BirdWire

Late one December I found myself among a loose aggregation of birders standing by a roadside in Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. To our north stretched a field, and somewhere in it there was supposed to be a northern lapwing, a handsome Eurasian shorebird that always makes news when it appears on our […]

Woodpeckers are vertical birds. With their dense, powerful bodies and short legs, their strong grappling toes and heavy bills, woodpeckers are most comfortable clinging to the side of a tree. Using their curved toenails like hooks, they hang, supported from below by the strong, stiffened shafts of their tail feathers. After their posture, notice their