Protected: The songs and genes of Marsh Wrens tell of two species in North America
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Humans outperform Merlin Sound ID in field-based point-count surveys
It’s a morning many birders dream of: You wake up, make your morning coffee, and settle in to read the eBird rare bird alerts that rolled into your inbox as you slept. Suddenly, you see something that makes your heart race—a rare bird you’ve never seen before was sighted in your area!
Distinctive casque morphologies among cassowary species
The irony of writing a story about 45-kilogram cassowaries—with forelimbs as small as those of chickens—for a blog called Wing Beat is not lost upon me. My coauthors and I are particularly excited to publish a paper for Ornithology about these flightless birds, as it seems most of the researched avian species in this journal are no larger than a mango.
A familiar bird with an unfamiliar beak: Beak deformities in Buteo jamaicensis (Red-tailed Hawk) may be a signal of an emerging disease
Biologists with the former Falcon Research Group had been studying these charismatic birds since the mid-1980s in the state of Washington, but it wasn’t until the winter of 1996–1997 that they first captured an unusual B. jamaicensis with a strange, elongated beak.
Hatch early and eat well: Patterns of juvenile dispersal and recruitment in Mountain Chickadees from a long-term study
Being a fledgling is difficult—and dangerous. The vast majority (~80 percent) of young birds do not survive this stage, succumbing to predation or starvation. What might give a vulnerable fledgling a head start when leaving the nest? Once they leave, how far do they move between their hatch sites and first breeding sites, and why?
Finding the artist in the artwork: repeatable individual differences in the nests of a North American songbird
To the world, this work may constitute just another research paper. For me, it represents my first real step into the world of science. More than two years ago as an undergraduate at Ohio Wesleyan University, I began a summer internship in Dr. Dustin Reichard’s lab to gain research experience with wild birds.
Hidden Nests: Advances and Challenges in the Research and Conservation of Cavity-Nesting Birds in the Neotropics
In the Special Feature, Ecology and Conservation of Cavity Nesters in the Neotropics, seven field studies, a perspective, and a review contribute to understanding the ecology and conservation of cavity-nesting birds through a Neotropical lens.
New research from Rhode Island provides new insights into female woodcock nesting habits
For more than a decade, our team has focused on studying male Scolopax minor (American Woodcock) in Rhode Island. During this time, we recognized a significant gap in knowledge about female S. minor, particularly regarding nest site selection and brood survival, due to a lack of data from this region.
Using weather radar and automated flight call monitoring to sample migration in the American West
How to describe something we cannot see? This challenge defines nocturnal bird migration research. Every spring and fall, millions of birds fly through the night, journeying between wintering and breeding grounds.
Tracking Barred Owls night and day in Baton Rouge: Why studying the entire diel cycle matters for understanding bird habitat
It’s strange to think that a paper about Strix varia (Barred Owl) in Louisiana would begin in Jamaica more than 15 years ago. But that’s where this story starts.