If you watch backyard birds, you will likely see some characteristic behaviors. One example is "foraging" styles — the behaviors that a bird uses to find food. Some birds, such as sparrows, are famous for their "double-scratch" behavior. The bird jumps forward and back, quite quickly…

Doves symbolize peace on earth, goodwill to all. BirdNote celebrates the season with a version of Dona Nobis Pacem, arranged and played by Nancy Rumbel.

Nearly 400 years ago, Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to lay eyes on the Dodo, on the island of Mauritius. By the early 1600s, Dutch sailors were provisioning their ships there, slaughtering Dodos as fast as they could find them. Hunting, along with the introduction of pigs…

During late December, birders go out counting every bird that hops, swims, flies, or soars into view, as they have for more than 100 years. Audubon chapters across the United States and elsewhere sponsor the Christmas Bird Count, or CBC. Join the count - in Alaska, Connecticut, Detroit…

Take a walk around a lake in late November, and you'll find male ducks in their most brilliant breeding colors. These ducks have lost their nondescript late-summer feathers, known as "eclipse plumage." Male dabbling ducks - like this Green-winged Teal - look their finest in late fall and…

The anatomical structure we call the wishbone was long thought unique to birds. But fossil discoveries of recent decades have shown that some dinosaurs, including the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, and the Velociraptors of ”Jurassic Park,” also had wishbones. And there is now wide consensus…

By the time November rolls around, the bird songs of summer can seem a distant memory. But there’s always something to listen for. Small birds like chickadees and kinglets, including the Golden-crowned Kinglet pictured here, often mix in flocks while foraging. Geese can be heard overhead…

Black Oystercatchers prey on shellfish in the wave zone, especially mussels and limpets. The waves cause mussels to open often, making them easier to eat. The Black Oystercatcher nests on ledges just off shore, and its eggs and young suffer far less predation by mammals. Contrary to their…

Henry David Thoreau wrote, "Our little mountain-ash is all alive with [birds.] A dozen robins on it at once ... plucking the berries... A robin will swallow half a dozen berries, at least, in rapid succession..." If you, too, enjoy watching birds eat berries, then consider planting trees…

Pity the bird that gets between a Semipalmated Sandpiper and its meal out on the mudflat! If crowded while foraging, they will readily attack, bumping birds of their own and larger species out of the way with their bodies. The deceptively cute juveniles can be just as irritable as their…