Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Have you seen our latest issue of Living Bird magazine? Featuring beautiful maps that show where "our" summer birds are right now, in the middle of winter; a story of finding new species by listening for them; the amazing birds-of-paradise; and more:

QUIZ ANSWER. In most of North America, a group of fast-flying, medium-sized birds with long, tapered tails would call to mind Mourning Doves. Thanks to the freeze-frame of this photo, though, we can see these birds have larger, rounded heads and short, thick, curved bills. It may seem weird to suspect parrots to show up as far north as New York, but in fact there are dozens of introduced or escaped species of parrots and parakeets in the U.S. This species, with its overall gr...een coloration and pale gray on the face and throat, is one of the hardiest. These are MONK PARAKEETS, originally native to South American grasslands but now established in small populations in several U.S. cities including Houston, New Orleans, New York, and Chicago. Learn more about this species at All About Birds: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Monk_Parakeet/overview to Jay McGowan and the eBird/Macaulay Library archive for sharing this photo, taken last week in New York. See more

A selection of some of the great photos submitted by our Facebook fans in the last week. Thanks and keep those photos coming!

This is a great time of the year to see our latest Bird of the Week, when it packs up the family and heads south from its Arctic breeding grounds, generally keeping west of the Mississippi, making pit stops to forage in agricultural fields. It's a handsome bird dressed in browns punctuated with white patches under the tail and in front of the bill. Its look is topped off with an orange bill and legs. This bird is a powerful flyer who travels with others in single file or in a "V" formation, calling in its squeaky-laugh of a voice while on the move. Mates stay together for years, often accompanied by their young until they find mates of their own. Have you seen a Greater White-fronted Goose lately?

Most owls are nocturnal, making them difficult to see. Learning owl sounds is a great way to identify owls with your ears. Check out this free resource from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab that has 9 owl sound clips you can download and practice learning: https://bit.ly/36z1dpO

Bird beaks come in a vast array of sizes and shapes and allow different species to access different foods. But a beak is more than just an elaborate utensil, it's a bird's swiss-army knifeused for foraging, but also building nests, grooming, singing, and more. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that new research examining a diverse group of birds called honeyeaters, reveals that the size and shape of a beak is determined by a balancing act between food and habitat, which can affect song. Read all about it in the latest issue of Living Bird magazine:

Celebrated wildlife photographer Melissa Groo leads you through more than three hours of video instruction across 30 topics. Learn about cameras, lenses, tripods, blinds, and other gear. Improve by pushing beyond your camera's auto mode, composing powerful images along the way. Special topics include how to photograph shorebirds and birds in flight. Learn more about self-paced, online course: https://bit.ly/2Yl42XM

Don't let its cute little head and plump body fool you, our latest Bird of the Week is an impressive athlete, able to migrate from the top of the Arctic all the way down to South America. Look for it on beaches and coastal wetlands across North America, and inland it may appear at muddy edges of lakes and rivers and other muddy, wet areas. Males have a striking black and white breeding pattern, and though birds are a less distinctive salt-and-pepper color at this time of year, they all show black "armpits" in flight. Quick to give an alarm call, it helps alert other species to danger, and its watchful worriedness has allowed it to escape hunters that caused population declines in other species. Have you seen a Black-bellied Plover lately?

Cassin's Finch, Purple Finch, or House Finch? We know the feelingsome backyard species are hard to tell apart at first glance. But learning who’s who is a real confidence boost and marks the first step toward uncovering the fascinating dramas that unfold at your feeders. With this self-paced, online course prepare to greet your feeder birds by name and get the tools you need to unlock the secrets of their social behaviorwith ID techniques, 30+ instructional videos, and quizzes with each lesson. https://bit.ly/2GgNUPj

Louisiana's barrier islands are a rich habitat that host an incredible number of shorebirds during migration and winter. Birds come from all over North America, making it a perfect place to observe the diversity of shorebirds and the different foraging techniques each one uses to capture prey. Check it out and learn more in our Video of the Week:

It's migration time! Birds are flying to their winter retreats, often thousands of miles away. How do birds, some weighing no more than the weight of a quarter, prepare for long migrations? And how do they know when to migrate? Find out in our Question of the Week:

Learn how to take stunning photos of birds with award-winning photographer Melissa Groo as your guide. We designed this course for beginning photographers. If you are just starting out, it will give you all the tools you need to build your skills. We also included content useful to more advanced photographers. If you’re already familiar with digital cameras, you are still likely to benefit from the course’s bird-specific training, designed to help you find and take photos of these small, fast-moving subjects, with the gear you already own. Limited-time Sale!

The Long-tailed Duck has one of the most distinctive vocalizations of any tundra nesting bird. The Cornell Lab’s Charles Eldermire describes the calls of this loud and garrulous species.

More than 10 billion pounds of plastic enter the oceans each year killing countless birds. Use less plastic and you'll be taking one of our Seven Simple Actions to Help Birds. #BringBirdsBack Learn more: https://www.birds.cornell.edu//seven-simple-actions-to-he/

Visit the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Walrus, brown bear and virtually the entire population of Pacific Black Brant thrive in this unique area. The Izembek Lagoon lies at the heart of the refuge. Here, shallow, brackish water covers one of the world's largest beds of eelgrass, creating a rich feeding and resting area for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds. #wildliferefugeweek #USFWS #birding

How do birds prepare for the winter? One way is to store food. If you notice your feeders emptying out faster than you can keep them filled at this time of year, look out for your feeder birds grabbing seeds and hiding them in the cracks and crevices of trees or other structures. Find out more:

QUIZ ANSWER. This full-bodied bird with a stout, conical bill is a sparrowand wow, is it streaky. Song Sparrows have thick streaks, but they don't have this bird's yellowish bill; plus, they usually have a strong face pattern with bold, almost triangular streaks coming down from the bill and a dark stripe through the eye. The color pattern of this bird is also uniquea rich (dare we say "foxy") reddish brown set off neatly by a light gray on the face and neck. This is a FOX ...SPARROW, one of the chunkiest and most heavily streaked of all sparrows. Fox Sparrows can look different across North America, with some populations in the West being much more brownish and less red. Learn more about Fox Sparrows in our All About Birds species guide: https://bit.ly/2I5fhj0 Thanks to Joan Scharf and the eBird/Macaulay Library archive for sharing this photo, taken over the weekend in Ohio. See more

BIRD QUIZ. Here's a bird that's been showing up underneath a lot of people's feeders and in local forest patches in recent weeks. Do you know which species it is? Click Like if you know and leave your answer in the comments. We'll post ours at the end of the day. Thanks to Joan Scharf and the eBird/Macaulay Library archive for sharing this photo, taken over the weekend in Ohio.