Of all the taxonomic tangles we’ve blundered into in the last 20 years, the necklaced jays of the genus Aphelocoma are among the most impenetrable. Back when I started birding, it was relatively easy: we had only The Scrub Jay, a bright blue bird with an oddly disjunct range in the mountain west, California, and [...]

The Huachuca Mountains and the upper San Pedro are hallowed ground on the North American birder’s pilgrimage route: it was here that many of our “southeast Arizona specialties” were discovered, by soldier-ornithologists in the 19th century, and birding there today always makes me feel the happy weight of tradition behind me.
Denis and I started our [...]

No, not in the sense of lifebirds, but birds that are truly new to the world: babies! 
It’s a fantastic time of year here in southeast Arizona, with the weather still bearable and an intriguing mix of dawdling migrants and busy local breeders. Darlene and I spent a couple of hours this morning at Sweetwater Wetlands. [...]

I’ve put off reading this book longer than anyone I know, annoyed, I suppose, by the would-be cuteness of the title and the relentless efforts of the marketers when first it came out. But yesterday, lingering at the public library, I noticed the small volume on the new-books shelf, and figured, why not?
Why not, indeed. [...]

I’ve just noticed that Stephen Rothstein’s splendid article on the Brown-headed Cowbird is ‘up’ on the Birding website:
http://americanbirding.org/pubs/birding/archives/vol36no4p374to384.pdf
Read it and be amazed, especially if you are among those who dislike cowbirds!