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Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania: A Review by an Atlas Novice

10,000 Birds

A breeding bird atlas is a special kind of book. For ornithologists, it is the documentation of a multi-year project designed to record the distribution and abundance of birds in a specific area (in North America, usually a state or a province), utilizing a mapping method involving blocks and grids.

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Birds of Belize & Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide Review Doubleheader

10,000 Birds

Since the books share authors and a creation process, I thought I would review them together. It’s not clear how many of the plates have been touched up, redrawn or are new, and I hope we’ll learn more about the process, perhaps when the third book in the series by Howell and Dyer, a new guide to the birds of Mexico, is published.*

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Do birds avoid predators because of culture?

10,000 Birds

Plasticity in humans is probably modulated primarily through experience and enculturation. Most likely, all individuals of a given species have very similar genes guiding very similar developmental processes, but produce different results because the plasticity itself is selected for.

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Revenge Birding (Shanghai, early June 2022)

10,000 Birds

After writing this last sentence, I looked up the species in the HBW and found the sentence “Song poorly documented” in the appropriate section, while with regard to calls, the description is that “call is a two-note raspy nasal ‘ryeeh-reh’”. It is even better to see adult Striated Herons in the wild, at Nanhui.

Singapore 147
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Better Birding: A Book Review (& a New Year’s goal)

10,000 Birds

It’s the process of using knowledge of natural history, habitat, distribution, behavior, and, yes, taxonomy, combined with specifics of adult and juvenile plumage and vocalization to identify a bird, often to the subspecies. The process is called “Wide-angle birding: Be the bird, see the bird.”. Just go to the boldfaced page number.

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Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America: A Review by a Sparrow Fan

10,000 Birds

Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. Wright emphasizes the use of “shape and pattern of wing and tail” and size in the identification process. Range and Geographic Variation.

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The Joy of Bird Feeding: A Book Review by a Birder who Loves Her Feeder Birds

10,000 Birds

He brings to this book an academic background in biology and horticulture and, more importantly, decades of experience developing strategies for the best backyard bird feeding practices. Jim Carpenter is the founder of Wild Birds Unlimited, the popular bird feeder and seed franchise.

Birds 187