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A life observed through birds

A life observed through birds

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A New Continent at Thirty: Notes from a Moroccan Birding Trip — <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Orange light folding over the dunes of Merzouga – distance felt tangible, and silence stretched beyond the horizon.</span>

A New Continent at Thirty: Notes from a Moroccan Birding Trip

A father–son journey through Morocco at thirty – landscapes, method, missed species, and a long-awaited Cream-coloured Courser.

The Shorebirds That Keep Me Going Back — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Some birds are seen before they are met. This one remains a reason to return — perfectly understood, simply not yet in season. © Tamba Jefang</em></i>

The Shorebirds That Keep Me Going Back

A personal reflection on lifer shorebirds, local knowledge, and unfinished encounters from a spring birding trip to The Gambia.

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.

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland — Few birds had occupied a place on my wish list for as long as the Sungrebe. Its elusive habits and preference for hidden waterways have always given it an almost mythical quality. Seeing one at Laguna Guarinocito was the highlight of an afternoon spent exploring a wetland habitat largely absent from our Colombian itinerary. Despite the oppressive heat, still air and near-100% humidity, the abundance of waterbirds made the stop one of the most rewarding diversions of the trip. © Hasan Al-Farhan

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland

After days of cloud forests, mountain roads and Andean endemics, a small wetland detour in Colombia’s Magdalena Valley offered something different. In oppressive heat and near-saturated humidity, Laguna Guarinocito revealed the pulse of a landscape overflowing with life.