Ken Keffer

Sep 6, 2024 | birdsandblooms.com | Ken Keffer |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader

White-Crowned SparrowThe white-crowned sparrow breeds along the Pacific Coast, in western mountains and across Canada and Alaska, and winters in much of the United States and Mexico. This bird has a gray body with a crisply patterned brown back. Adults have bold black-and-white head stripes. Rich rusty brown and gray head stripes are found on immature birds. The bird’s head may be slightly peaked. The white-crowned sparrow’s bill varies from pinkish to yellow.

Jul 30, 2024 | birdsandblooms.com | Ken Keffer |Kimberly Kaufman |As a teenager |Kirsten Schrader

Backyard birds will eat nuts — but it's important to offer them safely. Learn which types of nuts to offer, and which birds nuts bring in. What Types of Birds Eat Nuts? For Amber Lush of Burkmann Nutrition’s Bird Seed Divison, feeding birds changed the way she looks at nuts. “Even when I’m at the grocery store, now I think about which birds could eat the nuts if they didn’t have salt on them,” she says. “Blue jays love them. Woodpeckers love them.

Jul 16, 2024 | blog.nature.org | Christine Peterson |Justine E Hausheer |Dustin Solberg |Ken Keffer

Off the coast of Brazil, on an island called Alcatrazes once used by the Brazilian government as a naval shooting range, lives a tree frog the size of the top joint of your thumb. It’s on the brink of extinction. Or it was, until a group of conservationists rallied to start a captive breeding program for Scinax alcatraz and stop the Brazilian government from shooting the island.

May 26, 2024 | blog.nature.org | Justine E Hausheer |Matthew Miller |Ken Keffer |Megan Munkacsky

On a warm, humid December night, a female leatherback hauls herself from the waves. She labors up the beach, one heave at a time, to lay her eggs within the dark, volcanic sands of the Solomon Islands. After just a few hours on shore, she’ll slip back beneath the ocean’s surface and begin a journey that will last thousands of kilometers. Now, Nature Conservancy scientists and community rangers have discovered where this turtle, and others like her, migrate after they leave their nesting beaches.

Feb 27, 2024 | blog.nature.org | Justine E Hausheer |Cara Byington |Matthew Miller |Ken Keffer

Whether you’re new to birding or a grizzled veteran, you’ve likely heard of a Big Year, where birders compete with themselves — and one another — to see the most species over the course of a year. Most of the famous Big Years occur at a country or global level, where the competition is fierce. It’s not unheard of for birders to quit their jobs, plan their itineraries in minute detail, and spend tens of thousands of dollars on flights… all to chase birds every waking moment for 365 days.