.
i shouted "little gull"
everything about bad bunny's halftime show was perfect except for the set which gave me flashbacks of failing to see yellow-breasted crake in identical-looking habitat on my last visit to puerto rico
I’d love to be able to enjoy the Muppets as much as everyone else does but whenever I watch them I just feel sick imagining what the man inside the Kermit the Frog costume must look like
(i think they liked the presentation regardless)
a powerpoint slide titled "introducing: the red crossbill" with two images: on the left a wide character with a simply-drawn white head, two tiny beady eyes, a strong underbite, and a yellow bowler cap wearing a blue shirt that says "homsar" in the bauhaus font. on the right is a red crossbill, a small brick-red finch with beak-tips that cross over one another.
i defiantly used this slide at a presentation given last night to a zoom call full of retired people, meant to explain why red crossbills are my favorite bird. i don't care if you've never encountered the most esoteric character from the homestar runner webtoon universe. this is millennial culture
Daily reminder that you can make personalized messages with feathers and bird names over at feathertype.binstobins.com.
You download hi-res images and video, and even order prints!
scrolling though the iphone ringtones and realized that one of them is in 7/8 time which isn't that weird i guess but i like to think the composer was having a little fun with it
it's here, the moment you've all been waiting for: the microsnail blog! dive into a journey of discovery, drama, loss, and hope as you learn about... the tiny fen snails of lake huron ryanmandelbirder.substack.com/p/that-time-...
the bird died yesterday, the finders reporting that it smelled like creosote (a wood stain) and had white feathers beneath the black feathers. all we're left with are viral photos of a distressed bird and another obvious example showing that clout is in no way correlated with knowledge.
but photographers instead promoted the idea that the bird was melanistic—black due to a genetic mutation—and made viral post after viral post highlighting the bird's rarity. they also asserted that, although preening constantly and allowing for close approach, the bird was acting normally.
i am unreasonably mad about the "goth heron." if you didn't see, a heron in louisiana went quasi-viral because it was all black. it was pretty clear that that the bird was covered in something, with yellow knees peeking through its black legs and greasy-looking clumped neck feathers.
I think my least favorite quality in a person, one that is so often praised as an asset or virtue, is: "doesn't take no for an answer." We're living through an extended nightmare of what that looks like when brought to its logical conclusion.
I had so much fun talking to @ryanfm.bsky.social about their book and birds and much more on my latest podcast episode. Give it a listen and don't forget to buy a copy of Wild NYC!
Pod 🎧 billbowbaggins.substack.com/p/ten-birdin...
Book 📕 bookshop.org/p/books/wild...
One of my favorite things about working on Alcatraz was watching the resident raven pair "teach" their kids to fly. It always included a session on barrel rolls. It was even more special bc the mgmt plan incl oiling their eggs to make them unviable & the ravens knew & would always lay another clutch
sitting at lunch in midtown manhattan and just watched a raven do a barrel roll, presumably for no reason
amazing, congrats!!!
Some personal news: I’m writing a book!
I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.
A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣
Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.
This is who it was:
Christmas ornament with colorful feathere
If you’re thinking to yourself
“How can I get more 🐦 on my 🎄 this year”
I have some good news.
You can use this little tool to design a feathery ❄️ from 🐦 data and make a one of a kind ornament.
ofafeather.binstobins.com
a spherical hermit thursh - a brown bird with a white front and speckled belly, looking directly at the camera on a distant branch, backlit
also sprach zara-thrush-tra
in florida they just hang out in suburban parking lots apparently!
a loggerhead shrike sitting on a fencepost with green in the background. its wings are slightly spread and its beak is slightly open. it is facing right. loggerhead shrikes are big-headed songbirds with a pale gray belly, darker gray back, stout black bill, thick black eye mask, and black wings with a large white spot in the middle of each wing.
murder mockingbird
somehow stumbled into the fact that suntory (the japanese whisky company) runs an online encyclopedia about the birds of japan www.suntory.co.jp/eco/birds/en...
having seen rainbow starfrontlet in person i am going to go with that one. they are beastly hummingbirds in every sense of the word
for me the vomit-like smell of ginkgo fruit is the nostalgic smell of fall, much in the way that rotting garbage and piss is the somewhat less nostalgic smell of summer
that's crazy!!!
