While many birds specialize in cheerful-sounding song, others conjure strange, sinister, and somber moods. Owls, of course, are the usual suspects when we think of the eeriest bird sounds. And while it’s true that their macabre shrieks have inspired terror since antiquity, they’re hardly the only birds capable of providing… Read more >>

This is the story of a bird in a tailspin. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Northern Bobwhite was a fairly common bird here in southwestern Missouri. I remember nearly falling off my startled horse when flocks of 25 or 30 birds would flush out of the overgrown… Read more >>

A study published on September 19 in the journal Science reveals that since 1970, bird populations in the United States and Canada have declined by 29 percent, or almost 3 billion birds, suggesting that our ecosystems could be headed for serious trouble. The results show tremendous losses across diverse groups… Read more >>

In the first days of September, Hurricane Dorian roared over the northwestern Bahamas, ripping across and swamping Abaco and Grand Bahama. This colossal storm left more than 50 dead, 1,300 missing, and thousands without food and shelter. The storm also dramatically transformed the landscape. We asked Bradley Watson, with American… Read more >>

Although hummingbirds occupy almost all of North America during summer months, these tiny birds remain tropical at heart and most do migrate. The main exception is the Anna’s Hummingbird, which stays put all year along the Pacific Coast. Hummingbird Migration Basics The majority of North American hummingbirds fly to Mexico… Read more >>

Glass collisions kill up to 1 billion birds in the United States each year. Both common and rare species are at risk. Recently, there’s been some promising momentum toward addressing this danger, as some cities and states have formalized bird-friendly strategies. A number of cities, for example, passed local ordinances… Read more >>

I am blessed to earn a living investing mental energy to tackle complex bird conservation issues — while working with extraordinarily passionate conservationists in five Latin American countries (Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Jamaica). My job brings me to far-flung locales to better understand threats faced by some of the… Read more >>

Many people quip that they’d prefer a world without “bugs,” but as the adage goes: Be careful what you wish for. Our planet cannot function normally without insects and other invertebrates. “The little things that run the world” is what biodiversity pioneer Edward O. Wilson calls them. Insects anchor natural… Read more >>

On November 8, 2018, the Camp Fire started in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Caused by a downed powerline, it rapidly spread to affect 153,000 acres, tragically killing at least 85 people, mostly in the town of Paradise, and destroying 18,000 homes and other buildings. It finally burned… Read more >>

Hummingbirds enliven rainforests, deserts, mountains, and gardens from Canada to Chile. Of about 350 hummingbird species, more than half find refuge at the 90-plus reserves that ABC supports across the Americas. These smallest of birds can be hard to glimpse, let alone photograph. Yet through hard work and patience, photographer Owen… Read more >>