Tag: work in progress

October update

As of this month I’m working non-stop; the birds are first, and the text will be set starting in November. Here’s what has been going on: Spectacled Cormorant. Choiseul Crested Pigeon, after two color runs. New Zealand Quail The Dodo.  

Piopio

From New Zealand. They liked the forest floor and rooting around in underbrush. They built nests like little cups in trees only a few feet away from the ground. Piopios had a beautiful call, and also often mimicked the call of other birds as well. Two things did away with them: deforestation, and the introduction of new predators, particularly rats.…

Guadalupe Caracara

“No kid is safe from their attacks. Should a number be together, the birds unite their forces, and, with great noise and flapping of their wings, generally manage to separate the weakest one and dispatch it….The birds are cruel to the extreme, and the torture sometimes inflicted upon the defenseless animals is painful to witness. Even when food is plenty,…

What Does It Sound Like

I started working on a field guide because I think that paper field guides, like travel guides and encyclopedias, will be gone soon. One reason is that the kinds of things that guides describe for each bird in order to differentiate them are often the things about birds that are difficult to document in print. Like birdsong: Quiet whistled peeping…