Audubon • 4th April 2023

Can New AI Chatbots Like ChatGPT Help You Identify Birds?

There’s that quote from the movie Jurassic Park that goes: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” In the case of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, I feel like scientists and just about every person on Earth has thought about whether we should and decided we shouldn't. But here we are, doing it anyway. To be clear, I'm not talking about I, Robot stuff (yet), but the various advanced online AI chatbots suddenly being released by tech

Audubon • 21st April 2022

Birdist Rule #85: Write In Your Field Guides

I thought every birder did this. Do we not all do this? I chased some birds this winter, eventually finding my milestone 700th ABA Continental bird—a Common Gull in Eastport, Maine. Afterward, I shared some photos on Twitter of the handwritten notations I made in my Sibley field guide and got a lot of responses. Many birders said they do the same, and shared images of their well-loved books. Others had their own methods of keeping physical records. But some responses caught me off guard: What

4th April 2022

Buteo Books: American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Maine

A photographic field guide with one bird featured per page. Each concise species account includes measurements, scientific name, identification description, voice, behavior, and the habitat it is likely to be found in. Photographs by Brian E. Small. =A guide with illustrations or photographs for identification

Workman Publishing • 4th April 2022

The Ultimate Biography of Earth

"An entertaining and educational read, The Ultimate Biography of Earth is a delightful journey through the history of the universe with a focus on Earth and life. Highly recommend for curious children who are elementary and middle school aged." — YABC The Ultimate Biography of Earth is a treasure trove of fun facts and knowledge about our planet's history. Arranged in a clear, engaging chronological format, this book invites readers to see the Earth as a friend with a storied past—and a fut

23rd March 2022

Into the Wild: Know what to do when animals attack | The Portland Phoenix

We don’t have to worry too much about dangerous wildlife in Maine. Mountain lions were killed off long ago (I don’t care what your great-uncle thought he saw crossing the road outside Millinocket) and we don’t have any venomous snakes or spiders. But you still need to be prepared. Here are some important tips to protect yourself out in the woods: • Black bear — Wikipedia’s certainly reliable list of fatal bear attacks in the United States includes just a single entry from Maine: a captive black

9th February 2022

Into the Wild: Will you be arrested for picking up a feather? | The Portland Phoenix

Let’s just get this out of the way up front: Yes, it’s illegal to collect the feathers of native birds, even if you just found them on the ground. The law says that you are not allowed to collect feathers. The technical reason is that native birds and their parts are covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The act is one of our most important wildlife protection laws, put in place around the turn of the 20th century in part to help stop the rampant hunting of egrets, whose feathers were us

Audubon • 10th January 2022

Inside the Amazing Cross-Continent Saga of the Steller’s Sea-Eagle

The journey of the lost Asian bird started more than a year ago. Follow along as birders gather in awe and speculate on its next moves. At 10 pounds and with a 7-foot wingspan, the Bald Eagle is one of the largest flying birds in the United States. Yet the two juvenile Bald Eagles I saw perched in a tree in Massachusetts on December 20, 2021 looked like pigeons compared to the other bird on the limb with them: a Steller’s Sea-Eagle. Everything about seeing a Steller’s Sea-Eagle in New England i

5th January 2022

Into the Wild: Maine’s Top 10 rare birds of the past year | The Portland Phoenix

Birders tell themselves that it’s fun to bird in December, but c’mon. Wiping ice out of your binocular eyecups while you try to identify gulls in the whipping wind? Not great. Waking up before sunrise for a Christmas bird count where you find six total species? Not great, either. Birding in December is best for talking about how good birding is in the spring, and also for reminiscing. Let’s look back now on the rarest birds found in Maine last year. 10 — Ash-throated flycatcher, Nov. 8-17, Bi

Audubon • 29th September 2021

This Birder Also Happens to Be One of the Best Skateboarders on the Planet

If you used a microscope to examine the overlap in the Venn Diagram between birders and professional skateboarders, you’d find just one man: Dave Mull. The 32-year-old Vermont native is one of the most exciting skaters in the sport, a daredevil with a penchant for creative and death-defying tricks like roofdrops and, uh, the “Manramp.” He’s also a real-deal birder: He gets giddy at the sight of a Townsend’s Warbler, he helped run a banding station in the mountains near his home in Los Angeles,

National Parks Conservation Association • 24th September 2021

Over the River and Through the Woods

A wintry return to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

Audubon • 18th September 2020

The University of Illinois Might Make a Kingfisher Its New Mascot. It should!

