Category WildWatch Weekly

Your Fall Feeder Welcome Guide: New Birds, Favorite Foods, and Better Feeders

WildWatch Weekly Your Fall Feeder Welcome Guide: New Birds, Favorite Foods, and Better Feeders Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube New Birds, Favorite Foods, and Better Feeders One morning, your backyard feeder is hosting its usual crowd of chickadees, cardinals, and titmice. Then a little gray bird appears underneath it, flashing white tail feathers as it hops away. A sparrow with a bright white throat emerges from the shrubs. Suddenly, your familiar feeding station has a few unfamiliar...

No Nest, No Problem: The Remarkable Life of the Brown-headed Cowbird

WildWatch Weekly No Nest, No Problem: The Remarkable Life of the Brown-headed Cowbird Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube The Remarkable Life of the Brown-headed Cowbird Imagine watching a tiny songbird land beside a much larger youngster, carefully placing an insect into its wide-open mouth. The hungry youngster follows, fluttering its wings and begging for another bite. Something about this family doesn’t quite add up. There’s a good chance you’re watching a young Brown-headed Cowbird...

Winter Guests Are Arriving: Meet Your Backyard’s Seasonal Birds

WildWatch Weekly Winter Guests Are Arriving: Meet Your Backyard’s Seasonal Birds Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube Your Backyard Has a Winter Guest List That little gray bird hopping beneath your feeder? It may have spent the summer far to the north. The sparrow rustling through your leaves? It could be a seasonal visitor you have been overlooking for years. As Pennsylvania’s summer birds head south, another cast of characters moves in. For birds coming from northern forests and tundra,...

Meet the Kinglets: Tiny Birds with Crowns and Big Personalities

WildWatch Weekly Meet the Kinglets: Tiny Birds with Crowns and Big Personalities Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube Small Birds Worth a Closer Look A little movement in the branches. A soft call from an evergreen. A tiny bird that appears for a moment, then disappears behind a cluster of leaves. During a fall walk, it is easy to overlook a kinglet, but once you notice one, you may find yourself stopping to watch every busy branch. Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets are smaller than...

The Warblers Are Coming: Don’t Miss Fall’s Tiny Travelers

WildWatch Weekly The Warblers Are Coming: Don’t Miss Fall’s Tiny Travelers Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube The Warblers Are Coming Something remarkable is happening in the trees around us. Each night, while most of us are asleep, thousands of tiny songbirds are passing over Pennsylvania on their way south. Among them are warblers, small, colorful birds weighing little more than a few coins. Some have traveled from Canada’s boreal forests, while others spent the summer nesting right...

Millions Overhead, Unseen: Catching Fall Migrants by Ear

WildWatch Weekly Millions Overhead, Unseen: Catching Fall Migrants by Ear Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube Catching Fall Migrants by Ear Step outside on a clear, cool night this fall, ideally one with a light breeze out of the north, and stand still for a few minutes. Let the crickets fade into the background. If you're patient, you may hear it: a thin, high seet from somewhere overhead, then a soft, liquid peep, then nothing for a while, then another. You can't see who made them. You...

The Great Feather Makeover: Why Birds Look So Rough in August

WildWatch Weekly The Great Feather Makeover: Why Birds Look So Rough in August Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube Why Birds Look So Rough in August Have you looked at the birds around your feeders lately and wondered what happened to them? A Northern Cardinal that looked brilliant red a few weeks ago may suddenly have a nearly bald, dark head. Blue Jays can appear ragged and unkempt. Chickadees and other songbirds may look fluffy, uneven, or just a little worn around the edges. Some...

Where Baby Bats Grow Up: Inside a Big Brown Bat Maternity Colony

WildWatch Weekly Where Baby Bats Grow Up: Inside a Big Brown Bat Maternity Colony Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube A Summer Nursery Hidden Above Our Heads On a warm summer evening in Pennsylvania, you might notice bats beginning to appear against the fading sky. One by one they emerge from a barn, attic, hollow tree, or other hidden roost and disappear into the darkness in search of insects. What you may not realize is that the place they just left could be something remarkable: a bat...

The Secret Lives of Hummingbirds

WildWatch Weekly The Secret Lives of Hummingbirds Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube The Secret Lives of Hummingbirds: Why They Suddenly Disappear From Your Feeder Few backyard visitors capture our hearts quite like hummingbirds. Barely larger than your thumb, these tiny aerial acrobats dart from flower to flower with incredible speed, hovering effortlessly as they sip nectar before vanishing in a flash of iridescent green or ruby red. So when late summer arrives and your hummingbird...

Think You Know Crows? Think Again.

WildWatch Weekly Think You Know Crows? Think Again. Live Cams Donate Store Facebook YouTube Think You Know Crows? Think Again. Few birds are as misunderstood as the American crow. Dressed in glossy black feathers and famous for its unmistakable "caw," crows are often associated with spooky stories, Halloween decorations, or noisy gatherings in winter trees. But behind those dark feathers is one of the most intelligent minds in the animal kingdom. Scientists have spent decades studying crows,...