Changing Bird Names for Inclusivity
The diversity of human languages allows us to communicate with one another easily, across geographic regions and even across time, despite the fact that languages, and our names for things, change.
Four Bird Books for Christmas
Written by Gene Walz, friend of VINS What to get a birdwatcher for a Christmas gift? Four new books top the list, three by women. They all show how much birdwatching, birders, and serious bird study have changed over the years. Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir By Julia Zarankin Divorced and at loose…
Cozy as a Chickadee: How a Half-Ounce Bird Thrives in Winter
As the northern hemisphere dips into its winter angle, we wave many of our small songbird neighbors bon voyage on their migratory journeys. But there is one tiny passerine that stays here waving with us, and chooses not to migrate away from our frigid temperatures: the black-capped chickadee. Chickadees, in fact, hardly shrink from view as the winter encroaches; instead they are bold, brazen, and positively belligerent.
Passenger Pigeon Apocalypse
Three billion is the number of birds lost to North American populations in the last 50 years. It’s also a low-end estimate of the number of Passenger Pigeons that once lived on the North American continent. These birds were said to number so many that flights of them overhead could darken the sky. The fact that humans alone as a species were responsible for this devastating extinction is terrifying but, viewed from a certain angle, hopeful.
It’s Raining Birds
Summers in the Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation (CWBR) can best be described as chaotically busy.
CWBR staff receive upwards of 30 phone calls a day regarding injured wildlife across New England, all while caring for countless critical care patients in the ICU, receiving and examining between 5-15 new patients a day, and feeding baby birds every half hour from 6am to 8pm. Summer 2020 could also be described as such, but on a much greater scale.
Bennington Barred Owl
On August 5th, 2020 the Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation (CWBR) received a Barred Owl from Bennington, VT. The finder of the owl noticed the bird hopping around their front yard, unable to fly away when approached. VINS staff advised the finder on how to safely pick up the bird and contain it in a box.
Project FeederWatch Summary: Winter 2019-2020
As we spring into a new season, most people are not sorry to seeing the slush and ice give way to new things – wildflowers, warm weather, and most of all, singing birds. But it is also time to say farewell, for another year at least, to one of my favorite citizen science projects: Project FeederWatch.
Songbird Diseases & Bird Feeders: What To Look For
Bird feeding is a popular and enjoyable winter pastime for many people, bringing birds in close for easy viewing. While it is widely practiced and can even help biologists monitor populations through programs such as Project FeederWatch, there are some potential negative side effects of feeding birds.
NestWatch Season Wrap-Up 2019
I am often floored by how quickly the seasons go by, from our brief spring in Vermont, to the flurry of autumn colors. But what I find even more impressive is the speed of the full nesting cycle of our native songbirds.
Dewey: The Wild Resident Barred Owl of VINS
by Anna CaputoAmericorps Member Dewey. Photo by Emily Johnson. This winter has brought some interesting wildlife to VINS. Boreal migrants like Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls have come into the rehab center with broken wings or head trauma. A Pileated Woodpecker came to the suet at our bird feeders. Even subnivean or “under-snow-dwelling” mammals like…
