If I ever stop feeding the birds, house sparrows will be the reason. Far too many frolic in my backyard. They eat too much. They spoil the birdbath. They hog nesting cavities, making life harder for other birds. And the house sparrow, like the Europ...

From my perspective, the birding hobby appears healthy and growing. The bird walks and meetings I attend are usually well-populated, and membership in the DuPage Birding Club continues to rise. The national trend is positive, too, based on a USDA F...

One of the most interesting birds around is also among the most disliked. I speak of the villainous brown-headed cowbird. Understandably, birders are critical of the cowbird, a brood parasite that deposits its eggs in other birds’ nests. This makes...

Rockford's minor league baseball team changed its name this year, morphing from RiverHawks to Aviators. The new name recalls the city's bit role in aviation history. It wasn't a bad choice. I suspect, however, that if birders had made the call, th...

People who are looking at something through binoculars always get my attention. I think you know why. Pulling into work on a recent morning I saw such a person. Naturally, I rolled down the driver’s-side window and asked the obvious, “Are you looki...

In my first column back in 2004, I had the “Gumption” to say that birding is like a box of chocolates. It wasn’t the most original thing to say, perhaps, but it still applies. April proved it for me and for lots of other eager watchers who worked ar...

April is a time of rising anticipation for local birders. We know the best of spring migration is just ahead. Soon the dazzling buntings, grosbeaks, orioles, tanagers and warblers will arrive in numbers, a yearly spectacle that never gets old. I en...

So there I was in Miami last month, stalking a middle-class neighborhood with my binoculars, searching for a red-whiskered bulbul. The bulbul is originally from Asia, but despite its nonnative status it’s considered a “countable” species by the Amer...

So there I was in Miami last month, stalking a middle-class neighborhood with my binoculars, searching for a red-whiskered bulbul. The bulbul is originally from Asia, but despite its nonnative status it's considered a “countable” species by the Amer...