Update 9/22/20: The University of Illinois Senate passed the resolution 105 to 2, with 4 abstentions. Spencer Hulsey will now work with the chancellor on next steps to make the Belted Kingfisher the school's official mascot. I am afraid to even type this for fear of getting 2020 stink all over the words, but here it goes anyway: Something good might happen. It’s not a COVID-19 vaccine or anything, but I’ll take what I can get right now. Are you ready? The University of Illinois might adopt

Audubon • 21st July 2020

One of These Birds Should Be Washington, D.C.'s New Football Mascot

The professional football team playing in the Washington D.C. region needs a new name. Gone is the racist slur they’ve been playing under since 1933, and in its place is, well, no one knows. The team is undergoing a “thorough review” of their identity, and is thinking through replacements. There are already fan favorites emerging, such as the Washingon Redwolves, and online betting houses are predicting institutional-type names like Presidents or Lincolns, along the lines of the Washington Natio

Audubon • 23rd March 2020

How to Pronounce 17 Tricky North American Bird Names

A wise person once said that you should never make fun of someone for mispronouncing a word because it means they probably learned it by reading. Birders can relate. We read all kinds of unusual names in field guides but rarely get the chance to hear them spoken out loud. And it’s not like the birds come and introduce themselves. Consequently, there can be a lot of trepidation when pronouncing a bird’s name in front of another birder for the first time. For example, when describing my excitemen

25th February 2020

Into the Wild: Wintry Portland a destination for snowbirds | The Portland Phoenix

Every Mainer knows a snowbird: Someone who is here for the summer, but spends the winter somewhere warm, like Florida or Arizona. You may even be one yourself, but do you know Maine is actually a winter destination for some actual snowbirds? Many birds spend their summers in the Canadian boreal forests or the Arctic tundra, feasting on the plentiful insects, or breeding on remote water bodies. But when winter hits the Arctic gets a whole lot loss enjoyable, so lots of these birds escape to the

Portland Phoenix • 21st February 2020

Into the Wild: Meet the Cooper’s hawk, Portland’s deadliest bird | The Portland Phoenix

Have you ever seen a flock of pigeons flying over Portland and thought about eating one? Just grabbing and chowing down on one of those little bread-crumb-fattened birds on your way to the office? It’s not such a crazy idea – after all people pay through the nose for a squab dinner at a fancy restaurant – but I’d guess that wild-caught pigeon is not on the menu for most of us. It’s a different story for Cooper’s hawks, the most fearsome aerial predator in the city of Portland. These birds love

Audubon • 5th February 2020

My Brief Reign and Embarrassing Fall as a Fantasy Birder

I was the king of the fantasy birding world on January 1, 2019. The first day of the inaugural Fantasy Birding Big Year competition had ended and I, your humble internet bird correspondent, was perched alone atop the leaderboard. Unfortunately, my lead would not last long. Eventually, hundreds of other players joined the game, and they were smarter, more organized, and more dedicated than me. I was quickly dethroned, and spent the rest of the year cursing and clawing my way across the continent

Audubon • 23rd December 2019

How Many Bird Species Does Santa Claus See On Christmas Eve?

The current world record for number of bird species seen in a single calendar day is 431, set by a team of birders working their way across Ecuador. It’s an incredible record, one that required exhaustive planning, a group of skilled birders at the top of their game, and a fair amount of luck in getting favorable weather and avoiding delays. It’s probably about as perfect a Big Day attempt as there can be. But, I bet it’s already been beaten. In fact, I bet it’s beaten repeatedly by just one m

Portland Phoenix • 18th December 2019

Into the Wild: Where to find a wild phoenix | The Portland Phoenix

I’ll write about a lot of animals in this column about Maine wildlife, but I won’t write much about the phoenix. Because, you know, it’s not real. The phoenix is a part of ancient Greek folklore, a giant bird associated with the sun. It’s said to have lived for 500 years before dying and being born again, though there’s disagreement about whether that rebirth occurs in an explosion of flames or after regular decomposition. There’s also disagreement about what the phoenix looked like. It was of

Popular Science • 30th November 2019

Why are crows and ravens such jerks?

When Edgar Allen Poe had to find a bird annoying enough to drive a man insane, the choice was easy: a raven. Corvids—the avian family that includes ravens and crows—are notorious for causing mischief to humans and animals alike. They steal food, knock over trash cans, harass dogs, tailgate raptors, raid nests for eggs, and engage in all kinds of behaviors that have people wondering, “Why are these birds such jerks?”

Audubon • 20th November 2019

The Best Places to See Seabirds Without Getting Seasick

Have you ever been seasick? It is—and please indulge me in a pause here for dramatic effect—THE worst. Being seasick is the absolute worst. So what can the sensitive-stomached birder do to see great seabirds without losing their lunch? Seawatching, of course. I’ve given you a general primer already, but seawatching is the great hope of land-lubbers who want access to pelagic species without having to board a boat. But not all seawatches are equal. Some spots are better than others, and some ar