This is going to be so good!

Surprise! We have been organizing something special from the shortgrass prairie: the inaugural and first annual Southern Plains Birding Festival! 🌾🦉 Tickets ($40) are for sale now!!! Get your tickets and additional info at southernplainsbirdingfestival.org

The bottom line is global biodiversity loss isn’t driven by one dominant threat. It’s the combined, cumulative pressure of multiple drivers. To halt vertebrate declines, conservation must tackle them together. 🌍 #Biodiversity #ConservationScience

MAJOR NEWS! We just launched an awesome new tool! The illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer lets users trace any bird’s lineage, compare species relationships, and explore major evolutionary milestones with a click of a button. SHARE and EXPLORE! birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/phy...

Huge News from the Western Amazon: it's the year 2025 and we are still describing entirely new, strikingly-distinctive large-bodied bird species! Behold Tinamus resonans sp. nov. the Slaty-masked Tinamou mapress.com/zt/article/v... #Ornithology @tetzoo.bsky.social 🪶

Who is in Wales at the European Ornithological Congress #EOU2025 this week? We are! Please stop by the booth and see Shawn and Nick and ask about the exciting things happening with Birds of the World and our partner network.

🦅 The new unified global #avian #taxonomy #AviList has just been released at www.avilist.org! Xmas for anyone interested in #birds & checklists... The first version will be followed by annual updates, with decisions and processes aimed to be more transparent than its predecessors'. 🪶🧪 🧵

If your genAI tool will create content that must be double-checked by experts in order to be usable, safe & accurate ... it's probably easier & cheaper to just hire the experts to create the damn content in the first place.

you might think N American species are getting common at their north range limit and rare at their south range limit as temps get warmer but you would be wrong new paper in GEB w/ @eliotmiller.bsky.social & Matt Strimas-Mackey, eBird Status & Trends ftw onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I found this tree stump in an Ithaca park with year markers for the various tree ring ages. Who knows what the missing year is?

I found many little orange friends in the woods today. I love them so much.

Used book store find of the day: when this cheerful man posed for a photo with his orchids, do you think they told him what the book title would be?

"North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant"--a stark, timely reminder of just how important conservation measures are. We need to save birds before it's too late. New research out by Cornell Lab of Ornithology & @abcbirds.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

BHL is essential for my work. I hope it finds a good new home! #ILoveBHL

It’s still wild to me how some Paphs are so shiny waxy they don’t even look real. I’m going to have to try one at some point.

Orchid time! I just got back from the spring show by the Genesee Region Orchid Society in Rochester. I only bought three new ones and that was showing restraint. I didn’t take as many pics as I should have but here’s some highlights.

River Otters make any morning better.

Calling all researchers, conservationists, & habitat biologists! We’re collecting insights from users for grants/reports. How does Birds of the World impact your work? That is, what do you use BOW for, and what does it provide that other resources cannot? DM or email [email protected] - TIA!

50 degrees and raining? It’s salamander time

America right now: macaulaylibrary.org/asset/629934...

If you have access to Birds of the World, my first chapter on a bird there was just published after a good deal of work. The Tristan Moorhen was a flightless rail that lived only on Tristan in Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic. 1/n

Last bird of 2024: Wild Turkey First bird of 2025: Carolina Wren

Starting off 2025 right: walking for miles in rain and snow for a CBC

Part of making BlueSky a better place includes not bringing bird-related Elf of the Shelf puns over here thanks!

Happy 8th Gotcha Day to my Finch 😻

The fact that one of my local radio stations has already switched to Christmas music is really confusing my sense of what holiday week this is.

My new favorite tag on Macaulay Library just dropped. Look at all these sweet plumage mutations. search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?sort...

Exciting new #colsci!

November mood

After being sick for most of the last week, I really needed to stretch my legs. Then I remembered I have a state park right out my own backyard. I should take advantage of that more often.

Join Shawn, Pam, and Marshall from our Taxonomy team for an in-depth look into this year's taxonomy updates at their annual webinar, What’s new in avian taxonomy: 2024 Edition! The webinar will take place Thursday, 14 November at 12PM ET. Register below! buff.ly/3Artgeh

I did the thing. Can I stop getting election spam now? 🐸

Who wants to meet our team? Birds of the World is going to the @amornith.bsky.social #AOS24 ornithology conference in Estes Park, Colorado, next week. You can find us at our sponsor booth in the Assembly Hall all meeting long - come say hello!

In honor of fall migration, the moon has dressed up as a Wilson’s Warbler

The 2nd paper from my postdoc work on yellowthroat genomics is now online at Molecular Ecology! Populations of Common Yellowthroats in eastern North America have notable differences in sexual selection on similar plumage ornaments ... 1/4 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The 2nd paper from my postdoc work on yellowthroat genomics is now online at Molecular Ecology! Populations of Common Yellowthroats in eastern North America have notable differences in sexual selection on similar plumage ornaments ... 1/4 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...