10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2014

It’s bad enough to be an invasive species — the term shows a major fall in public esteem from the days when acclimatization was the rage. But as a descriptor, ‘invasive species’ doesn’t have a patch on ‘noxious weed’ Call something a noxious weed and there’s no doubt where you stand on it.

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Montana Goats Sheep Species 164

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2021

As of mid-November 2021, the Collaborative had submitted more than 4,200 checklists (up from 1,700 in 2018) and has observed 691 species in the United States (up from 618). Thus, there are now seven states with 200+ observed species. The state with the largest increase was Arizona , with 139 species added.

United States 209

United States West Virginia Puerto Rico Minnesota 209

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 16, 2016

Last week many birders were shocked and saddened by the deaths of thousands of Snow Geese who, trapped by adverse weather conditions, landed at the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana. As an Explainer of Montana, I am here to help. You may be curious about what exactly is the deal with that.

Montana 150

Montana Geese Collecting Species 150

10,000 Birds

JUNE 20, 2014

The species that calls western Montana home is the black cottonwood, while plains and narrowleaf cottonwood call the rest of the state home. They can grow large and magnificent, providing trunks large enough for dug-out canoes and building materials along with medicine and other practical uses from their buds and bark.

Montana 169

Montana Cattle Deer Humane 169

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2015

If you’ve ever wanted to understand why warning calls by one bird species seem to spread rapidly, like an avian version of the Wave , to birds of other species, Professor Erick Greene from the University of Montana is your man. (From the film version of Doctor Dolittle ).

New York Times 154

New York Times Montana Science New York 154

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

I also ran into a local birder who was unimpressed when I gushed about how much I was enjoying my morning — until I explained that I was from Montana. Well, I am sort of am from Montana now, I guess. My last species in the park was Wood Duck , which we have in Montana too but which is always fun to see.

Montana 166

Montana New York City New York Nashville 166

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2023

Pelee National Park – Ohio Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge – Texas These locations offer a variety of habitats including marshes, wetlands, forests, coastal areas, and deserts, attracting numerous bird species throughout the year. Please note that the availability of specific bird species may vary depending on the season.

United States 162

United States Michigan Texas Virginia 162

10,000 Birds

MAY 24, 2013

When you move on to Montana, you discover that there are worse things that one species of tiny screaming mammal tricking you each year as you try to cope with an influx of songbirds and a winterized memory bank that contains only Black-capped Chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos (and only about half their calls at that.)

Chipmunks 185

Chipmunks Squirrels Rodents Montana 185

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 12, 2021

There is also a research institute dedicated to wilderness: the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute is an interagency facility located at the University of Montana. For example, hunting is not permitted in most NPS wilderness areas, but it is often allowed in wilderness areas managed by the other agencies.

Puerto Rico 265

Puerto Rico Alaska Protection Research 265

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2017

Last night I lay awake from 4 am til almost 5, worrying about the black-footed ferrets I met in Montana and the humans who had devoted their lives to helping them. As my fellow blogger Meredith Mann pointed out last summer, the Endangered Species Act in particular has been a massive success for birds.

Endangered Species 100

Endangered Species Ferrets United States Montana 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2018

Others were established to protect specific bird species or subspecies. Lee Metcalf NWR (Montana). according to eBird , including: Aransas (368 species); Bosque del Apache (360); Parker River (359); Laguna Atascosa (356); Santa Ana (342); Anahuac (329); Pea Island (326); and Edwin B. Ding Darling NWR (Florida). Forsythe (319).

Wildlife 214

Wildlife Las Vegas Texas Minnesota 214

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2017

A long trip to a distant hot spot, a targeted species, the careful working of a patch, a heady plunge into the whirlpool of migration or a determined sifting of shorebirds, gulls, distant raptors – all these varieties of birding have their own pleasures and proponents. It’s one thing to go birding.

Montana 133

Montana Birds Fish Groups 133

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2018

In the fall of 2017, my mother and favorite birding buddy visited the mountains of Montana for a fishing trip. Upon returning, she raved about her new favorite species: the Clark’s Nutcracker. While hiking along a river, she spotted a large, gray and black bird on the branch of a tree.

