Phriday Photo – Hungry Eastern Kingbird
July 31, 2009
Article in: Photography
Caught him in flight carrying away his prey
Review of Peterson Field Guide to Warblers and Guide to Birds of Prey for iPhone and iPod Touch
July 30, 2009
Article in: Product Reviews
The iPhone is a wonderful gadget for birders, especially with some of the easy-to-use applications. The Peterson Field Guide to Warblers (available for iPod touch as well) is a basic yet quick source for one of the trickiest families of birds to master.
You can read our review of the printed version of The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America
Open up the application and after the welcome screen, you are given just a few options.
- “Browse by Family” is not of much use since these are all wood-warblers (except the Olive Warbler).
- “Search Birds” leads into the meat of the program where you can search or scroll through the warblers in alphabetical order.
- “My Checklist” will show birds you’ve browsed and checked, giving you the opportunity to isolate certain birds you are trying to learn.
- And finally the “10-Question Quizzes” is a randomized series of questions that vary from sounds, images, and more to help you better learn the birds. (Note: you can do just sounds which is nice since that is a trickier area to learn at least for us.)
After finding a specific bird to look at you can quickly view several drawings from the newest Peterson Field Guide (where you are able to zoom in closer as well), select the range map of the species, view detailed information, and listen to their sound lightning quick. Here you can also check the bird to put in your checklist.
The Peterson Field Guide to Warblers application is not high-tech but does exactly what you want in a quick way.
From Wildtones – priced at $3.99
The Peterson Guide to Birds of Prey application has essentially the same features. The main differences are the “search by family” option is more beneficial as it breaks up the species by the several families covered. Each species has sound, range map, and extended information.
One major oddity is that “Nightjars” are included in this application. We are unaware of any birders that consider this group to be part of the “birds of prey”. (But hey, you get a bonus 8 species out of the deal 
Also from Wildtones – priced at $2.99
Birding Missouri – A New Lifer!!
July 29, 2009
Article in: Birding
Veery has temporarily moved! The Birdfreak Team is partially split for the summer as Veery spends a few months working in Jefferson City, Missouri. Join in on her adventures through a new state and her quest to answer this question: How’s the birding in mid-Missouri?
My niece’s birthday was Saturday (July 25) and to celebrate I decided to get a LIFE BIRD, a Carolina Chickadee! Lifers are hard to come by for me in this area, so I was excited to finally see this one. I’m living “on the border”!
I know the Black-capped Chickadee and the Carolina Chickadee seem to rarely mix, but here in Jefferson City, they do. I was hiking at Runge Conservation Nature Center and I found both chickadee species in various locations, singing loudly. I really like the song of the Carolina Chickadee, but as looks go, I can’t tell them apart. My next goal is to get a photo of one for our Photo Lifelist (or wait until Birdfreak visits me with his awesome camera)!
Good Birding Everyone!
The Greatest Bird Conservationist That Could Have Been – Ted Parker
July 28, 2009
Article in: Bird Conservation
Born in 1953 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Theodore A. Parker III started young as a naturalist. Ted’s obsession for birds grew strongly as a teenager and he became known as a “birding phenom” at this young age.
Ted’s enthusiasm, charisma, and dedication to birds quickly earned him national recognition among the birding community. His obsession and desire to travel to Mexico and the Neotropics made his college career unconventional. But this devotion, discipline, and desire to learn all about birds quickly moved Ted through the ranks of ornithology.
With Ted’s nearly un-human ability to learn and retain avian sounds, he established the “Parker Inventory”. In species-rich places like the Neotropics, recording and analyzing sounds collected in the field yielded much more efficient results of the actual bird life present.
Ted’s unbelievable number of hours in the field helped him amass over 15,000 recordings for Cornell’s Library of Natural Sounds.
Amidst all of Ted’s knowledge and birding skills was an even more important ability: to share information and ideas in a welcoming and convincing way that invited people into what was often reserved for only the “inner circle” of birding.
Ted was a devoted conservationist, always promoting the urgent need to protect the world’s fauna. He pioneered the Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) which was designed to quickly and effectively assess a region’s diversity and publish results for fast conservation action.
Ted was also working on the Birds of Peru, a volume that would cover over 1,700 species.
Sadly, on August 3rd, 1993 Ted died in a plane crash while surveying vanishing forests in Ecuador.
Ted Parker’s legacy was cut short. Imagine what major innovations to the conservation community he could have made. His leadership and communication skills coupled with today’s tools for spreading information would have surely been an unstoppable force for the conservation movement.
It is up to us birders to follow in Ted Parker’s footsteps and to always be passionate about promoting bird conservation. We need more leaders to step up and guide all birders through a new era where conservation is the norm.
Facts collected from: Ornithological Monographs Volume 48 (1997) pp. 1-5
Bird Photography Weekly #48
July 26, 2009
Article in: Bird Photography Weekly
Join in on the 48th edition of Bird Photography Weekly!!
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Phriday Photo – Henslow’s Sparrow
July 24, 2009
Article in: Photography
Learn more about Henslow’s Sparrows from All About Birds
