10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2011

” But the tanager brand is changing. A wonderful Audubon magazine article on birds’ bills (“ Pecking Order “) notes that individual Great Tits in England experience a change in bill shape between summer and winter as their primary food sources shift. These are neither sparrows, nor finches, but tanagers.

2003 204

2003 Sparrows Family South America 204

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2011

I did not get to appreciate all that America had to offer for the birder until I returned with my husband, Grant, in 1989. Our first shopping trip when we arrived in Florida was to buy a field guide and that afternoon we thought we had a soft drink can sitting on a fence-you know the brand-no, it’s not that…it’s a cardinal!

South Africa 158

South Africa United States Austin Alligators 158

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Experiments in the field (the famed Asa Wright Nature Center veranda) involving Bananaquits and bananas came up with numbers ranging from 7 to 16, but a tanager always came along to interfere with Bananaquits’ noisy appreciation of their namesake fruit. Even during the breeding season the birds appear to be quite unwary of humans.

Trinidad 188

Trinidad Birds South America Research 188