Montana 101

Montana 2017 Fish Game 101

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 2, 2016

Sandhill Cranes , ancient and currently abundant – the most abundant species of crane in the world – are nevertheless almost miraculous to me every time I see them. The five subspecies – Greater, Lesser, Mississippi, Florida, Cuban – show the genetic marks of what the species has had to do to survive.

California Condor 161

California Condor Mississippi Florida Montana 161

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 14, 2018

This year, a few months after my fortieth birthday, when I saw a Blue Jay in West Glacier Montana I felt only a small bit of surprise – it was an uncommon bird but no longer really extralimital as a wintering species. 1978, for reference, was the year of my birth.

New York Times 140

New York Times Montana Oregon Deer 140

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Immediately at the start of the book, Meiburg infects the reader with his delight in one caracara species, the Striated, a resident of the Falkland Islands and Tierra del Fuego, and the southernmost bird of prey in the world. Well, I know of one such guy, anyway. With abundant roadkill (1.3

Guyana 251

Guyana South America Washington DC 251

10,000 Birds

APRIL 2, 2024

Osborn, a passionate field biologist who participates to the core of her being three re-introduction projects aimed at saving three very different, endangered species: Peregrine Falcon, Hawaiian Crow (‘Alala)*, and California Condor. Sophie Osborn’s stories are personal and inspiring, but this is more than a personal memoir.

California Condor 188

California Condor Falcons California Birds 188

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2020

Lately (in the last month or so) he’s been through the Dakotas, Montana, and Canada, up to the Northwest Territories. And in April, he sees the return of the many species he has seen in that month in years past – but, also, weirdly, a Virginia Rail, a reclusive marsh bird, flopping around the sidewalk in downtown D.C. (the

New Hampshire 236

New Hampshire Washington Virginia United States 236

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

A week ago today, the federal government proposed a “threatened” listing for the Greater Sage Grouse in Nevada and California , as part of a larger study considering whether the species as a whole should be listed. Conservation Endangered Species Act Greater Sage Grouse sage-grouse'

Nevada 161

Nevada Endangered Species Montana Humane 161

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2014

And yet, perhaps ironically, the biggest sign of spring in a Montana March is when the skies fill with white. Snow Geese overgrazing their breeding grounds, displacing other Arctic-breeding species and setting themselves up for a fall. The result?

Geese 182

Geese Montana Breeding Pelicans 182

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

With all my traipsing about this year I’ve actually been shamefully lax on birding Montana. Montana offers little in the way of flamingos, generally speaking. No Snow Geese or swans yet, and no Sandhill Cranes , but it did renew my taste for some of the simpler, homier pleasures of birding.

Bald Eagle 110

Bald Eagle Montana Owls Italy 110

10,000 Birds

JULY 26, 2013

The swallows here in Montana have an admirable ability to assort themselves into nesting niches. I had always seen them well over my head, in rocky canyons, and given that they are an exclusively Western species, I assumed this is why. Bank Swallows live in our many sandy banks. Tree Swallows live in trees — and nest boxes.

Montana 158

Montana Woodpeckers Eggs Raised 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2012

Like several of my favorite NWRs, this one was established as a haven for migratory birds, most notably waterfowl, during the bad old days when uncontrolled hunting and habitat loss had put the future of even species we now think of as common in doubt. As a result, early migration season is an excellent time to visit.

Wildlife 170

Wildlife Montana Geese Bald Eagle 170

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2013

Since I moved to Montana I’ve been updating it sporadically at best, and over the past year or so, not at all. Perhaps, too, it doesn’t hurt that the number of lists from Montana is large enough to create meaningful pictures in the data, but small enough that I feel like I’m really contributing in some way.

Montana 169

Montana 2007 Game Birds 169

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2017

During the weekend that I was there, it was announced that there were over 1300 fires burning just within the state of Oregon, not to mention California, Washington, Montana and British Columbia, Canada. It was to latter area that I was traveling. The smoke that had settled everywhere within the state was incredible.

