“We’ve got bush tits, northern flickers
, white and red-breasted nuthatches!” exclaims ten-year-old Marieva O’Neil. Her list of local fowl sounds foul, even pornographic, but it’s simply a small sampling of the birds she’s spotted in her backyard.
“There’s a brown creeper,” she adds. “It’s invisible to adults, but I’m able to see it, especially when it moves to grab a bug.”
O’Neil and her mother live in the Hilltop neighborhood, on what they’d thought was a busy cross street until the pandemic slowed life down. “I’m just surprised that there are so many different birds all around that we’ve never noticed,” admits Marieva’s mother, Lani O’Neil. “The spring blue jays are quite friendly this season, and it’s only our second year we’ve spotted them!”
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Attention wildlife fans: Bird feeders are killing songbirds, thanks to a vicious salmonellosis outbreak this winter. Wildlife officials in multiple Western states issued warnings earlier this year that so many birds are dying, the safest plan is to take down all our feeders, at least for now, so they’ll stop congregating and spreading the disease.
So it’s time for a new strategy to attract and support our feathered friends: creating habitat in our garden space whether it’s a balcony or backyard by growing native plants and cultivating the food, nesting materials and shelter wild birds need to survive.
As the Bohag Bihu Bird Count 2021 begins on April 14 in Assam, birders across the country talk about the significance of this month in bird watching
It’s that time of the year in Assam when the Indian cuckoo
(keteki) and
Asian koel
(kuli) call out across the Brahmaputra plains. And, graceful bursts of pink-spotted white flowers of an exotic orchid streak the skyline. “The blooming of the foxtail orchid, the State flower of Assam, signifies the start of a new Assamese year when we celebrate Rongali or Bohag Bihu,” says Jaydev Mandal, a birder based in Assam, over the phone.
What s your cardinal story? Readers share tales of the birds that brighten our winters Did you hear the one about how a cardinal defeated a spider s web?
By Val Cunningham Special to the Star Tribune March 9, 2021 9:15am Text size Copy shortlink:
The longer winter goes on, with its monochrome palette, leafless branches and profound silence, the more we appreciate the brilliantly red Northern cardinal.
Cardinals visit our backyards and feeders every month of the year, but in winter they seem to be in nature s spotlight. Unlike many songbirds, they combine brilliant plumage with a melodious song (with many other birds, it s one or the other). There s nothing quite like the sight of brilliant red