Audubon Magazine2 min read
An Unwavering Focus
BIRDS ARE EXPERTS AT GOING about their business, often regardless of what’s happening around them. Just ask the ornithologist in this issue whose job it was to remove the decoy egg that a Laysan Albatross was, at that very moment, busy trying to pare
Audubon Magazine1 min read
Bone Appétit
Bearded Vultures are among the world’s more unusual birds: An adult’s diet consists mostly of bones (above), which they often drop from on high to break up into smaller pieces before consuming. For centuries, these birds were greatly misunderstood. E
Audubon Magazine1 min read
Three More Books to Cozy Up With
RARE AIR: ENDANGERED BIRDS, BATS, BUTTERFLIES & BEES (Mountaineers Books, $22, 152 pages) Released in tandem with the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, Rare Air focuses on 66 flying creatures still in need of its protections. A visual d
Audubon Magazine2 min read
On Our Flight Path
IN EARLY NOVEMBER, I WAS fortunate to spend time with leaders from community and campus chapters and partners at Audubon’s 2023 Leadership Conference. Surrounded by our flock under the impressive peaks of Rocky Mountain National Park, I was reminded
Audubon Magazine1 min read
The Emergency Gift Guide
The STANLEY CLASSIC LEGENDARY BOTTLE is leakproof, sweatproof, and practically indestructible—all while looking dang good. This 1.5-quart thermos with vacuum insulation and a collapsible handle is a classic for a reason. $45 ■
Audubon Magazine3 min read
AMERICAS Ready For A Rebound
BIRDS ARE EVERYWHERE AT THE school in Cañaveral, Colombia. Their songs fill the air. Their nests perch in flowerpots. And each Tuesday every classroom celebrates birds, from the short tales children write in Spanish class to science lessons about mig
Audubon Magazine1 min read
Why Cold Feet Are Good for Birds
1 Warm arterial blood entering the leg cools down as it heats up cold ventral blood traveling back toward the heart through a process called countercurrent heat exchange. 2 For birds like ducks and gulls that deal with extreme cold and icy water, a m
Audubon Magazine2 min read
When the Temperature Drops
For birds that skip the trip south each fall, staying warm and energized is key to surviving cold and snowy weather. Fortunately, thanks to evolution, birds have developed various adaptations and strategies to persevere amid such harsh conditions. He
Audubon Magazine3 min readAmerican Government
The Next Half Century
As climate change makes species’ historical ranges uninhabitable, translocating them—or removing obstacles so that they can move themselves—may be their only shot at survival. Anticipating that reality, in June the FWS added flexibility to the ESA’s
Audubon Magazine3 min read
Power Struggle
ON A SUNNY SEPTEMBER DAY IN New Mexico, officials celebrated what developers call the country’s largest-ever renewable energy project. The groundbreaking for SunZia’s twin 550-mile electric transmission lines was a milestone in the national effort to
Audubon Magazine12 min read
The Long Way Home
IN JANUARY, A TWIN-ENGINE CESSNA LANDED ON Mexico’s Guadalupe Island with a most unusual collection of passengers: 36 fertile Black-footed Albatross eggs, all destined to be raised by foster parents at a Laysan Albatross colony on this remote volcani
Audubon Magazine3 min read
Your New Go-To Bird Treat
I’D NEVER SEEN A PILEATED WOOD-pecker eat out of a person’s hand until 2002, when Carrie Griffis, a reader of my long-running nature blog, sent me photos taken on her back deck. My first question was: “What are you feeding them?!” Carrie had made a h
Audubon Magazine1 min read
Click With Care
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER MELISSA GROO IS drawn to Short-eared Owls not only for their beauty, but also because she loves the diminishing habitats they rely on. Grassland birds are some of our fastest-declining species, and Short-ears are among those
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Audubon Magazine
Susan Bell Chair of the Board George S. Golumbeski Kathryn D. Sullivan Vice-Chairs Victor Hymes Treasurer Susan Orr Secretary Anne Beckett Rodney L. Brown, Jr. Shelly Cihan Johanna Fuentes Kevin R. Harris Jessica Hellmann Richard H. Lawrence, Jr. Ste
