Rebecca Heisman

Nice! We have two (indoor!) cats and are always toying with the idea of putting together a proper catio for them. We do have a sort of pop-up mesh tent that they occasionally get to lounge in on the patio.

Yesterday and today I wrote 1300 words of rough draft for what's eventually supposed to be a 2500 word feature, about some very cool but very dense bird genetics research. I feel pretty good about that amount of progress. Maybe I'll reward myself with a treat tonight.

Thoughts & prayers to the EPA :(

Now back to writing about the genetics of warbler hybridization for a piece that won't be out until summer........

The Gull and the Garbage Truck | BirdNote One Western Gull’s most unusual foraging trip.

FINALLY: For BirdNote Daily, the tale of the best day of one Western Gull's life. www.birdnote.org/podcasts/bir...

Will Your State Bird Disappear? • The Revelator A new study shows that tens of millions of Americans could lose the chance to see their state bird due to climate change.

THIRD: How many people in the U.S. will lose the chance to see their "state bird" due to range shifts driven by climate change? And also... why should we care? therevelator.org/state-birds-...

The Surprising Connection Between Spruce Trees, Pine Siskins, and Salmonella Outbreaks New research linking climate, conifer seed production, and siskin irruptions could provide an early warning system for dangerous salmonella outbreaks at bird feeders and among people.

SECOND: I wrote about research linking summer temperatures in the mountains, conifer seed production, pine siskin irruptions, and salmonella outbreaks. Cool stuff. www.audubon.org/magazine/sur...

After the Outbreak - bioGraphic A northern gannet colony devastated by avian influenza is slowly recovering—and so are the researchers who witnessed the virus’s wrath.

FIRST: I talked to some really lovely seabird researchers in the UK about what it was like to see HPAI sweep through Northern Gannet colonies there and what the recovery has been like (for both the birds and the people who love them). www.biographic.com/after-the-ou...

I had an UNUSUAL volume of writing published in February, so even though I've shared everything individually here before, if you'll indulge me I'm going to string them together here in a thread.

Bird science incoming! 🪶🧵

Bird of Passage: March 2026 Hello dear readers — usually I write a brief column or essay here, but I have to admit the past month has been rougher than usual and I’ve got nothing! One...

Hey look it's my latest email newsletter! A little more barebones than usual, because February was, uh, a lot. buttondown.com/rheisman/arc...

Did you build or buy this? How do the cats get in and out from inside?

🤣

Bird of Passage: March 2026 Hello dear readers — usually I write a brief column or essay here, but I have to admit the past month has been rougher than usual and I’ve got nothing! One...

Hey look it's my latest email newsletter! A little more barebones than usual, because February was, uh, a lot. buttondown.com/rheisman/arc...

I have a seven-year-old who loves Pokemon, so "Pica Pica" immediately makes me think of Pikachu!

Some birds just have incredibly satisfying Latin names.

Spinus pinus.

Upupa epops.

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus.

Oh cool! Is this in Bellingham? I wrote about Pravosudov's work for the Cornell Lab magazine.

Western Bluebird

Peace!

Peace! How hard can it be? #birds #birding #birdwatching #bluebirds #westernbluebird #peace ✌️

I was going to post something about my work goals for the week, like getting my newsletter out on Wednesday and starting a draft of my next story for the Cornell Lab magazine.

But man, it's one of those days where I read the headlines and feel like none of what I'm doing really matters at all.

I still get paid write about birds, just not in book form! But man, I'm awfully sick of well-meaning people asking me when I'm going to write another book.

I naively got caught up in this myself. My book received an offer from a big-five publisher for a large advance and large print run. Awesome for me, right? Except it set me up for failure because the book didn't earn back the advance & my book author career was over as soon as it started. Oh well.

Turns out the cold I was fighting all week while still trying to get a ton of work done was actually COVID.

I don't even have the mental capacity to react to today's headlines. Hopefully I will be ready to resurface by Monday. 😷

In my utopian vision of the future, instead of offloading all the pointless, annoying work tasks (like reports that none one will read and needlessly opaque forms) to robots, we restructure work and society so that the pointless tasks don't happen at all.

Dear fellows from the outer worlds…

Anyone with access to the following works that could provide a copy/scan/pics?

Boles W. 1990 Glowing parrots—need for a study of hidden colours. Birds Int., 3, 76–79.

Boles W. 1991 Black light signature for birds. Aust. Nat. Hist., 23, 752.

Deeply grateful!

Also - siskins are associated with salmonella outbreaks in Europe, too! So it definitely can't be blamed on something like American farming practices.

Maybe. The scientists who study this aren't sure whether the siskins are already carrying salmonella when they come into cities or picking it up there, and it really isn't the main point of the study or the story I wrote about it.

Hmm... we don't know where exactly the salmonella bacteria originate but none of the researchers I spoke to mentioned poultry as a possiblity. It doesn't seem likely that siskins would be coming into close contact with chickens at poultry farms.

The Surprising Connection Between Spruce Trees, Pine Siskins, and Salmonella Outbreaks New research linking climate, conifer seed production, and siskin irruptions could provide an early warning system for dangerous salmonella outbreaks at bird feeders and among people.

In case you missed it: For Audubon, I wrote about some new research putting together the cascade of ecological events that leads to salmonella outbreaks at urban birdfeeders. 🪶 www.audubon.org/magazine/sur...

Cactus Wren churns out its scratchy song

Hard to believe Spring is arriving in the desert… 🪶

The short version: Specific climate conditions in the mountains -> decreased conifer seed production -> lack of food for birds like pine siskins -> siskin irruption into cities -> salmonella outbreaks at feeders. It's a 2.5 year time lag from an unusually warm summer in the mtns to the irruption!

The Surprising Connection Between Spruce Trees, Pine Siskins, and Salmonella Outbreaks New research linking climate, conifer seed production, and siskin irruptions could provide an early warning system for dangerous salmonella outbreaks at bird feeders and among people.

In case you missed it: For Audubon, I wrote about some new research putting together the cascade of ecological events that leads to salmonella outbreaks at urban birdfeeders. 🪶 www.audubon.org/magazine/sur...