43 posts
Ed. note: We had a complaint about not using standard scientific style in writing about birds. It comes down to the difference between scientific journal style vs. newspaper style. Capitalizing the species is the scientific style, while down styling as many words as possible is the news world's
February 15, 2026
The downy woodpecker’s buff lookalike
February 08, 2026
The smallest North American woodpeckers
February 01, 2026
Pine warblers breed in Kentucky and begin to return to the area in early February. As the name implies, pine warblers spend most of their time in pine trees, where they build nests hidden in pine needles near the tops of these trees. They’ll typically lay 3 to 5
January 25, 2026
Blue jays are intelligent and well-known for their loud, raucous calls. In addition to their own sounds, blue jays often mimic the cry of hawks. Experts aren’t sure whether this is a warning that a hawk is in the area or a means of dispersing other birds from food
January 18, 2026
If you examine the maps in bird books, you’ll notice that many species of birds appear only in the eastern or western United States. This is because the country was divided in half by sheets of ice during the last Ice Age, and some species of birds evolved differently
January 11, 2026
The red-bellied woodpecker has already been sited
January 04, 2026
At a distance, common grackles look like large blackbirds and sound like a rusty door hinge. But up close, their yellow eyes are rather expressive and their feathers have an almost peacock-like iridescence. Grackles, like northern flickers, allow ants to crawl on their feathers and secrete formic acid, which helps
December 28, 2025
White-breasted nuthatches have large hind claws that help them creep headfirst down trees, searching the bark for insects. They may also be stashing seeds or insects under the bark for later, using moss or lichen to help hide their cache. Nuthatches were named for their practice of jamming nuts and
December 21, 2025