Birds

^{Photo: Will Keightley/CC BY-SA 2.0}

Around the country, the birders and cat lovers frequently face off, engaging in small-scale skirmishes and lobbying for state legislation that regulates trap-neuter-release (TNR) in feral cat colonies. A new study in PLos ONE looks at why these two groups are so polarized and how they can work together to care for both birds and cats.

Here at Audubon magazine, we love pretty much anything related to birds—even if they’re angry.

For my birthday this year, a colleague created these pretty awesome cupcakes in the likeness of—as you can clearly see—the Angry Birds of game fame.

One of the many winged residents of the Center for Birds of Prey. Photo credit: Justine E. Hausheer

Here comes Trouble. He’s perched on Matt Smith’s arm, cocking his head left and right as the summer cicadas buzz high in the oaks. His eyes are a fierce yellow, the plumage on his head and tail is a vivid white, and the feathers on his back and wings are a deep, glossy brown. Suddenly he breaks into a round of flapping, losing some of his characteristic avian grace as he lurches between wingbeats. After a few seconds Trouble quiets down, cocks his head, and shoots an imperious glare in my direction.

Trouble the bald eagle is aptly named, for his school bus-yellow bill almost landed him in big, big trouble. The top and bottom curves of his bill cross abnormally, instead of fitting neatly together. He would have died without human help.

As long as one’s hearing holds out, the natural world gives back an essential resonance. 

An alphabet birdhouse by Nishant Jethi. Photo: Courtesy of Nishant Jethi.

Last week we tweeted about an exotic tree house-birdhouse combo at a Japanese nature center. Since we first noticed it, it’s been in headlines everywhere, with coverage in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, even the blog designbloom. It’s easy to see why: The house is pretty cool, nestled in the trees, offering 78 openings for birds and one entryway for a human. With peepholes that open onto the birds’ half, it offers the person an experience that’s half-voyeuristic, half-nature immersion, all intimate look at the feathered flyers.

The chatter about funky birdhouses got us thinking: There have to be others out there—and boy did we find them. Click through for three we had to share.

A macaw perches at the Brevard Zoo. Photo: mwalters2004 / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Shiver me timbers and blow me down! It be talk like a pirate day! In honor of this wonderfully wacky holiday, we’re featuring the rogues’ favorite companions. That’s right; we’re talking about parrots.

Printed, it looks like tracks made from a bird. Uttered, it was sung aloud. The comparisons between Nushu, an ancient Chinese script for women, and birds are easy to draw. And in her book When Women Were Birds, Terry Tempest Williams uses the text to help describe how women used this secret language to express themselves.  

A cardinal perches at a bird feeder. Photo: Zane Hollingsworth / CC BY-NC 2.0

Birds are singing a happy tune after a doleful disaster. Last Friday, Scotts Miracle-Gro, the company best known for greening lawns across America, was fined $12.5 million for violating the EPA’s pesticide laws: The company illegally applied insecticides to its wild bird food products—insecticides, it turns out, that are toxic to birds. It also falsified pesticide registration documents and distributed pesticides with misleading and unapproved labels.

"Penguins, Skuas" (254/3), by Roger Tory Peterson. Ink and gouache on board, with overlay. From Penguins, 1979. This item will be featured in Guernsey's September 8th auction.

Today marks what would have been the 104th birthday of Roger Tory Peterson, the legendary bird artist-conservationist. And in less than two weeks, admirers can pay him homage, perhaps even take home some RTP paraphernalia, when about 500 pieces of his work go up for auction on September 8th.

An area in northeast England that’s been dubbed a Bermuda Triangle for birds has been stymying British pigeon racers lately.