birds

The Mission Valley is home to abundant wildlife populations, and in the winter, it’s known as a hot spot for birds of prey. A group of researchers and birders is counting raptors to ground that reputation in hard data.

I’ve always been fascinated by ruffed grouse. For such a small, skittish-seeming bird, they have a hugely outsized presence in the soundscape of the forest.

The majority of birders in America are older white men. But birding is becoming popular among other groups. A new club in Missoula is trying to draw more women to the hobby.

For seven years, I pursued the jay-sized birds on Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Montana. That quest to observe a nesting pair turned out to be challenging. Belted kingfishers are loners, skittish, and fiendish to study. However, the rewards of a difficult journey are many—like finding something never recorded before.

What do tree swallows, starlings, pigeons, hummingbirds, and mallard ducks all have in common? Besides being birds, of course, each of these species sports iridescent feathers that glimmer and shine when the light hits them.

Bird surveys in my backyard. I look forward to doing them every morning when I wake up. What species will I get today?

A flutter of striking black, white, and grey outside the window caught my attention, and as I walked closer I saw a dozen large-bodied, sharp-beaked birds hopping around on the treed hillside. The Clark’s Nutcrackers are here again!

Tail feathers, and tails in general, provide a variety of functions for different animal species. The prehensile tails of monkeys in Central and South America are the ultimate fifth appendage. These tails can be used for grasping and hanging from branches and manipulating objects. Curiously, while African monkey species often have similar tails, none have grasping prehensile tails.

I often feel that new words come to me at the exact right moment. This fall, I had one of those moments of synchronicity, when I began to see the word…

This summer, while watching white-crowned sparrows, pine siskins and Cassin's finches feeding on the sunflower seeds we’d scattered on the rail of the…