An extinct bird, the passenger pigeon, is getting lots of attention this year. I'm good with that and hope you are, too. Every so often we need to pause from the "joy of birding" and think about the serious stuff. Extinction is about as serious as i...

Finally, the magic of spring migration is upon us. The bird variety outside our doors is growing, with new species arriving daily. It's the best time of the year to be a birder. The excitement of spring is punctuated by a family of birds called the ...

Construction is moving along at the Winfield Road entrance to Cantigny Park in Wheaton. “We are a little bit behind schedule, but we still think we're going to be done around June 1,” said Jeff Reiter, senior manager of communications for Cantigny. ...

Traveling to Key Largo on Super Bowl weekend is getting to be a habit. I go there to visit my parents and, if possible, sneak in some birding. Last month, if only for a day, it felt good to be wearing binoculars without four layers of clothing under...

In my 2013 highlights column, published in December, one entry still blows my mind: the record-setting Big Day in Texas last April. If you recall, a six-person team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, raising money for bird conservation, identifie...

I’ve seen birds go fishing many times. I have never seen a fish go birding. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. But there’s more. For some reason I’ve been thinking about birds and fish. Birding and fishing. Birders and anglers. Actually, I...

Cantigny Park visitors voted and the results are in for the top three prize winners of the 2012 Cantigny in Focus amateur photo contest. The winners are: First place: Catherine Pawlik, Naperville, for her captivating image of early morning dew on an...

In my little world, baseball is important. I like watching it almost as much as birds. So don’t be too surprised that my favorite news story in 2013 didn’t involve feathers. On July 15, Greg Van Niel, my new role model, collected four foul balls du...

On a late October Saturday, my backyard was a sight to behold. House sparrows swarmed the feeders as usual, but down below, on the grass, were 10 white-throated sparrows. There is nothing uncommon about white-throated sparrows, especially during fa...