1. Let's start with a Guest Essay in the NYT on the troubling aspect of otherwise beautiful bird nests: Most birds go to great lengths to hide their nests. So when I find one, invariably so carefully crafted and astonishingly intricate, I’m filled with awe. They are marvels of the natural world. The weave of twigs, grass, leaves and other natural materials is specific to each species. Most birds use nests only to raise their young. For small birds, this could be less than one month out of the year. For that reason, I generally don’t consider them homes. But the analogy is apt, if only to convey the uniqueness of their architecture. Of a house, you might say: That’s a craftsman or a Cape Cod or a colonial. The same sort of design distinction can be seen in a nest. That’s a robin’s nest or a warbler’s or a red-tailed hawk’s. (via The New York Times)
2. A walk in The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on Global Big Day - and the threat facing this global hotspot: It was 3 in the morning when Lorenzo Mora, 41, was getting ready to go bird-watching. This wasn’t just any birding trip: he’d meticulously prepared his boots, clothes, jacket, recorder, speaker, laser pointer, vehicle and binoculars days in advance. “I went to bed at 6 last night,” he said, as I hopped on the back of his motorcycle. We began a two-hour journey in the darkness, navigating muddy trails to La Cuchilla de San Lorenzo, 2,600 meters (about 8,500 feet) above sea level, near the peak of Cerro Kennedy, in the heart of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range. It was May 11, also known by the bird-watching community as the Global Big Day, an annual event organized by Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology in the U.S., during which thousands of people across the world aim to record as many bird species as possible in a single day. Using the eBird platform, the event promotes citizen science and conservation. Mora was hoping to beat his personal best and make it into the ranks of Colombia’s top 10 birders. (via Mongabay)
By Hap Ellis, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver - Okavango Delta, Botswana.
3. We touched on this last week - what we lose if the 2026 Federal Budget eliminates funding for USGS's annual North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Bird Banding Laboratory: I did not know much about bird banding until I signed up to take part in an owl study in my neighborhood outside Portland, Oregon. A federally licensed bird bander named Alexander Lauber installed a wooden owl box in a cherry tree in my backyard. Owl boxes re-create the tree cavities where owls nest in nature. Later on, long after I’d given up hope of ever hosting owls, I saw a feathered head of a Western screech owl poking out of the box, surveying my yard. A female had decided it was a good place to lay her annual clutch of eggs. Screech owls are tiny birds — weighing about five ounces — that have done relatively well living in proximity to humans. (via The Washington Post)
4. Then there's this from the local paper on Martha's Vineyard which gives you an excellent look at what these annual breeding bird surveys involve: For more than 20 years now, I’ve covered a route on Martha’s Vineyard that is part of the U.S. Geologic Survey’s Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) project. Now 60 years old, this continent-wide, long-term monitoring program includes about 3,000 routes, each 25 miles long and consisting of 50 three-minute stops spaced a half-mile apart. The vastness of the resulting data set smooths out local and short-term variability, and the BBS may be the single most powerful project for monitoring bird populations in North America. (via Martha’s Vineyard Times)
5. Can a fox outsmart a Peregrine Falcon? - amazing video: A wildlife photographer managed to capture this dramatic encounter at a peregrine falcon nesting site in Los Angeles, where two young red foxes were attacked by the birds. The female falcon launched a series of high-speed attacks on the foxes, seen roaming near her cliffside nest. Despite the foxes’ larger size, they were no match for the falcon’s speed, and one was seen off quickly. “I was recording the attacks and I completely lost track of the other fox,” says Jack Zhi, an award-winning wildlife photographer. “Obviously, she did not and launched multiple attacks – her speed was absolutely stunning. It looked like the fox got poked in the eye, but he did walk away in the end. (via Discover Wildlife)
6. "(L)o que es bueno para el pájaro es bueno para el Ganado.." Read to understand - nice story: Presidio High School graduate Fabiola Baeza Tarin recently made her National Geographic debut in The Little Brown Bird, a documentary about North America’s most endangered avians and the unlikely coalition of people working to bring them back from the brink. The short and sweet film dropped last week on streaming and is currently free to watch on YouTube. Baeza went to school to study biology, not to portray a captivating heroine on the silver screen — but viewers might be fooled into thinking the opposite, thanks to breathtaking shots and tender storytelling served up by director KT Bryden and a team of producers from Wildpath and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (via Big Bend Sentinel)
By Hap Ellis, Tawny Eagle - Okavango Delta, Botswana.
