Fresno Birds

And somehow at this late hour I find an up close photo of my grey-bearded chin headlining a story in the Grey Lady herself, the New York Times! I am glad to find myself quoted in this important story about how systemic racism and inequality in cities affect the non-human urban dwellers as much as they immiserate humans too, and honored to be featured alongside some amazing urban ecologists including my grad student Jin Bai, my friend Christopher Schell and several others studying this problem from different angles and at different scales. Do have a read with this gift link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/science/birds-cities-redlining.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AE0.2ol_.fwGRsuZK-ZeE&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Ask Kenn: What Exactly Is a Warbler? Species bearing the name warbler are found around the world, but how they're classified can be complicated, explains bird expert Kenn Kaufman.

These Amazing Images Show How Good Bird Camouflage Can Be Sometimes it pays to blend in.

Hummingbirds Are at Home When We Plant Native Plants A new study on Audubon’s Hummingbirds at Home program shows the importance of community science and native plants.

The Incas Were Some of the Earliest Bird Conservationists Seabirds and their guano were essential to the spread of the Inca Empire, and a new study details the measures it took to preserve them.

This image shows three full years of tracking a male Rough-legged Hawk with our collaborators The Rough-legged Hawk Project. These incredible tracks really show how much these raptors traverse each year! First captured while on migration in Montana on 10/10/17 as a 2-year-old, this hawk has provided 15,866 GPS locations to add to the world's largest dataset on this important species. Thanks to Jeff Kidd for spearheading this wonderful, international collaboration. We're happy to help contribute by capturing a few hawks in Wyoming and Montana for this work and will continue to do so this winter.

Via Madhusudan Katti:

So they cut down the big tree🌲that was home to this tiny Saw-Whet Owl (+man how many other creatures?) for a temporary ‘holiday’ exhibit. Then they “Rescue” the owl? And name it after the rapacious capitalist and eugenics funder “Rockefeller”? And even the Washington post describes this “rescue” as a “silver lining” to the story of the tree that is everyone is making fun of because it looks ragged after being cut down and moved 175 miles, with the poor owl clinging to it? And now everyone is going aww and sqeee over this poor traumatized owl? WHAT THE F**K IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?? HOW IS THIS ANY KIND OF CHRISTMAS SPIRIT??

😖 😡 🤬 🤯

If this isn’t the rotten cherry on top of the s**t sundae that 2020 has been! We don’t deserve this planet - certainly not those proud to be part of a “civilization” that would do such a thing in the name of someone they claim was the son of the creator of all living things.

A tiny owl was saved after getting stuck in the Rockefeller Center tree: ‘It’s the Christmas miracle of 2020’ A worker setting up the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree made an unusual discovery this week: a tiny owl hiding near the tree's base.

‘Black Women Who Bird’ Take the Spotlight to Make Their Presence Known As part of Black Birders Week, women are sharing their love of the outdoors and the challenges they face in them.

Great interview with one of the founders of Black Birders Week.

#BlackBirdersWeek takes on systemic racism ‘The whole purpose is to highlight and showcase Black birders, and anybody can do that.’