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A Birder Attends a (Virtual) Ornithology Conference – Part II

10,000 Birds

Daniel Cadena — “The Origin and Future of a Tropical Diversity Hotspot” Beyond that, I primarily limited myself to the subject matter of hurricane impacts on birds and anything about Puerto Rico. But I also dabbled in topics such as Snowy Owl eruptions, urban ornithology, window strikes, and eBird (of course).

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A Birder’s Guide to The Wilderness Act

10,000 Birds

The National Wilderness Preservation System now includes more than 800 congressionally designated wilderness areas totaling more than 110 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico. It is the only federal research group dedicated to studies needed to manage the National Wilderness Preservation System. Dingell Jr.

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Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean: A Book Review by a Lover of Parliaments

10,000 Birds

Here are some things I’ve learned from the Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean by Scott Weidensaul: The Burrowing Owl is the only North American owl species where the male is larger than the female, albeit, only slightly larger. And the term is ‘non-reversed size dimorphism.’).

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

10,000 Birds

An associated issue is that the Belize and Costa Rica guides share many of the same descriptions of species, written by Howell. Similarly, descriptions of species repeated across volumes do not lose their accuracy with each publication. Other species are splits and lumped and have had their names changed. Why are these issues?

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The Case for Adding the U.S. Territories in the Caribbean to the ABA Area

10,000 Birds

I recently asked whether Puerto Rico should be part of the American Birding Association’s ABA Area. I will suggest an answer to the question: this post makes the argument that both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Now that Hawaii is in the ABA Area , the next additions should be Puerto Rico and the U.S.

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Puerto Rico’s Birds after Hurricane Maria

10,000 Birds

In September of 2017, Puerto Rico was hit by two powerful hurricanes: it was grazed by Irma and then clobbered by Maria, a Category 4 storm that cut a devastating swath across the island. Species with small ranges ( e.g. , single island endemics) or tiny populations ( e.g. , endangered species) are especially vulnerable.

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Reflections on Five Years of Blogging

10,000 Birds

I often start with a question that piques my interest (frequently triggered by the news, social media, or other reading) and then I do some research. Another observation is that researchers are generous with their time and respond to inquiries about their research, even by birding bloggers. Bird researchers are good people!