Birds and Birding

Sedge Wren

This page now links to seven of seven supplementary pages that include data regarding The Birds of East Brunswick, the 2007 Birds of East Brunswick, The Winter Bird Count, The Great Backyard Bird Count, Regional Birding Hot spots and others.

Use the Supplementary Bird & Birding menu directly above or the photos directly below this frame to access these pages.

2008 Birds of East Brunswick...............

Big Day Bird Count...............................

Birds of East Brunswick........................

Great Backyard Bird Count.................

Regional Birding Hot Spots...................

Raptor Survey.........................................

Winter Bird Count....................................

Palo Alto, CA 12/2007.............................

Why are people so fascinated with birds and birding?

"They are the most intensely alive of all creatures — often moving, darting, hopping, flying, or at times migrating thousands of miles."

— Roger Tory Peterson

Click Start Slideshow (just above) to see all the pictures.

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Here is a sampling of some bird photos that I have taken this year. We’d love to include your shots here. Please send them in. Use the Email Me link at the bottom of the page.

Many secondary pages to Birds and Birding are now active here. Use the Supplementary Birds and Birding menu above or click on either the text or the photo (directly to the right) for the page you want to see.

Supplementary Birds & Birding pages:

| REGIONAL BIRDING HOT SPOTS | WINTER BIRD COUNT |

ADDITIONAL Bird-related RESOURCES

CHECKLISTS
United States (the lists just below may be slightly different from one another)
American Birding Association Checklist of U.S. birds
AOU Checklist of North American Birds
Clements Checklist, perhaps the most comprehensive checklist of birds of the world. Maintained by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and up to date. This is a 6.1 mb download and will open automatically in Excel or Numbers. For the serious world birder, this is IT!
Printable birding CHECKLISTS from around the world (download as .pdf files).
BIRD CAMS (usually live cameras on bird nests) Some of these are updated every 30 seconds.
Eagle Cam From Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in maryland. Eagles lay eggs in January (usually). Watch them rear their young.
Duke Farms EagleCam
Osprey Cam Again from Blackwater NWR. Ospreys don’t return until Spring (usually) and begin their nesting activities. Recent activity (prior to the Ospreys returning for the season) has included the Bald Eagles and Black Vultures on the platform.
Norfolk Eagle Cam (As of early April, with live eaglets).
Eagle Cam from British Columbia…with sound! From the Hancock Wildlife Foundation.
HELP WITH IDENTIFYING BIRDS
WhatBird.com is an amazing site that can help you identify birds that you have seen using a very broad range of criterial. You don’t have to know all the field marks. This site will help you narrow down the choices by color, range, field marks, etc. GREAT for beginners!
LEARNING ABOUT BIRDING AND WHERE TO BIRD:
ABC (American Birding Conservancy) - A new organization with very wide-ranging ambition. Lots of information on their Main Page and a very interesting link (down to the left just a little) called the “Bird News Network”.
About.com Birding/Wild Birds page Beginning birders, this is the first ‘other’ site you need.
Cornell Lab or Ornithology’s great All About Birds. All we can say is “WOW!” Amazing site for beginners and advanced birders alike.
Fledgling Birders is a GREAT resource for all birders.
And, Fledgling Birders has a wonderful resource to help you identify birds you’ve seen.
Where to go Hawk Watching in the US…from enature.com. Always something new to learn.
Jack Siler's eBird Rarity Map This is a google map showing the locations of most rarities throughout the US. You can zoom in to individual states and regions as desired. EXCELLENT!
NJ Audubon ‘Important Bird Areas’ and NJ Audubon ‘Important Birding Areas’ ( <--- Two different pages.)
Where to go Hawk Watching in the US…from enature.com. Always something new to learn.
Sam Galick’s New Jersey Birding Locations Google map. Want to know where these places are and how to get there? This is the site! You will benefit every time Sam updates the map.
Here’s a great page from Howard Eskin in Pennsylvania about Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures, and another photo study about Rough-legged Hawks.
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION:
American Birding Association - One of the premier organizations in the country
American Ornithologists’ Union - Another major birding organization
Bird TV from Birdcinema.com
BirdingOnThe.Net A fabulous site (their home page) with a treasure trove of information for all interested in birding.
BirdingOnThe.Net Not a duplication of the link above but their wonderful link to a frequently updated map of unusual sightings, nationwide.
Birding field guides and books, as well as books and guides on related nature topics from 10,000 birds. If you need it, it’s probably here.
The Carolina Parakeet; a very interesting article.
David LaPuma’s great birding (and other things of nature) blog, with very timely information about migration. Birds and weather…perfect together! This has the inside scoop on how understanding the relationship can make your birding experience much better.
Hummingbirds: How to feed them. A great resource! Even has an easy recipe for creating your own nectar to attract them.
NEW JERSEY AUDUBON SOCIETY main links:
Home page - You can reach all other NJ Audubon links from here.
Current Issue of NJ Birds Now Online Voice of New Jersey Audubon Online Usually prepared weekly. Very comprehensive.
Cats Indoors! A very important campaign to protect birds. And loads of resources for advocates of this campaign.
NJ Audubon’s link to almost everything else you might want to know (how to purchase optics, injured birds, field trip do’s and don’t’s, etc. A great resource with links to lots of important other sites and links.
New Jersey CHECKLISTS
Birds
Wildlife
Cape May birding and butterflies
Threatened and endangered New Jersey species
Cape May Bird Observatory PHOTOGRAPHER of the MONTH (with archives). This is a very good resource for photographers. What a way to improve your bird photography skills…learn from the very best.
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD Migration Map. Just found out about this great resource. Want to know when to put up that hummingbird feeder? Check hummingbirds.net for when they will reach your area. Lots of hummingbird data and photos.
State of the Birds. This is a very interesting website with important information. The video on the main page is very powerful.
iBird and WhatBird…amazing software for mobil phones. I personally use iBird Plus on the iPhone and find it to be a wonderfully rich resource which includes the ability to help you identify birds, display range maps and play bird calls that are more than loud enough on the iPhone to attract birds. The current database in this “Interactive Field Guide to the Birds of North America” contains 891 birds. The company indicates it will provide free lifetime updates.
RARE BIRD ALERTS (RBAs) (Regional):
BirdingOnThe.net Rare Bird Alerts: Not a duplication of the link above. Here is their link for Rare Bird Alerts that puts all national RBAs at your disposal. This is excellent if you’re traveling throughout the country and want to know what birds have been seen in a particular region.
Some RBAs are updated more frequently than others (either as needed or weekly), and some may be as much as several weeks behind. Nevertheless, these are an invaluable resource, especially if you’re ‘chasing’. (And if you are, contact us. There are many of us who may like to join you.)
BirdingOnThe.net’s Tough Birds Page and their Easy Birds Page. They use the AOU scale: 1 = Easy. 2 - 5 = increasingly difficult.
REPORTING YOUR SIGHTINGS:
Reporting on “Rare” bird sightings! Be certain of what you want to report (that it IS a rare bird in our region), then…
1 Email US first, and next
2 Report it here (New Jersey Bird Records Committee)! (Read the first page before you do so.)
Banded and Tagged Birds-Reporting them and other sightings:
Report Trumpeter Swan sightings here, birds banded with colorful neck bands here and birds metal leg bands here.
Ring-billed Gulls-Report those with fluorescent yellow or orange tags. They may also have leg bands, some colored or aluminum. This program captures birds using a rocket net baited with Cheez-its and bread. Learn more here. Report the birds to Dan Clark HERE!
WHERE TO BIRD:
New Jersey Audubon’s Great Birding Locations…for each season.
FINDING A LOST ‘PET’ BIRD
911 Parrot Alert
Shelters in Aberdeen and Matawan (these were sent in): And call local vets for any reports of found birds.
Castleofdreamsar@yahoo.com
pawsabilitiesrescue@hotmail.com
founders@naturesrefuge.com

