Tag: american bird conservancy

Seabirds have been a part of human exploration of the ocean from the start; icons of the comedy, grace, and challenge of a life at sea. They have been sailors’ teachers of geography and guides home. But while seabirds are long-revered by maritime communities, they are nearly invisible to the majority of people who live inland.

Starting in 2024, a group of six fellows set out to explore the connections between people and seabirds and bring more attention to these often forgotten birds. ABC’s Seabirds and Stories of Multi-Species Kinship

Teetering, bobbing, and darting along the water’s edge or springing into shallow, stiff-winged flight with a soft weet-weet-weet call, the Spotted Sandpiper is a distinctive and delightful sight. During its breeding season this bird shows a densely-spotted throat and breast (reminiscent of a Wood Thrush’s), a black-tipped orange bill, brown back, and white eyebrow, or supercilium, that extends behind the eye. Even without its eponymous spots, which are absent during the nonbreeding season, the Spotted Sandpiper’s telltale foraging behaviors and flight style make it easy to identify.

The “Spotty” is

Named for the Bolivian city adjacent to the mountain slopes that comprise its stronghold, the rare and beautiful Cochabamba Mountain Finch is actually more closely related to a tanager than to a finch. This sparrow-sized bird is a member of the Poospiza genus (warbling finches/mountain finches) and is distinguished by its distinct plumage and highly limited range around the city of Cochabamba in Bolivia.

Many geographically restricted species throughout South America are named after “their” places in this way. Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range along