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Italian Sparrow?

10,000 Birds

How can two species interbreed into a new species? “By examining the genetics, we have shown conclusively that the Italian sparrow is of mixed origin – it is a hybrid of the house sparrow and the Spanish sparrow,&# Dr Saetre told BBC Nature. Hey, science people (scientists?),

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Seeking the Bahama Nuthatch

10,000 Birds

In 2021, the American Ornithological Society announced that it has now classified the Bahama Nuthatch as a distinct species, Sitta insularis. He noted that this new bird had longer bills and “darker loral and auricular regions” than the mainland Brown-headed Nuthatch, and collected two of them for science. There’s just one problem.

Bahamas 343
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Adventures of a Louisiana Birder: One Year, Two Wings, Three Hundred Species–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Chapter Two is a potpourri of stories about nemesis birds, birding by ear, birding for science, under the rubric of birding ‘for the love of it.’ Adventures of a Louisiana Birder: One Year, Two Wings, Three Hundred Species. ’ What was left to write about? ’ “Is this going to be a collection of essays?”

Louisiana 264
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What’s in a Name: Brewer’s Blackbird

10,000 Birds

Blackbirds, as a family, often have those simple descriptive names that are easy to mock ( Yellow-rumped Warbler , ugh) until a non-birder comes describing such a species to you and asking for an ID. In the long run, all of this proved to signify nothing, as the sparrows were more than able to take care of themselves.

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Birding the Kruger Park (4): Letaba area

10,000 Birds

Colorful bills and heads seem quite popular among Letaba’s bird species – see the African Jacana (blue and black) … … the Striated Heron (yellow and blue) … … and the Yellow-billed Stork (yellow and red). The Latin species name vermiculatus (worm-like) refers to the markings on the upperparts.

Zimbabwe 147
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Junco Mashup

10,000 Birds

The bird was a sparrow, that much was clear, but it didn’t seem to fit any of the easily boxes the other North American sparrows can be fairly easily sorted into. Superficially, it resembled the Black-chinned Sparrow of the southwestern United States with its gray chest and chestnut streaked with black back.

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Solid Air: Invisible Killer Saving Billions of Birds From Windows–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Over the next few days, I found increasing numbers, goldfinches, juncos, white-throated sparrows. Dead birds are a part of the life of a birder, a feeder of birds, and of bird science. I was shocked when I found the first body, a female Towhee. I hoped it was an anomaly. Were they always there and I just never noticed?