MetaFilter posts tagged with birds and birding

The Great Backyard Bird Count

elsietheeel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:10:53 -0800

Next weekend, February 17-20, is the 2012 Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society, the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, and Bird Studies Canada. The Count has been an annual event since 1998. The information collected goes into Cornell's bird database, the Avian Knowledge Network, which holds 36 million records of bird observations. The GBBC relies on volunteers across North America to help them collect information about bird populations. You can do a count in one place like your backyard, recording the number of species you see in a minimum of 15 minutes, or you can do a traveling count, recording the birds you see as you hike along a trail. If you're unfamiliar with bird identification, WhatBird is a pretty handy resource, as is Cornell's Bird Guide In 2011, the most counted bird in America was the European Starling, an introduced species descended from 60 birds released in Central Park in 1890 by the American Acclimatization Society and an eccentric pharmacist named Eugene Schiefflin, who wanted to introduce all of the birds mentioned by Shakespeare to North America. Citizen science bird counting isn't just for President's Day Weekend, either. Audubon has the 111-year-old Christmas Bird Count, Cornell and Bird Studies Canada have the winter-long Project FeederWatch, and eBird counts year-round. If birds aren't your thing, Cornell has a list of other citizen science projects that need your help. Birds previously on Metafilter: Audubon - Birds of America and This One's for the Birds.

"There IS a thing called competitive birdwatching..." The decade-long buzz of The Big Year

jessamyn — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:06:24 -0800

In 1998 three birders--Sandy Komito, Al Levantin and Greg Miller--had their big year attempt chronicled in 2004 in a book of the same name by Mark Obmascik. Due to a few fortuitous circumstances including some spectacular fallout on Attu, a remote Alaskan Island, Komito's 1998 record of 745 species has never been surpassed. Their friendly yearlong rivalry is being documented further in a motion picture featuring Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black coming out later this year. Steve Martin, incidentally, has an album of banjo music out called Rare Bird Alert based on an actual birder alert system detailed heavily in the book. Reviews of The Big Year: Powell's, SFGate, Asian Review of Books Movie Buzz about The Big Year: Birder's Forum discusses leaked photos, Greg Miller's page on the movie, Steve Martin discusses the movie on Conan (about 6 min. in), Birdchick's blog updates, report on some of the filming in the Osoyoos BC local paper

An irruption! Of owls!

jessamyn — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:33:32 -0800

"[Irruption] is the term birders use to describe an unusual mass movement of birds into an area. But even that big word fails to capture what happened last winter when thousands of owls descended on northern Minnesota." The irruption of 2004-5 was big news, with its own symposium and many people reporting the Minnesota trees "dripping with owls" People trekked to the famous Sax Zim Bog to see and photograph some of the 1700+ great gray owls forced south by the mouse crash. People have been speculating that perhaps we are due for another this year.

The Lady Birds Can't Resist

brain_drain — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:52:57 -0800

The male Superb Bird of Paradise has an unusual courtship routine. First he sings. Then he hops. Finally, he busts out a spectacular finishing move, which the female finds attractive and/or totally scary. (If an MC Hammer soundtrack isn't your thing, I recommend this alternative version of the video instead.)

The Birds

nthdegx — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 10:14:51 -0800

Bird Watchers Guide on Flickr. "Linked list of species submitted; find all photos of a species here".

Birdsong Evolution

dfowler — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:52:35 -0800

How A Young Bird Learns its Song [+]