Latest posts
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SIB Travels: The SE Arizona Birding Festival!
As a follow-up to our recent blog of road trip and travel ideas, we felt this was the perfect time to republish this excellent blog written by Aija and Ed Konrad in 2024. Enjoy! On August 6-9, 2024, Ed and I attended the Southeast Arizona Birding Festival in Tucson, presented by Tucson Audubon Society. It was our…
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Summer Birding – Road Trips and Travel Ideas
Summer vacation season is in full swing, and perhaps you’re getting the urge to wander, to hit the open road and see more of our beautiful country. And perhaps you’d like to include a little birding along the way. If you’re looking for ideas, here are a few travel destinations from Audubon that are not…
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The Cruising Dilettante Birders
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Ecuador Adventure Part 5 – Oddballs
Anyone who has been following my series on our vacation in Ecuador knows that I covered the Galapagos Island in a series of 4 blogs, and Ecuador via 4 blogs focusing on specific groups of birds – Antpittas, Hummingbirds, Toucans and Allies, and Tanagers. All this barely scratched the surface. In this final blog about…
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Ecuador Birding Adventure – Part 4 – Tanagers
If you thought the hummingbirds were numerous (134 species), the family Cardinalidae has 178 species in Ecuador, this includes but is not limited to Cardinals, Tanagers, Flowerpiercers, Honeycreepers, Danis, Seedeaters, Finches and Saltators. Since there are so many bird species in Cardinalidae, I will focus this blog just on the birds with Tanager in their…
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Ecuador Birding Adventure – Part 3 – Trogon and Toucan and Kin
Most birders who have explored outside of the Unted States have labeled the Trogon and its close relative Quetzal as highly desirable sightings. Ask any child or anyone who has eaten Fruit Loops and they know about Toucans! The Toucans are closely related to Barbets and Toucanets. You know we wanted to find them! During…
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Birding Ecuador – Part 2 – Hummingbirds
Here in the eastern United States, we love our hummingbird. I say that in the singular as we only have one species regularly found in the East. Occasionally a couple western species drop in, but not regularly like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird drawn to our feeders. In Ecuador, birders have recorded 132 species of hummingbirds. On…
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Birding Ecuador – Part 1 Antpittas
In late July and early August, Eileen and I were in Ecuador. We spend 14 days on a trip arranged by Wildside Nature Tours entitled “Ecuador West to East Andes.” We would find over 400 species of birds, and I was able to capture photographs of 226 of them. Instead of giving you a blow…
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Galapagos Island Adventure – Part 5
We cannot leave the Galapagos Islands without visiting several iconic species. There are the two species of frigatebird, the Red-billed Tropicbird, and of course the boobies. The two frigatebirds found on the Galapagos Island cross ranges on the Galapagos Island and a few small islands along the Pacific coast of Central America. The Magnificent Frigatebird…
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Galapagos Island Endemics (Part 4)
In the last three blogs, I discussed our Galapagos Island adventures with the Mockingbirds, Darwin Finches, Reptiles, and Mammals. While the whole ecology is built upon the geology, ocean currents, and resulting plants that would take a book and those have already been written. With this next Galapagos Island blog, I intend to focus on…