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Robert Cushman Murphy (1887-1973) was a prominent American ornithologist, particularly well-known for his works on seabirds, including the classic 1936 two-volume Oceanic Birds of South America. But he also carried out research on other ornithological topics, writing many books and over 600 scientific papers! For all that effort, he only got one bird named after… Continue reading Wing runners off Haida Gwaii

I was in Africa in April/May 2025 on a birding tour, but I felt like I was Out of Africa. Was it Morocco’s architecture? The overall déjà vu recalling recent travels to southern Greece and Italy? The food? No, the reason was the alphanumeric codes! Each time I mention an ecoregion in a blog or anywhere… Continue reading Out of Africa in Morocco

My previous blog was from a sclerophyllous (“hard leaves”) ecoregion of Greece; this one is from the Tyrrenhian-Adriatic Sclerophyllous and Mixed Forests (PA1222), the similar ecoregion of southern Italy and Malta, rounding out our recent trip to the Mediterranean. Because there is so little original vegetation left in the areas we visited, its hard to… Continue reading House sparrows in the Tyrrenhian-Adriatic Sclerophyllous and Mixed Forests

In Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave (written in Athens, about 400 BC), he posits that when we perceive people or objects and think they are real, we are in fact only seeing reflections of a true form or ideal. We can be compared to a lifelong prisoner in a cave who has only ever seen the… Continue reading Gods and Goddesses in the Aegean and West Turkish Sclerophyllous and Mixed Forests

Between Thursday and Monday I went from a World Bank workshop in Lima on deforestation to 900 km away, slogging my way along rainforest trails next to the upper Madre de Dios River, contemplating the impact of deforestation on Banded Antbirds. OK, that may be a bit contrived, even for me! Let me take a… Continue reading Banded Antbirds of the Southwest Amazon Moist Forests

This site’s blogs are intended to showcase ideas about ecoregions, conservation, and birds. But for the second time in a row, I veer to the political, and President Obama pops up in my thoughts. I just wrote about the President’s declaration of an important new national monument in Maine on the occasion of the 100th… Continue reading Hawaii Tropical Low Shrublands: inspiring news from Papahanaumokuakea