The male Northern cardinal has four very recognizable "field marks": An all-red body, a black mask covering his face, a small tuft of feathers as a hat and a bright orange bill. (TOM STEPHANS | THE CHRONICLE)
We who are attached to our avian friends prefer to be called “birders” rather than “birdwatchers”, the latter having negative connotations of construction workers making crude and base remarks to passersby of the female persuasion.
No, we “birders” are interested in the world of animals with feathers, hoping to capture the sight of both the song birds that choose to visit our backyard feeders, and those that flit about and hide in the deep woods.
Therefore, gentle reader, we are using this space to recruit new members rather than focus on a single species this week.
Many birders, like myself, keep a life list of the different species of birds that have actually laid eyes on in person. The ones we might see in a Richard Attenborough documentary on PBS don’t count….READ MORE…
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