American Crows are a familiar sight across the country, common everywhere except our hottest and driest deserts. While crows in folklore and fiction are often associated with trickery and death (a group of crows is, after all, called a “murder”), recent research has shed new light on just how intelligent and family-oriented these birds can […]
Tag: Common Raven
Birding with giants
This morning I had the pleasure and honour to bird with two ornithological giants – authors of e.g. the recently published Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds, Lars Svensson and Hadoram Shirihai. I know Hadoram well since my childhood, but it was the first time I birded with Lars. We met up at Ma’agan Michael with […]
A Bird Sanctuary In Killingworth, CT Pt. III
The transition from one season to the next at the Bird Sanctuary in Killingworth, Connecticut, might be as evident due to changes in the weather as to changes in wildlife seen and its behavior. The calls of peepers are a distant memory as a very infrequent croaking of a frog is heard in the early […]
February’s romantic rituals
February is a romantic month for people who celebrate Valentine’s Day, and also for several kinds of birds with early nesting cycles. Great Horned Owls may start nesting in February, though in north country during most winters, they’re more likely to wait until a bit later. Bald Eagles and ravens often engage in their splendid […]
My Favorite Bird Photos of 2013
At the end of each year I like to go back and look at the bird photographs I have taken and choose the ones I like the best for a “favorite bird photo” post. I try to pick at least one photograph from each month however some months were photographically prolific, others not so much. […]
Common Raven in the Fog
After releasing a pair of juvenile Brown Pelicans at Fort Baker that had been rehabilitated by International Bird Rescue, I decided to head up to Hawk Hill in the Golden Gate National Park to partake in the annual Hawk Watch. but luckily for me… Unfortunately, Hawk Hill was fogged in… there was a lone […]
Purple Martins Building a Nest in a Woodpecker Hole in a Dead Snag
The Purple Martin (Progne subis) is a well known and popular bird in eastern North America where it breeds almost entirely in human-made martin houses. Only a few records of natural nestings east of the Rocky Mountains have been reported during the twentieth century1. Here in western North America however, where Purple Martins are less […]
Common Raven (Corvus corax)
Ravens are found in many countries around the globe. They are well-known for their intelligence and complex social dynamics, as they seem capable of learning innovative solutions to newly encountered problems. Famous Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz credited the Raven as having the “highest mental development” of any species in the bird world. Hunters often notice […]