) in the upper right corner of the page.(Please see picture gallery below) The bird of the month for June, the Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is sometimes mistaken for the Red Headed Woodpecker. The Red-Bellied does indeed have red in its head, but only in a stripe from neck to crown (female) or from neck to bill (male). The redhead’s head is entirely . . . → Read More: 2013 June RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER Bird of the Month
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(Please see picture gallery below) The bird of the month for May, Progne subis, has been called “America’s most wanted bird,” because they are so popular. Palm Beach County has our share of them, but if you want to see a huge population, check out http://www.gonetothebirdsrva.com. A common spring and summer resident here in Palm Beach . . . → Read More: 2013 May PURPLE MARTIN Bird of the Month  Comments are closed  Bird of the Month  Don Mullaney, Green Cay, purple martin, Virginia, Wakodahatchee (Please see picture gallery below) The bird of the month for April, Hirundo rustica, is the most widespread swallow in the world. A common spring and fall migrant in Palm Beach County, it is a fairly rare winter bird here. No other North American swallow shows such a deeply forked tail, so if the cobalt blue . . . → Read More: 2013 April Bird of the Month – BARN SWALLOW (See member picture gallery below). The bird of the month for March, Bombycilla cedrorum, is one of only three species worldwide in the family Bombycillidae. This starling-sized bird with a vaguely flycatcher appearance looks like neither bird when seen adequately, and sounds like nothing else. This black-masked brown gray and lemoncolored bird enjoys eating fruit; . . . → Read More: 2013 March Bird of the Month CEDAR WAXWING (next month Barn Swallow) (See member picture gallery below). Back in 2007, February’s bird of the month, Common Loon (Gavia immer), was removed by the American Ornithological Union from its long-standing place at the beginning of our field guides, to be replaced by the Anatidae (Ducks, Geese, Swans). Nevertheless, it is still a regular winter visitor to Palm Beach . . . → Read More: 2013 Feb COMMON LOON Bird-of-the-Month (CEDAR WAXWING will be in March 2013) (See member picture gallery below). January’s bird of the month, Turdus migratorius, is the largest North American thrush (related to the Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush, etc.). It’s also one of the most puzzling migratory mysteries left in our continent’s avifauna—where you might see thousands of them one winter, you’ll see none the next! This . . . → Read More: 2013 Jan AMERICAN ROBIN Bird-of-the-Month (See member picture gallery below). December’s bird of the month, Larus argentatus, is one of two fairly large gulls in Palm Beach County. Herring Gulls are large gulls with hefty bills and robust bodies. In flight, they look barrel-chested and broad-winged compared to smaller species such as Ring-billed Gulls.Adults have light-gray backs, black wingtips, and white . . . → Read More: 2012 December HERRING GULL Bird of the Month For all you photographers out there, here’s the Bird Of The Month List for 2013:
· January – American Robin · February – Cedar Waxwing · March – Common Loon · April – Barn Swallow · May – Purple Martin · June – Red-bellied Woodpecker . . . → Read More: 2013 Bird-of-the-Month list (See member picture gallery below). November’s bird of the month, Larus delawarensis, is one of two fairly common gulls in Palm Beach County. It’s slightly larger than Laughing Gull, our other common larid, although both are considered medium-sized gulls. The bill of the adult is yellow with a black ring (hence the common name), whereas . . . → Read More: 2012 November Ring-billed Gull Bird-of-the-Month Comments are closed Bird of the Month Boynton Beach, Don Mullaney, Joan Murname, Larry Hess, non breeding plumage, ring-billed gull, Stonington Ct, Walt Hackenjos (See member picture gallery below). October’s bird of the month, Sterna sandvicensis, SANDWICH TERN, is a medium-sized tern with a yellow-tipped black bill. It occurs more regularly on the west coast of Florida than our Atlantic beaches. There is, though, a Caribbean and South American (Atlantic) subspecies, the Cayenne Tern, that has an all-yellow bill. . . . → Read More: 2012 October Sandwich Tern Bird-of-the-Month Comments are closed Bird of the Month cape canaveral, cayenne tern, elegant tern, gull-billed tern, kent england, Larry Hess, royal tern, sandwich tern (See member picture gallery below). September’s bird of the month is a familiar sight to beachgoers here, a large, graceful soarer that is ever so ungainly on land: the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis). A large bird, it is nevertheless the smallest of the seven species worldwide; its cousin the American White Pelican is substantially larger. . . . → Read More: 2012 September Brown Pelican Bird-of-the-Month Comments are closed Bird of the Month alligater creek, American White Pelican, Bird of the Month, blowing rocks, brown pelican, cayo costa, cliff dean, everglades national park, Fort DeSoto Bay Park Pier, hope sound, jupiter inlet, key largo, Larry Hess, Linda Schad, Lynn Thompson, palm beach zoo, Paul Thacker, Pelecanus occidentalis 
American Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus, is May’s bird of the month. Another shy skulker of the wetlands, American Bittern can sometimes be seen “camouflaging” itself with its beak in the air in plain sight on a manicured lawn! #gallery-9 { margin: auto; } #gallery-9 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-9 img { American Bittern. Photo by Don Mullaney American Bittern. Photo by Don Mullaney. American Bittern. Photo by Helen Beers. Least Bittern, Ixobrychus exilis, is our bird of the month for April. Shy and secretive most of the time, at this time of the year it can often be seen flying around our two constructed wetlands in Delray/Boynton Beach: Wakodahatchee and Green Cay.