7. First you have to get to Utqiagvik - but worth the trip apparently: A little brown bird walked and chirped along the still partially frozen Utqiagvik lagoon. It was a semipalmated sandpiper — one of about 60 species that locals and visitors spotted during the Migratory Bird Festival this month. The event drew more than 150 people who observed, sketched and learned about birds, festival coordinator Lindsay Hermanns said. Avid birders often travel to the Arctic to see rare species that fly there from all corners of the world. But Hermanns said that sometimes it’s even more exciting to see familiar birds in their breeding grounds, where they wear totally different plumage. Tens of thousands of shorebirds, waterfowl and seabirds migrate to the tundra wetlands around Utqiaġvik in spring, according to Audubon Alaska. Snowy owls, geese, eider ducks, swans and dunlins all benefit from fewer predators and lots of food on the Arctic coastal plains. (via KNBA News)
8. BirdLife's "Mixed Flock" - Celebrating diversity among birders - and birds: It’s a beautiful day in Helsinki, Finland, forming irresistible conditions for Sommer Ackerman to be sitting outside and feeling deeply connected to the natural world. As if on cue, a blast of clear, fluty birdsong marks the presence of an Eurasian Blackcap, prompting Sommer to apologise for the distraction. But it’s only recently that birds have become an important part of their life, inspired by friends going on walks, chatting about life and activism. “I’m autistic,” Sommer explains, “so sometimes a special interest develops, and that kind of happened with birding. I went one day and then I would go the next day and then the next day.” (via BirdLife)
9. Birding in Italy - let's all go: Uccello. I love the Italian word for bird; it has such a musical ring and seems to embody the soul of its subject. On a recent trip to Italy, I memorized the phrase “Adoro gli uccelli” in case anyone should wonder what I was looking at. I even got to say it once. As a child growing up in the U.K., I used to dream about the exotic birds that were tantalizingly close to the south of me in the Mediterranean region, birds that occasionally made it over the English Channel. It was with some excitement, then, that my family, some friends, and I planned a May trip to Italy. The visit was to focus on Tuscany — hence, history, food, and wine, but birds are everywhere, right? Perhaps I’d see some of those long-dreamed-of species such as the European bee-eater and hoopoe. (via The Independent)
By Hap Ellis - African Oystercatchers at sunset - Cape Town, South Africa.
10. A new study surveys extinction risk for over 10,000 species: More than 500 bird species could vanish within the next century, researchers have found, calling for urgent “special recovery programs” such as captive breeding and habitat restoration to rescue unique species. Birds such as the puffin, European turtle dove and great bustard will be among those to disappear from our skies if trends continue, according to the paper. Their loss threatens to unravel ecosystems across the globe. “We face a bird extinction crisis unprecedented in modern times,” said Kerry Stewart, lead author of the research from the University of Reading, who described the headline finding of the paper as a “shocking statistic”. It is triple the number of birds that went extinct in the previous 500 years. (via The Guardian)
11. Excellent news from the California Condor breeding season: The Los Angeles Zoo announced that 10 healthy chicks hatched during the 2025 California condor breeding season. The condor chicks will become candidates for release into the wild as part of the California Condor Recovery Program, under the leadership of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. All the chicks hatched at the zoo are thriving. Four of the chicks are being raised under a double breeding method, with two chicks being reared at one time by a pair of surrogate California condors. In 2017, the L.A. Zoo pioneered a new breeding technique in which animal care staff placed two condor chicks with a surrogate condor to raise them. Until that time, no other zoo or California Condor Recovery Program partner had attempted the process. (via Beverley Press)
12. What it takes - in this case to find 100 birds in one day in San Diego: San Diego is one of the most biodiverse birding regions in North America, with more than 500 recorded species — and its annual Bird Festival draws crowds from around the country. One of its most popular (and ambitious) events is the "100 or More" challenge: a daylong sprint to identify at least 100 different birds. In this week’s episode of The Finest, producer Anthony Wallace follows the action across scenic lakes, rugged foothills, city reservoirs and coastal wetlands to see how this classic hobby has taken on new energy. (via KPBS)
By Hap Ellis - Lappet-faced Vulture - Okavango Delta, Botswana.
13. Looks like our globetrotting eagle (seen by BNI in Booth Bay Harbor in January 2022!) seems to have pretty much settled on Newfoundland (for now): Bird watchers have flocked to the Conception Bay North community of North River to see a bird rarely spotted in Newfoundland and Labrador. A Steller's sea eagle has been seen in the region over the last three weeks. The eagle is one of the largest birds of prey on Earth, and has a wingspan of about 2.4 metres. "She flew over my head, and it felt like a small plane was going over my head. It cast a shadow, a magnificent wingspan," Lynne Strong, a resident of North River, told CBC News on Monday. "I felt like this bird could pick me up. It was big.” Strong lives a stone's throw away from where the bird has been nesting. The community has been full of bird watchers hoping to catch a glimpse of the animal — which she has affectionately dubbed as Stella. (via CBC)
14. H5N1 (Avian flu) back in the news: H5N1 bird flu has been making a lot of headlines since last year, and for good reason: since March 2024 this subtype of bird flu has infected upwards of 1,000 herds of dairy cattle, raising concerns about the virus’s ability to pass between mammals. This week Science Quickly is doing a three-part deep dive to bring you the latest research on bird flu. From visiting dairy farms to touring cutting-edge virology labs we’ll explore what scientists have learned about bird flu—and why it poses such a potential risk to humans. Today’s episode brings us back to the start: the wild flocks where new strains of bird flu evolve and spread. Our host is Lauren Young, associate editor for health and medicine at Scientific American. (via Scientific American)
15. Finally, a paean to the Common Wood-Pigeon in the NYT: If familiarity breeds contempt, then no wild animal has made itself more loathsome to humanity than the city pigeon. They nest in inconvenient places, overcrowd city squares and corrode stonework with their acidic droppings. One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Berlin 10 years ago was something odd about the pigeons here: Some of them were pretty, far comelier than Manhattan pigeons, who were feral descendants of domesticated rock doves with cigar-stub heads and greaseball breasts. I assumed that the Berlin birds’ handsome white neck patches, soft pink chests and candy-corn beaks were standard traits for Germany’s city pigeons — which meant they were also still messy, diseased and persistent pests. It was only when I started birding that I realized these more attractive birds weren’t actually city pigeons but a different species entirely called the wood pigeon. (via The New York Times)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by Mark’s Backyard Birds", “Survival Secrets of Birds in Extreme Heat”.
BBCSpringwatch - Sean Ronayne’s ear for birdsong.
Gerrit Vyn - American Arctic.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Red-crowned Woodpeckers.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Big Red!