Not long ago, the only hummingbird that someone living in the eastern United States and Canada could hope to see was the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. But things have changed. Today, more and more hummingbird species — such as this Broad-tailed Hummingbird — have been discovered beyond their…

The Dark-eyed Junco is one of the most abundant backyard birds in North America. But it’s not our only junco. In the Southwest, the Yellow-eyed Junco lives in cool mountain forests from Arizona and New Mexico, through Mexico into Guatemala. Ornithologist Francis Sumichrast was in Veracruz…

European Starlings regularly adorn their twig nests with marigolds, elderberry flowers, yarrow leaves, and even willow bark — all of which are full of aromatic chemicals, which fumigate their nests and are thought to discourage pests and parasites. Scientists discovered that starlings…

The drumming of the male Ruffed Grouse is one of the most evocative sounds of the North American forest. Familiar as these accelerating burps are to hunters and hikers, the origin of this bizarre sound was long a mystery. It took the advent of wildlife cinematography to solve the riddle…

Knowing when to hunker down and when to move on is a matter of survival for the Red-headed Woodpecker. This noisy bird spends its summers taking insects from the sky in flashy, acrobatic flight. But prey is harder to find in winter, and in most years the woodpeckers move south. A bumper…

In addition to their scientific names, birds are also given "official" English names. Take the bird commonly known as the rain crow, for example, officially referred to as the Yellow-billed Cuckoo by the American Ornithological Society. Its scientific name is Coccyzus americanus. Of course…

The warm colors and bright accents of the Bohemian Waxwing might make you think it glows in the dark. For the better part of two thousand years, that’s what people believed. Pliny reported that their feathers “shine like flames” in the dark forests of central Europe. The Germans allegedly…

The Eurasian Collared-Dove is rapidly increasing across the US and southern Canada. This sandy pink bird with the neat black neckband was released in the Bahamas in the 1960s. Brought in as pets, some doves escaped. They made it to Florida a few years later and have been spreading in a…

In the tidal marshes of the East Coast, the Saltmarsh Sparrow has a breeding strategy described by scientists as featuring an “obligate, promiscuous, and bond-free relationship between males and females.” That means both sexes copulate with multiple individuals, without a lasting…

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…