Katherine Figueroa

UPDATE: I have the photos we need. Thank you to everyone that offered to help!

Thank you so much!! I was able to find some photos on iNaturalist, but I appreciate the offer!

You know you’ve been spending too much time birding when you look at your cat’s head and think of a Blackpoll Warbler’s back! 😂
#birds

How to Make Your Windows and Glass Bird Friendly | NYC Bird Alliance Learn how to make your building windows and glass bird-friendly and visible to birds. Prevent collisions using easy, proven solutions

Learn how to help birds here:

Make windows safer:
nycbirdalliance.org/take-action/...

Database of window treatments you can make/buy:
abcbirds.org/glass-collis...

Advocacy:
abcbirds.org/programs/

Sign petitions against rescinding the Roadless Rule:
www.facebook.com/share/p/15wz...

make our windows visible to birds, turn out lights at night during migration, keep cats indoors, not build roads into our last remaining wildernesses so they can be logged for profit, etc.

I’m feeling deeply frustrated about this. In addition to all the other awful things happening in the world, it makes me tremendously sad to think of all the harm we cause the natural world - things we could prevent or stop with simple actions:

People assume that birds dying from window collisions is only a city problem. But homes in suburbs also kill *as many or more* birds as skyscrapers do. We need to do better.

Today, on my volunteer window collision monitoring route, I found 4 dead birds and 4 stunned ones. Of the 2 stunned ones, maybe 2 will survive (statistically speaking). That’s six preventable deaths. This is just on one route that includes only two buildings (about 5 city blocks long total).

A dead adult male Common Yellowthroat

A dead Magnolia Warbler

A dead female or immature Common Yellowthroat

A dead Blackpoll Warbler. Blood is visible on its beak

Graphic warning - dead #birds!! But I’m not putting the photos in the comments because I recently read that a good way to get people to take action on window collisions is to show pictures of the fatalities. So here goes… 🧵🧵

These are lovely! Thank you!!

I’m thinking Blue Jay, males of Blackburnian, Am. Redstart, Baltimore Oriole, Belted Kingfisher, etc.

If you’d be willing to let me use your high quality photos for publicity (with credit, of course!), please DM me!

Sample poster with images (clockwise starting in the upper left) of a male Belted Kingfisher and Blackburnian Warbler, a Blue Jay, a male Baltimore Oriole, some young people looking through binoculars, and a male American Redstart. Some text explaining the club is on the left side, centered between the kingfisher and the redstart, but is blacked out

Seeking #birds photo donations!

I’m looking to start a student birding club at the community college I teach at, and am looking for vibrant images of blue or orange birds that regularly occur in our area (NE USA) for recruiting materials (sample with CC license images, but these are grainy)

I, too, wish you could edit!!!

This is such a lovely portrait of one of my favorite birds - Ovenbird! A Veery wouldn’t have the orange “Mohawk” stripe on the head, and its spots would only be on the upper breast, and not be as dark as these streaks (here’s a Veery from Cornell’s All About Birds)

It’s so depressing - these poor birds! But also, it’s amazing how they adapt to the mess we make (until they can’t anymore and we drive them to extinction 😭😭😭)

It’s crazy - how do they climb trees with that toe arrangement?? Amazing little creatures! ❤️❤️❤️

What a fun photo! You could post it in the #birdbutts feed! 😄

Also, fun facts! Just one correction: nuthatches have anisodactyl feet (as far as I know, all passerines have this toe arrangement, but I’m not 100% sure on that part)

I believe so! I only remembered about the black patch at the base of the bill - I didn’t know the females also have orangeish bills like Mallards (I’ve never actually seen one, but I read about that field mark on ABA’s What’s This Bird fb group)

What a stunning portrait! I think that’s a Mottled Duck, though - they have that black patch at the base of the bill. (And a female Mallard would have an orangeish bill)

The Fascinating and Complicated Sex Lives of White-throated Sparrows With their quadruple personalities, those little brown birds at your feeder are a lot more interesting than they might appear.

Exactly! If you’re interested, this article summarizes some of the cool findings about the color morphs and behavioral differences: www.audubon.org/news/the-fas...

They do come in two color morphs, though: white- and tan-striped. A male white-striped morph has to mate with a female tan-striped morph, and vice versa. They essentially have four sexes!

Screenshot from Sibley V2 app showing white-striped and tan-striped White-throated Sparrows. Caption says “Adults range from drab (tan-striped) to bright (white-striped) regardless of sex and age.”

What a nice habitat you have there! As far as I know, White-throated Sparrows are not sexually dimorphic. (See below from Sibley V2)

Yes!!!! Yay!

Nice! You should add yourself to the birds feed: bsky.app/profile/dary...

Thanks! This is informative. Good to know someone is trying to do something to improve the situation

I wish there were better solutions - clean energy that also doesn’t harm wildlife. I read a study where painting contrasting stripes on some of the blades helped reduce raptor mortality, but I have barely seen any wind farms do this, sadly

You can scroll through suggested feeds in the search area, but I haven’t figured out how to search for feeds yet 🤷🏻‍♀️

I feel like Bluesky isn’t really set up for groups the way fb is. There are several feeds, but the only one I’ve seen that’s super active is this general “birds” one. There’s a seabird one, but it has lots of random posts. Someone created one for my area, and only like two people post there

Close-up of a Yellow-billed Pintail in the water, facing left. It’s looking at the camera, with its head tilted at an angle

Close-up of a Yellow-billed Pintail in the water, facing right. It’s looking at the water. Large fish can be seen swimming under it

Pato jergón grande / Yellow-billed Pintail, Parque Bicentenario, Vitacura (Región Metropolitana, Chile)

They are so elegant! I love the sweet face they have, too ❤️🪶

Son tan elegantes! Y me encanta la carita tan tierna que tienen! #avesdechile

Gaviotín monja / Inca Tern - Concón, Chile.
They are so adorable and also weird-looking! I love their crazy face streamers, red beak, and how they waddle with their tiny red feet when they walk 🪶