Land exploitation harms the planet and drives many animals to near extinction. The most popular example would be what deforestation for palm oil production has done to orangutan populations. When humans destroy a species’ natural habitat, the animals are left with very limited amounts of land to live on and limited places to find food. […]
Tag: hummingbird
Protect Endangered Birds, Rhinos, and Tigers – 7 Petitions You Should Sign This Week!
It’s horrible to hear about animal abuse cases or read the ways humans are endangering many species. Fortunately, there are things we can do to speak for them. One of the ways we can help and lend our voices to good causes is by signing petitions. Such petitions are sent to people in powerful positions […]
Picaflor tijereta (Swallow-tailed hummingbird) Eupetomena macroura
Durante el pasado mes de Enero y luego de un poco mas de 7 años sin que aparezca por mi casa, regresó una vez mas el Picaflor tijereta. De igual manera que en aquella primer oportunidad, importante para mi por el hecho de que era el primer registro con evidencia fotográfica para el sur de […]
The radical otherness of birds: Jonathan Franzen on why they matter
For most of my life, I didn’t pay attention to birds. Only in my 40s did I become a person whose heart lifts whenever he hears a grosbeak singing or a towhee calling, and who hurries out to see a golden plover that’s been reported in the neighbourhood, just because it’s a beautiful bird, with […]
POLL: Should Praying Mantises be used for pest control?
New research documents that mantises worldwide are eating small birds; in the US, invasive mantis species are devouring hummingbirds. If the headline weren’t startling enough, the photos are even worse. There is an order to predators and prey that feels normal – like, birds eat insects. And when the script it flipped it can feel […]
Looks Great on Paper
We were so fortunate last week to spend it in the company of some great shooter and amazing birds. That combination should have produced some killer images. It was on paper the perfect mix of biology and technology, hummers and flash. Madera Cyn, Santa Rita Lodge, in particular, is simply a spectacular location for birds, […]
Twice as many?
In 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived in America, the people already living here were well aware of their land’s ornithological treasures. On October 12, 1492, Columbus wrote in his diary that the only wild animals he saw at all were parrots, but he had seen much more by October 21, when he wrote, The melody […]
Fall is here! A walk on the Western Waterfront Trail
A lot of people seem to think it’s still summer—yesterday’s sweltering 88 degrees contributes to that misapprehension. Birds know better. Days are noticeably getting shorter, most baby birds of the year are on their own now, and adults are recovering from the rigors of raising those young birds—many have finished molting into new feathers and […]