A Biological Invasion
By Linda & Dmitry Cherkassky
Photo credit Scotty Lisenbe
There are aliens among us. (No, not from outer space). They sleep in our beds, rub against our legs, and often have something called ‘the zoomies’ upon exiting the litter box. They are bizarre and beguiling, but we love them anyway.
Felis catus, the domestic cat, is an alien or introduced invasive species. Domestic cats are not i...
Warbler Spring Migration
Article By Susan Reel-Panish
Black throated green warbler - Photo credit Dennis DiMarco
In a June 2018 article, on the National Audubon Society website, author Andrew Del-Colle describes a phenomenon sometimes known as a “Fall Out.” In this case, observers in Quebec, Canada saw hundreds of thousands of Warblers, and some other birds, migrating all at once, over the course of several hours. It seems that the birds wer...
Cheyenne—the oldest known Harris’s hawk in the world!
Article By Denise Hassinger, MSc., MPS
On January 1, 2023, Freedom Center for Wildlife, Inc. (FCW) lost a treasured soul. Her name was Cheyenne and she served as an animal ambassador for not only her species, but for all wildlife, for almost 38 years. She was the oldest Harris’s hawk in the world and I want to share her story with you.
Cheyenne hatched in the spring of 1985 at the Wor...
Modern birds are descendants of probably three different dinosaur lineages. Those three lineages have evolved into 47 different orders as described by the International Ornithological Congress (IOC; Gill et al., 2021) although as genetic testing improves and increases in simplicity, this number may change. Of those 47 orders, only three contain bird species that show active learning of song (Figure 1). All bird species have innate calls that a...
Freedom Center for Wildlife volunteer Allison McClure recently published an article in The Huffington Post titled, "Counting Birds: Over a Century of Citizen Science." The article highlights three important projects, including the Christmas Bird Count, Project FeederWatch, and the Great Backyard Bird Count, in which tens of thousands of people participate every year.
The combined data from these citizen science projects help researchers understand factors
From now until the end of November, the Atlantic Flyway will be a busy place. Thousands of migratory birds will pass through this region on their way to warmer temperatures and better food sources. This region is between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, where air currents are favorable for flight. The mountains provide updrafts created by the wind bouncing off their surfaces. Because most hawks soar, they need the updrafts provided by temp...
