michigan Cassin's Finch

 It's been hard to come by birds to video locally, so I drove to northern Michigan to be greeted by a host of Pine Grosbeaks, as well as one of the rarer state birds I've chased, a Cassin's Finch!

Sparring Eagles

 What do two young eagles do while they circle a landfill?  Why squabble of course...

Present Talons! 

FIGHT!

Birding El Yunque Puerto Rico

 Christyn and I return to PR in this video!  El Yunque is a famous location with 4 major habitats ... though most of what is accessible is palms.  Hurricane Maria destroyed a bunch of the trails in some of the mixed lower areas.  The high elevation paramo equivalent is pretty limited here.  Nevertheless we saw some fun things, highlighted by Scaly-naped Pigeon, presumably a close relative of the Red-billed Pigeon found through much of Central America

Check it out!

Thayer's Gull ... I think

Is it Thayer's?  Is it an integrade with Kumlien's?  Does it matter?  Not anymore lol, they're both just called Iceland Gull now.

Whatever you call it, this video shows a young Thayer's type...

Great Salt Lake

 There's a lot going on in this vid!  Full frame prairie falcon, red-necked phalaropes, chukar.  Hordes of shovelors, wigeon, red-necked phalarope.  Want to watch bison sparring?  Want to listen to Western Meadowlark singing from 8 feet away?  This video has it all!

Blood Lake Utah

 Christyn and I did a fabulous hike a couple weeks ago a little outside of Park City, Utah.

Watch this vid to take in fun Western birds like Gray-headed Junco, Green-tailed Towhee, Mountain Chickadee and more. 

Scenery was tremendous and the flowers were nice too, check out the video above!

Michigan California Gull

 Who needs going out west?  Sometimes the West comes to you!  Here's a California Gull from Warren Dunes and New Buffalo from earlier this week...

Adelaide's Warbler and a Lizard-Cuck!

 We return to Puerto Rico for this episode, birding lowland Cambalache State Forest near the northern coast of Puerto Rico.  Adelaide's Warbler is an endemic that we only saw here.  We also got by far our best looks of Puerto Rican Lizard-cuckoo here, as well as our only Red-legged Thrush.

Watch the vid here!

Merlins are assholes

 Merlins are cool birds.  And they eat birds for a living, so should we be surprised they're constantly strafing each other and whatever they can find, from gulls to jays to kestrels to bats to any small airborne creature?

In this vid watch one barrel roll and nearly loop the loop after a passerine, and then full frame with a Nashville it caught over the lake.  After that let's play chicken with Blue Jays!

Fall Forster's vs Common Terns

These are REALLY similar.  And some of the things we use to separate Forster's Tern from Common Tern in the spring won't work in the fall.  Let's talk about how to separate these two birds!

 

point blank Buff-breasted Sandpiper

 We were lucky enough to have a juvie Buff-breasted Sandpiper land in front of us during Tuesday Morning Birding.  And I do mean RIGHT in front of us, click the link for the vid and the discussion!

All the BOGU summer plumages

 Juvie, one-year-old, and adult Bonaparte's Gulls!  I guess a person could question how separable a 2nd year bird would be, but we can debate that in the YouTube comments

Self-found Little Gull

 Juvenile Little Gulls are one of the more striking gull plumages and one landed in front of us at Tiscornia a week ago.  Click the link to see the flight shots and learn about the identification!

Puerto Rican Tody and more!

 Christyn and I birded Maricao State Forest in Puerto Rico earlier this year.  Getting there was an adventure, we'll describe it in the video.

But repeated views of Puerto Rican Todies literally in our laps made this one of the top 10 bird walks I've ever taken.  Puerto Rican Tanager and Woodpeckers, along with Pearly-eyed Thrasher will all make an appearance, along with a handful of butterflies and more.

Self-found Swallow-tailed!

 Does it still count as self-found if I was standing next to the person who spotted it?  Probably not, but hey, if it gets a click.

Swallow-tailed Kites are showing up in SW Michigan and Josh, Dave Pavlik, and I (plus Christyn!) climbed a dune in Warren Dunes and found on ourselves!

Hear all about it with the kite link above...

New Little Blue!

I think this is only the 3rd Little Blue Heron that I've ever seen in Berrien!   

Click the link above to watch the vid!

Marbled Godwit video

 Keep the shorebird charisma on High, here's Marbled Godwits!

Avocets

Who doesn't want to watch one of the most unique shorebirds in North America?

The vid is here!  Want to learn how to sex them and discuss feeding strategies in different habitats?

Franklins or Bonapartes?

 Decide for yourself and then watch the answer!

Window Cave Puerto Rico

 Cave Swallows and a couple species of bats, petroglyphs and more... vid here!

Ruddy Turnstone vid

 Eye level turnstone video here!

Lawrence's Warbler

Here's the link to a new singing Lawrence's Warbler (pixels are way better on actual YouTube...)

And if you want to remember what one of its parents likely looked like ... Brewster's Warbler post from years ago

A new venture

I'm back!

With a new platform and a new format.  Let's move past jpg images and watch video!  We'll still talk about identification, listing, and more, but check out new content and new friends on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/@BerrienBirders 

Some sample from a few different format types

       Single species focused:

Travel: (in this case the Everglades Anhinga Trail)

Virtual Birding (watch some vid, you make the ID ... then we discuss)