Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by listening for bird sounds, or by watching public webcams.
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti.
The pileated woodpecker is a large, mostly black woodpecker native to North America. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. It is the largest confirmed extant woodpecker species in North America, with the possible exception of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed be reclassified as extinct. It is also the third largest species of woodpecker in the world, after the great slaty woodpecker and the black woodpecker. "Pileated" refers to the bird's prominent red crest, from the Latin pileatus meaning "capped".
The black-backed woodpecker, also known as the Arctic three-toed woodpecker, is a medium-sized woodpecker inhabiting the forests of North America.
The red-breasted sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker of the forests of the west coast of North America.
The red-naped sapsucker is a medium-sized North American woodpecker. Long thought to be a subspecies of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, it is now known to be a distinct species.
The olive-sided flycatcher is a small to medium sized passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the Tyrant flycatcher family. It is a migratory species that travels from South to North America to breed during the summer. It is a very agile flyer and mainly consumes flying insects on flight. Since 2016, this species has been assessed as being near-threatened globally (IUCN) and threatened in Canada (SRA) due to its declining populations.
The imperial woodpecker is a woodpecker species endemic to Mexico. If it is not extinct, it is the world's largest woodpecker species, at 56–60 cm (22–23.5 in) long. Researchers have discovered that the imperial woodpecker has slow climbing strides and a fast wing-flap rate compared with other woodpeckers. Owing to its close taxonomic relationship, and its similarity in appearance, to the ivory-billed woodpecker, it is sometimes called the Mexican ivory-billed woodpecker, but this name is also used for the extant pale-billed woodpecker. The large and conspicuous bird has long been known to the native inhabitants of Mexico and was called cuauhtotomomi in Nahuatl, uagam by the Tepehuán and cumecócari by the Tarahumara.
The red-cockaded woodpecker is a woodpecker endemic to the southeastern United States.
Williamson's sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker belonging to the genus Sphyrapicus (sapsuckers).
The Abyssinian catbird or juniper babbler is a species of bird in the family Sylviidae.. It is endemic to Ethiopia where it is found in highland forest and scrub. The Abyssinian catbird is a fairly small, mostly grey bird with black lores, whitish forehead and chestnut vent.
The Black-Backed Tody-Flycatcher is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, and one of twelve in the genus Poecilotriccus.
The Yucatan woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is sometimes referred to as the red-vented woodpecker. The Yucatan woodpecker is found in Belize and Mexico, and ranges over the entire Yucatán Peninsula. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.
The black-headed woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It typically inhabits deciduous and coniferous forests and is found in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The Cuban green woodpecker is a species of woodpecker in the family Picidae and tribe Melanerpini, known locally in Cuban Spanish as carpintero verde. It is the only species within the genus Xiphidiopicus and is one of two woodpeckers endemic to Cuba. It is the most widespread and common woodpecker in Cuba, inhabiting primarily woodlands, as well as dry and wet forests, pine forests and mangroves. The population of the Cuban green woodpecker is stable and its status is listed as "Least Concern".
eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, the project expanded to include New Zealand in 2008, and again expanded to cover the whole world in June 2010. eBird has been described as an ambitious example of enlisting amateurs to gather data on biodiversity for use in science.
An autonomous recording unit (ARU) is a self-contained audio recording device that is deployed in marine or terrestrial environments for bioacoustical monitoring. The unit is used in both marine and terrestrial environments to track the behavior of animals and monitor their ecosystems. On a terrestrial level, the ARU can detect noises coming from bird habitats and determine relative emotions that each bird conveys along with the population of the birds and the relative vulnerability of the ecosystem. The ARU can also be used to understand noises made by marine life to see how the animals' communication affects the operation of their ecosystem. When underwater, the ARU can track the sound that human made machines make and see the effect those sounds have on marine life ecosystems. Up to 44 work days can be saved through the utilization of ARU's, along with their ability to discover more species.
John Weaver Fitzpatrick is an American ornithologist primarily known for his research work on the South American avifauna and for the conservation of the Florida scrub jay. He is currently the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York.
The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal media. It includes more than 33 million photographs, 1.2 million audio recordings, and over two hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an ever-increasing numbers of insect, fish, frog, and mammal recordings. The Library is part of Cornell Lab of Ornithology of Cornell University.
The ivory-billed woodpecker is a possibly extinct woodpecker that is native to the bottomland hardwood forests and temperate coniferous forests of the Southern United States and Cuba. Habitat destruction and hunting have reduced populations so thoroughly that the species is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on its Red List as critically endangered, and by the American Birding Association as "definitely or probably extinct". The last universally accepted sighting of an American ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in Louisiana in 1944, and the last universally accepted sighting of a Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1987, after the bird's rediscovery there the prior year. Sporadic reports of sightings and other evidence of the persistence of the species have continued since then.
