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 >>

Need some good news about birds, fast? This round-up of stories highlights heartening advances in efforts to conserve some of the Western Hemisphere's most endangered bird species. Townsend’s Shearwater Nesting Success in Mexico ABC partner Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) reports that a Critically Endangered Townsend’s Shearwater… Read more >>

ABC has joined with Brazilian partner Instituto Araguaia and the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands in an innovative approach to conserving habitat for the Kaempfer’s Woodpecker, an Endangered species inhabiting the Cerrado of central Brazil. The Cerrado is the second most threatened biome in that country, after the Atlantic… Read more >>

Rodolfo Correa Peña is an affable young Colombian living in the town of San Pedro de los Milagros, in the green hills outside of Medellín in northwestern Colombia. This deeply traditional religious community is by and large devoted to dairy production and the surrounding countryside reflects this. But here and… Read more >>

You’ve probably seen it before: An explorer creeping through a silent, steamy jungle freezes in terror as the tropical birds above erupt in a fit of squawking, warning of some unseen threat. The basics of the scene have played out in countless films, and while the dangers may vary, the… Read more >>

A little over two months ago, I was bobbing in the Gulf Stream, smelling like fish guts and trying to maneuver our small inflatable dinghy so the bow would face downwind toward Endangered Black-capped Petrels. On long wings, the birds were flying upwind toward the chum block we had left… Read more >>

Twenty-five million years ago, Pelagornis sandersi — the largest flying bird ever — soared on wings that could stretch from a giraffe’s head to hoofs. Although Pelagornis’ colossal 24-foot wingspan is beyond the reach of its modern counterparts, many birds in the Western Hemisphere remain impressive in their own right,… Read more >>