Frank Izaguirre

1 week ago | aba.org | Frank Izaguirre

Recent meteorological reports suggest weather patterns have created favorable conditions for large movements of migrating birds across the Midwest. Migration has been somewhat suppressed in the first week of May due to northerly winds and mostly unfavorable conditions for migrants moving northward, but starting within the next couple of days, migration may dramatically ramp up.

1 week ago | aba.org | Frank Izaguirre

The authors of a new study believe they have solved one of the world’s great rare bird mysteries: the case of the Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala. In 1990, a single wing, from a roadkill specimen, was collected in Ethiopia’s Nechisar National Park, in the southern part of the country, during a birding expedition. The combination of its wing length and the extent and positioning of a distinct white patch on the outer primaries led to its description as a new species in 1995.

3 weeks ago | aba.org | Frank Izaguirre

Have you seen the sky dance yet? Every year, birders look forward to the return of American Woodcocks, Scolopax minor, to their breeding grounds. Woodcocks begin arriving on territory as early as March, in late winter. The best time to observe their famous “sky dance,” a courtship display, is March through April, just after sunset or also before sunrise. Dusk displays often last longer and are the more popular viewing option among birders.

3 weeks ago | aba.org | Frank Izaguirre

Before yesterday, April 20, there had never been a Cook County, Illinois, record for Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides. But today, April 21, there are three. Chicago appears to be experiencing a Mountain Bluebird invasion. A bird found in Humboldt Park on April 20, represented a first county record, and was seen by several dozen birders before eventually flying west out of the park.

Jan 2, 2024 | aba.org | Frank Izaguirre

Bee Bzz Bzz Bzz. That’s a sound birders love to hear, and, in some places, one birders hear less often than they used to. Gorgeous, threatened, prone to producing interesting hybrid combinations with Blue-winged Warblers: the Golden-winged Warbler is a birder favorite, whether encountered as an expected breeder, an uncommon migrant, or an electrifying vagrant. Golden-winged Warbler is also the first warbler selected as the ABA Bird of the Year.