Birds

Miami-based photographer and author Kirsten Hines spends her life immersed in the natural world. She started off as a wildlife biologist but found herself more interested in talking pictures of the natural world than doing science with it. She has now published nine books in all, the latest of which is “Birds of Florida.” It’s a guidebook featuring 310 birds you can find in Florida, with photographs she took and brief descriptions she wrote that provide insight into the various species, and tips on where to find them.

Molt is defined as the routine loss and replacement of feathers. It can occur at any time of year, but in most birds a complete molt occurs in late summer and fall and a partial molt may occur in early spring. The timing of each molt is important. In late summer and fall, there is generally an abundance of insects, seeds, and fruit that provides the energy for molt. This molt provides birds with fresh plumage and often colors and patterns that help conceal it in winter environments.

Miami-based photographer and author Kirsten Hines spends her life immersed in the natural world. She started off as a wildlife biologist but found herself more interested in talking pictures of the natural world than doing science with it. She has now published nine books in all, the latest of which is “Birds of Florida.” It’s a guidebook featuring 310 birds you can find in Florida, with photographs she took and brief descriptions she wrote that provide insight into the various species, and tips on where to find them.

Miami-based photographer and author Kirsten Hines spends her life immersed in the natural world. She started off as a wildlife biologist but found herself more interested in talking pictures of the natural world than doing science with it. She has now published nine books in all, the latest of which is “Birds of Florida.” It’s a guidebook featuring 310 birds you can find in Florida, with photographs she took and brief descriptions she wrote that provide insight into the various species, and tips on where to find them.

Black Birders Week 2024 is featuring a series of virtual and in-person events throughout the country to allow folks to engage with Black leaders and experts in the birding community

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto wants the wildlife agency to renew efforts to designate a “state bird” that is unique to Florida.

Warblers are those tiny and sometimes brightly colored feathered missiles you see zooming from tree branch to weedy stalks during the winter months in Southwest Florida.

“Phenology” is a term that refers to the timing of events in nature. Understanding phenology provides us with answers to such questions as: “When does this bird nest?” “When does a plant bloom in our area?” “When does this bird molt?” What competitors, predators, or habitat characteristics might influence when a species is present or successful? The obviously repeated word here is “when”, but phenology also incorporates the question “Why does this timing occur?” The answers to the “Why?” are diverse – sometimes referring to day length, seasonal weather patterns, the presence or absence of predators or competitors, the age, physical characteristics or spatial distribution of plants in a habitat, or diverse seasonal energy demands on the subject of our interest. In short, the key to understanding “phenology” is to understand the physical and biological complexity of the world in which a species lives and the impacts of that complexity on the life of the creature we are focusing on.

America’s grassland birds are deeply in trouble 50 years after adoption of the Endangered Species Act, with numbers plunging as habitat loss, land degradation and climate change threaten what remains of a once-vast ecosystem.

Audubon Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is an attraction in western Everglades by Naples. upcoming months feature some of the best bird-watching and wildlife experiences