Another Barn Owl on the Road

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Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly

October 06, 2026 – 3 min read

What's Next?

A Familiar Unfamiliar: The Yellow-browed Warbler — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Finding a Yellow-browed Warbler is always memorable; finding another a year later along the same stretch of road makes the encounter rather extraordinary – at least for me. © </em></i><a href="https://ebird.org/profile/NjYxOTc3/world" rel="noreferrer"><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Natthaphat Chotjuckdikul</em></i></a>

A Familiar Unfamiliar: The Yellow-browed Warbler

A year after finding a Yellow-browed Warbler along an Aberdeen coastal road, I returned by chance – and heard that familiar unfamiliar call again, barely 500 metres away.

PatchBird Is Now on the Map — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Feeding White Storks often encountered during a PatchBird surveys in Central </em></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Europe</span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">. PatchBird is built around a simple idea: record every bird you detect for fifteen minutes, then return to the same place and do it again. © Gyorgy Szimuly</em></i>

PatchBird Is Now on the Map

PatchBird has a new interactive survey map, making it much easier to find a point and take part. The method couldn’t be simpler: fifteen minutes, every bird you detect, and one important requirement – come back and do it again.

A Familiar Unfamiliar: The Yellow-browed Warbler — Finding a Yellow-browed Warbler is always memorable; finding another a year later along the same stretch of road makes the encounter rather extraordinary – at least for me. © Natthaphat Chotjuckdikul

A Familiar Unfamiliar: The Yellow-browed Warbler

A year after finding a Yellow-browed Warbler along an Aberdeen coastal road, I returned by chance – and heard that familiar unfamiliar call again, barely 500 metres away.

PatchBird Is Now on the Map — Feeding White Storks often encountered during a PatchBird surveys in Central Europe. PatchBird is built around a simple idea: record every bird you detect for fifteen minutes, then return to the same place and do it again. © Gyorgy Szimuly

PatchBird Is Now on the Map

PatchBird has a new interactive survey map, making it much easier to find a point and take part. The method couldn’t be simpler: fifteen minutes, every bird you detect, and one important requirement – come back and do it again.

Antpittas Are No Longer Only Voices — A Chestnut-crowned Antpitta, the species that finally ended my long run of hearing antpittas without seeing them. © David Hollie

Antpittas Are No Longer Only Voices

After hearing antpittas without seeing them in Costa Rica and again in Colombia, a pair of Chestnut-crowned Antpittas finally broke the streak. A few days later, Brownie offered a rather different kind of encounter.

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos — The Andean tapaculos, like the Spillmann's Tapaculo, are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution and geography shaped one of the Andes' most remarkable bird groups. © Ruven Schoeman

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos

The Andean tapaculos are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution, geography and curiosity have shaped one of the most remarkable bird groups of the Andes.

The Tree of Life — Our first sighting of this striking Blue-necked Tanager (Stilpnia cyanicollis) came in the “Tree of Life”, where a single fruiting tree drew an extraordinary variety of birds into one canopy. A fitting introduction to one of Colombia’s most colourful species. © David F. Belmonte Rguez-Pascual

The Tree of Life

A fleeting glimpse of a large bird made us turn the car around. What followed was forty-five minutes beside a single fruiting tree that became one of the busiest birding stops of our Colombian adventure.