Columbus Audubon Blogs Archives

Why Do Birds Make So Many Different Sounds? A New Study Gets at the Underlying Factors

By Columbus Audubon / Columbus Audubon Blogs, Education

By Elise Mahon Birds make sounds to communicate, whether to find a potential mate, ward off predators, or just sing for pleasure. But the conditions that contribute to the immense diversity of the sounds they make are not well understood. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have conducted the first-ever global study of the factors […]

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Drier Winter Habitat Impacts Warblers’ Ability to Survive Migration

By Columbus Audubon / Columbus Audubon Blogs, Education News and Articles, Song Sparrow

A new study from researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) shows environmental conditions in migratory birds’ winter homes carry over to affect their ability to survive spring migration and the breeding season. While scientists have long known that the quality of winter, or non-breeding, habitat influences migratory birds’ migration timing and reproductive

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Hitchin’ a Ride: A Ring-billed Gull Story

By Columbus Audubon / Columbus Birding

By Julie Zickefoose Excerpted from BWD Magazine, Jan/Feb 2024 It’s 5 pm on December 27, 2022, and I’m headed into my local Walmart, head down, reusable grocery bags in hand. The fresh produce Walmart sources is often the best I can get in my small Ohio town, and I need good produce in these short,

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Waterbirds in the Rain

By Rob Thorn / Columbus Birding, Conservation, News and Articles

“Darn”, I thought, “it looks pretty threatening. I’d better hurry through this.” I had driven out to the restored wetlands at Battelle-Darby Metro Park, hoping for some fall shorebirds that had been reported there, as well as some of the early waterfowl that always showed up at this golden spot. However, the sky to the

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Eastern Wood Pewee (Photo by Earl Harrison)

Wood Pewees: the Non-reticent Migrants

By Rob Thorn / Columbus Birding

Where do the migrants hide during the day? And why don’t pewees go there? We’ve all had that experience: a great morning chock full of migrant birds, but come 10:00 or 11:00 AM and it’s like somebody flipped the ‘Off’ switch. Where did all those migrants go? Landbird migrants tend to disappear in the late

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Black and White Warbler (photo Earl Harrison)

Black & Whites Invade Columbus

By Rob Thorn / Columbus Birding

It was an amazingly predictable occurrence this Summer. I would be visiting some dense forest patch along one of our creeks and hear or see a Black & White Warbler. Sure, I’ve seen them in summer around Columbus before, but never in the numbers of this year. In June alone I had 10 different sightings.

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