August has started off with some good birds. First up, Swallow-tailed Kites! 🪶 #birds

Great piece here by @brendonstuff.bsky.social on the need for widespread use of bird-safe glass to prevent window collisions theconversation.com/bird-safe-gl...

Bird-safe glass must become the norm to prevent collisions with buildings

In Canada, tens of millions of birds are killed annually by crashing into glass on buildings.

theconversation.com

🦆⛵️🦆🪶

NEW STUDY: A new study published in Science today analyzed the birdsongs for thousands of songbird species and identified eight common motifs that are shared across the world. Story in Audubon here: www.audubon.org/magazine/bir...

Birds Build Their Songs Using Just Eight Musical Elements, Study Finds

A new analysis reveals that songbirds across the world mix and match the same whistles, trills, and other acoustic motifs to create their diverse tunes.

audubon.org

Not often you get TWO Prothonotary Warblers in one shot! 🪶

Ever not pay attention to where you’re walking and almost step on a copperhead? 😬 (this was taken after it very quickly slithered out of my way)

Just in time for Wrensday! Cactus Wren, framed by a pokey cholla.

Went to a midnight mothing event for #MothWeek over the event. My first experience with a live Luna Moth was one deciding to immediately land on me! 🤩

Today's Alt #BirdOfTheDay theme is #NewLife - any of this year's new broods. Here’s a juvenile Dark-eyed Junco from Boone last month. 🪶

I got the back of my thigh tattooed yesterday, so I brought Saran Wrap with me to work today to put over the toilet seat 😂

Cue the music Yellow-headed Blackbird strut #birds

Obviously we need to do everything we can to reverse this decision politically-- judicial means, local legislation means, etc. but also making it extremely clear that companies are not welcome to take part in this (hopefully temporary) leniency Habitats destroyed in hours take ages to recover!

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #UpAndDown — birds looking up or down. Here’s a Black-and-white Warbler looking down! 🪶

I can't express enough how many wildlife data talks start with "we know the situation is really dire for this species" and end with "and data show it is worse than we thought" not for the endangered species, for ones who don't even merit that yet to lose the few protections we managed to get...

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️@skwinnicki.bsky.social · 4w ago

Spent the week at a conference thinking about saving threatened birds. Hell of a way to end it. "The Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Friday... will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development..." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The merglings eventually gave up the quest to reach Mom and formed a cuddle puddle on a much more accessible log.

Bit of #StickHappens going on - but who cares?! This is a FIRST for me!! Juvie Scrub Jay and Juvie Steller's Jay in the *same* pic! Both trying to sort out "How do I get the food in my mouth?" #birds #becurious

Yesterday I got to watch Orchard Oriole parents switch off on feeding their two chicks. 🥹 Awful photos with distance and heat waves, but so cool to witness this nest over the marsh! 🪶 #birds

My other special interest/hyperfixation is nail polish. A bunch of us are doing algae themed nails for the 4th since the reflecting pool debacle is a great representation of this current admin. 🤣 #algaefa

From today’s hike. And with that, good night. ~•~ Fruited Balloonpod Milkvetch (Astragalus whitneyi) with lupine, daggerpod, mariposa lily and paintbrush on a high elevation ridgeline. 🌿

Caught a Brown Thrasher taking a dirt bath in the yard yesterday. They’re so enthusiastic about it! 🪶

The Trump administration shuttered Climate . gov last year. Now, former NOAA scientists fired during the DOGE cuts have launched Climate . us - a new home for trusted climate science and public resources. Science persists. ✊ zurl.co/GdVMU

Ex-NOAA employees re-create a valuable climate data site shut down by Trump

Former NOAA staffers have launched a new website that provides climate information. It replaces a government site that was shut down when the Trump administration took office.

zurl.co

I swear these birds watch for when I put fresh water in the bath! I refilled it and then sat down at our patio table. They started coming immediately. Apparently the American Robins have bath seniority. 🤣 🪶

Honestly, getting a bird bath is the best thing I could have done for home. 🪶

Conservation has its own horrible tech bros so of course they're the ones the US gov is working with

Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com · last mo.

The US government is entering a partnership to store frozen cells and other biological samples from endangered and threatened species with Colossal, a private company best known for claiming to "de-extinct" dire wolves. Story by me & @catrineinhorn.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/43Rzhfw

Today’s Alt #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Birds&Bokeh — bird portraits with a blurry background or foreground. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Boone, NC this past weekend. 🪶 #birds

Just some trash birds (good ol’ landfills). 🪶

I made the mistake of napping for a few hours after work today. 😬 A fun day of learning at the wetland center though!

I got my camera lens repaired and it is SO NICE to have a working setup again. Here’s a Chestnut-sided Warbler from the weekend spent in the mountains to celebrate! 🪶

Both totally unnecessary and extremely funny that the Guardian has an interactive graphic for you to change the color of the US flag's blue to the color of the Reflecting Pool from 8 to 19 June and counting

A very cool velvet mite from over the weekend spend up in the mountains.