Oregon 100

Oregon Birds Montana California 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 18, 2015

The landscape known as the Crown of the Continent extends from northern Idaho and Wyoming through Montana to the Canadian border, linking the Greater Yellowstone and Salmon-Selway ecosystems and including Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

Legislation 174

Legislation Montana America Wyoming 174

Critter News

JANUARY 30, 2009

Wildlife conservationists say the freeze will delay and possibly prevent the removal of gray wolves from the federal endangered species list in Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and also in portions of Washington, Oregon, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Obama 100

Obama Wolves South Dakota North Dakota 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 24, 2014

Though hardly common, Great Gray sightings are a yearly occurrence in Western Montana, and it is one of the twelve species of owl known to breed in the state. As a result, its territory in the Rocky Mountains extends far south of the bulk of its range. Photos courtesy of Asta So. *I Birding Great Gray Owl owls'

Owls 235

Owls Minnesota Montana 2014 235

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 5, 2012

I just chalked this up to my friends being weird, until I took the Master Naturalist Class at the Montana Natural History this fall. And apparently, non-birders are more apt to divide birds into general kinds than species lists. Way, way back, during our inuagural game of Gone Birding , my friend Molly developed a theory of birds.

Montana 162

Montana Bald Eagle Owls Ducks 162

10,000 Birds

APRIL 12, 2013

” Not because there’s anything wrong with common or confiding species, but because depending on where you live and what you do with your habitat, darn near anything can be a backyard bird. Here in Montana I use an expansive definition of “yard” to put Barrow’s Goldeneye on my yard-list.

Atlanta 133

Atlanta Ohio Birds Montana 133

10,000 Birds

MAY 26, 2011

I imagine these explorers had the same reaction as the Lewis and Clark expedition as they moved from the tallgrass prairies of North Dakota and Montana into the northern Rockies of western Montana. Views like this offer specialty niches for many high-altitude species. This species is an athletic and patient one.

Colorado 135

Colorado North Dakota Montana Owls 135

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 16, 2011

Female White-browed Shortwing ( Brachypteryx montana ) at nest with two nestlings. Heading down to a lower region of Doi Inthanon, we took a forest track in the hope of turning up a parrotbill that had been seen in the area that morning (one of my target species).

Thailand 193

Thailand Birds Montana Africa 193

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2012

It was the most of either species I can remember seeing in one place, and they were hyped about the berries that the mountain ash still bore. I haven’t lived in Montana long enough to feel jaded about Bohemian Waxwings, so I concentrated on them at first. Definitely not spring. I was told there’d be worms.

Downers 173

Downers Montana Fish Wildlife 173

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2011

Moreover, at the time I had no inkling that I’d be moving to Montana in two and a half years – in fact, it would be nearly a year before I decided to go to grad school and entertained the notion of leaving New York at all. In Central Park , to be exact. It was exciting — to a degree. And every time, it was exciting.

New York 168

New York Montana Breeding Fish 168

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2017

The resulting properties—WPAs—are small ponds, wetlands, and associated grasslands, primarily in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana, but also in Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Iowa. Key waterfowl species include Redhead , Northern Shoveler , Blue-winged Teal , Mallard , Gadwall , Wood Duck , Canvasback , and Canada Goose.

Factory 118

Factory Ducks North Dakota Nebraska 118

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

It wasn’t until I noticed the “locusts” here in Montana that I got curious about them. Surely they couldn’t be the same species, across a continent. Dear readers, spill – have you ever seen birds preying on Carolina grasshoppers, and if so, what species? But they are.

Montana 169

Montana Cooking Texas Cattle 169

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2018

Since he first started walking his property, he’s located a slew of species so exciting that birders are starting to turn up at his doorstep. Nonetheless, a birder’s initial experience in Honduras sets him or her on an inexorable course towards the only species currently named for this gem of a country. MONTANA DE VIDA.

Honduras 146

Honduras Birds Farming America 146