Living Bird Magazine—Latest Issue

We love cardinals, mockingbirds, and meadowlarks, too—but do these 3 species have to represent 18 separate states? We turned to eBird to find alternative state birds with data to back them up.

The retired editor of Birds of North America finds a slice of Costa Rica where the regal Resplendent Quetzal has inspired communion among farms and tourist lodges, birds and people.

The detailed record of bird sightings and phenological observations around Concord, Massachusetts—from Thoreau’s notes 170 years ago to today’s studies by scientists at Boston University—provides a key to studying how climate change is affecting bird migration.

“I first met Thoreau in my junior high English composition and American literature classes. Most of my peers didn’t take to Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, but I did. Even if removed from my own life by more than a century, there was this hint of kindred spiritedness, across time and race and place, that appealed to me.”

A small group of innovative researchers cracked the secret of bird migration—and then set about applying that knowledge to save birds from the hazards of city lights.

Spring migration timing varies across the U.S. and even within regions, according to radar data analyzed by BirdCast.

We reviewed more than two dozen pairs of 8×42 binoculars—a popular, versatile choice for most kinds of birdwatching. Here’s what we learned.