While many Americans celebrated a certain vision of independence this past weekend, I like to think that any holiday, vacation, or sequence of at least a few unencumbered hours presents the most authentic celebration of freedom. And what symbolizes freedom better than birds if not the liberty and choice to look at them?

My holiday weekend took me to a part of the Southern Tier of New York where I can count on seeing both old-fashioned Fourth of July bunting and plentiful Indigo Buntings. Corey spent the weekend in his hometown and saw some nice birds. The best were breeding Blackburnian Warblers he found a few miles from his folks’ house in a preserve he hadn’t really explored before. That’s a pretty nice Best Bird of the Weekend!

How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us in the comments section about the rarest, loveliest, or most fascinating bird you observed. If you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, you should include a link in your comment.

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.