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Among the common breeding birds of southeast Arizona that have not yet made it onto our modest yard list are some that enjoy a virtually worldwide distribution.
Of the birds that are still MIA, Barn Owl isn’t so much of a surprise, I guess: our neighborhood is pretty densely vegetated by Sonoran desert standards, and the [...]
Remember the passage in Wild America where James Fisher admits to missing one thing about England? It’s the corvids: America, he mused, was lacking in great noisy social crows.
Fisher was talking about Rooks, of course, but whenever I’m in Europe admiring that continent’s diversity of crows and jays and magpies, I always think of that [...]
At all but the hottest hours this time of year, Purple Martins are among the most conspicuous birds of our desert suburb. They seem to fly and sing all night–as the owners of a new puppy can attest with only too much certainty–and gather on the wires in the yard at dawn and at dusk.
The [...]
My new Birds and Art in Tuscany tour will run for the first time next May 17-27, starting in Rome and ending in Pisa (the region’s major international airport). The approach is similar to that I take each year in Provence: birds provide the focus for the itinerary, but the experience is in getting to [...]
1 Comment »Does it help if I note that this curious Passer was photographed on the grounds of Puccini’s villa on Lago del Torre?
There were lots of birds to see on my scouting trip to Tuscany, but Italian Sparrows really won the heart. Every bit as confiding and friendly as their domesticus cousins, these large-billed, chestnut-crowned birds [...]
