We shivered a bit this morning at the world-famous Patagonia Roadside Rest, but it was well worth it: the male Rose-throated Becard continues his project of transfering, piece by excruciatingly tiny piece, the old nest to the new nest, located, oh, about 4 feet away. No sign of a female yet, but she may just [...]

Alison and Kt worked their digital magic yesterday to create a German-language version of the Aimophila Adventures website. Click on www.birdaz.com/de.

Florida Wash, just below Madera Canyon, is one of the classic sites for Rufous-winged Sparrow, and several were singing up a storm there this morning. Two Botteri’s Sparrows, one of them perched uncharacteristically high in a dead mesquite, added to the chorus. And a little ways down the wash, where the sides were steep and rocky, [...]

I was pretty shocked this afternoon to see on one of the discussion lists the recommendation that beginning birders eager to improve their skills should bird alone.
It is certainly true that birding in a large group–say, on organized field
trips–can make it too easy to rely on the expertise of others; passivity
never makes for good learning. [...]

Everybody knows that birds need to replace their feathers once in a while, but it’s easy to forget that molt proceeds regularly from feather group to feather group: they don’t just drop ‘em all at once. This can produce some strange-looking birds, with gaps in the wings or tail, odd-colored patches where feather bases are [...]