Sounds Dark-eyed Junco - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
Dark-eyed Junco (Gray-headed subspecies) on a branch at Sprague Lake. NPS Photo / Rachel Ames| www.nps.gov
Dark-eyed Junco (Gray-headed subspecies) on a branch at Sprague Lake. NPS Photo / Rachel Ames| www.nps.gov
The male Lazuli Bunting lights up dry brushy hillsides, thickets, and gardens throughout the West, flashing the blue of a lapis gemstone mixed with splashes of orange. He belts out his squeaky, jumbled song from atop shrubs to defend his territory. The softly colored female is often nearby teetering on tiny stems in a balancing act to reach seeds and other fare. This stocky finchlike bird is related to cardinals and grosbeaks and often visits bird feeders, especially those filled with white p...| www.allaboutbirds.org
A large, dark jay of evergreen forests in the mountainous West. Steller’s Jays are common in forest wildernesses but are also fixtures of campgrounds, parklands, and backyards, where they are quick to spy bird feeders as well as unattended picnic items. When patrolling the woods, Steller’s Jays stick to the high canopy, but you’ll hear their harsh, scolding calls if they’re nearby. Graceful and almost lazy in flight, they fly with long swoops on their broad, rounded wings.| www.allaboutbirds.org
Over the last few months, I’ve grown convinced that the single most effective tool for the conversion of new birders is the board game Wingspan. This winter some friends and I became obsessed with Elizabeth Hargrave’s invention, a gorgeously designed and illustrated engine-building game that basically requires its players to assemble an aviary of western tanagers and yellow-rumped warblers and belted kingfishers, et al. Aside from its aesthetic loveliness, Wingspan’s appeal is that it t...| The Last Word On Nothing