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Work in Progress
EVERY BIRDER HAS THEIR OWN perspective on what it means to connect with birds in nature. While many prioritize chasing life lists, others center their experiences around cultivating relationships. With their new book Birding for a Better World: A Gui
Audubon Magazine1 min read
The Aviary
Explore other artwork from The Aviary series at audubon.org/the-aviary. AS AN ART STUDENT, PHYLLIS SHAFER HAD BEEN TOLD THAT PAINTING OUTDOORS, OR EN PLEIN AIR, wasn’t for real artists; only hobbyists set up an easel pondside on a Sunday afternoon. S
Audubon Magazine4 min read
Signal Species
THE SPECIES: California Condor THE UPSHOT: Drastic measures can turn the tide. THE SITUATION: California Condors once soared over much of the contiguous United States, but habitat loss, eggshell thinning caused by DDT, and lead poisoning took a sever
Audubon Magazine11 min read
Friend OF THE Owl
I ’VE KNOWN THE AUTHOR AND CONSERVATIONIST Carl Safina for nearly two decades now. I’ve studied the dogged way he challenged destructive U.S. fisheries practices and earned one of the nation’s most prestigious fellowships in the process. I’ve read dr
Audubon Magazine11 min read
On The Right Track
ON A CLOUDY MARCH MORNing in the Cascade Mountains of central Washington State, Taza Schaming has gotten her hopes up once again. She flew in late last night from her home in upstate New York and woke early to drive two hours to a trailhead outside t
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Keeping Up With The Grosbeaks
ONE DECEMBER WHILE HOME IN Pennsylvania for the holidays, ornithologist David Yeany II heard an Evening Grosbeak’s buzzy chirp. Hoping to enliven the yard with the bird’s cheerful chatter and striking hues, he and his dad spent an afternoon building
Audubon Magazine7 min read
Lessons In survival
Eaglets Henry and Agnes hatched at a time when their species seemed doomed. In 1976 only about 400 Bald Eagle pairs survived in the contiguous United States. As part of a last-ditch effort to save the national bird, scientists tucked the weeks-old ch
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Inbox
Monumental Work At 88 years old, Lowell Young, a former Audubon chapter leader, has continued his decades of advocacy on behalf of birds and habitats by diving into perhaps his most personal cause yet: a campaign to create the Range of Light National
Audubon Magazine3 min read
Field Guide
Across the country, this striking species is relatively easy to locate and beguiling to watch. WINTER BIRDING HAS A REPUTATION for being slow and frigid (gulls, anyone?), but it doesn’t have to be. Consider the Short-eared Owl, a charismatic species
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Happy Travels
Where did you fly and what did you see? Fill in the blanks or write your own message—we’d love to see it! Are you a teacher? Go to audubonadventures.org/explorer for more resources. FOR MANY PEOPLE, SUMMER means travel season. But humans aren’t the o
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Hot Spots
PLASTIC POLLUTION Wasn’t discovered floating mid-ocean, far from any shore, until 1971. Today it’s ubiquitous in the lives of seabirds and other marine life. “There isn’t really anywhere left in the ocean that doesn’t have plastic that these birds ca
Audubon Magazine1 min read
Versatile Volunteers
Jon Mathews—trained as a Master Naturalist by Golden Eagle Audubon Society and its partners—helps to lead an effort by those groups to address erosion and restore biodiversity on more than 50 acres along Idaho’s Boise River. Since last year volunteer
Audubon Magazine4 min read
Desert Deliverance
EARLIER THIS YEAR, A DOZEN volunteers and staff armed with trowels kicked off an urgent experiment in cactus conservation. On a clear March morning they spread out within the high-quality habitat of the Tucson Audubon’s Mason Center, pushing wheelbar
Audubon Magazine2 min read
Eat Like a Bird!
LIKE THE BIRDS SHE RECENTLY GOT into watching, Alexis Nikole Nelson sees tasty food everywhere she looks. “I think it’s so exciting that we have all of these flavors hiding in your front yard, a local park, a local woodland,” says Nelson, known as “B
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