ryan

that time we rediscovered endangered snails for fun you're welcome, michigan

it's here, the moment you've all been waiting for: the microsnail blog! dive into a journey of discovery, drama, loss, and hope as you learn about... the tiny fen snails of lake huron ryanmandelbirder.substack.com/p/that-time-...

the bird died yesterday, the finders reporting that it smelled like creosote (a wood stain) and had white feathers beneath the black feathers. all we're left with are viral photos of a distressed bird and another obvious example showing that clout is in no way correlated with knowledge.

but photographers instead promoted the idea that the bird was melanistic—black due to a genetic mutation—and made viral post after viral post highlighting the bird's rarity. they also asserted that, although preening constantly and allowing for close approach, the bird was acting normally.

i am unreasonably mad about the "goth heron." if you didn't see, a heron in louisiana went quasi-viral because it was all black. it was pretty clear that that the bird was covered in something, with yellow knees peeking through its black legs and greasy-looking clumped neck feathers.

I think my least favorite quality in a person, one that is so often praised as an asset or virtue, is: "doesn't take no for an answer." We're living through an extended nightmare of what that looks like when brought to its logical conclusion.

Ten Birding Questions, with Ryan Mandelbaum The Birding with BillBow Podcast, Episode 7

I had so much fun talking to @ryanfm.bsky.social about their book and birds and much more on my latest podcast episode. Give it a listen and don't forget to buy a copy of Wild NYC!

Pod 🎧 billbowbaggins.substack.com/p/ten-birdin...

Book 📕 bookshop.org/p/books/wild...

One of my favorite things about working on Alcatraz was watching the resident raven pair "teach" their kids to fly. It always included a session on barrel rolls. It was even more special bc the mgmt plan incl oiling their eggs to make them unviable & the ravens knew & would always lay another clutch

sitting at lunch in midtown manhattan and just watched a raven do a barrel roll, presumably for no reason

amazing, congrats!!!

Some personal news: I’m writing a book!

I’ve signed with Holt to write a full-length history of birds and people in America. Birds have always been central to our economy, divisions, culture, and identity. If you want to understand America, you‘ve got to understand its birds.

A male Anna’s hummingbird at the door. So nosy! 🤣

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door.

This is who it was:

potatoes have descended on new york city peent

send this post to your friends who love cocks open.substack.com/pub/ryanmand...

Christmas ornament with colorful feathere

If you’re thinking to yourself

“How can I get more 🐦 on my 🎄 this year”

I have some good news.

You can use this little tool to design a feathery ❄️ from 🐦 data and make a one of a kind ornament.

ofafeather.binstobins.com

a spherical hermit thursh - a brown bird with a white front and speckled belly, looking directly at the camera on a distant branch, backlit

also sprach zara-thrush-tra

in florida they just hang out in suburban parking lots apparently!

a loggerhead shrike sitting on a fencepost with green in the background. its wings are slightly spread and its beak is slightly open. it is facing right. loggerhead shrikes are big-headed songbirds with a pale gray belly, darker gray back, stout black bill, thick black eye mask, and black wings with a large white spot in the middle of each wing.

murder mockingbird

somehow stumbled into the fact that suntory (the japanese whisky company) runs an online encyclopedia about the birds of japan www.suntory.co.jp/eco/birds/en...

having seen rainbow starfrontlet in person i am going to go with that one. they are beastly hummingbirds in every sense of the word

for me the vomit-like smell of ginkgo fruit is the nostalgic smell of fall, much in the way that rotting garbage and piss is the somewhat less nostalgic smell of summer

that's crazy!!!

it was a vagrant to suffolk county, new york! seen by lots of birders here

woof, the fourth record, my bad!

a gray hawk like bird with thin stripes on its tail and back and white flecking on its face but with a thin slightly downcurved beak flying to the left with wings spread against a field with wooden posts.

the same bird perched on the string connecting wooden fenceposts in a weedy field, wings held back to balance, looking right.

i was so lucky that i got to chase this common cuckoo - only the second ever in the lower 48 - in ny state last week. having never seen a eurasian or african cuckoo species before, i couldn't believe how big and conspicuous it was—cuckoos are mostly shy and hard-to-see in the western hemisphere.

exactly

it is objectively true that there are no good billionaires. but it's also true that if *i* ended up with a billion dollars, i would be a very good billionaire

Buckle Up, Birders—This Winter Is Looking Finchy Good numbers of siskins, grosbeaks, and other favorites could be headed your way, according to the latest edition of the annual Winter Finch Forecast.

Good news from @ryanfm.bsky.social 🪶https://www.audubon.org/magazine/buckle-birders-winter-looking-finchy

up at 4:00am stewing because one time twelve years ago an entire room full of midwesterners laughed at me, a new yorker, for pronouncing drawer "drawa"

A dark brown spider that looks exactly like an ant, but it has eight legs. It is viewed from above and is standing on a leaf.

Here is an ant-mimicking spider from the Amazon rainforest. I was heading down a trail back to our boat and saw it and got a few shots. It's one of 3 observations of the species on @inaturalist.bsky.social
(Myrmecium deladanta) Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador 2022
#Arachtober

young sheldon is always on the TV next to my favorite stairmaster at the gym and unfortunately i have come to enjoy it

YouTube video by Ryan Mandelbaum purple gallinule, orlando wetlands

very big little guy behavior in orlando last week watching this purple gallinule pulling a lily pad over and folding it over to get better footing and feed on the flower underneath