Least Bittern, Green Cay. Photo by Don Mullaney. Note the eye of . . . → Read More: Bird of the Month for April: Least Bittern 
Fish Crow, Corvus ossifragus, is a common resident in SE Florida, but it hasn’t always been that way according to Cornell’s Birds of North America online: Florida. Bailey (1925) stated that Fish Crow in Florida was found mostly in vicinity of brackish and salt waters, although flocks sometimes moved inland in search of food. Howell . . . → Read More: Bird of the Month for March: Fish Crow The bird of the month for February is Passerina cyanea, Indigo Bunting. In its winter dress it resembles a small sparrow and frequents weedy areas in Palm Beach County. It seems to love the feeders at the Okeeheelee Nature Center as well. From the All About Birds website at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, here . . . → Read More: February’s Bird of the Month: Indigo Bunting According to a New York Times article yesterday, “Five billion birds die in the U.S. every year,” said Melanie Driscoll, a biologist and director of bird conservation for the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Flyway for the National Audubon Society. That means that on average, 13.7 million birds die in this country every day. That’s . . . → Read More: Bird mortality Do any of our talented ASE photographers have any pictures of next month’s BOTM, Indigo Bunting, that they would like to email me? I will use them in the article about the Indigo Bunting and provide attribution, of course. Don Mullaney sent in the flight sequence below featuring January’s bird of the month (American Kestrel). Thanks, Don! #gallery-11 { margin: auto; } #gallery-11 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-11 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-11 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } I’m particularly taken with photo 3, which shows how long the wings are in relation to the body; it’s quite amazing what these little raptors can do. 
January’s bird of the month is American Kestrel The American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, is our bird of the month for January. This diminutive raptor is fairly widespread in North America, and Florida is no exception. It eats invertebrates (grasshoppers, dragonflies) and any small songbirds unwary enough not to recognize the classic raptor shape, despite the . . . → Read More: January’s Bird of the Month: American Kestrel 
Our Christmas Bird Count is coming up fast. We count on January 2 this year. For more information about the CBC, see below. About a dozen people braved the 80-degree weather for our annual Thanksgiving Saturday walk at Green Cay, and fun was had by all. We got great views of male and female Northern Harrier throughout the walk; at one point the female was roosting on the grassy berm about 150 yards away; too far for easy . . . → Read More: Trip Report: Green Cay, 11/27/10 by Paddy Cunningham, BIRDING ADVENTURES As the saying goes, you had to be there. I woke up on Monday to head to work and my mind floated back to the slowly lapping waves crashing across the rocky shore, the swaying rusty grass field with Key West on the horizon and a blinding blue sky with . . . → Read More: Trip Report: Florida Keys, October 16-17 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it will review the endangered status of the wood stork under the Endangered Species Act. The decision to initiate a status review is the result of a 90-day finding in response to a petition seeking to reclassify this American wading bird to threatened. The Service has determined . . . → Read More: Fish and Wildlife Service Calls for Review of Wood Stork’s Status 9 birders joined ASE’s last field trip of the season at Spanish River Park on Saturday. Expectations were low, which enabled us to be quite pleased with our moderate luck: 7 warbler species, a Thick-billed Vireo, and a White-crowned Pigeon were seen on the trip! Below is the list of species: Brown Pelican Yellow-crowned Night-Heron White Ibis Laughing Gull . . . → Read More: Field Trip: Spanish River Park, May 1, 2010 Friday, March 19 8:30 am to 12:00 noon Tour of Local Backyard Bird Gardens . Come join Audubon Society of the Everglades in a free tour of Backyard Bird Gardens in the West Palm Beach/Lake Worth area. See what local homeowners are doing to encourage not only our native birds, but also those Northern bird . . . → Read More: Bird Garden Tour, March 19th Nearly 60 hardy birders, on 15 teams, ventured into the brisk outdoors Saturday, January 3, to take part in the annual West Palm Beach Christmas Bird Count. A cold front had passed through the previous day, leaving morning temperatures in the 40′s and a northwest breeze blowing 10 to 20 miles an hour– conditions not ideal for some smaller . . . → Read More: Christmas Bird Count results According to an article in last week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have discovered five species (Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Orchard Oriole, Hooded Oriole, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Cassin’s Vireo) of migratory songbirds that breed once in the Western United States, then again in Mexico. A good article summarizing the research can be found at . . . → Read More: Two breeding seasons for migratory songbirds? Florida’s development community has admitted that their recent effort to downlist the Wood Stork from federal Endangered status to Threatened is merely the first step in an attempt to get them removed from protection by the ESA completely. Read the story in the Sun-Sentinel, or follow the jump to the next page for a few . . . → Read More: FL developers seek to downlist Wood Stork According to this report in the Palm Beach Post, UF researchers have discovered that mockingbirds on their campus are able to recognize individual humans who have posed a threat to their nest. It’s very interesting reading; check it out! Since hyperlinks tend to die after time, I’m quoting some of the most interesting bits after . . . → Read More: Mockingbirds recognize individual humans ASE member John Shelly reports that Snail Kites are nesting again at the Marsh Trail. Here is his report from FL-Birds: Yesterday mid morning I decided to check to see if the Snail Kites were nesting again in the second impoundment to the south of the Marsh Trail at the Lee Rd. entrance to the . . . → Read More: Snail Kites nesting at the refuge, again |
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