World’s largest carnivorous bats are big softies | Popular Science share.google/CihdoJzdIB6H...

Putin to his interpreter: "is just called Bald Eagle, these fucking idiots didn't even know the name of their national bird." Interpreter to Trump: "President Putin is greatly moved and will be reminded of this wonderful gift every time he watches a Western film and hears it's majestic call."

America's largest shorebird species, Long-billed Curlew, standing behind the world's smallest shorebird, Least Sandpiper. Of course, field flattening is in effect in this image. In reality, Long billed Curlews are only 3,150% larger than Least Sandpipers.

After 3 days, @mothweek.bsky.social is up to 5,617 species! Here's one that i added to the project, a big Aholibah Underwing that came in to the sheet in Portland last night. Lifer!

#mothweek is here! Amazing to check the @inaturalist.bsky.social project and see how fast the species are wracking up. 2,727 in ~34 hours. A little slow at my moth sheet last night because of cooler temps and breezy conditions, but I do love the topiary grass-veneers. They look like little wizards.

I didn't really get why they had invaded Portland until i saw one in my garden obsessed with eating my kale

this is an incredible piece from @stephencarrhampton.bsky.social. required reading for anyone interested in the debate around #birdnamesforbirds, or the genocide of Native peoples, or of the mythology of Lewis and Clark. open.substack.com/pub/schampto...

If you care about hunting, hiking, wildlife, clean water, or just the idea that public lands belong to all of us, it’s time to raise hell. Call your senators. Call the media. Call it what it is: A war on the American West.

Welp, I did it, I wrote a piece for @therevelator.org on the proposed funding cuts to the Bird Banding Lab & Breeding Bird Survey and what they would mean for bird research & conservation in the U.S. Definitely a different sort of writing than I usually do. 🪶 therevelator.org/trump-vs-bir...

If you're going to tape in a Near-threatened, range restricted species, maybe at least photoshop the speaker out of the photo

Happy Father's Day to all the geese and swans out there (not you, ducks)

Some ducks have joined one of the #NoKings rallies in Portland, OR!

You never realize how much a Ruddy Turnstone looks like the third member of Insane Clown Posse until you see it from the front

Had an awesome time at Magee Marsh. Somehow still didn't catch up with one of these 🤷🏻

16 species of warbler on the first day of the @birdallianceoregon.bsky.social Magee Marsh tour. As always, Blackburnian wins the popularity contest.

Birders in Oregon have been noticing an unprecedentedly late and light migration. Zero migrants in my local parks this morning. BirdCast confirms. I'm curious how things are across the country? And shout out to the Cornell lab folks for making such an amazing tool: www.birdcast.info

Spring break is a great idea but it should be April 1 - June 1 and for adults

There are a lot of great field guides out there, but i have never enjoyed one as much as the "Birds of Borneo" by Quentin and Karen Phillipps. The illustrations and descriptions are top notch, but it's the incredible ecological notes that make it read more like a riveting natural history.

I love the @ababirds.bsky.social podcast annual rarity draft, but @n8swick.bsky.social, letting Blue Rock Thrush fall to 4, after two regularly occurring ABA birds, means we need some west coast representation on the panel 😄

Americans who disagree with the illegal actions of Elon Musk should refuse to pay their federal taxes. Our tax dollars are supposed to fund what is determined by Congress. If our agency has been removed from that process, we should pay state and local taxes and #boycottfederaltaxes.

And today i found my own Fuzzy Biscuit in the Columbia Slough!

In case anyone needs a little corvid energy. Feel free to print, stick in your workspace, shove in a musker's face, whatever.

bringing back some #InvertebrateShitposting from the archives

A shout out to the org i work for! Follow for conversation updates, and sweet bird photography

Short-eared Owls give good face, don’t they? This is a great time of year to spot them gliding over open fields or grasslands at dawn or dusk. They hunt while flying low or hovering, diving to snatch prey or rising swiftly to escape danger. It’s a spectacular sight! 📷: Eric Ellingson

American and European Green-winged Teal today at 158th Marsh in Portland OR today. American birders have been waiting forever for the eBird taxonomy to follow the IOC and split these, but i feel like in the last eBird Taxonomy report, they mentioned that new studies show these aren't good species?

Hello Android birders!! You asked and @ethanmoon.bsky.social is going to deliver! But he’s asking for your help! He needs some test users, so if anyone with an android that would like to help, please DM him directly! #software #app #developer #bird #addbirder🦉🪶

In honor of Year of the Snake, here's an all time favorite: a Pope's Pit Viper (i think) that showed up at the monastery where i was living in Bhutan.

This used to be a golf course. Now after a few years of rehab, it's a thriving wetland in an industrial neighborhood Portland, OR. That's it.

I often wonder how much more popular these animals would be with better branding. Like, Marsh Mouse, or, Fuzzy Biscuit.

Pretty much my entire job is funded by federal grants. My projects relate to the effects of climate change on birds, multiple long-term demographics studies that show which birds are declining and which are doing well, & now a newer project on under-studied endangered tropical island avifauna 🧪🪶👩‍🔬

Another reason to keep cats indoors: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I just love that there is a cisticola called the Foxy Cisticola and it basically looks like all the other cisticolas

When you know you are just a little brown jobber in your home range, but a second state record that hundreds of birders will travel hours to see in Columbia County, Oregon. Field Sparrow ftw.

A Glorybower (aka peanut butter tree) is kind of an annoying tree, tbh, but mine has brought in two Red-breasted Sapsuckers and a Hermit Thrush (both annual at best in my yard) in the last three days, so we're good.

The meanings of the word for a wren, from eight different languages... 8. Little walnut (Bulgarian) 7. Little bird in the ditch (Japanese) 6. Thumbling (Finnish) 5. Fence-skedaddler (Danish) 4. Fence-master (Hebrew) 3. Druid bird (Irish) 2. Mouse-brother (Faroese) 1. Little king of winter (Dutch)

Show me a better bird story www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-...

This is a flower fly, or hover fly. You can easily see two little barbell shaped nubbins protruding from its sides where the thorax meets the abdomen. Those are halteres, organs that evolved from hindwings. The fly uses them to sense orientation and direction while flying. Guango Lodge, Ecuador

A question for the #birds people (especially @corvidresearch.bsky.social). Have you seen crows tear up lawns like this? It seems like i just started seeing it in the last 6 months, and now they do it all over my neighborhood. Did they learn it from starlings? Is there a new invasive worm?

This young Cooper's Hawk elicited 14 "dees" from a Black-capped Chickadee in my yard, which I'm sure he was quite proud of despite coming up empty on lunch

Saw this Yellow-billled Loon on the Columbia River, clearly in Washington state water, counted it on my eBird checklist from Oregon, no regrets

My favorite bird is the bird I'm looking at, as long as it's a Merlin or Dipper. So excited to finally spot a Merlin at my local park! Only took 170 tries.

wait why does the dept of government efficiency have two co-chairs

Good list here! What other lists are good for birders?

Today's the day! Portland Audubon is now Bird Alliance of Oregon! birdallianceoregon.org/blog/announc....

Just realizing we never heard what @jerutter.bsky.social s worst injury birding was. While we wait, anyone else have one?

Really fun talking with @jerutter.bsky.social , Stephanie, and @n8swick.bsky.social. And for reference, here's my version of Weird Duck Season