* If you’re ‘chasing’ birds, use the sites listed here with a yellow color background to improve your chances.

Click on the any of the links above to go to that particular site.

DELAWARE
✴Delaware RBA
✴Delaware Valley RBA
CONNECTICUT
✴Connecticut RBA
✴Connecticut Daily RBA
MARYLAND
✴MDOsprey (Maryland) RBA
MASSACHUSETTS
✴Massachusetts RBA
NEW JERSEY
✴Jersey Birding RBA
✴New Jersey RBAs

If you’ve enjoyed these photos, there are many more on the Flickr site.

Click here to see them.

RARE BIRD ALERTS (RBAs) (Regional…below):
BirdingOnThe.net Rare Bird Alerts: Not a duplication of the link above. Here is their link for Rare Bird Alerts that puts all national RBAs at your disposal. This is excellent if you’re traveling throughout the country and want to know what birds have been seen in a particular region.
Some RBAs are updated more frequently than others (either as needed or weekly), and some may be as much as several weeks behind. Nevertheless, these are an invaluable resource, especially if you’re ‘chasing’. (And if you are, contact us. There are many of us who may like to join you.)

Rare Bird Alerts (the entire U.S. and worldwide)
Here’s the BirdingOnTheNet page just about everywhere you could possible go. It’s everywhere else we haven’t already listed.

VERY SPECIAL NOTICE:
Our good friends at Wild Bird Kingdom have provided our readers with a 10% discount on all bird food items that they sell. This is very good for us…and for the birds we attract. CLICK HERE TO GET THE COUPON!
WEBSITE | 732-662-9350

Attracting HUMMINGBIRDS to your home

There is only one type of hummingbird that is regular in the eastern United States. This is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). These are beautiful small birds, typically between 3 and 3 3/4” in length. The adults have a green back and a whitish breast and buffy belly. Males are distinguished by a brilliant ruby red on the throat. These feathers are iridescent and the color is very much dependent on the angle of light. When the light is right, you will easily see the wonderful color. When the light is wrong, it may appear very dark, even black.

After many years of seeing only 1 or 2 hummingbirds in the garden each year, and sporadically at that, I have been enjoying an increasing number of hummers at home. They were attracted to the impatiens that my wife and I plant in large numbers. But this wasn’t enough to ‘keep’ them there. They were just visiting. Now, we regularly have up to 5 hummingbirds, and for two very good reasons. The first was the planting of a honeysuckle bush around the light post at the curb. Yes, honeysuckle can be invasive so this is in a very restricted area, between the curb and the sidewalk, and does not allow for expansion. Hummers love the sweet, perfectly shaped abundant flowers. It’s a plant just made for them.

However, to improve the chances of actually get the birds to hang around here, I added 2 hummingbird feeders. These are filled with a sugar water mixture that provides a great deal of energy to hummingbirds.

An easy recipe for creating your own hummingbird nectar is HERE. No, the nectar doesn’t have to be red. In fact, some believe the red food coloring is not at all good for them. But there must be something that is prominently red to attract them (the base, the jar, etc.). Once the find it, they will remember it.

Here are 2 feeders with which I have had good success. You can click on the photos to get to a link to order them, or look for them locally. The larger feeder is also available at Home Depot. I hang both feeders from a branch of a tree (near the honeysuckle to give them choices) in the front of my home.

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